The World Bank Comoros Social Safety Net Project (P150754) REPORT NO.: RES53059 DOCUMENT OF THE WORLD BANK RESTRUCTURING PAPER ON A PROPOSED PROJECT RESTRUCTURING OF COMOROS SOCIAL SAFETY NET PROJECT APPROVED ON MARCH 19, 2015 TO THE UNION OF COMOROS SOCIAL PROTECTION & JOBS EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA Regional Vice President: Victoria Kwakwa Country Director: Zviripayi Idah Pswarayi Riddihough Regional Director: Amit Dar Practice Manager/Manager: Robert S. Chase Task Team Leader(s): Julia Rachel Ravelosoa The World Bank Comoros Social Safety Net Project (P150754) I. BASIC DATA Product Information Project ID Financing Instrument P150754 Investment Project Financing Original EA Category Current EA Category Partial Assessment (B) Partial Assessment (B) Approval Date Current Closing Date 19-Mar-2015 30-Jun-2023 Organizations Borrower Responsible Agency MINISTRY OF HEALTH, SOLIDARITY, SOCIAL PROTECTION The Union of Comoros AND GENDER PROMOTION Project Development Objective (PDO) Original PDO The Project Development Objective is to increase poor communities’ access to safety net and nutrition services. Current PDO Increase poor communities’ access to safety net, nutrition, and community services. Summary Status of Financing (US$, Millions) Net Ln/Cr/Tf Approval Signing Effectiveness Closing Commitment Disbursed Undisbursed IDA-68380 03-Mar-2021 01-Apr-2021 20-Jul-2021 30-Jun-2023 6.00 5.34 .02 IDA-D5520 16-Dec-2019 25-Dec-2019 06-Mar-2020 30-Jun-2023 18.00 18.52 0 IDA-D0320 19-Mar-2015 09-Apr-2015 02-Jul-2015 30-Jun-2023 6.00 5.88 0 The World Bank Comoros Social Safety Net Project (P150754) Policy Waiver(s) Does this restructuring trigger the need for any policy waiver(s)? No II. SUMMARY OF PROJECT STATUS AND PROPOSED CHANGES A. The Comoros Social Safety Net Project 1.The Comoros Social Safety Nets Project (SSNP, P150754) consists of an original project and two additional financings totaling US$30 million. The project, which closes on June 30, 2023, is on track to achieve its objective and is rated satisfactory with implementation progress rated satisfactory. The cumulative disbursement for IDA is US$29.9 million, i.e. 99 percent of total financing. There are no outstanding audits. 2. Since its effectiveness, the project has undergone three restructurings; the first to reinforce the nutrition activities; the second to extend the closing date to allow the government to prepare the first additional financing; and the third to assist the government in its COVID-19 response. 3. The project was designed around three components with the following achievements to date: a. Component 1: Establishing a Productive and Disaster Responsive Safety Net i. Sub-component 1.1: Establishing a Productive Safety Net. The productive safety net program has provided regular cash to 4,217 targeted poor families in exchange for their participation in productive cash-for-work activities in the poorest 69 villages of the Comoros over a three-year period. The gender and social impacts have been high, with 59 percent of cash transfer direct recipients being women. Over 685,000 person days of employment were created, through works in reforestation, water management, terracing, and so on. Furthermore, over 60 small community infrastructures subprojects were selected and implemented in consultation with communities, including water- storage, classrooms, and rural roads in order to increase communities’ productive assets and resilience. ii. Sub-component 1.2: Ensuring an Early Recovery Response to Natural Disasters. This subcomponent provides recovery assistance to poor households affected by the 2019 cyclone Kenneth. The support to recovery of socio- economic activities, which is a combination of a livelihood grant, accompanying measures and technical training, is on track. The project achieved its aim to have a strong emphasis on women’s empowerment and economic inclusion: 70 percent of the recipients of the economic recovery grant are female, and over 250 “mother leaders” have been elected and trained to provide community outreach and education. 10,290 households have benefited from economic recovery grant support and an integrated support package comprising adult training sessions, livelihood support services and economic inclusion. Around 95 percent of these beneficiary households have launched their income generating activities (IGA) and livelihood initiatives. They have been able to develop and maintain their activities, but the project needs to reinforce the technical support especially for the few villages and/or activities that have experienced technical difficulties (e.g., those in livestock). Only less than 5 percent have encountered difficulties in implementing their recovery plan. In preparation of project closure, an exit strategy has been developed and implemented, which requires more communication as well as frequent and intensive direct assistance both from project staff and from the NGOs that support the household beneficiaries. The World Bank Comoros Social Safety Net Project (P150754) iii. Sub-component 1.3: In 2021, this sub-component provided unconditional cash transfers supplemented by accompanying measures to 21,556 households to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on poor and vulnerable households. The unconditional cash transfer exceeded its indicator target by reaching 21,000 households in extreme poverty. As a result, the goal to prioritize women has been achieved since three quarters of the beneficiary households are headed by women. Based on the process and result evaluation, this activity was able to achieve its objective of mitigating the economic effects of COVID-19 on households: most households were able to sustain their daily consumption through the transfer and were able to recover their pre-COVID-19 income level. Finally, nearly a third were able to finance IGAs while around 20 percent were able to invest the money in the training of a member of the household. This activity is completed, with unutilized funds of SDR 360.000 under this sub-component. b- Component 2: Nutrition of Young Children and Mothers from Poor Communities. Complementary to the productive safety net activities, this component has provided preventive nutrition services in the same 69 villages where the productive safety net activities (sub-component 1.1) were implemented. It focused on delivering a minimum package of nutrition-specific interventions for children under five years of age, with a focus on the ‘first thousand days’ window of opportunity (from conception to two years of age) and promoting better nutrition and reproductive health for mothers. With technical support from UNICEF, the Ministry of Health, Solidarity and Social Protection (MoHSSP) has completed the implementation of this component. It has exceeded the target of the Project Development Objective (PDO) indicator of 9,600 beneficiaries, with 2,571 pregnant women, 12,287 mothers, and 13,081 children under five years of age receiving basic nutrition services, or a total coverage of 27,885 beneficiaries. In addition, the nutrition program covered 6,254 children under the age of 24 months who benefited from improved infant and young child feeding practices, also exceeding the target indicators of 2,800 children. c- Component 3: Safety Net Management, Coordination, and Monitoring and Evaluation. This component supports activities related to the management of the project, specifically, supporting core administrative staff and functions, equipment, communication, and operating costs as well as the overall management of the project with focus on supervision, M&E, procurement and fiduciary functions, and implementation of the Environmental and Social Commitment Plan (ESCP). This component also supports the institutional capacity building of the MoHSSP and the establishment of beneficiary registry which has encountered some delays in the preparation of its institutional framework. The draft protocol on data sharing is available waiting for final validation. However, the register of beneficiaries was able to integrate the beneficiary households of Component 1 and now counts more than 30,000 households. B. The rationale of restructuring 4. Based on a request by the Government of the Comoros dated September 5, 2022, this Restructuring Paper seeks the approval for a Level 2 Restructuring to reallocate SDR 360,000 from category 3 to category 2 of IDA-D5520. 5. Given the approaching end of the project, the Government has identified the need, under Component 3, to intensify communication; strengthen the exit strategy with beneficiary communities; and reinforce monitoring and evaluation needed for closure of the project. This need implies an additional budget of SDR 360,000, available under Sub- component 1.3. As all activities related to COVID-19 response are completed, the reduction in funds for Sub- component 1.3 will not have any adverse effects on completion of activities or achievement of the PDO. C. Description of proposed changes. The World Bank Comoros Social Safety Net Project (P150754) 6. The proposed changes pertain to: (a) component costs, and (b) the disbursement categories in the financing agreement. To strengthen communication, monitoring and evaluation, a reallocation of SDR 360,000 (US$460,000 equivalent) IDA funds from sub-component 1 of the project (and as such disbursement category 3) to the component 3 (disbursement category 2) is necessary. III. DETAILED CHANGES REALLOCATION BETWEEN DISBURSEMENT CATEGORIES Current Current Actuals + Proposed Disbursement % Ln/Cr/TF Expenditure Allocation Committed Allocation (Type Total) Category Current Proposed IDA-D5520- GDS,WKS,TRN,N 001 CS,CS,CSH 6,560,000.00 5,900,929.58 6,560,000.00 100.00 100.00 Currency: GRANTS Pt1.2 XDR GDS,WKS,TRN,N 1,838,000.00 1,587,292.71 2,198,000.00 100.00 100.00 CS,CS,OC Pt3 GDS,WKS,TRN,N CS,CS,CSH 4,702,000.00 4,267,366.59 4,342,000.00 100.00 100.00 GRANTS Pt1.3 Total 13,100,000.00 11,755,588.88 13,100,000.00