The World Bank Social Safety Nets System Strengthening (P175594) Appraisal Environmental and Social Review Summary Appraisal Stage (ESRS Appraisal Stage) Public Disclosure Date Prepared/Updated: 02/28/2022 | Report No: ESRSA01692 Feb 28, 2022 Page 1 of 10 The World Bank Social Safety Nets System Strengthening (P175594) BASIC INFORMATION A. Basic Project Data Country Region Project ID Parent Project ID (if any) Cote d'Ivoire AFRICA WEST P175594 Project Name Social Safety Nets System Strengthening Practice Area (Lead) Financing Instrument Estimated Appraisal Date Estimated Board Date Social Protection & Jobs Program-for-Results 2/28/2022 4/18/2022 Financing Borrower(s) Implementing Agency(ies) Republic of Côte d'Ivoire DG - MSLP (Ministère de la Solidarité et de la Lutte contre la Pauvreté), Ministry of Solidarity and Fight against Poverty Public Disclosure Proposed Development Objective The Program for Results Development Objective (PDO) is to increase access of poor and vulnerable households to safety nets programs and improve the performance of delivery systems. Financing (in USD Million) Amount IPF Component 5.30 Total Project Cost 363.00 B. Is the project being prepared in a Situation of Urgent Need of Assistance or Capacity Constraints, as per Bank IPF Policy, para. 12? No C. Summary Description of Proposed Project [including overview of Country, Sectoral & Institutional Contexts and Relationship to CPF] Activities under the IPF component will allow Bank technical expertise to support the government in developing key activities such as impact evaluations, cash transfer process evaluations or social registry roll out through review of bid evaluation reports, no objections and technical workshops. Feb 28, 2022 Page 2 of 10 The World Bank Social Safety Nets System Strengthening (P175594) D. Environmental and Social Overview D.1. Detailed project location(s) and salient physical characteristics relevant to the E&S assessment [geographic, environmental, social] Côte d’Ivoire’s social protection system has experienced important progress over the last five years as a result of strong government commitment to build the foundations of a safety net system and particularly its commitment to developing the country’s first large scale productive cash transfer program. Under the International Development Association (IDA)-funded Productive Social Safety Net project (Project des Filets Sociaux Productifs, PFSP) (P143332) and its Additional Financing (P167623), the government progressively rolled out a national productive cash transfer project, which is transitioning into an institutionalized productive cash transfer program. The cash transfer program called “ Programme de Transferts Monétaires Productifs (PTMP)” is currently supported by the PFSP and benefits from significant government co-financing. The PTMP has expanded significantly over the years, bringing the total number of beneficiaries to a cumulative 227,000 households in 2020, covering rural and urban areas across all regions of the country. The PforR aims to guarantee greater social inclusion of poor and vulnerable populations, and the IPF component will support the BCFS in mobilizing the necessary technical expertise and inputs needed as mentioned above. These areas of intervention of the Program are alinged with the government’s program, which are generally categorised by high incidences of poverty, low education and literacy levels, limited access or low quality educational and health facilities as well as no or very limited access to basic services such as water and electricity. Gender-based violence also remains a concern in Côte d’Ivoire though there have been some efforts made by the government to address this issues since 2015; however, specifically at the household level, corporal punishment of women and children remains culturally accepted. In addition, in the rural areas covered by the PFSP project, it has Public Disclosure been observed that stakeholders generally convey messages about the project to village elders and the chief. Women and other beneficiaries, therefore only have their voices heard when the village elders or chief allows this or when there are one on one interviews with the community agents. Therefore inclusion and voice still represent an issue within the Program, which will be considered carefully and managed as part of the Environmental and Social Systems Assessment (ESSA) and the Program Action Plan (PAP). In terms of the IPF component, support can be summarized by Results Areas (RA) as follows: for RA1, the IPF component will support government effort to develop a unique payment platform to be leveraged by multiple programs and a well-functioning and reliable GRM; assisting the government in the designing of the performance- based financing pilot (develop an operations manual); and hiring technical experts to ensure operationalization of the Unique Social Registry (Registre Social Unique – RSU) at scale. For RA2, it would strengthen the capacity of the PTMP management team and cover training, study tour, recruitment of technical experts, and monitoring and evaluation costs which would include an impact evaluation and an evaluation of the targeting methodology. Finally, for RA3, the IPF would finance technical assistance for the definition and development of a shock response mechanism (including the operations manual), and an evaluation of a proposed shock response pilot, to extract lessons learned and areas for improvement. Additionally, specific technical support will be provided on risk finance analysis and the development of a strategy. D. 2. Borrower’s Institutional Capacity The strategic oversight of the PAFS and of the Program is carried out by the National Social Protection steering committee. It is presided by the Prime Minister or its representative. It includes all sectoral representatives involved in the program. Coordination of the Program will the responsibility of the BCFS, which the new operational unit that Feb 28, 2022 Page 3 of 10 The World Bank Social Safety Nets System Strengthening (P175594) will be created by effectiveness. Although the BCFS will be new, it will be a continuation of the PFSP Project Implementation Unit (PIU), which has shown great capacity to implement a productive cash transfer program at some scale and will remain in place until the transition from an IDA-funded PIU to a more sustainable program management unit has been completed, thereby ensuring continuity and transfer of know-how and skills. Their environmental and social expertise needs some capacity building which will be provided by the Bank specialists on the preparation, implementation and monitoring of E&S instruments such as the ESMP. (the PFSP will close in FY23). This continuation would not only maintain the institutional memory and gained capacity, but also ensure adequate funding to the unit during budgeting exercises and the recruitment of an E&S Specialist for the Program. This will be addressed in the Program Action Plan (PAP). The Unique Social Registry (RSU) is a significantly newer unit. During project preparation the technical assessment will seek to assess the existing capacity within this new unit to manage the evolving registry and the data collected. II. SUMMARY OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL (ES) RISKS AND IMPACTS A. Environmental and Social Risk Classification (ESRC) Moderate Environmental Risk Rating Low As mentioned above, the IPF component Program will support hiring of consultants and inputs needed to draft proposals and evaluations. Therefore, the outcomes of the TA will have very limited environmental impacts and risks. However, considering that individual consultants and firms will be mobilized for this TA, risks associated to TA activities and traffic accidents should be monitored by the BCFS. Public Disclosure Social Risk Rating Moderate The consultants / firms that will be hired to undertake the work under the IPF component need to ensure that the information and feedback received from the beneficiaries and the implementation agencies avoids elite capture and is widely consulted, , as there is a risk that the evaluations and monitoring activities do not reflect all beneficiaries’ voices equally. This is particularly important in rural areas, where the voices of women and vulnerable people are often not heard due to the strict hierarchies at village level. It is also important to take into account aspects such as SEA/SH to make sure that specific questions are asked and feedback is continuously provided and integrated to improve the program, as SEA/SH is one of the known issue in Cote d’Ivoire. . Improvement to the GRM (established under the PFSP) is already envisaged as part of the Program, as the previous GRM received mostly grievances related to payments, which were resolved accordingly by the PIU and the centralized register they maintained. B. Environment and Social Standards (ESSs) that Apply to the Activities Being Considered B.1. General Assessment ESS1 Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts Overview of the relevance of the Standard for the Project: The TA activities financed as part of the IPF component under the project will likely have limited social and environmental impacts as the activities are mainly related to undertaking studies, assessments etc. The main risks will be related to the need for inclusive stakeholder engagement to inform the assessment and improvement recommendations for the program (this is outlined in greater detail under ESS10) and the need to adhere to codes of Feb 28, 2022 Page 4 of 10 The World Bank Social Safety Nets System Strengthening (P175594) conduct, including SEA/SH measures for the individual consultants and firms to avoid any unwanted behavior for community members and beneficiaries. The TA activities will also need to respect all COVID-19 measures put in place at a national level, including wearing masks, social distancing and limiting the number of people at public consultations in order not to prorogate the disease. As for the HSE risks, they mainly come down to the risks associated to TA activities and traffic accidents, as consultants and firms will undertake field visits. The PIU will prepare, consult, adopt and disclose an Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) in order to avoid, reduce or mitigate the potential negative environmental and social risks and impacts of the TA activities on the environment and society (including, inter alia, safety and SEA/SH risks) and any other instrument required for the respective activities of the Project based on the assessment process, in accordance with this ESS, ESHS guidelines and other relevant international industry best practices. The PFSP has introduced a management information system with an offline GRM module that can be accessed offline by community agents, and its effectiveness will be assessed as part of ongoing activities and improved upon under the PforR. The new operation will thus build on this and should increase the capacity to use this tool. ESS10 Stakeholder Engagement and Information Disclosure A Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP) has been developed for this IPF activity to adequately outline the stakeholder engagement related to the different evaluations, assessments and beneficiary targeting activities to ensure that all voices have been adequately reflected and elite capture is avoided when carrying out the different evaluations. The SEP will include record of all the annual stakeholder engagement activities undertaken as part of the technical assistance and be updated annually to reflect the status of stakeholder activities. The extent and manner of Public Disclosure stakeholder engagement will be proportional to the nature and scale of the IPF activities and its potential risks and impacts, including the potential exclusion of women, youth and vulnerable groups in target areas due to strict village hierarchies, security and SEA/SH risks affecting delivery and reception of cash transfers. To address this risk, separate consultations with women, youth and vulnerable people will be held to ensure that their voices have been adequately reflected. Therefore, the consultants and firms undertaking the studies and evaluations should be accompanied and make use of the community agents to include all voices and establish relationships with the beneficiaries. As mentioned above, improvements to the existing Grievance Mechanisms (GM) are envisaged under the IPF component, as the grievances will provide important feedback of the activities. B.2. Specific Risks and Impacts A brief description of the potential environmental and social risks and impacts relevant to the Project. ESS2 Labor and Working Conditions The IPF technical assistance activities foresee only a small number of individual consultants or specialized firms, approximately 10 individual consultants and 5 firms. All Project workers related to the IPF component will be over the age of 18, therefore a child labor and forced labor risk is not foreseen. For the IPF activity a separate Labor Management Procedure (LMP) will not be developed; however, a code of conduct and working will be incorporated in the ESMP and will apply to the IPF workers. ESS3 Resource Efficiency and Pollution Prevention and Management Feb 28, 2022 Page 5 of 10 The World Bank Social Safety Nets System Strengthening (P175594) This standard is not relevant. However, TA may recommend actions or measures that could indirectly have adverse impact on resources and contribute to the increase of pollution. ESS4 Community Health and Safety The main community health and safety risk is related to SEA/SH and inappropriate behaviors by the consultants and designated staff of firms coming from outside and entering the communities. The code of conduct to be established for the project will include SEA/SH measures, which the IPF component workers will also need to adhere to. The TA activities focus on evaluations and improvements of the program will review these mitigation measures and will propose changes if necessary and conduct consultations specific to the codes of conduct and the respect of the SEA/SH measures to see how effectively they are being implemented within the Program. With COVID-19 still prevalent in Côte d’Ivoire and vaccination rates being low, all TA related activities will need to respect the COVID-19 measures including the wearing of masks, the limiting of the numbers of people during public meetings and engagement sessions and respecting all social distancing rules. ESS5 Land Acquisition, Restrictions on Land Use and Involuntary Resettlement Not relevant ESS6 Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources Public Disclosure This standard is not relevant. However, TA may recommend actions or measures that could indirectly have adverse impact on biodiversity and natural resources. The wider PforR program will assess these risks as part of the ESSA for the protection and the conserving biodiversity and sustainably managing living natural resources. ESS7 Indigenous Peoples/Sub-Saharan African Historically Underserved Traditional Local Communities Not relevant ESS8 Cultural Heritage Not relevant ESS9 Financial Intermediaries Not relevant C. Legal Operational Policies that Apply OP 7.50 Projects on International Waterways No OP 7.60 Projects in Disputed Areas No Feb 28, 2022 Page 6 of 10 The World Bank Social Safety Nets System Strengthening (P175594) B.3. Reliance on Borrower’s policy, legal and institutional framework, relevant to the Project risks and impacts Is this project being prepared for use of Borrower Framework? In Whole Areas where “Use of Borrower Framework” is being considered: The Borrower’s Framework will be applied to the wider PforR Program and certain aspects will apply to the TA activities such as the codes of conduct for the workers and the SEA/SH mitigation measures put in place. ESSA prepared for the PforR includes recommendations and Program Action Plans (PAPs) to address the gaps of the Borrower Framework and to enhance performance during Program implementation as well as the capacity of Program’s stakeholders. IV. CONTACT POINTS World Bank Contact: Solene Marie Paule Rougeaux Title: Senior Social Protection Specialist Telephone No: 5331+3463 Email: srougeaux@worldbank.org Public Disclosure Contact: Raphaela Beatrice Karlen Title: Social Protection Specialist Telephone No: +1-202-473-4509 Email: rkarlen@worldbank.org Borrower/Client/Recipient Borrower: Republic of Côte d'Ivoire Implementing Agency(ies) Implementing Agency: DG - MSLP (Ministère de la Solidarité et de la Lutte contre la Pauvreté) Implementing Agency: Ministry of Solidarity and Fight against Poverty V. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT Feb 28, 2022 Page 7 of 10 The World Bank Social Safety Nets System Strengthening (P175594) The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 473-1000 Web: http://www.worldbank.org/projects Public Disclosure Feb 28, 2022 Page 8 of 10 The World Bank Social Safety Nets System Strengthening (P175594) VI. APPROVAL Public Disclosure Feb 28, 2022 Page 9 of 10 The World Bank Social Safety Nets System Strengthening (P175594) Task Team Leader(s): Raphaela Beatrice Karlen, Solene Marie Paule Rougeaux Practice Manager (ENR/Social) Maria Sarraf Cleared on 10-Feb-2022 at 04:12:3 GMT-05:00 Public Disclosure Feb 28, 2022 Page 10 of 10