The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) Project Information Document (PID) Appraisal Stage | Date Prepared/Updated: 25-Feb-2021 | Report No: PIDA29614 Aug 04, 2020 Page 1 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) BASIC INFORMATION OPS_TABLE_BASIC_DATA A. Basic Project Data Country Project ID Project Name Parent Project ID (if any) Mozambique P172657 Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique Region Estimated Appraisal Date Estimated Board Date Practice Area (Lead) AFRICA EAST 23-Feb-2021 26-Mar-2021 Education Financing Instrument Borrower(s) Implementing Agency Investment Project Financing Republic of Mozambique Ministry of Education and Ministry of Economy and Human Development Finance Proposed Development Objective(s) Increase learning readiness and girls’ retention in upper grades of basic education prioritizing underserved areas of Mozambique. Components Improving learning in primary education Increasing access and retention of girls in upper primary and lower secondary education Strengthening governance to improve efficiency and monitoring of education outcomes progress Project management, monitoring and evaluation Contingency and Emergency Response PROJECT FINANCING DATA (US$, Millions) SUMMARY -NewFin1 Total Project Cost 300.00 Total Financing 300.00 of which IBRD/IDA 160.00 Financing Gap 0.00 DETAILS -NewFinEnh1 World Bank Group Financing Aug 04, 2020 Page 2 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) International Development Association (IDA) 160.00 IDA Grant 160.00 Non-World Bank Group Financing Trust Funds 140.00 EFA-FTI Education Program Development Fund 140.00 Environmental and Social Risk Classification Substantial Decision The review did authorize the team to appraise and negotiate Other Decision (as needed) B. Introduction and Context Country Context 1. Mozambique has a young and rapidly expanding population, posing a challenge and an opportunity to long-term development. Over the last 30 years, the population in Mozambique increased from 12 million to 28 million. The fertility rate is one of the highest in the region and the world,1 with 5.2 children per adult woman. As a result, the Mozambican population has been getting younger and the dependency rate has been increasing. This large pool of young children puts pressure on social services and can undermine poverty reduction. However, with the right investments, these young children can become the human capital that will lead Mozambique’s development. 2. Human capital development is low, and there are wide geographical and gender disparities across the country. Mozambique ranks 148 out of 157 countries according to the Human Capital Index (HCI).2 The HCI for Mozambique was 0.36 in 2018, which is below the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) average of 0.40 and far from the worldwide average of 0.57. Despite efforts over the last decades, illiteracy in Mozambique is still one of the highest in the region with an average adult illiteracy rate of 39 percent.3 Half of the rural population and half of Mozambican women are illiterate (compared to 19 percent of urban adults and 27 percent of men) and the highest rates are in the northern part of the country. Moreover, women in Mozambique completed, on average, only 1.4 years of schooling, 2.0 years below 1 Demographic and Health Surveys (2018). 2 HCIis new measure of countries’ human capital capacity launched in 2018 by the World Bank. Available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/human-capital. The HCI is made up of three components: survival, schooling and health, and shows that the expected productivity of a child born today in Mozambique is only 36 percent of what it could be with complete basic education and full health. 3 Education Sector Analysis (ESA), MINEDH-UNESCO (2019). Aug 04, 2020 Page 3 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) the average schooling among men of 3.4 years, which in itself is also very low. Regional disparities across the territory are significant, with development outcomes in the north and center lagging the south. Robust economic growth following the end of the civil war has not been inclusive or shared evenly across the territory. 3. The COVID-19 outbreak reached Mozambique at a weak moment in its economic history as the country attempted to recover from two major shocks: the hidden debt crisis and the devastating effects of Cyclones Idai and Kenneth in 2019. In 2016, Mozambique’s track record for high growth was disrupted when large previously undisclosed external borrowing, amounting to US$1.3 billion, came to light. The hidden debt crisis dented confidence in the country, increased debt levels, and more than halved the average rate of growth. In 2019, Cyclones Idai and Kenneth caused massive damage to infrastructure and livelihoods, further lowering growth and well-being of the population. COVID-19 now presents a massive setback that could erase past gains. 4. COVID-19 dims the short-term growth prospects of Mozambique. Economic activity is declining as social distancing measures and travel restrictions disrupt supply chains and reduce demand for goods and services. At the same time, lower demand and prices of commodities are slowing the pace of investment in gas and coal, two key industries for Mozambique. As a result, the economy is expected to contract by 0.8 percent in 2020, down from a pre-COVID forecast of 4.3 percent. Mozambique is also expected to experience large external and fiscal financing gaps in 2020 and 2021 in a context characterized by exposure to external shocks and limited fiscal space. Nonetheless, a growth recovery is expected to begin in 2021, with growth reaching 4.4 percent by 2022, owing to a rebound in global demand and additional stimulus to the business environment from Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) projects. 5. A sizeable number of Mozambicans will fall back into poverty as a result of the pandemic. Given the depth of the COVID-19 crisis, Mozambique’s difficult poverty situation is expected to be further aggravated. The negative impact on income is expected to be felt relatively more in urban and peri-urban areas, where social distancing measures and business closures are having the most effect. Mozambique’s urban poverty rate is estimated to increase from 29 percent to at least 31 percent in 2020, pushing an additional 250,000 to 300,000 urban people into poverty on account of employment and income losses, price increases, and a deterioration of public services.4 6. The pandemic is also likely to exacerbate preexisting factors of fragility and widen inequalities and imbalances across the country. The spatial distribution of poverty is skewed with poverty almost twice as high in rural as in urban centers and inequality growing between rural and urban areas. The northern and central regions continue to lag behind the southern regions, with many more people being poor in Niassa (67 percent), Nampula (65 percent), and Zambezia (62 percent) than in Maputo province (12 percent) and Maputo city (4 percent). The latter two areas have seen the largest decline in poverty rates in the past decade. The pandemic could widen these divides, heighten socioeconomic grievances, and sharpen the inequalities and sense of marginalization that have helped to underpin the escalating conflict in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. 4 World Bank estimations. Aug 04, 2020 Page 4 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) 7. A rapidly escalating insurgency in the northern region is having deadly consequences for the population and increases the risk for social development in Mozambique. As the country prepares actions to mitigate the expected impact of the pandemic on poverty and inequality, the northern region has experienced increasing violence, destroying human and physical capital, and leading to a mounting humanitarian and displacement crisis. What began as attacks on police and administrative units in the port town of Mocimba da Praia in Cabo Delgado in October, 2017, has rapidly increased in range, intensity and sophistication. It is estimated that the conflict has led to over 3,800 fatalities as of end- December 2020, and more than 600,000 people displaced.5 The number of people displaced by the crisis more than quadrupled from March to November 2020, with children accounting for an estimated 45 percent of the displaced. The rapid spread and escalation of the conflict has fueled concerns regarding risks of spillovers into neighboring Niassa and Nampula provinces, both of which face similar underlying structural challenges as Cabo Delgado. Social unrest and violence in the north not only challenge the large investments that can change Mozambique’s development prospects, but also increase the deep regional inequality already existent in the country. Uneven provision of services and development outcomes which reflect these regional disparities is, at the same time, a major factor of fragility and undermines the social contract and state-society relations. 5 International Organization for Migration (IOM) Aug 04, 2020 Page 5 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) Sectoral and Institutional Context 8. The Government of Mozambique (GoM) recently introduced important changes to the education system. The National Education System Law was revised in December 2018, abolishing fees for basic education6 and increasing mandatory and free education from 7 to 9 years, creating strong incentives to expand lower secondary education. The duration of the education cycles was restructured, reducing primary from 7 to 6 years, and increasing secondary schooling from 5 to 6 years. The law also recognized, for the first time, that preschool was a subsystem of education (although not a requirement to enter primary), creating a conducive environment for its expansion. The education system is now made up of the following six subsystems: preschool, general primary and secondary education, adult education, technical and professional education, teacher training, and higher education. 9. Mozambique allocates a large share of its budget to education and receives solid external support, but this still results into a low spending per student. Since 2008, education spending in Mozambique averaged 19 percent of total government expenditure and nearly 6 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). 7 While this is higher than average in terms of international benchmarks, in a context of a rapidly expanding school population, these financial efforts translate into low spending per student (less than US$100 per student per year). In 2019 the state education budget reached US$930 million, 66 percent of which was allocated to basic education (primary and lower secondary), a share comparable to the SSA average.8 Nearly 80 percent of the Government’s budget is allocated to salaries. Most non-salary expenditures of the sector (nearly 90 percent) are financed by external funds. 10. Around 90 percent of the external funding to the education sector is allocated through a pooled donor fund. The Education Sector Support Fund (FASE) was established in 2002 to ensure that the Government and development partners’ support for the implementation of the Education Strategic Plan (ESP) was done in a coordinated manner. FASE has been the main aid instrument to the sector, channeling around US$1.6 billion.9 FASE is currently financed by nine development partners, including the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and the World Bank.10 FASE is recognized by the Government as the most effective funding mechanism to support the sector’s priorities, since it reduces the transaction cost of coordinating with numerous agencies supporting the education sector and it aligns support with Government’s sector priorities. Based on the Government’s ESP, FASE has been financing basic education (with a priority on primary education) including funds for textbooks, schools’ grant program, teacher training, supervision, and school construction. All FASE expenditures are agreed upon on an annual basis as part of the annual activity plan, which operationalizes the ESP. The Local Education Group (LEG), comprising civil society and development partners, actively participates in the dialogue with the Government, contributing to the implementation of the country’s education priorities.11 11. Over the past two decades, education in Mozambique has been supported by the World Bank and GPE. The Education Sector Support Project (ESSP – P125127), which closed on December 31, 2019, was implemented over 7 years (including 3 years of additional financing). The project included funding from International Development Association (IDA) and a grant from GPE for a total of US$ 368 million (US$ 220 million from IDA and US$ 148 million from GPE). Access and retention Aug 04, 2020 Page 6 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) 12. Education access continues to be a challenge, especially at the preschool and upper grades of basic education where large enrollment disparities persist. There are currently 8.2 million students in general education in Mozambique (6.9 million in primary and 1.3 million in secondary).12 Enrollment in preschool is less than 5 percent of the 3 to 5-year-old population and is concentrated in urban areas and wealthier families. While gross enrollment rates (GER) in lower primary (grades 1 to 3) surpassed 100 percent in 2018, in upper primary (grades 4 to 7), the GER is only 67 percent.13 Enrollment in secondary schools has stagnated at 37 percent over the last seven years. The national averages conceal large gender disparities: the GER for girls in primary is 10 percentage points lower than for boys, and at the secondary level, it is 2 percentage points lower than for boys. 14 Regional disparities are also prevalent: the northern and center provinces have upper primary GERs around 50 percent (17 percentage points below the national average). 13. Dropout rates are high, especially among girls. Around 25 percent of students (girls and boys) drop out before grade 3 and less than 50 percent complete primary; this is well below the average in SSA.15 In 2015, 15 percent of primary school age children 6 to 12 years old (600,000 children)16 were out of school. Moreover, in the last household survey conducted in 2014/15, 3 out of 4 children (67 percent) 12 to 17 years old reported not completing primary education, which indicates that most out-of-school children once attended school and dropped out before graduation. In early primary, dropout rates for boys and girls are equally high. However, in upper primary, the gender gap increases, as more girls abandon school prematurely. In 2018, 42 percent of girls completed primary compared to 47 percent of boys.17 14. Low school enrollment and retention are associated with both demand and supply factors. Financial constraints, distance to school, and poor school infrastructure and materials are the main factors associated with high dropouts.18 While the recent reform which eliminated school fees for lower secondary will alleviate 6According to the National Education Law, basic education comprises 6 grades of primary education plus 3 grades of lower secondary education. 7 World Bank (2016), Mozambique Education Public Expenditure Review (Washington, DC: World Bank). 8 World Bank (2016), Mozambique Education Public Expenditure Review (Washington, DC: World Bank). 9 FASE is guided by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by Government and development partners as they join the pool fund. The MOU lifetime is linked to the strategic plan period. Since the monitoring and evaluation of the ESP is done by a broader group of partners and civil society, the FASE MOU also includes the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the overall dialogue between the Ministry of Education and Human Development (MINEDH) and all education partners (FASE and beyond). 10 The other FASE donors are Germany, Finland, Canada, Ireland, UNICEF, Portugal and France. 11 The World Bank joined FASE in 2008 as the supervising entity of GPE (at the time called Education for All - Fast Track Initiative) with a US$79 million financing grant carried out by the Education Sector Support Project (ESSP – P112052). Subsequently, the World Bank continued using the FASE mechanism to implement the Education Sector Support Project (ESSP – P125127), which included both IDA and GPE financing. 12 MINEDH (2020), Education Sector Performance Report. 13 MINEDH (2019), EMIS 14 MINEDH (2019), EMIS; MINEDH-UNESCO (2019), Education Sector Analysis. The net enrollment in upper primary and lower secondary are 24 percent and 22 percent, respectively, with a slight advantage for girls. This is consistent with the fact that boys are more likely to lag behind during the schooling cycle and girls have a higher dropout rate. 15 The average primary education completion rate in SSA counties is 59 percent (Mozambique Education Sector Analysis 2019). 16 UNICEF, KOICA and Pedagogic University (2019), Longitudinal Evaluation of School Dropout in Mozambique: Drivers of School Absenteeism and Educational Attainment. (UNICEF, KOICA and Pedagogic University). 17 MINEDH (2019), Education Sector Annual Assessment Report. 18 Harnessing Demographic Dividend PAD (P166100); Van der Berg, Da Maia and Burger (2019), “Educational inequality in Mozambique�, WIDER Working Paper 2017/212, Longitudinal Evaluation of School Dropout in Mozambique: Drivers of School Aug 04, 2020 Page 7 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) school-related costs, distance to school remains a key obstacle throughout the country, especially for girls. On average, 65 percent of the population ages 10 to 19 years old lives 5 km or more from the nearest lower secondary school, and 52 percent lives more than 10 km away.19 There are currently only 0.1 secondary schools and 1.2 classrooms per 1,000 children ages 10 to 19 in Mozambique.20 Furthermore, there are large geographical differences in terms of school availability, with the northern and center regions showing the largest deficits (figure 1). Nearly 40 percent of schools do not have proper toilet facilities and at least 30 percent do not have access to water.21 Lack of toilet facilities and water is usually reported as one of the main obstacles for girls to attend schools. The last national learning assessment in 2016, for example, indicated that absenteeism is higher among girls than boys, an issue also associated with poor school infrastructure.22 Making schools more accessible and improving infrastructure conditions is critical to increasing girls’ access and retention in the upper grades of basic education. Figure 1 Availability of lower secondary classrooms per 1,000 children ages 10 to 14 years old Source: Expansion of Secondary Education in Mozambique, World Bank (2020). Absenteeism and Educational Attainment (UNICEF, KOICA and Pedagogic University). 19 World Bank (2020), Expansion of Secondary Education in Mozambique. 20 There are currently 12,737 primary schools in the first cycle (grades 1 to 3), 7,921 schools in the second cycle in Mozambique (grades 4 to 7), representing 1.6 primary schools per 1000 children ages 1 to 9 years old. There are 556 lower secondary and 293 upper secondary schools. 21 UNICEF, KOICA and Pedagogic University (2019), Longitudinal Evaluation of School Dropout in Mozambique: Drivers of School Absenteeism and Educational Attainment. (UNICEF, KOICA and Pedagogic University). 22 UNICEF, KOICA and Pedagogic University (2019), Longitudinal Evaluation of School Dropout in Mozambique: Drivers of School Absenteeism and Educational Attainment. (UNICEF, KOICA and Pedagogic University). Aug 04, 2020 Page 8 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) Learning outcomes 15. The level of student learning is critically low. According to the most recent national assessment, in 2016 only 5 percent of grade 3 students in Mozambique were able to read at the expected level. The Service Delivery Indicators 2018 (SDI 2018) survey also showed very low levels of learning (although there were improvements from 2014). In addition, the SDI results indicated an underperformance by girls.23 The gender gap was particularly large in Portuguese (reading and writing) (figure 2). Differences between test scores for girls and boys were large in the northern and center regions of the country, where overall learning levels are significantly lower than the national average.24 Figure 2 Students test scores by gender in Mozambique (SDI 2018) Source: Mozambique SDI (2018). 16. While a growing number of students speak Portuguese, learning is lower among students who do not speak Portuguese at home. Many children start school without any exposure to Portuguese. 25 Yet, the number of students speaking Portuguese is increasing. In 2016, 58 percent of the teachers reported that more than half of their class in grade 1 had difficulty in speaking Portuguese, falling from the same indicator reported in 2013 (70 percent) but still a significant obstacle for learning in the early grades.26 The Government recently launched a strategy for the expansion of bilingual education (Portuguese and local languages) as an alternative modality to monolingual education (only Portuguese), producing learning and teaching materials in 19 local languages. An important challenge for this strategy, however, is Mozambique’s linguistic diversity, since less than 6 of the 21 national languages are spoken by more than 5 percent of the population. Expanding but still in early stages, the bilingual education reaches 2,924 primary schools and 9,547 students.2728 Evidence shows that language of instruction is a key consideration for learning. Yet, for bilingual education to be effective several conditions 23 The gender gap (with girls’ underperformance) is also observed in the national learning assessment (NLA) of 2013 and SACMEQ 2013, but not in the NLA in 2016. 24 In the Southern region, girls got higher test scores than boys in Portuguese and similar levels in mathematics (SDI 2018). 25 Service Delivery Indicators Survey (2018) and NLA (2016). 26 NLA (2013) and NLA (2016). 27 MINEDH statistics (2020). 28 Bilingual education receives support from USAID through the program Vamos Ler!, implemented in two provinces in the north of the country (Nampula and Zambezia) Aug 04, 2020 Page 9 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) need to be ensured, especially in a linguistically diverse context such as Mozambique. Those conditions include not only the availability of learning material, but also a thorough adjustment of teacher training, both preservice and in-service, a careful linguistic diagnosis and mapping, and the support from parents and communities. 17. There are a complex set of contributing factors affecting learning outcomes. Poverty and weak socioeconomic conditions of families tend to lower levels of learning; this is especially apparent in the northern and center regions. At the school level, high rates of student absenteeism and low teacher knowledge are the main predictors of learning. Schools that showed the largest improvement of learning outcomes between 2014 and 2018 also presented decreased level of student absenteeism combined with higher levels of teacher content knowledge.29 Many teachers in the system do not have basic pedagogic competencies and subject knowledge needed to teach effectively. According to the SDI 2018, less than 3 percent of grade 4 teachers mastered 80 percent of the mathematics or Portuguese grade content. Teachers also scored low in pedagogic practices, such as preparing a lesson plan or using student test scores to assess student learning patterns. In addition to weak teaching skills, teachers in Mozambique also exhibit high rates of absenteeism. The SDI 2018 showed that teachers absenteeism fell considerably since 2014 but remains high at nearly 30 percent. This means that at least one third of instruction time is lost because teachers are not in the classroom. Another factor affecting learning outcomes is large class sizes with a pupil-to-teacher ratio in early primary of 65 on average and more than 70 in three provinces in the north. 30 18. Moreover, most children come to school unprepared. Over the last decade, the GoM has made progress in early childhood development (ECD), with the development of a multisectoral strategic plan, the establishment of a preschool department within the Ministry of Education and Human Development (MINEDH), and the expansion of the provision of ECD services, particularly to rural communities. However, less than 5 percent of age specific population has access to ECD, hindering the opportunity for young children to improve key school readiness skills. 31 Girls’ education and gender-based violence 19. Child marriages and teenage pregnancies are major factors affecting girls’ school attendance. Girls’ educational attainment, child marriage and early childbearing are closely related. Mozambique has the 10th highest rate of early marriage in the world, with almost half of adolescent girls ages 15–19 reporting that they are married. As of 2015, about 46 percent of this population group were already mothers or pregnant, and this percentage has increased over the last twenty years.32 Mozambique’s adolescent fertility rate is the fourth highest in the world. Traditional gender norms, in addition to poverty and adolescent pregnancy, continue to drive child marriage, particularly in rural areas, where sexual initiation rites often encourage the subordination of a girl to her husband.33 29 Service Delivery Indicators Survey (2018). 30 The number of teachers in Mozambique more than doubled since 2004, from nearly 60,000 to 139,500 in 2019. This increase helped to maintain (and even to reduce) for some time the average pupil-teacher ratio. Yet, tight fiscal context over the last two years together with a fast expansion of the education system pushed by demographic trends resulted in increases in the pupil- to-teacher ratios. The weak fiscal prospects for the next few years will continue this pressure, urging the need for measures on management of the teacher workforce, including improving teachers’ allocation. Studies show that there is a big variance of pupils-to-teacher ratios within districts, with schools with very low and very high PTR in the same district (Figuereido 2018). According to the current legislation, districts decide the allocation of teachers to schools. 31 MINEDH (2020), Education Sector Strategic Plan 2020-2029. 32 Demographic Health Survey (DHS 2015). 33 Pawlak (2020), SEA/SH&VAC Portfolio Assessment Report. Aug 04, 2020 Page 10 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) 20. Girls’ academic performance improves with an increase in female teachers. The SDI 2018 indicated that students of female teachers performed better than students of male teachers, and the difference was larger for girls. The gap between boys and girls in students’ test scores almost disappeared with female teachers, with both girls and boys performing better.34 Over the last years, the Government has made efforts to increase the number of female teachers. Women are 51 percent of teachers in early primary, but the share decreases sharply to 29 percent in upper primary and 23 percent in secondary education. 21. The risk of gender-based violence (GBV) among adolescent girls in Mozambique is disturbingly high. About one-third of 15-year-old adolescents girls declare that they are survivors of physical violence, and 46 percent say they are survivors of domestic sexual or emotional violence from their partners.35 Sexual abuse and harassment against girls are real risks in the education system. Across Mozambique, 7 in 10 girls report knowing of cases of sexual harassment and abuse in their school. The low percentage of female teachers in upper primary and secondary education aggravates an imbalanced environment that may contribute to these high rates of girls’ abuse in schools. 22. Empowering girls through education not only improves equity but also has a long-term impact for the country’s development. Achieving universal secondary education for girls is critical to end child marriage and significantly reducing early childbearing and total fertility. Each additional year of education increases a woman’s earnings.36 Educating girls also impacts the education of their children, generating a virtuous cycle with long-lasting effects. Effective interventions such as making schools more accessible and safer, providing flexible and alternative schooling, increasing awareness on GBV, and reducing financial and social costs associated with schooling can have a large development impact.37 Education Sector Plan and Impact of COVID-19 23. While the full impact of COVID-19 on education in Mozambique is yet to be known, the pandemic is likely to result in big losses in enrollment and learning. Schools in Mozambique have been closed since March 23, 2020. Nearly 15,000 schools, 178,00 teachers, and over 8.5 million students at all levels of education were affected by school closures. With the support of development partners, the Government implemented remote learning via the internet, TV, radio, and the distribution of printouts. However, given the weak starting conditions and low penetration of technology in Mozambique, the efficacy of these methods is doubtful. Monitoring missions have been conducted to assess the readiness of schools to reopen, especially in terms of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) conditions, which concluded that more than 60 percent of schools do not meet the minimum WASH requirements. In August 2020, MINEDH initiated a partial reopening plan, gradually reestablishing in- person classes for grades 7, 10 and 12, in which high-stake examinations are administered. All other grades remained in remote learning for the rest of the 2020 school year. The academic calendar for the 2020 school year was extended to February 2021, and the 2021 school year was shifted to start on March 22, 2021. Predictions show that COVID-19 could result in a loss of 0.7 years of schooling adjusted for learning, bringing down the effective years of basic education that students achieve during their lifetime to 3.7 years.38 UNICEF 34 This result is consistent with similar evidence for other countries. See for example Evans and Le Nestour, Center for Global Development (2019), https://www.cgdev.org/blog/are-female-teachers-better-girls-education. 35 Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Action (2016); Perfil de Género de Moçambique (Gender Profile in Mozambique). 36 Wodon and others (2018). 37 Wodon (2019), “Empowering girls through education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Benefits, Interventions, Strategies and Case Studies �. 38 Wagner and Warren (2020). Aug 04, 2020 Page 11 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) estimates that in the aftermath of COVID-19, nearly 20 percent of the Mozambican children will never return to formal education. Exclusion and inequality will likely be exacerbated as already marginalized and vulnerable groups, like girls, the extremely poor, and persons with disabilities, are likely to be more adversely affected by the school closures.39 Even with schools reopening in the next school year as currently planned by the Government, Mozambique will need support to attract learners (especially adolescent girls) back to school, ensure a safe and sanitary environment in all schools, come up with remediating measures to catch up with a loss of learning, and continue strengthening distance learning to offer a more flexible modality for students not returning to schools that can be scalable and implemented quickly in the cases of emergency. 24. The Government, in coordination with the LEG, prepared a new ESP that establishes the sector priorities for the next decade. The new ESP 2020–29 was approved by the Council of Ministers in April 2020. It is based on recent education reforms and consolidates important measures which MINEDH initiated in areas such as teacher training, bilingual education, and textbooks development and distribution. The new ESP builds on previous strategies, such as the 2017 in-service teacher training strategy, which sought to implement best international practices by moving professional development from purely theoretical courses to practical training through classroom observation and feedback at schools. The new ESP also builds on previous commendable reforms that sought to improve textbook development and distribution, adjusting textbook procurement procedures to ensure lower unit costs and gradually developing internal capacity to produce its own textbooks. In 2019, MINEDH launched a new model of preservice teacher training, which increased the minimum education achievement required for teacher candidates and increased the duration of pedagogical training from one to three years. The new ESP builds on these strategies while also working on important teacher policy reforms, which will improve the mechanisms to recruit, allocate and promote teachers and principals. C. Proposed Development Objective(s) Development Objective(s) (From PAD) Increase learning readiness and girls’retention prioritizing upper grades of basic education in underserved areas of Mozambique. Key Results Improving learning readiness in primary education i. Retention up to grade 3 among children benefiting from ECD interventions and literacy package in communities with low educational attainment (percentage disaggregated by gender) ii. Literacy proficiency at grade 3 in schools implementing the literacy package in communities with low educational attainment (percentage disaggregated by gender) Increase girls’ retention in upper grades iii. Girls’ retention in upper grades of basic education in upgraded schools (percentage) 39 Azevedo and others (2020). Aug 04, 2020 Page 12 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) D. Project Description 25. This project aims to have a substantial impact on learning outcomes and girls’ school retention. Thus, the project proposes to concentrate on two major bottlenecks in the education cycle in Mozambique, which are: (a) learning during the first three years of primary schooling; and (b) girls’ retention and transition in the upper grades of basic education. Activities will be based on effective experiences in Mozambique and other countries, and they will use, to the extent possible, strategies and systems already in place. The design of the activities supports the development of local capacity in the education system, not only at the central level but more importantly, at the provincial, district, and school levels, as well as in school clusters. 26. Interventions will be nationwide, with special attention given to conflict and fragility contexts. While the project will have nationwide approach, some activities will require prioritization in areas showing low educational outcomes, mostly located in the northern and center regions of the country. The focus on the northern and center regions for some interventions of this project will contribute to communities living in a fragile context. The project will complement other operations to support Human Development (HD) including the upcoming multisector HD project for the province of Cabo Delgado, which is expected to be approved in FY2022. As the conflict in the north escalates increasing fragility, interventions in this area will be implemented seeking collaboration with stakeholders with vast experience in working in fragile contexts and in the northern region of Mozambique, in particular. These include United Nations (UN) agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which would help identify beneficiaries and implement the activities of the project adapting to the context and the needs of these communities. 27. Both the project design and implementation plan have been adjusted to account for COVID-19’s impact on the education sector. For some of the interventions, such as distance learning, the COVID-19 context will result in many experiences developed in Mozambique and internationally that provide valuable inputs and lessons learned. The challenges that remote learning generated during school closures due to the pandemic, including low connectivity and access to digital devices, will also be addressed. Other activities, such as the rehabilitation and improvement of schools’ WASH facilities, will benefit from the work MINEDH has recently developed as part of the COVID-19 response, such as assessing the conditions of access to water and sanitary conditions of all schools and preparing a plan for improvements. Finally, some activities of this project, which require face-to-face interactions between teachers and students, have been adjusted. For example, the piloting of the materials and training for the literacy package will be initiated when conditions allow. B. Project Components 28. The project is an Investment Project Financing (IPF) operation comprising five components. Components 1, 2 and 3 will use a result-based approach, with part of their financing linked to Performance-Based Conditions (PBCs). Component 4 will be a traditional IPF and will support the implementation of the project. Component 5 is a contingency emergency allocation with zero dollars and aims at mobilizing unallocated funds from the project to rapidly respond to emergency situations in the country. The project will include funding both from IDA and GPE, and it will be channeled through FASE.40 The first component of the project will aim at improving learning readiness, while component 2 will focus on retaining girls in the last years of primary education and support their transition to lower secondary. Component 3 will aim to improve system efficiency and strengthening governance and management. Finally, component 4 will support the project’s management, monitoring and evaluation (figure 3). Aug 04, 2020 Page 13 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) Figure 3: Project’s main objectives and activities Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique Improve learning Increase girls’ readiness retention in schools Make secondary schools more accessible for girls: Prepare primary schools to teach Get children ready for school: lower secondary, with adequate girls- Consolidate and expand ECD centers; friendly infrastructure and prepared include nutrition component; teachers strengthen institutional framework of preschool system Provide alternative flexible secondary schooling: Expand and strengthen distance learning targeting out-of-school girls or girls at risk Delay marriage and childbearing: Provide Build foundations: Literacy package at sexual and reproductive health education of the school level to improve reading in in upper primary schools dropping out grades 1 to 3; coaching to teachers, guided lesson plans; learning materials to all students Address GBV in schools and change social perceptions: Monitor GBV risks in schools and launch communication campaign to address social norms on girls’ education Strengthen efficiency in the system: Improve education statistics and national learning assessments; introduce incentives’ mechanism to improve teachers’ allocation and girls’ retention Component 1: Improving learning in primary education (total of US$90 million: US$50 million from IDA financing and US$40 million from GPE financing) Subcomponent 1.1. Strengthening preschool services (US$25 million from GPE) 29. Through this subcomponent, the project will support the consolidation of the preschool subsystem, the reinforcement of the regulatory capacity of the Government, and the expansion of preschool services, allowing more children to access quality early learning. It will build upon the achievements and lessons learned from the previous World Bank and GPE project (ESSP), which contributed to setting up the institutional structure for the ECD system in Mozambique and expanded the provision of ECD services to rural communities in five provinces through the Program for the Integral Development of Children of Preschool Age (DICIPE). 30. The preparation and implementation of the activities in this sub-component will be led by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Action (MGCAS) in close collaboration with MINEDH , since the national 40The GPE part will include the maximum country allocation for Mozambique (US$125 million) and up to additional US$15 million for the multiplier grant, which requires mobilizing other cooperating partners’ new funds to the education sector (US$1 million GPE grant for each US$3 million of new funds with a maximum of US$15 million). The World Bank, French Development Agency, the World Food Program and the Canadian High Commission agreed to increase their funding to education in Mozambique to leverage this GPE grant. Aug 04, 2020 Page 14 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) arrangements based on the new education law regulatory documents designate MGCAS as responsible to define norms for opening, functioning and closing preschool facilities in Mozambique. In addition to its role in curriculum development and teacher training, MINEDH’s responsibilities will include the administrative management of the project as described in the financial management section. This subcomponent will also involve coordination with the Ministry of Health in the implementation of the nutrition interventions. 31. Key activities for this subcomponent include: a. Enabling the institutional framework and workforce. Activities will focus on strengthening the governance of the preschool subsystem and fostering coordination between relevant government entities at all levels. A national preschool curricula framework for teachers and children will be prepared and gradually implemented, ensuring that they are developmentally appropriate, play-based, and gender- sensitive. This will include the establishment of national Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) and Teacher Training Program for this subsector, with the involvement of MINEDH’s National Institute of Development of Educatio n (INDE), National Directorate for Teacher Training (DNFP), and Education Quality Management Department (DGGQ), and Department of Human Resources at the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Action (MGCAS). The teacher training curriculum will be gradually harmonized across higher education institutions offering preschool training programs and extending to Teacher Training Institutes (IFPs). This subcomponent will also include the definition of the national preschool strategy and regulatory framework for preschool service delivery and management (for both public and private preschools) aligned with the Government’s planning instruments (Plano Quinquenal do Governo PQG 2024) and with the ESP 2020–29. The framework will establish mechanisms to facilitate the collaboration with other sectors, such as health and social protection, and integrate complementary aspects of early learning, such as nutrition, parental and community engagement. It will also include the design and implementation of a national preschool subsystem personnel framework with profiles, qualification requirements, and a pay grade scheme for the public-sector workforce (including community-based professionals) commensurate with qualifications and tenure. The institutional capacity at central, provincial and district levels will also be reinforced through the recruitment of specialized ECD professionals and capacity development. One key factor for the sustainability of the community- based model is the payment scheme and training for facilitators (teachers) of ECD centers. A high-level discussion within the Government needs to take place, involving MINEDH, MGCAS and the Ministry of Finance, to discuss alternatives to allow payments to the ECD facilitators to be eventually included in the Government’s annual budget. b. Consolidating and harmonizing existing service provision. Under the ESSP, the Government (with the support of third-party providers) constructed and established 350 escolinhas (ECD community-based facilities servicing children ages 3 to 5 years) throughout selected districts in 5 provinces. During 2017 and 2018, in the district of Macomia (Cabo Delgado), 17 escolinhas were forced to close due to terrorist attacks, which led to social instability and the displacement of the population. In addition, MGCAS currently runs 879 escolinhas, also following a community-based approach. This project will ensure ongoing maintenance of the structures as well as continuity of service provision in the existing escolinhas, aiming at harmonizing quality and guaranteeing a minimum package (including infrastructure conditions, staff and materials).41 Attention will be given to improving 41While the 17 escolinhas that were closed in the conflict-affected areas in Cabo Delgado are not included in activities c and d, the situation will be monitored and, if conditions allow during implementation, these escolinhas will be reopened and supported by the project. Aug 04, 2020 Page 15 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) the quality of preschool education, with specific focus on the following: (1) ensuring the provision of sufficient learning and teaching materials; (2) providing in-service teacher training (as part of a new teacher training program to be developed); (3) implementing and using the new ECD curriculum and ELDS; (4) developing and using a harmonized monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan with specific focus on training local actors in the use of the M&E tools; and (5) ensuring the continuation of the Community Coordination Committees (CCC) at all communities with escolinhas. In the second half of the project implementation, a follow-up of the impact and process evaluation initiated with DICIPE will be implemented in the same escolinhas to track improvements and changes in quality to allow for a course-correction, if needed. An additional subsample of non-DICIPE escolinhas will be added to assess harmonization and quality. c. Expanding service provision. 100 new additional escolinhas will be constructed for the new community-based facilities based in rural areas with low educational attainment. Construction and operationalization will be based on the DICIPE model, adjusted as needed, based on lessons learned of the first stage, but including key elements such as links with the local primary school and the community management model. To ensure the continuity of early stimulation activities in rural areas, the expansion of the escolinhas will be closely articulated with the Nutrition Package (PIN) implemented under the Mozambique Primary Health Care Strengthening Program (P163541). The PIN is providing responsive feeding and early stimulation counseling for caregivers with children from 0–24 months old in 8 provinces. The location of the 100 rural escolinhas will overlap with the PIN implementation areas. The community health workers from the nutrition program will be involved in the escolinhas’ CCCs in order to ensure the continuity of key nutrition components being delivered though the PIN, namely deworming and growth monitoring. d. Parental engagement. Under this project, in all existing and new escolinhas (333 from the original ESSP project, 879 from MGCAS administration, and the additional 100 built by the proposed project) a parenting engagement model will be developed and implemented. This intervention will also coordinate with the above-mentioned nutrition program, which is already working to engage caregivers on nutrition and early stimulation practices. This project will develop specific counseling materials on ECD (radio content and booklets) empowering parents and caregivers with appropriate tools to support early education. Subcomponent 1.2. Strengthening reading skills in primary education (total of US$65 million: US$50 million from IDA financing and US$15 million from GPE financing, with US$10 million linked to PBC1) 32. Under this subcomponent, the project will support the strengthening of learning readiness by improving reading skills in Portuguese in grades 1 to 3 through a pilot and national program. The pilot, Aprender +, will develop and test a package of integrated interventions at the school level, including scripted pedagogy, teacher training and coaching, frequent learning assessment and monitoring of progress, and the use of ICT to support implementation. The pilot will be done in parallel to the rollout of this intervention at scale, providing the conditions for what works and what does not work. The pilot will be financed by a contribution from Finland, implemented by the World Bank (in close collaboration and active involvement of MINEDH) and will include a rigorous evaluation to assess its impact and cost-effectiveness, and to learn how to best scale it up. The pilot will be implemented in the provinces of Niassa and Manica, starting with Niassa in the school year 2021, followed by Manica during the school year 2022.The implementation in Manica will include an impact evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the interventions. The pilot will create high-quality teacher’s guides that are aligned to the curriculum. Teachers will then be trained on how to implement literacy lessons using these materials. School cluster (ZIP) coordinators will monitor and support teachers, by checking whether these resources are being used by teachers and students, assessing students’ literacy outcomes, and providing teachers with coaching and Aug 04, 2020 Page 16 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) technical support if they are not following the teacher’s guides with fidelity. The proposed project will gradually scale up the pilot’s activities at a national level. 33. The activities will, to the extent possible, use synergies with ongoing experiences in Mozambique (such as the program Vamos Ler! with the support of United States Agency for International Development, USAID). They will also benefit from the recently launched initiative at the World Bank, Ending Learning Poverty, which will bring valuable international expertise. 34. Activities will include: a. Structured pedagogy, student learning materials and assessment. This activity involves the development of detailed daily lesson plans for teachers (reading grades 1, 2 and 3). These lesson plans will be easy to use and highlight instructional practices that have been shown to improve early-grade reading. Attention will be given to gender aspects to ensure that girls and boys receive equal attention from teachers. Best international practices show that structured (guided or scripted) pedagogy provides a helpful approach to support instruction in a context of teachers’ low skills and knowledge content. The project will provide textbooks and complementary materials for students (grades 1 to 3, Portuguese) to support this subcomponent’s objective. A student assessment mechanism will be implemented to monitor students’ progress in reading. b. Training coaches and teachers. Structured coaching methods will be implemented to train teachers. Coaches will include ZIP coordinators and selected pedagogical directors who will receive material and extensive training on how to observe a classroom and conduct feedback sessions with the teachers. This will include simplification of the classroom observation tool included in the national in-service teacher training strategy. Observations and feedback (from coaches to teachers) will be conducted frequently, to ensure constant communication between teachers and the coaches. This activity will revitalize the current role of the ZIPs in providing pedagogic support to schools in their ZIP. To be effective, these activities will consider measures to reduce the teaching workload of ZIP directors. Finally, there will be support for ZIP coordinators to facilitate transport to schools (such as stipends, bicycles or motorcycles). Coaches will be provided with tablets or smart phones that work offline and are preloaded with videos and other content to support teachers. Technology will also be used to create virtual groups within each ZIP to share resources and updates among teachers, and answer questions. A digital platform will be developed to monitor implementation of support to schools. The platform will help capture the number of visits to each school, classroom observation, and feedback to teachers, which will also be used as inputs for coaches’ support and accountability. 35. This subcomponent focuses on learning Portuguese. The main goal of this subcomponent is to consolidate a group of interventions at the school level focusing on Portuguese language, while the conditions to implement bilingual education at the national level are being created. In other words, for students learning to read in Portuguese language, the project will ensure that: (a) teachers are comfortable using the guided lesson plans; (b) coaches are well trained and have the means to effectively visit schools frequently, observe classrooms, provide feedback and training to teachers, and use technology as needed to make training more effective; (c) learning materials are developed, delivered to schools on time, and used by all children in the classroom; and (d) learning assessments are used as part of the teaching process. At a future stage, when these conditions are achieved, the model would be expanded to cover bilingual education (and other subjects). 36. Under this subcomponent, the project will utilize the materials developed by the pilot with inputs from international expertise in teacher professional development, curriculum development, and assessments. The Aug 04, 2020 Page 17 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) proposed interventions are based on best international practices including, for example, the case of the municipality of Sobral (Ceará-Brazil), which managed to remarkably improve students’ learning outcome since the early 2000s and became the highest performing municipality in the country. Other experiences considered were implemented in Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Chile, with notable results. 37. Ensuring that learning materials are accessible to all children is crucial for this component. To incentivize the efficient distribution of textbooks to all students in grades 1 to 3 and ensure use at the school level, part of the financing of this subcomponent (US$ 10 million) will be linked to the following PBC: PBC1. Increased proportion of grades 1 to 3 students with individual textbooks nationally. 38. The activities of this component will be complementary to other FASE activities, financing books and learning for upper grades, and teacher training (preservice and in-service in other subjects and for teachers in upper grades). They will also complement support to bilingual education, both FASE and other bilateral partners, such as USAID through the Vamos Ler! program. Component 2: Increasing access and retention of girls in upper primary and lower secondary education (total of US$150 million: US$70 million from IDA financing and US$80 million from GPE financing) 39. This component will support MINEDH in its efforts to incr ease girls’ retention in upper primary and lower secondary education, improving the school environment and expanding the supply of lower secondary schools, especially in areas with low enrollment of girls. As described in the ESP, one of the major challenges in the sector is the retention of girls in upper primary and secondary education, especially in the northern region, where discriminatory social norms against girls are more predominant and access is more difficult. The demand side barriers are coupled with limited supply of secondary education services, mainly due to severe deficits of schools and teachers. The project will aim at making schools and distance learning modality more accessible to girls and provide further dynamism to several activities at the school level that promote retention of girls in schools. Subcomponent 2.1. Facilitating access to upper primary and lower secondary for girls (total of US$75 million: US$15 million from IDA financing and US$60 million from GPE financing, with US$23 million linked to PBC2) 40. This subcomponent aims at expanding supply of schools offering lower secondary education and improving the conditions of school infrastructure to help attract and retain girls, prioritizing areas with low enrollment and retention among girls. This will include the upgrading of a number of primary education schools, expanding them to be able to provide lower secondary education, as planned by the revised National Education Law. MINEDH has identified 235 primary schools considered as eligible for upgrading to become basic education schools (teaching grades 1 to 9) in a first stage. These schools include primary schools currently offering some secondary education grades or hosting secondary education groups, which depend on another distant secondary school. In a second stage, MINEDH will continue with the upgrading of additional 100 schools, for a total of 335 schools during the implementation of the project. 41. MINEDH is assessing these schools to identify the adjustments needed to offer lower secondary education according to the standards. Adjustments will be made both in infrastructure and human resources. Work on infrastructure includes, as a central priority, the rehabilitation or construction of WASH facilities in all upgraded schools, which will ensure access to water and adequate sanitation facilities. Sanitation facilities will be gender friendly and support the management of menstrual hygiene. They will also be accessible for children with physical Aug 04, 2020 Page 18 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) disabilities. Furthermore, at the upgraded schools, there will be new construction of houses for teachers to help attract female teachers from remote areas. 42. This subcomponent will also support the upgrading of eligible teachers. The training of teachers will focus on those teaching in primary who are eligible to teach at the secondary education level (depending on adequate academic background) to teach in the upgraded lower secondary schools. The reform implemented by the revised National Education Law, which reduces the duration of primary education and changes to a single-teacher model up to grade 6, will release primary education teachers in the system. The expansion of lower secondary will also require the hiring and deployment of new teachers. Thus, this subcomponent aims at facilitating this transition, helping to ensure that upgraded schools meet all the personnel requirements to teach the lower secondary curriculum. This type of training is critical to ensure that expansion of lower secondary is done without a negative impact on quality. Emphasis will be given to requalify female teachers, to the extent possible, aiming at increasing the share of female teachers in lower secondary. Distance-learning programs will be used to support requalification of primary school teachers, as needed. All teacher training efforts will include a focus on GBV awareness and mitigation. 43. Activities include: a. Improvement of school infrastructure, including WASH facilities. MINEDH will conduct a detailed assessment of the 335 primary schools which can be equipped to teach lower secondary, identifying infrastructure and personnel needs. An upgrading plan will be prepared for each of those schools, including detailed budget needs. After a plan is developed for each school, infrastructure conditions will be improved and expanded as needed to meet the minimum standards required for a lower secondary school, including inclusive and gender friendly WASH facilities. b. Training and allocation. The Human Resources Department will work to identify the list of teachers whose profiles fulfill the established requirements to teach lower secondary. An assessment will be done to ensure that the requalification of teachers does not generate a deficit of primary teachers. Therefore, when considering the training and relocation of eligible teachers to teach lower secondary, MINEDH’s plan will ensure that, if vacancies in primary are created by this relocation, new hires or teachers released within the sector will fill those vacancies. When possible, female teachers will be prioritized. Eligible teachers will receive specially designed training provided by the IFPs. Lecturers of the IFPs will also be trained to be able to deliver this training to requalified teachers. 44. To incentivize a stronger focus in the underserved regions of the country (where gender gaps are larger and school infrastructure conditions show greater deficits), US$23 million of the total financing of this component will be tied to the achievement of the following PBC: PBC2. Increased retention of girls in upper primary and lower secondary in the selected upgraded schools located in districts where girls’ GER is below 60 percent. 45. The achievement of PBC2 will imply that all schools identified for the upgrading would be supported, and that near 60 percent of the upgraded schools is done in the districts with lower girls’ GER, helping to reduce regional disparities. Aug 04, 2020 Page 19 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) 46. The activities of this component will complement other efforts to improve school infrastructure and WASH facilities, especially as part of Mozambique’s COVID-19 response plan. The Ministry of Public Works informed the World Bank that US$44 million will be allocated to improve WASH facilities in 667 secondary schools. Also, GPE approved a US$15 million grant to support COVID-19 response in Mozambique, including funds to support hygiene supplies in schools among others (these activities will not include improvements to school infrastructure). GPE is also supporting the reconstruction efforts in the areas affected by Cyclones Idai and Kenneth in March 2019. These grants (through the accelerated funds mechanism) amount to US$20 million and include US$10 million for infrastructure and WASH facilities in selected districts. The Disaster Risk Management and Resilience Program (P166437) is also financing the refurbishing and rehabilitation of 3,000 schools in areas with the highest risks of natural disasters and will be complementary to the project activities. Finally, FASE has been allocating around 30 percent of its annual budget to school infrastructure, mainly focusing on building new schools and additional classrooms in existing primary and secondary schools. Subcomponent 2.2. Strengthening the quality and expanding the scale of Distance Learning (total of US$45 million: US$25 million from IDA financing and US$20 million from GPE financing) 47. There are currently 384 distance learning (DL) centers in Mozambique, mostly established in primary schools, providing services to 39,000 students (47 percent girls). MINEDH’s target is to increase the number of centers by 25 percent and reach 5 percent of total enrollment in secondary education. The DL program is implemented through delivering printed material to students in lower secondary and using an online platform with academic content for upper secondary students. Distance learning implemented in the context of COVID-19 response opens up an opportunity to diversify and improve DL channels and materials and attract students who are out of the system to complete lower secondary. The activities in this component will support the strengthening and expansion of DL in its different formats (TV, radio, online and printed materials), maximizing possible coverage. 48. This subcomponent will support the establishment of multimedia studios to allow the broadcast of live classes and production of high-quality videos. It will also equip the DL centers with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to make the learning process synchronous and interactive. The activities of this subcomponent are based on the effective experiences in Mozambique and other countries, including northern states of Brazil, with similar challenges to Mozambique in terms of connectivity and geographical dispersion of schools. Pedagogic materials will be fully adapted to DL, and tutors will receive training, including larger practical components. DL centers will be selected based on access and retention rates of girls in the area. Activities of the subcomponent will also include work with communities to attract more girls into DL, especially out-of-school girls or girls at risk of dropping out. Activities will be targeted, to the extent possible, to the same localities where the interventions implemented by the HDD project take place. 49. A fundamental component for the expansion of quality DL is adequate teacher training in their added role as facilitators of content in a hybrid learning strategy. Although the best teachers are expected to be recruited for distance education material, the success of the model relies on students adhering to the format and engaging at local level. Teachers are expected to be trained to teach using DL tools by 2022 to be ready to teach in secondary education in this new format by 2023. 50. The activities of this subcomponent include: a. Strengthening and expanding DL supply. The activities will include strengthening the connectivity of schools and DL centers facilities, providing solar panels for areas with poor access to electricity, the adaptation of teaching Aug 04, 2020 Page 20 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) materials to digital platforms, training tutors, and the creation of studios for the broadcast of live classes and the creation of video recordings with educational content. The minimum requirements of equipment, materials and infrastructure for a DL center will be revised. An assessment and diagnosis will be made on the current DL centers to identify main equipment and infrastructure deficits compared with the new standards. Technology and materials will be provided to all DL centers according to the needs identified in the diagnosis. Schools where new DL centers can be built will be identified, and the new DL centers will be built and equipped according to new standards. Complementary channels of DL will be implemented (radio and TV), using materials and programs developed during the COVID-19 response school closure and other relevant experiences. Finally, the use of an online platform will be expanded to cover upper primary and lower secondary contents. Recruiting and training effective teachers and tutors will be critical to ensure high quality DL. A special training program for DL will be designed by MINEDH. IFPs will also be involved in the training of tutors, with the possible partnerships with universities. b. Support to girls who have dropped out. The project will also support adolescent girls who have dropped out school, by providing them with laptops or tablets to allow for DL enrollment and graduation. Beneficiaries will be identified in coordination with the social protection projects (HDD). Digital devices will be distributed to the DL centers, and beneficiaries will be able to borrow them to continue their studies. Devices will include digital content to allow that student can access materials in locations where no connectivity is available. 51. Despite the fact that the outputs financed by this subcomponent can benefit all students in Mozambique, all DL activities will prioritize implementation in the northern and central regions of the country, where supply of lower secondary schools is limited. Areas of escalating violent conflict in Cabo Delgado will also be considered in the scaling up of DL activities. This will be done in coordination with the preparation of the new HD project for the northern region and in close collaboration with agencies with expertise in fragile contexts and with working in these areas of Mozambique. Subcomponent 2.3. Promoting a safe and inclusive school environment for girls (US$30 million from IDA financing) 52. This subcomponent will support the implementation of SRH education program and GBV awareness and mitigation in upper primary and lower secondary education schools, as well as the consolidation of circles of interest and mentorship programs for girls in schools. 53. The activities of this subcomponent include: a. Implementation of a sexual and reproductive health education (SRH) program in upper primary and secondary schools. MINEDH is implementing an SRH program in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. This program currently aims at reaching 80 percent of secondary schools. The project will review the SRH program, strengthen its content and monitoring mechanism, and scale up to achieve all lower secondary schools and upper primary schools. Within this program, among other activities, the participating school establishes a corner or circles of interest to which students (both girls and boys) can address questions and concerns or look for information. The school identifies a gender focal-point person, who is especially trained for this task and is regularly visited by staff of the community health center. To expand this intervention to isolated schools, the program will develop a more basic package of services, including information materials, training of the focal-point person at the school, and virtual consultations with health center staff. This intervention will be monitored with two surveys (one in the beginning of the program and the other after at least three years of the program’s implementation) to assess effectiveness and implement course-correction measures if needed. Aug 04, 2020 Page 21 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) b. Development of a GBV risk assessment, mitigation plan and monitoring. GBV activities will include the development of an assessment of the main risk factors, the design and implementation of a plan to mitigate those risks, and a mechanism to monitor the evolution of those risk factors during the implementation of the project. Evidence shows that addressing and monitoring GBV risk factors has a big impact in terms of prevention, thereby, complementing efforts to address mitigation. The focus of this intervention will be on the provinces with higher prevalence of GBV (Cabo Delgado, Niassa, Nampula, Zambézia, Manica, Gaza and Inhambane). c. Development and implementation of a referral mechanism. The project will support MINEDH’s efforts to implement a multisectoral referral mechanism for identification cases of GBV in schools, follow-up, and assistance of victims. The mechanism identifies roles and responsibilities for teachers, school authorities and school community, and includes other referral channels that are independent from the school. The referral mechanism will be broadly communicated in upper primary and secondary schools. d. Implementation of communication campaign addressing social norms in targeted communities. The project will finance a program targeted to specific communities with the aim of changing certain behaviors and social norms that influence practices that allow gender violence. This program will be designed and implemented according to the most effective international and national practices, which indicate that communication efforts need to be frequent and sustained over a certain period (once every four months the communication campaign must be relaunched). A monitoring mechanism will also evaluate the effectiveness of this program. e. Implementation of a school-based mentorship program for girls in upper primary and lower secondary in upgraded schools. The objective of mentoring is to provide support and valuable life-skills training to girls in upper primary and secondary education. Activities will be focused at the 335 upgraded schools (subcomponent 2.1) and will include developing content and materials for the mentorship program, aiming at retaining and supporting girls in school. Female mentors will be identified in the school communities and will work with female students, serving as coaches, supporters, role models, and advocates. Mentors will meet with their mentees (approximately 1 mentor per 20 mentees) after their school day, at their school location for at least 6 months over the school year. Mentoring activities may include reading, playing games, participating in hobbies, discussing school and favorite activities, and building the student's confidence. Activities will also include financial education, negotiation skills and other skills for life. Mentors will receive training and accreditation before joining the program. Activities will be coordinated and will seek synergies with other mentorship programs in Mozambique, including those implemented within the HDD project that focuses on girls who drop out. Component 3: Strengthening governance to improve efficiency and monitoring of education outcomes progress (total of US$55.5 million: US$40 million from IDA financing and US$15.5 million from GPE financing, with US$9 million linked to PBC3) 54. Component 3 has a two-fold aim. It aims at improving the efficiency of the system in monitoring education outcomes, such as access, progression and learning. It also seeks to introduce a result-based financing program at the school and district levels to improve efficiency in the allocation of teachers and reduce teachers’ absenteeism, and to boost the objective of this project in terms of girls' retention. Subcomponent 3.1. Strengthening capacity to collect and analyze data, including disaggregation by gender (US$6.5 million from GPE financing) Aug 04, 2020 Page 22 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) 55. This subcomponent aims at strengthening the capacity of MINEDH’s Directorate of Planning to collect and analyze education statistics, as well as consolidating the National Learning Assessment (NLA) system, to help monitor girls’ education progress. The capacity in MINEDH to analyze, monitor and evaluate education performance has improved in the past decade. However, there is limited capacity development at the provincial, district and school levels. For the Government to progress on quality indicators such as learning and retention, it will be critical to develop the capacities for effective education policy analysis, planning, administration and monitoring at the provincial and subprovincial levels. 56. Therefore, this subcomponent will support the following activities: a. Strengthening the National Education Management Information System. The project will support the National Strategy for the Development of Education Statistics (ENDEE) 2020–2024 in its goal to strengthen the National Education Management Information System (SIGE). ENDEE identified that the current available data are not enough to produce all disaggregated and comparable indicators required to monitor progress toward established national and international goals. More reliable, timely and disaggregated data will enhance the system capacity to monitor education progress, including learning conditions that disproportionately affect girls, such as GBV cases reported. b. Consolidating the NLA system. This includes the implementation of regular national learning assessments at all levels of schooling. The NLA will be conducted every three years for basic education and results disseminated at all administrative levels. The main objective of this activity is to help strengthen the Government’s capacity to conduct national learning assessments. The sector has encountered specific challenges to implement the current NLA on a regular and timely basis. Mozambique developed its first NLA in 2013 and a second assessment took place in 2016. A third assessment was planned for 2019, but due to procurement challenges in the process, the assessment was conducted by INDE, which resulted in only covering the southern region due to limited technical staff and the short time to prepare. The next round of the NLA was planned for 2020, but due to COVID-19, it has been postponed to 2021. These efforts, largely financed by development partners through FASE, have enabled some capacity development within INDE to manage the sample-based evaluation process, but there is a need to ensure continuity of these assessments in a systematic manner, and that the results are used for education policy making. The NLA will be implemented in both monolingual and bilingual modalities for primary education. This activity will also develop and implement an assessment for the secondary level, which would allow to keep track the performance of girls (and boys) in lower secondary. It will complement the current NLA for grade 3 (as implemented in the last two NLAs). This activity will benefit the entire system, allowing the monitoring of students’ progress, focusing on the provision of pedagogical feedback to schools for them to review their strategies and plans, and informing MINEDH at different levels to guide education policy, including specific actions related to girls’ education. Subcomponent 3.2. Implementing result-based financing to improve education outcomes (total of US$49 million: US$40 million from IDA financing and US$9 million from GPE financing, linked to PBC3) 57. This subcomponent will finance two performance-based financing mechanisms: one at the school level and another at the district level: a. School level. Building on lessons from a 2018 pilot, the performance-based school-grants program will be scaled up and adjusted. The pilot Direct Support to Schools – Performance based (ADE-D) was implemented in 3 provinces (9 districts), where eligible schools received a financial incentive in addition to the regular school-grant Aug 04, 2020 Page 23 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) program, which is determined by enrollment. Performance was measured by teachers’ absenteeism, transparency in the school-grant management, involvement of the school council, and students’ reading skills. The pilot showed that, in a context of low capacity, monitoring implementation and verifying performance progress are highly challenging. Thus, the program requires simplifying the verification means and performance indicators. In the scaling up introduced by this project, indicators on girls’ attendance and retention in school will be included. These indicators can be measured by the administrative data collected every year in all schools through the school census conducted on March 3 and one conducted at the end of the school year. Teachers’ absenteeism will also be included as a measure of school performance; random spot checks will be ran by an independent firm to verify schools’ reports on absenteeism. The program will be scaled up to 3 additional provinces for a total of 6 provinces. b. District level. A results-based program will also introduce incentives to improve education outcomes, inspired by the successful experience of the state of Ceará in Brazil, which revolutionized tax transfers to local governments, considerably improving levels of learning with a high level of efficiency in the use of resources. Districts will receive additional resources according to the improvement in educational indicators that will be defined in order to avoid possible conflicts of interest with their supervisory role and may include: (1) strengthening the capacity to monitor school indicators; (2) increasing girls' retention rate; (3) reducing the absenteeism rate of teachers; (4) improving pupil-teacher ratio within schools; and (5) increasing the presence of female teachers, especially in more isolated areas. The incentives could spur districts to promote female teachers (meeting needed requirements), especially for upper primary grades. The World Bank team will support MINEDH in designing the incentive mechanism. 58. Technical assistance will be provided to districts and schools, which will complement the implementation of the performance-based programs. Technical assistance is a critical complement for the success of result-based financing (RBF). 59. This subcomponent will include a financing of US$9 million, to incentivize the design and implementation of a mechanism to monitor teachers’ absenteeism. This financing is tied to the achievement of the target of the following PBC: PBC3. Reduced teachers’ absenteeism in primary schools at national level. Component 4: Project management, monitoring and evaluation (US$ 3.5 million from GPE financing) 60. This subcomponent will finance the overall management of the project, as well as the implementation of its monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. An Implementation Support Team (IST) will be established within MINEDH (described in section III below and annex I of this document) to support the project implementation, helping coordination and coaching MINEDH’s units, through which the different activities of the project will be implemented. The IST will also ensure the interministerial coordination, as needed. 61. The main activities included in this component are the establishment of the IST and overall project management, overall project monitoring and evaluation, verification of the PBCs targets by an independent verification agency (IVA), and project reporting and communication. Aug 04, 2020 Page 24 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) Component 5: Contingency and Emergency Response (US$ 0.0 IDA financing) 62. This component will provide immediate response to an eligible crisis or emergency, as needed. This would finance emergency works and activities in the case of a disaster event by including a zero-dollar Contingency and Emergency Response Component (CERC). This would help recover damage to infrastructure, ensure business continuity, and enable early rehabilitation. In parallel, following an adverse event that causes a major disaster, the GoM may request the World Bank to channel resources from this component into an Immediate Response Mechanism (IRM). The IRM would enable the use of up to 5 percent of uncommitted funds from the overall IDA portfolio to respond to emergencies. This IRM has already been established for Mozambique and is now operational. Specific details around this component including activation criteria, eligible expenditures, specific implementation arrangements, and required staffing for the coordinating authority are defined in greater detail in the IRM operations manual approved in April 2016 (currently named CERC Manual). Project Costs and Financing 63. The proposed project will be financed by an IDA credit of US$160 million and a GPE grant of US$140 million. As required by GPE, 30 percent of the total GPE grant will be linked to the achievement of the target of PBCs, associated to GPE’s focus areas of learning, equity and efficiency. The costs by project component and subcomponent are summarized in table 1. Table 1 Project Costs and Financing Source GPE Financing IDA Total Project Components Financing Financing Fixed Variable Component 1: Improving learning in primary education 50.0 30.0 10.0 90.0 Subcomponent 1.1 Strengthening preschool services 25.0 25.0 Subcomponent 1.2 Strengthening reading skills in primary education 50.0 5.0 10.0 65.0 Component 2: Increasing access and retention of girls in upper primary and lower secondary education 70.0 57.0 23.0 150.0 Subcomponent 2.1 Facilitating access to upper primary and lower secondary for girls 15.0 37.0 23.0 75.0 Subcomponent 2.2 Strengthening the quality and expanding the scale of Distance Learning 25.0 20.0 45.0 Subcomponent 2.3 Promoting a safe and inclusive school environment for girls 30.0 30.0 Component 3: Strengthening governance to improve efficiency and monitoring of education outcomes progress 40.0 6.5 9.0 55.5 Subcomponent 3.1 Strengthening capacity to collect and analyze data, including disaggregation by gender 6.5 6.5 Subcomponent 3.2 Implementing result-based financing to improve education outcomes 40.0 9.0 49.0 Component 4: Project management, monitoring and evaluation 3.5 3.5 Component 5: Contingency and emergency response 0.0 0.0 World Bank supervision 1.0 1.0 Project total 160.0 98.0 42.0 300.0 64. The proposed project will operate through FASE, complementing other FASE financed activities . FASE’s recent disbursements and indicative financial commitments for the next five years, including the proposed project, are presented in table 2 below. Table 2 FASE Disbursements and Indicative Financial Commitments Aug 04, 2020 Page 25 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) Amount (Million - US$) Agency Disbursements Indicative commitments 2012–19 2020–24 World Bank 217.2 160.0 GPE (ESPIG and Multiplier 145.9 140.0 Grants) Other FASE partners* 426.1 135.8** Total FASE 789.2 435.8 *Includes Canada, Germany (through KfW), Finland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and UNICEF. **Includes Canada, Germany (through KfW), Finland, France, Ireland, Portugal and UNICEF. In the case of Portugal, it includes only disbursements for 2020, since Portugal informs its commitments on an annual basis. Italy has not provided indications of FASE contributions for the next years. . . Legal Operational Policies Triggered? Projects on International Waterways OP 7.50 No Projects in Disputed Areas OP 7.60 No Summary of Assessment of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts . 65. The project will likely target schools that have similar characteristics: poor water, sanitation and hygiene conditions. Schools, particularly those in rural areas, often completely lack drinking water and sanitation and handwashing facilities; alternatively, where such facilities do exist, they are often inadequate in both quality and quantity. Schools with poor WASH conditions, and intense levels of person-to-person contact, are high-risk environments for children and staff, and exacerbate children’s susceptibility to environmental health hazards, including risks to COVID-19. Moreover, some schools have poor infrastructures, including crowded classrooms, inadequate ventilation and lighting, lack of waste management facilities, inappropriate disposal practices, and poorly designed structures for children with disabilities. The project envisages new civil works that will include constructing new schools (preschools) and rehabilitating or expanding schools (primary/secondary education schools), with improvements to water access and overall WASH facilities. 66. The project will include a strong emphasis on prevention of unsafe school environments for girls and boys through the identification and management of GBV risks and impacts as well as the social norms that undermine school safety. Subcomponent 2.3 will support the implementation of a SRH education program and GBV awareness and mitigation in upper primary and lower secondary education schools. MINEDH is currently implementing an SRH program in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. This program aims at reaching 80 percent of secondary schools. The Aug 04, 2020 Page 26 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) project will review the SRH program and strengthen its content and monitoring mechanisms and scale up the program to achieve all lower secondary schools and all upper primary schools. GBV activities will include the development of an assessment of the main risk factors, the design and implementation of a plan to mitigate those risks, and a mechanism to monitor the evolution of those risk factors during the implementation of the project which will be used to adapt mitigation measures, as needed. In addition, the project will finance a program that targets specific communities that tend to be acceptant of social norms conducive to GBV, aiming at changing those social norms. There will also be a monitoring mechanism to evaluate the effectiveness of this program. 67. In terms of citizen engagement, the project will establish a Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) accessible to all project beneficiaries and surrounding community members, with attention to the vulnerable groups. The priority of this mechanism is to capture any potential grievance case in its initial stage and be able to address and solve the issues prior an intervention by the formal legal justice system. Project beneficiaries and affected communities will be informed about existence and procedures of the GRM, communication channels, entry points, and response timing. In addition, annual surveys will be conducted throughout the life of the project to gather feedback regarding satisfaction with the completed activities and service delivery. 68. MINEDH’s GRM will be consolidated, expanded and enhanced to cover all project related impacts, including GBV, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA), Sexual Harassment (SH) and Violence Against Children (VAC). It will also improve accessibility and systematic monitoring prior to signing the first civil works contract. The GRM procedure will be disseminated in the affected communities to create awareness, particularly among girls. In addition, the project will work with UNICEF and the civil society organization Centro de Aprendizagem e Capacitacao da Sociedade Civil (CESC), which together with MINEDH developed a reporting mechanism in schools and in communities with specific details on roles and responsibilities of school personnel, authorities, and community. This reporting mechanism includes different referral channels, some of which are independent from the school. This work will include informing the public on SEA/SH/VAC and monitoring the implementation of the SEA/SH/VAC mitigation and response measures. Additionally, the work will raise public awareness about different entry points to submit complaints, train stakeholders (contractors, communities, and teachers and students), and assist and refer survivors to appropriate service providers. The gathered information will be monitored and reported to the World Bank and other stakeholders by the implementing agency. 69. This GRM will empower beneficiaries by providing them with appropriate the GBV referral mechanism. It will also evaluate the effectiveness of this program. The GRM operator should be knowledgeable on what to do if incidents of SEA/SH are reported. The GRM should have specific procedures for SEA/SH including confidential reporting, with safe and ethical case documentation and referral pathways. To ensure appropriate referral pathways, the project will map out relevant service providers in the project’s target communities. Mapping should incorporate an assessment of service providers’ capabilities to provide quality empathetic, nonjudgmental, child-friendly and survivor-centered services including case management, victim advocacy, independent referral services to health and psycho-social support, for example, that are not linked to the service Aug 04, 2020 Page 27 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) provider. Finally, community forums or public meetings and consultation meetings with school councils will be held to raise GBV awareness, discuss the impact of this subcomponent, and provide information about GRM effectiveness. 70. These risks and impacts will be managed through mitigation hierarchy approaches (avoid, minimize, mitigate and offset) to be included in an Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) and in a Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF). Both documents were prepared, consulted and disclosed by the Borrower prior to appraisal (February 2021). 71. The environmental and social risks are currently considered Substantial. The project will follow the new Environmental and Social Framework (ESF). Although MINEDH technical staff received training, additional support will be required. MINEDH has limited capacity and experience in monitoring GBV risks. To mitigate this risk and help develop capacity at MINEDH, during the implementation of the project, the IST will receive support of a GBV/gender specialist and an environmental safeguards specialist. Despite these mitigation measures, the environmental and social risks are rated Substantial. E. Implementation Institutional and Implementation Arrangements 72. MINEDH is responsible for the overall implementation of the project. MINEDH will implement the project through its different units or departments and will have total fiduciary responsibility. However, in line with the multisectoral approach being proposed for this project, MINEDH will coordinate with relevant ministries. Subcomponent 1.1 will be implemented with MGCAS, as established in the regulation on the National Education Law. MGCAS participated in the preparation of the project. Similarly, this subcomponent will also require coordination with the Ministry of Health for the nutrition-related interventions. The adjustment and implementation of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Education program will also be done in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. At the local level, MINEDH will rely on existing structures, including the District Services of Education, Youth, and Technology (SDEJT). 73. Within MINEDH, the Directorate of Planning and Cooperation (DIPLAC) will be responsible for the coordination of the project implementation, with the support of an implementation support team. While the main responsibility of the project implementation will lie with MINEDH’s respective directorates and departments, DIPLAC will be assisted by an IST whose role will be to strengthen MINEDH’s implementation capacity at the central and local levels, help in the daily management of the project, and support the coordination with the other sectors, which are key to the success of this project. The IST will act as a catalyst and coach to MINEDH staff at the central and local levels to strengthen implementation management skills and accelerate the implementation of the planned and budgeted outputs. In terms of staffing, the IST will be composed of socially dynamic and agile international and national coaches that provide on-the- job training. At the central level, the IST will include a coach or project manager, a gender/GBV specialist, an environmental specialist, a social development specialist, an infrastructure development specialist, a procurement officer, a textbooks procurement specialist, a project Aug 04, 2020 Page 28 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) accountant and a financial management (FM) specialist. The IST will also have representatives at the local level, one official per province, who will be responsible for coordinating, training and supporting the project focal point at the SDEJT. Based on needs and requirements, other specific members with specific skill sets and expertise can be added after a joint agreement between the World Bank and MINEDH. The terms of reference (TOR) for these positions will be prepared and agreed with the World Bank’s team and included in the Project Implementation Manual. 74. The project will contribute to the pooled fund FASE. As established in the FASE Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), funds will be allocated based on an agreed annual activity plan, prepared and budgeted each year by MINEDH. The annual plans are agreed with the World Bank and the other cooperating partners. A new FASE MOU is being prepared and discussed between FASE members and MINEDH. As the project will be channeled through FASE, the structure of the IST will be finalized in consultation with the LEG and will be aligned with the revised implementation mechanism of FASE. 75. To ensure synergies with other external support, the IST will have a key role in coordinating technical assistance. An important function of the IST is to reinforce horizontal links between planning, budgeting, financial management, procurement, M&E, reporting, and program departments. As part of this function, the IST will guarantee that technical assistance is responding to a human resources development plan developed by MINEDH, which highlights clear gaps and needs across the central and provincial levels of the ministry. An HR Development Plan will need to be developed and budgeted each year and as a prerequisite for the approval of the annual plans and budgets. The IST is in charge of managing and ensuring the interconnectivity and regular exchange between all technical assistance that is provided and relevant to staff members. . CONTACT POINT World Bank Marina Bassi Senior Economist Lucia Jose Nhampossa Education Specialist Borrower/Client/Recipient Republic of Mozambique Ministry of Economy and Finance Adriano Ubisse National Director of Treasury adriano.ubisse@mef.gov.mz Implementing Agencies Aug 04, 2020 Page 29 of 30 The World Bank Improving Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (P172657) Ministry of Education and Human Development Andre Utui Director of Planning and Cooperation Andre.Utui@mined.gov.mz FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 473-1000 Web: http://www.worldbank.org/projects APPROVAL Marina Bassi Task Team Leader(s): Lucia Jose Nhampossa Approved By Practice Manager/Manager: Country Director: Idah Z. Pswarayi-Riddihough 25-Feb-2021 Aug 04, 2020 Page 30 of 30