The World Bank Building Civil Society Capacity to Engage in State Reform Programs (P162171) REPORT NO.: RES44592 RESTRUCTURING PAPER ON A PROPOSED PROJECT RESTRUCTURING OF BUILDING CIVIL SOCIETY CAPACITY TO ENGAGE IN STATE REFORM PROGRAMS APPROVED ON APRIL 25, 2017 TO SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND (SFCG) GOVERNANCE AFRICA WEST Regional Vice President: Ousmane Diagana Country Director: Coralie Gevers Global Director: Edward Olowo-Okere Practice Manager/Manager: Asmeen M. Khan Task Team Leader(s): Kaori Oshima The World Bank Building Civil Society Capacity to Engage in State Reform Programs (P162171) ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ANAFIC National Agency for Local Government Financing CSO Civil Society Organization GPSA Global Program for Social Accountability NGO Non-Governmental Organization SFCG Search for Common Ground The World Bank Building Civil Society Capacity to Engage in State Reform Programs (P162171) BASIC DATA Product Information Project ID Financing Instrument P162171 Investment Project Financing Original EA Category Current EA Category Not Required (C) Not Required (C) Approval Date Current Closing Date 25-Apr-2017 28-Apr-2021 Organizations Borrower Responsible Agency Search for Common Ground (SFCG) Search for Common Ground (SFCG) Financing (in USD Million) FIN_SUMM_PUB_TBL SUMMARY Total Project Cost 0 Total Financing 0 Financing Gap 0 DETAILS -NewFin3 Project Development Objective (PDO) Original PDO to increase transparency and accountability in the use of post-Ebola recovery funds for health and education services, through collaborative social accountability mechanisms in targeted provinces and at the central level of government. OPS_TABLE_PDO_CURRENTPDO The World Bank Building Civil Society Capacity to Engage in State Reform Programs (P162171) Summary Status of Financing (US$, Millions) Net TF Approval Signing Effectiveness Closing Commitment Disbursed Undisbursed TF-A4977 25-Apr-2017 14-Jun-2017 14-Jun-2017 28-Apr-2021 .80 .62 .19 Policy Waiver(s) Does this restructuring trigger the need for any policy waiver(s)? No I. PROJECT STATUS AND RATIONALE FOR RESTRUCTURING This restructuring paper is regarding the GPSA-funded RETF program entitled “Building Civil Society Capacity to Engage in Post-Ebola State Reform Programs” (P162171), for its 6-month extension of the closing date, from April 2021 to October 2021. General project information: It is a US$ 800,000 Recipient-Executed Trust Fund activity, started on June 2017, with an objective to “increase transparency and accountability in the use of post-Ebola recovery funds for health and education services, through collaborative social accountability mechanisms in targeted provinces and at the central level of government”. The main recipient is Search for Common Ground, in partnership with a local NGO, AGUIDE. As of December 2020, the disbursement rate is about 50% (US$415,000). It targets two natural regions, in Basse Guinée and Guinée Forestière. Activities realized so far: The project has been able to: conduct diagnostics of local CSOs, conducted baseline and mid-term surveys, created 2 regional platforms and 5 prefectural platforms (of NGOs/CSOs) in the target areas, conducted community scorecards exercises in the sectors of Education and Heath. These discussions were shared also in the context of “mainstreaming Citizen Engagement in Guinea portfolio” ASA in FY 19 as well as in Risk Mitigation Regime implementation support CSO roundtable discussions in FY20, also with SD and HD colleagues (especially ANAFIC and Education colleagues/PIUs). During the COVID-period, the recipient also proposed to mobilize some of the activities on awareness raising initially designed for Ebola crisis (given the initial objective), to be used for COVID prevention. Justification for the request for extension: Upon approval of the grant, there was a 9-month delay of the first disbursement to the recipient account, due to challenges in setting up a bank account and adequate FM systems. Now with the recipient’s request for 6-month extension, the task team with help from the GPSA secretariat worked with the SFCG to prepare detailed budget and work plans till the end of October 2021. The following strategic and technical points have been discussed with the recipient and the CMU to consider the extension:  The recipient’s strong will to accelerate and complete activities. The recipient has been consistently demonstrating willingness and efforts to make progress with project activities, including project management, despite their relatively The World Bank Building Civil Society Capacity to Engage in State Reform Programs (P162171) low capacity on the ground. It is also because, although with simplified modality, they are still required to follow WB fiduciary and reporting processes, which took time for them to adapt especially at the beginning of the project implementation. However, adequate measures to support the recipient and to complete the remaining activities have been discussed and included in the revised action plan.  A challenge on sustainability, but with a plan to strengthen it. In terms of sustainability, as found also in the mid-term review, the task team has been encouraging that the SFCG make stronger synergies with more sustainable national actors such as ANAFIC for sustainability of their activities. It is important given that the SFCG intervention has been relatively small in scale and limited to two natural regions. The task team organized meetings between the two organizations to discuss synergies, although this aspect could benefit from further improvement. The SFCG has also prepared a revised simplified procurement plan.  Recognizing the importance of engaging CSOs/NGOs in the Guinea context and to complete activities. While the task team recognizes some implementation capacity challenges so far, the task team, GPSA, and the CMU discussed: i) the importance of continuing CSO/NGO engagement in the context of Guinea which is known to have active civil societies as part of “resilient factors” of the country, to continue to support and engage this dynamic part of the stakeholders (as mentioned in the CPF); ii) their proposed work plan for the remaining time of project includes strategies for sustainability and more aggressive project implementation plans that the task team will be monitoring closely. II. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED CHANGES The closing date of the project projected will be changed from April 30, 2021 to October 30, 2020. A revised work plan (mainly in terms of the change of timeline of planned activities’ implementation) prepared by the recipient has been reviewed, discussed, and agreed with the task team and the GPSA technical team. The disbursement estimates have been updated to combine the third and the fourth disbursements of the original plan, because of the delay with the third trench in this FY2020. However, the basic flow of the amounts would remain the same. Note: the system-generated part of the cover page of this Restructuring Paper shows Governance GP and its manager, given the original set-up of any GPSA project was centrally handled by the GPSA (which used to be under the Governance GP). III. SUMMARY OF CHANGES Changed Not Changed Loan Closing Date(s) ✔ Disbursement Estimates ✔ Implementation Schedule ✔ Implementing Agency ✔ Project's Development Objectives ✔ Results Framework ✔ Components and Cost ✔ The World Bank Building Civil Society Capacity to Engage in State Reform Programs (P162171) Cancellations Proposed ✔ Additional Financing Proposed ✔ Reallocation between Disbursement Categories ✔ Disbursements Arrangements ✔ Change in Overall Risk Rating ✔ Safeguard Policies Triggered ✔ EA category ✔ Legal Covenants ✔ Institutional Arrangements ✔ Financial Management ✔ Procurement ✔ Other Change(s) ✔ Economic and Financial Analysis ✔ Technical Analysis ✔ Social Analysis ✔ Environmental Analysis ✔ IV. DETAILED CHANGE(S) OPS_DETAILEDCHANGES_LOANCLOSING_TABLE LOAN CLOSING DATE(S) Original Revised Proposed Proposed Deadline TF Status Closing Closing(s) Closing for Withdrawal Applications TF-A4977 Effective 28-Apr-2021 31-Oct-2021 28-Feb-2022 OPS_DETAILEDCHANGES_DISBURSEMENT_TABLE DISBURSEMENT ESTIMATES Change in Disbursement Estimates Yes Expected Disbursements (In US$) Fiscal Year Annual Cumulative The World Bank Building Civil Society Capacity to Engage in State Reform Programs (P162171) 2017 0.00 0.00 2018 195,000.00 195,000.00 2019 220,000.00 415,000.00 2020 0.00 415,000.00 2021 350,000.00 765,000.00 2022 35,000.00 800,000.00