Document of The World Bank Report No: 67178 v1 RESTRUCTURING PAPER ON A PROPOSED PROJECT RESTRUCTURING OF MULTI-SECTOR DEMOGRAPHIC PROJECT LOAN (Approved by the Board on June 19, 2007) TO THE REPUBLIC OF NIGER March 6, 2012 RESTRUCTURING OF THE NIGER MULTI-SECTOR DEMOGRAPHIC PROJECT GRANT N0. H309-NIR – PROJECT ID P096198 Regional Vice President: Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili Country Director: Ousmane Diagana Sector Manager: Jean J. De St Antoine Task Team Leader: Djibrilla Karamoko 2 NIGER — MULTI-SECTOR DEMOGRAPHIC PROJECT P096198 RESTRUCTURING PAPER 1. This paper seeks the approval of the Country Director for the reallocation of proceeds of the Niger Multi-Sector Demographic Project (Grant No. H309-NIR). The proposed reallocation of grant proceeds was requested by the Government of Niger in a letter from the Ministry of Planning, Land and Community Development, dated January 26, 2012 to ensure that the important activities received enough funding to enable the project attain its development objectives. The reallocation request is as follows: Cat Category Description Grant Difference % of New % Allocated as (+/-) change Allocated Financing of May 2011 (no change) (SDR) 1. A Goods and 4,300,000 + 320,000 7% 4,620,000 100% Consultant’s services for part 1 and 3 of the Project including audit and Training. 1.B Goods and 1,400,000 - 800,000 57% 600,000 100% Consultant’s services for part 2 of the Project including audit and Training. 2 Operating Costs 720,000 + 480,000 67% 1,200,000 100% 3 Refund of project 280,000 280,000 Preparation Advance TOTAL 6,700,000 6,700,000 2. Project Progress. The project was approved by the Board on June 19, 2007. The grant of SDR 6.7 million (equivalent US$10 million) became effective on January 8, 2008. As of February 29, 2012, SDR 4.3 million (equivalent to 64 percent of the total grant) has been disbursed. The current closing date is March 31, 2013. 3. The project development objective is to strengthen Government’s capacity to address its demographic challenges through: (i) enabling the Ministry of Population to design and implement a nationwide multi-sector population program; and (ii) increasing general awareness on population and reproductive health issues. The project has now three components as follows: (i) Advocacy, Communication, and Coordination; (ii) Strengthening the Supply of Reproductive Health Services; and (iii) Capacity Building and Monitoring and Evaluation. 3 4. The project was restructured on May 12, 2011, so as to address the demand- creation-dimension of reproductive health (RH) in addition to strengthening the supply- side dimension of RH services. This is the second restructuring and no changes are being made to the development objectives, outcomes, design, or scope of the project. 5. The project’s performance is rated moderately satisfactory. The indicators have progressed well and consistent with the Government’s 2007 Population policy. Moreover, the objectives are achievable. Project management is also performing well, with implementation progress rated satisfactory in all areas but financial management and counterpart funding, which are rated moderately satisfactory. Out of three legal covenants one has been complied, one is partially complied and one is still not yet due. There are no outstanding audit reports. 6. The revised Project made significant progress in two main areas: (i) the percentage of children 0 to 5 months exclusively breastfed increased from13.5% in 2006 to 27% in 2010; and (ii) the prevalence rate of modern contraceptives increased from 4% to 17.8% in 2010. Many activities in the areas of sanitization and/or service delivery have been conducted by key stakeholders, namely religious leaders, NGOs, actors of the Health and Education sectors, and academics. The project contracted out Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) activities as well as Behavior Change Communication (BCC) to 21 NGOs and a new batch of NGOs is being selected and will be soon contracted to continue these IEC/BCC activities. 7. The proposed reallocation is necessary because of following reasons: Category 1A: The need to increase the allocation is due to the production of communication toolkits and the increase in the awareness activities by NGOs which will use the new kits developed and produced by the project. Category 1B: Significant saving was achieved through the competitive bidding process for training materiel procured by the project. Government has also received support from UNFPA to improve the expansion of reproductive health activities at the community level. Consequently, the amount of resources needed for this category was reduced. Category 2: The contracted NGOs launching the awareness campaigns in villages to promote the implementation of IEC/BCC activities in the field. In addition, the Ministry of Population and its regional offices have intensified their supervision role to ensure better implementation of the IEC/BCC campaigns and better monitoring of the project results. In short, this explains the transfer of additional funds to this category. 4