Document of The World Bank Report No: 55685-ZR RESTRUCTURING PAPER ON A PROPOSED PROJECT RESTRUCTURING OF EDUCATION SECTOR PROJECT {BOARD APPROVAL DATE: June 5, 2007} TO THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO {DATE OF RESTRUCTURING: July 29, 2011} ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS HIPC Highly Indebted Poor Country QALP Quality Assessment of Lending Portfolio PDO Project Development Objective IEP Interim Education Plan MEPSP Ministère de l’Enseignement Primaire, Secondaire et Professionnel EFA-FTI Education for All - Fast Track Initiative PASEC Programme d'Analyse des Systèmes Educatifs CPA Community participatory approach EUSRP Emergency Urban and Social Rehabilitation Project (PURUS) CRC Citizen Report Card PETS Public Expenditure Tracking Survey DRC Democratic Republic of Congo UCOP Unité de Coordination de Projets PMCU Project Management and Coordination Unit SECOPE Service de Contrôle et de la Paie des Enseignants PAD Project Appraisal Document DFID Department for International Development CPPR Country Performance Portfolio Review PURUS Projet d’Urgence et de Réhabilitation Urbaine et Sociale (EURSP) PROVED Province éducationnelle EPMIFC Emergency Project to Mitigate the Impact of the Financial Crisis BCC Banque Centrale du Congo UNOPS United Nations Office for Project Services ICT Information and Communication Technology FM Financial Management PA Procurement agent CSR Country Status Report PIU Project Implementation Unit Regional Vice President: Obiageli Ezekwesili Country Director: Marie Françoise Marie-Nelly Sector Manager /(Acting): Peter Materu Task Team Leader: Rachidi B. Radji 2 CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF EDUCATION SECTOR PROJECT P086294 CONTENTS Page A. SUMMARY................................................................................................................ 4 B. PROJECT STATUS.................................................................................................. 4 C. PROPOSED CHANGES .......................................................................................... 4 D. APPRAISAL SUMMARY........................................................................................ 5 ANNEX 1: RESULTS FRAMEWORK AND MONITORING .................................... 6 ANNEX 2: REALLOCATION OF PROCEEDS ........................................................... 8 ANNEX 3: EXTENSION OF CLOSING DATE............................................................ 9 3 EDUCATION SECTOR PROJECT RESTRUCTURING PAPER SUMMARY 1. The Education Sector Project (P086294) was approved by the Bank’s board on June 5, 2007 and became effective on January 11, 2008. The present closing date is December 31, 2012. The investment made by the Bank in building political and technical trust with the DRC Government has started to bear benefits and results. In March 2010, the Government has adopted a comprehensive basic education strategy document, which, together with the space generated by the HIPC program, could likely contribute to enhance the existing momentum on key policy options and to accelerate the pace towards the achievement of the project development objective. 2. The proposed restructuring is a level two restructuring. One of the strengths of the project, as indicated in the findings of the recent QALP, lies with a “relevant and appropriate DO that reflects the strategic focus of the project�. The objectives of the project are to assist the Government in preventing further deterioration in the delivery of essential services for primary education and prepare ground for a sustainable development and financing of the sector that will facilitate donor coordination and future transition to a sector wide program. The PDO will not be modified. The restructuring will be undertaken to refine the scope of the project in order to improve project performance towards its development objectives. The components and subcomponents will remain but the restructuring will narrow the range of activities that are included in some sub- components. Using the positive developments in the sector, alternative measures will be proposed in order to facilitate the financing of teachers’ salaries and the schools’ operating costs. In addition, the restructuring will introduce, on a relatively modest basis, the community participatory factor in the school rehabilitation program. This factor stems from the school construction strategy that was recently developed by the Government with project’s technical support. Finally, the restructuring proposes a one- year extension of the project closing date from December 31, 2012 to December 31, 2013 to help complete the execution of some core activities. 3. The major modifications will include: (a) The intermediate indicators will be revised to be more specific and time-bound with the closing date extension. In addition, a couple of new indicators, measuring the impact of the school fees abolition and the new school construction strategy, are added to the results framework. Some core indicators will also be added. (b) The disbursement conditions will be adjusted to be more in line with the reality of the sector and its development, facilitating the financing of the teachers’ salaries and the school operating costs building based on lessons learned from other IDA-financed projects. 4 (c) Activities under subcomponents 1c, 1d and 3b will be adjusted to focus project implementation on core areas having the most impact on the PDO. (d) Introduce a new implementation method for the primary school infrastructure program so that the execution of the second phase of the civil work program will be entrusted to UCOP (“Unité de Coordination des Projets) and community participation will be introduced as well. (e) The restructuring will also record the procurement arrangements that have been in effect since October 2009, after having received Bank’s approval (see section on procurement below). PROJECT STATUS 4. Efforts to improve project performance within the current framework set out by the Project Appraisal Document and the Financing Agreement have produced positive results. The project was recently upgraded to “moderately satisfactory� on achievement of its project development objective while implementation performance is broadly “satisfactory�. It has contributed to major sector development achievements. Using MEPSP estimate, gross enrollment ratio in 2010 has reached 94% from 64%1 at the start of the project (2007), with some stagnation observed in 2008 and 2009 at about 91%. The completion rate in primary also showed improvement, with gradual increase from 29% at the start of the project to reach 60% in 2010. In August 2010, to increase equity of access to primary education, the Government took the decision to gradually implement a fee-free policy in primary education starting with the first three grades. In parallel and in order to increase the governance of the policy, it has identified measures to strengthen the accountability at the school levels for the reporting on the teaching positions and the payment of teachers’ salaries. Concerning the objective to progress towards a sector wide approach, the Government has made significant stride in developing its basic education strategy with participation of key stakeholders. The strategy has been finalized with the full support of the sector donor group and approved by the Government in March 2010. An interim education program (IEP) is underway and will serve as the basis for an EFA-FTI proposal. Strategy for higher education as well as that for literacy and non-formal education are well under development and should be available by end of 2011, with the objective to have a comprehensive and fully integrated sector strategy in 2012. 5. Other concrete project outputs are as follows: • All the purchased textbooks and teachers’ guides have been delivered to the provincial education directorates. Findings from field visits have led to actions to promote textbooks utilization at the school levels while the teacher training 1 While there has been progress in improving the timeliness and availability of school statistics data, there is a need for the Government to undertake further work to ensure the comparability of the sector indicators over time. 5 program has been deployed progressively on the ground. The recent mid-term review underscored that about 95% of primary schools have received the books. • A partnership agreement has been signed between the Ministry of Education and PASEC to launch a learning assessment survey. The survey, in a sizeable sample of 600 primary schools, has been completed and its results (expected by end March 2011) will provide good baselines on learning assessment. • The school rehabilitation program has incurred delays at the start of implementation but is picking up with over 15% of the first phase of the program under bidding. In addition, 43 classrooms have been completed. A construction strategy has been developed and will serve as the basis for the next phase of the rehabilitation program. 6. Despite the promising achievements in the sector, the disbursement level under the project is low, at about 24%2, with two years remaining in implementation. The lag in disbursement is principally due the conditions set for in the design of the Project to finance teachers’ salaries and schools’ operating costs subsidies that are very challenging in practice. The financing allocation for these two categories accounts for 45% of the grant. PROPOSED CHANGES • Results/indicators 7. The results framework will be revised to strengthen some indicators and enhance its presentation. In this regard, the following main revisions will be introduced: On the PDO Indicators level: (a) The approval of the Education Sector Strategy will be made for specific to include a sustainable medium term financing plan. (b) An indicator related to the intake of the 1st grade will be added as well as the core indicator related to project beneficiaries. On the Intermediate Results Indicators level: (a) The definition of selected indicators will be made clearer, with no change in the substance. (b) Selected of indicators that are attributable to the project will be added to measure the impact of key interventions, notably the fee-free policy in primary education, the school operating costs subsidies and the new school construction strategy. Tailored surveys and beneficiary assessments will also be added as measurements to gauge the impact of the interventions. 2 As of January 12, 2011. 6 On both levels, the end-of-project targets will be extended to be in line with the proposed revised closing date. 8. Details of the changes are presented in the revised results framework (Annex 1). • Components 9. The restructuring will retain the composition of the project with its original four components and their sub-components: (1) Increase Access and Equity at Primary Level; (2) Improve Quality of Primary Education; (3) Strengthen Institutional and Financial Capacity of the Education; and (4) Project Coordination and Management. The interventions in some subcomponents will be rationalized to focus on (i) core areas that have the most impact on the PDO and (ii) alternative measures that take into account sector development and the feasibility of actions. The key revisions are presented below: Sub-component 1a: Rehabilitate primary school infrastructure: The restructuring will preserve the original goal of financing the rehabilitation and equipping of about 1,570 classrooms, the directors’ offices and latrines. Using the results of the recently developed construction strategy (which constitutes an output of the project), the subcomponent will introduce a community participatory approach (CPA) in the remaining school rehabilitation program. Acknowledging that the community participatory approach is a new concept and could face operational complexity at the start, the CPA will be applied in a limited fashion (e.g. communities are responsible only for building latrines using materials provided by the project), in the rehabilitation of 390 classrooms in five provinces: Bas Congo, North Kivu, South Kivu, Kasai-Occidental and Oriental Province. Lessons drawn will be used to calibrate the CPA for its possible generalization in the future. Sub-component 1c: Improve Equity of Access to Primary Education. Initially, the project aimed to support the Government to sustain operating costs for primary schools and to integrate 30,000 primary school teachers onto the public payroll. As mentioned above, the Government has gradually implemented the fee-free policy for primary education, which is at the heart of the primary and secondary education strategy since its adoption in March 2010. As a result, the following concrete actions have been undertaken using national budget resources: (i) as of 2010, a total of 183, 135 teachers working in already registered and budgeted primary schools were brought onto the public payroll; (ii) $50 are transferred per month to all budgeted primary (and secondary) schools to support their operating costs; and (iii) $300 (on an average basis) are transferred per month to the administration and pedagogy management units across the country (from provincial to sub-provincial and local levels) to partly cover their recurrent costs that were financed by the school fees. To help the Government amplify and pursue this policy, the project will support the integration of additional teaching positions (“postes�) into the public payroll. As such and also, in order to preserve sustainability, project financing will be provided to at least 20,155 primary teaching positions that have been included in the 2011 National Budget (in comparison with the originally scheduled 30,000 teachers’ integration). In addition, the project will finance the school operating costs of all registered primary schools by topping up the annual $600 ($50 per month) provided 7 under the national budget, to reach $1,000 annually (as set in the newly adopted basic education strategy document). The financing follows the same path as the IDA- financed Emergency Urban and Social Rehabilitation Project (EURSP) building on its successful experience. The confessional institutions that manage the majority of these schools will be closely involved in the implementation of the sub-component and the reporting. The latter will include both existing and new control mechanisms. Existing ones are e.g. availability of appointment letters (“commission d’affectation�) at school and administration levels; new ones will consist of detailed record-keeping of personnel movement certified at school and administration levels (and based on teacher attendance records). A guide will provide reporting models. To assess the reduction in school fees and improvement in the quality of service delivery, tailored surveys will be carried out, including beneficiary assessments. Especially, mechanisms that have already been used to strengthen the community’s participation in school-level decisions will be pursued and new ones will be applied, as relevant. Due to the complexity of the task coupled with DRC limited capacity and its vast geographical surface, the use of Citizen’s Report Cards (CRC) - a beneficiary assessment that monitors quality of service delivery at the school level - will be piloted in selected provinces. Based on lessons learned from the pilot, an action plan will be developed in order to scale up the CRC. Sub-component 1d: Strengthen Safeguards in the Teacher Pay System: The restructuring will continue to support activities aiming to reinforce the institutional environment of the pay system. Initially, the project planned to undertake two Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) to track the payments of teacher’s salaries and fees for operating expenditures for primary education. With the complexity of the task, the restructuring will take on a realistic approach by piloting the PETS in selected provinces (versus a country level sampling), along with the work on CRC (see above). In addition, these surveys will be designed so as to provide quantitative information on service delivery effectiveness. Sub-component 3b: Support Preparation of a Sector Education Strategy: Initially, the project includes a far-reaching list of interventions that stretch to sub-elements of the sector, such as pilot programs in literacy, school remediation, student’s transport, . Taking into account the large scope of project’s activities and the existing implementation capacity constraints, the restructuring will re-dimension the subcomponent to focus on actions and activities that have a direct bearing on the formulation of a coherent sector-wide strategy, notably (i) an enabling institutional environment -- a reformed legal framework, updating/replacing the partnership conventions between the state, the churches and other religious organizations --; (ii) capacity building in developing the medium term expenditure framework; and (iii) sector-wide strategy development with a consultative and consensus-building approach. • Financing o Project Costs 8 Project Costs (US$m.) Components/Activities Current Proposed Disbursed (US$m.)/b Component1: Increase access and equity at primary level 104.5 108.9 11.9 Component 2: Improve quality of 28.8 25.3 19.4 primary education Component 3: Strengthen 5.1 7.2 6.3 institutional and financial capacity of the education Component 4: Project coordination 11.1 9.1 6.2 and management PPF 1.0 -/a -/a Total 150.5 150.5 43.8 /a $1,474 (disbursed, value in $ as of August 8, 2011) /b as of August 8, 2011 • Disbursement arrangements As mentioned above, despite the promising achievements in the sector as described above, the disbursement level under the project is very low, at about 24%, with two years remaining in implementation. The lag in disbursement is principally due to a number of disbursement conditions that have not been met with regard to the financing of the teachers’ salaries and the schools’ operating costs that account for 45% of the grant. The conditions, as set in the Financing Agreement (Schedule 2, Section IV. B) and the Project Appraisal Document (Annex 7, Table A7.2), are challenging in the DRC’s context. Main constraints relate to the overall weak institutional capacity and poor communication networks.. The following sections present (i) the conditions as they are initially set, (ii) the positive steps taken by the Government and (iii) the alternative conditions under the proposed restructuring that will unblock the situation allowing for disbursement flows. • Implementation arrangement At the request of the Government, the execution of the second phase of the civil work program will be entrusted to UCOP (“Unité de Coordination des Projets), which is managing a number of IDA-financed projects in DRC. All other implementation arrangements will remain the same. The manual of operations will need to be updated accordingly. A. Disbursement conditions set initially in the Financing Agreement For teachers’ salaries, the conditions are as follows: 1. (a) A ministerial decree freezing any transfer of personnel in primary schools; and (b) an inter-ministerial decree freezing the opening or accreditation of new public primary schools until a comprehensive census of primary schools, students, classrooms and teachers has been completed. 9 2. All teachers currently enrolled into the public payroll schedule furnished by SECOPE are integrated into the Paie transitoire simplifiée (simplified temporary payment system). 3. A comprehensive list comprising the names of all teachers to be progressively integrated into the public payroll system and to be paid with the proceeds of the Financing allocated to Category (6) has been delivered to the Association. 4. SECOPE has been granted exclusive authority to handle all payments of teachers’ salaries. For school operating expenditures, the conditions are set as follows: 1. A comprehensive list identifying all public primary schools eligible to receive school operating costs subsidies through the proceeds of the Financing allocated to Category (7). 2. Adoption of a comprehensive school map covering the territory. In addition, the Project’s Appraisal Document (PAD) has a set of required actions along with the status of implementation, as well as proposed alternative actions (confer Annex 7 Table 7.2). B. Positive steps taken by the Government For teachers’ salaries: 1. (a) and (b). The census and the development of school mapping were to be financed through a DFID contribution. After long delays that are due to resource mobilization and technical issues, the Government and DFID have recently reached agreement on the financing and implementation of the census. The field work is planned to start in September 2011 with the completion of the census and the school mapping by June 2012. The results will form the basis for the promulgation of decrees related to the creation of new primary public schools. In the meantime, the Government is committed to further control the opening or accrediting of new public primary schools, even though the current fee-free policy is expected to generate further demand for primary education. To this end, the Government is in the process of establishing an inter-ministerial committee to oversee the application of the current policy, ensuring that accreditation is kept at the strict minimum and applies rigorous criteria. This will be added as a disbursement condition in place of the teachers’ census. The Bank’s CPPR mission in March 2009 also agreed on the need to delink the disbursement condition from the teacher census. Alternative implementation modalities have been identified and developed to mitigate the potential risks based on lessons learned from other Bank-financed projects (see below). 2. The Paie transitoire simplifiée (simplified temporary payment system), set up by the Public Administration Ministry, has not been fully operational due 10 to disruption in the implementation of the overall public administration reform caused by financing and leadership issues. The Government is in the process of carrying out the civil servant census with support of the Bank (Enhancing Governance Capacity). The results will provide the basis for enhancing the quality of both payroll and human resource management once the census is completed. 3. Based on lessons learned from the IDA-financed operation Emergency Project to Mitigate Impact of the Financial Crisis indicating that teacher mobility is high on the ground (about 40%), the Government and the Bank agreed to consider the teaching positions (filled in by registered teachers) in implementing the related sub-component. To increase the transparency and governance in the payment system, measures have been developed to decentralize and make the confessional institutions as well as the school directors accountable for the reporting on the teaching positions and salary payments (see above section C sub-component 1c). In addition, the Government has committed to incorporate these teaching positions into the public payroll (National Budget 2011) thus ensuring the financial sustainability (see details under Subcomponent 1c above). This entails that the project will reimburse salaries of registered teachers (enseignants mécanisés payés) in the selected schools. In other words, these teachers should be on public payroll and possess a unique SECOPE registration number. 4. SECOPE has been granted exclusive authority to manage all payments of teachers’ salaries. To this end, a Cabinet meeting has resulted in a circular to abolish the provincial commissions in charge of teachers’ salaries payment (Circulaire interministérielle No. MINEPSP/003/2007 dated October 29, 2009) and to prohibit deductions from salary payments. For school operating expenditures: 1. The list of all public primary schools eligible to receive subsidies with the proceeds of the Grant is available. 2. The school mapping will be developed along with the teacher census with the financial support of DFID. In the meantime, the Government has taken measures to control and rationalize the creation of new primary schools (see above). It is worth mentioning that the project’s restructuring builds on lessons learned from the successful implementation of the IDA-financed Emergency Urban and Social Rehabilitation Project (EURSP or PURUS in French). This includes the findings of audit work and beneficiary assessment surveys underscoring that this type of financial subsidies worked broadly well and led to positive results on the ground. On that basis, an additional financing to the Emergency Urban and Social Rehabilitation Project (PURUS) has been approved by the Bank’s Board on June 18, 2010, to scale up the development effectiveness and impact. PURUS will continue to fund critical recurrent, 11 non-salary education expenditures, with a focus on secondary schools, leaving payments for the primary schools to be disbursed under the present Education Sector Project. C. Alternative conditions under the proposed restructuring allowing for disbursement flows under Category 6 and 7 Teachers’ salaries (Category 6) As a first step, the Government and the Bank have agreed to finance about 20,155 teaching positions in approximately 3.150 public primary schools that have been registered (“mécanisés�) and integrated in the National Budget 2011. Confessional institutions (“gestionnaires�) that manage these schools will be closely involved in the implementation process and reporting on the teaching positions. The restructuring will propose the following conditions that have been agreed with the Government: (i) Establishment of (a) a list of Primary Registered Schools which are also integrated onto the Recipient’s national budget, (b) a list of teaching positions along with names of the teachers and SECOPE registration numbers validated by the appropriate private or public educational authorities; (ii) Establishment of an inter-ministerial committee authorized to decide on the opportunity of the creation of new primary schools in the Recipient’s territory; and (iii) Development of a guide providing procedures to public primary school directors and managers for the tracking of personnel movement at the school level, and the assessment of the impact of school registration on the financial contributions coming from households (Public Primary School Management Guide). School operating expenditures (Category 7) Similar to the initial objective, the restructuring will support the financing of the recurrent expenditures in all registered public primary schools, with the view to assist the Government in gradually implementing its fee-free primary education policy that is included in the newly developed education strategy. The restructuring will propose the following conditions that have been agreed with the Government: (i) Establish a comprehensive list of all public primary schools eligible for subsidies; and (ii) Develop a procedures manual for managing the school operating costs with new allocation tables, by updating the existing manual that governs PURUS. 12 In addition, and based on lessons learned from other IDA-financed operation, the following dated covenants have been agreed upon: (i) SECOPE commits to send on a monthly basis payroll lists (“listings�) to the schools to enable teachers to sign off on payday; (ii) SECOPE commits to speed up the registration process of non registered teachers (“mécanisation�); particularly for new teachers filling in registered and budgeted positions. This process should not exceed 3 months. D. Disbursement arrangements for teachers’ salaries and school operating cost subsidies For teachers’ salaries: The proceeds will be disbursed using the reimbursement method. The Government will first pay the teacher salaries, using the country payroll system and will get reimbursed bi-monthly for the salaries of the eligible teachers (i.e. registered teachers on public payroll), base d on a set of agreed upon documentation. (to be identified in the project’s implementation manual). For the school operating expenditures: The same procedures that have been applied successfully under PURUS will be used. Upon meeting the disbursement conditions (see below), grant proceeds allocated to this component will be deposited on an annual basis to a Designated Account at the Central Bank of Congo (BCC). This account will be used for the sole purpose of the Government’s payment of the grants for primary school operating expenditures. The BCC will transfer funds to sub-accounts opened for that purpose in BCC branches at provincial levels. SECOPE at provincial levels will be entitled to withdraw these funds from the BCC in order to dispatch them to the eligible schools, via their sub-provincial offices (SECOPE antennes). For the financing of these two expenditures, the Government will open two Designated Accounts, e.g. (i) one Designated Account for the school operation expenditures; and (ii) one “deposit� account, where the reimbursement for salaries will be paid and documented adequately. • Reallocation Reallocation of grant proceeds between the disbursement categories will be necessary to account for the changes in expenditures resulting from the needs of project activities. Proceeds initially allocated to civil works related to the rehabilitation of the National Pedagogical University (Category 1(b)) will be reduced by 48%. The initial cost was slightly over-estimated, and with the delays in execution, the rehabilitation of the University will be narrowed to the works that have been delegated to UNOPS to manage. The amount of the reduction will be used to increase proceeds allocation to activities contributing to education access and quality (textbooks, school furniture, and technical assistance). Annex 2 presents the proposed reallocation. 13 • Financial Management Project’s financial management has been broadly satisfactory over time. The PARSE FM performance was rated satisfactory following the last supervision mission of April 2011 and there is no overdue IFR and audit report at the time of the preparation of this Restructuring Paper. Internal auditing work will be strengthened including the scope of work to further mitigate financial risks. In particular, competent PIU staff will carry out some reviews of project activities during field visits, including review of payment of salary and school operating costs at central and provincial levels. While DRC’s payroll system remains broadly weak, progress has been made during the past years. As mentioned above, the Bank and other donors are providing support to modernize the system by improving its reliability and functionality. Similarly support is being provided to the education sector to improve the teacher salaries payment system (upcoming launching of the teacher census, diagnosis of SECOPE, ICT equipment, etc). Results of three technical audits (two under Bank-financed project and one under UE-financed operation) conducted during the past two years underscored improvements. • Audit arrangements (i) Projects financial accounts: The project accounts audit arrangements will remain unchanged (e.g. annual audit covering all the components implemented by the government and others IA). (ii) Technical audit of payment of teachers’ salary: On the basis of the agreement reached with the government regarding the payment of teachers’ salary as well as the frequency , payment of teachers’ salary will be audited 12 months after the first disbursement by independent auditors acceptable to IDA and annually thereafter. The finding of the technical audit will be used to reconcile the amount paid by the government over the year and the balance (20%) will be disbursed if the audit satisfactory. The audit report should be submitted to the Bank within 4 months following the twelfth replenishment of the DA opened at the Central Bank. (iii)Technical audit of the payments of school’s operating costs: The technical audit will follow the same approach like the arrangements put in place under the PURUS ( e.g. annual audit of the payments of school's operating costs and the audit report should be submitted to IDA within 4 months following the end of the 12 months preceding the replenishment of the DA opened at the Central Bank. Any gap or misused of funds will be reimbursed by the government before subsequent payments are made to the DA). Procurement The initial procurement arrangements call for the recruitment of a Procurement Agent (PA) to provide procurement services for all components of 14 the project due to the lack of experience in procurement by the three central ministries involved in project execution. All procurement activities of the project would be carried out by the PA whose responsibilities are governed through a service contract with the Project Management and Coordination Unit (PMCU). After unsuccessful results in the selection of such a PA to handle all procurement activities, and using lessons drawn from other Bank-financed projects, the Government requested to sole-source a United Nations entity (UNOPS) under a delegated management contract (maîtrise d’ouvrage déléguée - MOD) to manage a first phase of the civil works program under the project and to entrust all other procurement activities to the PMCU, with the provision that the PMCU will strengthen its capacity in procurement. A contract has been signed with UNOPS on September 25, 2009 and will terminate end of November 2011. Procurement capacity of the PMCU has also been found adequate to handle all other procurement activities. For the second phase of the civil works program, the restructuring will introduce two elements: (i) a community participatory approach and (ii) the designation of a Government’s unit to execute the second and last phase of the school rehabilitation program. As mentioned above, using the results of the construction strategy, recently developed with project support, the community participatory approach will be introduced, in a limited fashion, in the execution of the remaining school rehabilitation program. As explained above, the community will be responsible to build the latrines using materials provided by the project and therefore will not be involved in procurement activities’. In addition, and as mentioned above, UCOP will be responsible for the execution of this second phase of the civil work program. Following the arrangements that prevail under the on-going Bank’s financed operations, UCOP will act as an implementation agency that awards contracts based on Bank's procurement guidelines. To strengthen UCOP, particularly its capacity to manage large civil works program (in line with the Bank and the Government vision), the project will develop a plan for UCOP capacity building. In the meantime, the Project's implementation manual will include a specific section devoted to the school infrastructure component detailing UCOP staffing, responsibilities and procedures to follow. The approval by the Bank of such a revised version of project’s implementation Manuel is a covenant. The manual will need to be updated by not later than September 1, 2011. • Closing date The restructuring proposes to extend the project closing date from December 31, 2012 to December 31, 2013. The extension is necessary, mainly, to allow the financing of the teachers’ salaries and the school operating costs that have been delayed for more than two years due to the initial unmet disbursement conditions. It will also provide time to complete the second phase of the civil work program and to develop the CSR and the PETS, with preliminary application in selected provinces. This will be the first extension of the projects closing date. 15 APPRAISAL SUMMARY • Technical The financing of teaching posts instead of specific individual teachers will bring better efficiency, not only in the payment system but also in the management of the teaching corps. In fact, the restructuring takes into account the reality in the ground that shows a high level of teachers’ mobility. In addition, the community participatory factor introduced in the execution of the second phase of the civil works program will shed light on the benefits of having the communities participate in the management of the school environment as well as on the prerequisites for such an approach to succeed. • Risk The overall project risk remains as “Substantial�. Nevertheless, the restructured project will add measures to mitigate the absence of the teacher census. The teaching posts will be considered for salaries payments rather than names of individual teachers. In addition, there will be strategies to involve and make the confessional institutions as well the school directors more responsible for the accounting of the teaching corps. 16 ANNEX 1: Results Framework and Monitoring CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF: EDUCATION SECTOR PROJECT Project Development Objective (PDO): To prevent further deterioration in the delivery of essential services for primary education and prepare ground for a sustainable development and financing of the sector that will facilitate donor coordination and future transition to a sector wide program. Revised Project Development Objective: Not applicable D=Dropped Responsibility Data Source/ C=Continue Cumulative Target Values** Frequency for Data Methodology Core N= New Unit of Baseline Progress Collection Results Indicators* R=Revised Measure (2007) (end 2010) 2011 2012 2013 PDO Indicator One: Gross Enrollment Rate C % 64 90.8 97.7 101.7 105.8 Annual MEPSP DEP/MEPSP Annual Statistical Reports PDO Indicator Two: MEPSP Gross 1st intake rate N % -- 107.7 120.6 125.1 129.8 Annual Annual DEP/MEPSP Statistical Reports PDO Indicator Three: MEPSP Primary education completion C % 29 56.7 63.9 68 72.5 Annual Annual DEP/MEPSP rate Statistical Reports PDO Indicator Four: MEPSP Girls to boys ratio in primary C % 85 86 99 100 100 Annual Annual DEP/MEPSP school Statistical Reports PDO Indicator Five: Project progress reports / BOSS/DEP- Education sector strategy R Yes/No No No No Yes Yes -- Implementation support EPSP, DEP- (including a sustainable medium missions ESU, DEP- term financing plan) with MAS indicators agreed with donors and approved by Government Beneficiaries*** Project beneficiaries Project progress reports 1) from N Number 0 6,259,221 8,355,968 12,268,798 13,377,452 Quarterly PROVED, DIS textbooks/guides: 145,700 191,005 210,190 210,190 • students • teachers 1,265 30,525 86,450 93,107 2) from classroom rehabilitated Project progress reports Of which female (student X N % 45 46 50 50 Quarterly PROVED, DIS beneficiaries of textbooks) INTERMEDIATE RESULTS Intermediate Result (Component One): Revised Intermediate Result (Component One): Increased school infrastructure availability Intermediate Result indicator Project progress reports One: Quarterly DIS Additional classrooms built or X Number 0 23 555 1572 1572 C rehabilitated at the primary level resulting from project intervention Intermediate Result indicator Project progress reports Two: -- New school construction norms N are adopted for application of Yes/No No No Yes Yes Yes cost-effective school construction strategy Perceived reduction in school fees Intermediate Result indicator Three: Parents finding the school fee in N Yes/No - - Yes -- Yes -- CRC / PETS in 5 educational DEP and SG of primary has been reduced provinces MEPSP 18 Intermediate Result indicator Four: Primary teachers in “registered� N % - 72 80 83 83 Annual Project progress reports SECOPE schools integrated into the public payroll Intermediate Result (Component Two): Revised Intermediate Result (Component Two): Improved availability of textbooks Intermediate Result indicator One: C Textbooks purchased and Number 0 14 14 14 14 Annual Project progress reports General distributed (million) Inspection Intermediate Result indicator Two: Ratio 0 0.8:1 0.9:1 1:1 1:1 C Student textbook ratio Annual Project progress reports General Inspection Intermediate Result indicator Three: C % 0 - 0.8:1 1:1 1:1 Annual Project progress reports General Teacher guide ratio Inspection Intermediate Result indicator Four: Inspectors and school advisors C % 0 75 85 100 100 Annual Project progress reports General receiving in-service training in Inspection use of textbooks Improved textbook quality Intermediate Result indicator Five: A textbook policy adopted by Yes/No No No Yes Yes Yes -- Project progress reports Direction of C the Government Program and Didactic Materials Intermediate Result indicator Six: Project progress reports / BOSS/DEP- Basic education interim Yes/No No No Yes Yes Yes -- Implementation support EPSP, N development plan is missions implemented according to agreed plan Improved learning assessment system Intermediate Result indicator N Seven: Project progress reports / SG 19 System for learning assessment X Rating X No and 1 No and 3 Yes and 4 Yes and 4 -- Implementation support at the primary level missions Intermediate Result indicator Eight: Project progress reports / SG National pupil learning C Yes/No No No Yes Yes Yes -- Implementation support assessment mechanism for grade missions 5 is in place Intermediate Result (Component Three): Revised Intermediate Result (Component Three): Strengthened legal foundation for the development of the education sector Intermediate Result indicator One: Project progress reports / SG Reformed guidelines for pre- Yes/No No No Yes Yes Yes -- Implementation support R service teacher training are (i) missions developed and (ii) are being applied Intermediate Result indicator Two: Project progress reports / SG Loi cadre (organic law) is R Yes/No No No Yes Yes Yes -- Implementation support transmitted to Parliament for missions adoption Intermediate Result indicator Three: Project progress reports / SG R Convention of Partnerships Yes/No No No No Yes Yes -- Implementation support revised and implemented missions Intermediate Result indicator Four: Project progress reports / SG CRC and PETS have been R Yes/No No No Yes -- Yes -- Implementation support piloted in selected educational missions provinces Intermediate Result indicator Five: Project progress reports / SG Based on lessons learned from Yes/No No No Yes -- Yes -- Implementation support R CRC and PETS, an action plan missions is put in place for an eventual scale up Intermediate Result indicator Six: Project progress reports / SG A draft teacher career structure Yes/No No No No Yes Yes -- Implementation support C (training, deployment, salary and missions incentives) approved by the Government *Please indicate whether the indicator is a Core Sector Indicator (see further http://coreindicators). **Target values should be entered for the years data will be available, not necessarily annually. 20 *** All projects are encouraged to identify and measure the number of project beneficiaries. The adoption and reporting on this indicator is required for investment projects which have an approval date of July 1, 2009 or later 9for additional guidance – please see http://coreindicators). 21 ANNEX 2: Reallocation of Proceeds _____________________________________________________________________ CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF — EDUCATION SECTOR PROJECT P086294 GRANT NO. H303-DRC Category of Expenditure Allocation (in SDR) % of Financing Current Revised Current Revised Disbursed3 Current Revised (1)(a) Civil 13,200,000 13,200,000 3,975,376 100% works Part A (1) (1)(b) Civil 2,200,000 1,100,000 0 100% works Part A (2) (2) Goods, 4,600,000 5,300,000 826,400 100% There is no There is vehicles revision. All no (3) categories 10,700,000 11,400,000 10,882,738 100% revision. Textbooks remain the % of (4) Training same, except 5,500,000 5,400,000 2,003,313 100% Financing and for the break- remains Workshops down of the same (5) Salaries 12,600,000 13,800,000 3,447,009 100% Consultant Installments Services into 2 (6)(a) subcategories 24,700,000 22,230,000 0 100% Teachers Salaries Installments (6)(b) -- 2,470,000 0 100% Teachers Salaries Installments (7) School 20,100,000 20,100,000 0 100% Operating Costs Subsidies Installments 3 As of August 8, 2011 (8) 4,300,000 3,559,080 1,469,283 100% Operating Costs (9) 660,000 920 920 Amount Refinancing payable of the pursuant Project to Section Preparation 2.07 of the Advance General Conditions (10) 640,000 640,000 -- 100% Unallocated Designated 1,977,890 Account A Designated (1,138) Account B UN 2,763,582 Commitment TOTAL 99,200,000 99,200,000 27,327,373 23 24