The World Bank DRC Catalytic Project to Strengthen the INS (P125509) REPORT NO.: RES34376 DOCUMENT OF THE WORLD BANK RESTRUCTURING PAPER ON A PROPOSED PROJECT RESTRUCTURING OF DRC CATALYTIC PROJECT TO STRENGTHEN THE INS APPROVED ON JUNE 9, 2014 TO DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO POVERTY AND EQUITY AFRICA Regional Vice President: Hafez M. H. Ghanem Country Director: Jean-Christophe Carret Senior Global Practice Director: Carolina Sanchez Practice Manager/Manager: Pierella Paci Task Team Leader: Yele Maweki Batana The World Bank DRC Catalytic Project to Strengthen the INS (P125509) I. BASIC DATA Product Information Project ID Financing Instrument P125509 Investment Project Financing Original EA Category Current EA Category Partial Assessment (B) Partial Assessment (B) Approval Date Current Closing Date 09-Jun-2014 30-Apr-2019 Organizations Borrower Responsible Agency Democratic Republic of Congo Institut National de la Statistique (INS) Project Development Objective (PDO) Original PDO The development objective is to strengthen the capacity of INS to generate and disseminate statistical information. Summary Status of Financing Net Ln/Cr/Tf Approval Signing Effectiveness Closing Commitment Disbursed Undisbursed TF-16628 09-Jun-2014 19-Jun-2014 20-Jan-2015 30-Apr-2019 11.80 8.11 3.69 Policy Waiver(s) Does this restructuring trigger the need for any policy waiver(s)? No II. SUMMARY OF PROJECT STATUS AND PROPOSED CHANGES The World Bank DRC Catalytic Project to Strengthen the INS (P125509) Funded by the Statistics for Results Trust Fund Program, the project was approved by the Regional Vice President on June 09, 2014. However, the implementation was delayed due to a longer than expected processing time by the Recipient’s legislature to approve the project documents and the project did not become effective until January 20, 2015- thus losing over six months of the originally planned three-year implementation period. The project was restructured in 2017 after a request from the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The restructuring of the project, included: (i) a revision of the results framework (changes to some of the indicators to better capture project results); (ii) an extension of the closing date by 22 months from June 30, 2017 to April 30, 2019 to allow sufficient time to complete all remaining project activities; (iii) reallocation of funds within project components to ensure sufficient funding for the demolition and reconstruction of the National Statistical Institute (INS) building; and (iv) triggering of OP/BP 4.11 in anticipation of potential impacts on cultural resources due to the demolition and reconstruction of the INS facilities. Regarding the reallocation of funds, the budget of Component A (Increasing INS technical capacity) has increased from US$0.86 million to US$1.25 million to cover the initial budget overrun. The budget of the Component B (Strengthening the non-technical environment) increased from US$2.94 million to US$6.79 for the improvement of the INS working environment, including the demolition and reconstruction of its facilities for which the initial costs underestimated. As for the Component C (Statistical production and dissemination), its total amount has been decreased by US$3.56 million from US$7.32 million. Its subcomponents include: (a) supporting census cartography (population and housing census); (b) improving the national accounts through the implementation of the enterprise census; and (c) improving access to, and interpretability of, statistical information and technical assistance from SINFIC. According to the mid-term review, the overall disbursement rate for the project financing as of September 2018 is 60.4%, out of a total of US $ 11.8 million that are the total TF016628 trust funds. However, as of September 30, 2018, the project has a commitment rate of 79% at 7 months from the closing date. At the implementation level of the program of activities of the Component A, which represents 11% of the overall project budget, most of the planned activities are completed by 30 September 2018, with a commitment rate of 73%. Component B, which represents 57% of the overall project budget, has a commitment rate of 109%, while component C (32% of the overall project budget) has a commitment rate of only 26%. The project performance is rated moderately satisfactory in terms of financial management and procurement, while it is considered satisfactory in terms of environmental and social management. Based on the above operational performance levels, overall performance in the implementation of the project is rated as moderately satisfactory by the mid-term review. In addition, the project's performance in achieving its development objective remains moderately satisfactory. To date with six months remaining until the project completion , nearly 40% of its funding is still to be disbursed. In this context, it was agreed during the mission that the specific objectives for the 2018 work plan of the project should be fixed to help speed up the implementation of the project. Bank has received a request from the Government to extend the closing date of the grant until June 28, 2019. This two-month extension is requested in order to enable the completions of all expected activities under the project, particularly those of the component C. Moreover, this extension will make the closing date of the PRINS project coincide with that of the parent Trust Funds. III. DETAILED CHANGES The World Bank DRC Catalytic Project to Strengthen the INS (P125509) LOAN CLOSING DATE(S) Original Revised Proposed Proposed Deadline Ln/Cr/Tf Status Closing Closing(s) Closing for Withdrawal Applications 30-Mar-2019, 30-Apr- TF-16628 Effective 30-Jun-2017 28-Jun-2019 28-Oct-2019 2019