The World Bank Sub-saharan Africa Women’s Empowerment And Demographic Dividend Plus Project (P176693) Additional Financing Appraisal Environmental and Social Review Summary Appraisal Stage (AF ESRS Appraisal Stage) Public Disclosure Date Prepared/Updated: 01/30/2025 | Report No: ESRSAFA928 Feb 11, 2025 Page 1 of 9 The World Bank Sub-saharan Africa Women’s Empowerment And Demographic Dividend Plus Project (P176693) I. BASIC INFORMATION A. Basic Operation Data Operation ID Product Operation Acronym Approval Fiscal Year P176693 Investment Project Financing (IPF) SWEDD+ 2024 Operation Name Sub-Saharan Africa Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend Plus Project Country/Region Code Beneficiary country/countries Region Practice Area (Lead) (borrower, recipient) Western and Central Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, The, WESTERN AND CENTRAL Health, Nutrition & Africa Senegal, Togo AFRICA Population Borrower(s) Implementing Agency(ies) Estimated Appraisal Date Estimated Board Date Burkina Faso, Islamic ECCAS, ECOWAS, Ministry of 29-Jan-2025 31-Mar-2025 Republic of Development Planning and Mauritania, Republic Cooperation, Ministry of Economic of Chad, Republic of Prospects and International Mali, Republic of Cooperation, Ministry of Health, Public Disclosure Senegal, Republic of Ministry of Health, Ministry of Women, The Gambia, Family and Child Protection Republic of Togo Estimated Decision Total Project Cost Review Date 28-Jan-2025 450,000,000.00 Proposed Development Objective To increase girls’ and women’s access to learning, economic opportunities, and utilization of health services, and to strengthen the region-wide institutional capacity for gender equality. B. Is the operation being prepared in a Situation of Urgent Need of Assistance or Capacity Constraints, as per Bank IPF Policy, para. 12? No C. Summary Description of Proposed Project Activities Feb 11, 2025 Page 2 of 9 The World Bank Sub-saharan Africa Women’s Empowerment And Demographic Dividend Plus Project (P176693) Empowering women and girls is an essential strategy of the IDA20 policy commitments. Gender equality has been hit hard by the COVID crisis, highlighting the need for IDA countries to redouble efforts under IDA20. Gains in women’s and girls’ accumulation of human capital, economic empowerment, and voice and agency have been lost. Women and girls have lost access to schools, jobs, businesses, and incomes at a faster rate than men, while struggling with increased unpaid care responsibilities. With schools and work closures, there has been an alarming rise in adolescent pregnancies and gender-based violence (GBV). The proposed project contributes to the World Bank’s Regional Integration (RI) Strategy. In funding girls’ and women empowerment across several dimensions, the proposed project will contribute to accelerate the fertility transition, thus alleviating the population constraints that are fueling violence in the region, especially in cross-border areas. As such, the proposed project will directly contribute to the RI Strategy FY18-23. In particular, it will support RI themes, including but not limited to building human capital and the resilience themes. Furthermore, building human capital, in particular among women, figures as a key pillar in the respective participating countries’ Country Partnership Frameworks as well as in their national development and sector plans. Proposed clients for SWEDD+ are Burkina Faso, Chad, The Gambia, Senegal, and Togo. The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is proposed to join the current regional partner the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to strengthen regional capacity of the regional entities to promote, track and facilitate progress toward the demographic dividend, in line with the common policy framework adopted by AU member states in 2017. The operation will assist new countries to design, implement and achieve scale for integrated girls' and women’s empowerment interventions, strengthen capacity for a regional evaluation mechanism to approve, finance and evaluate adolescent girls’ programming and strengthen regional capacity to track overall progress toward project objectives. Across all countries, it will include several innovations of regional interest. Particular focus will be on seven hotspots where there is a high prevalence of child marriage, teenage pregnancy and early school drop-out; these hotspots transcend national borders Public Disclosure and will significantly benefit from coordinated, collective action, as well as on peer learning across all countries to accelerate and improve implementation of interventions that have been rigorously proven to produce desired results along key dimensions of girls' and women’s empowerment. Activities under the project would include: i) social and behavioral change campaign activities to promote positive gender roles, girls’ continued schooling and other girls and women empowerment messages to target audiences; ii) at the community level, financial support, training and skills development for beneficiaries to remain in school or to engage in economic activities and improve their earning potential; iii) capacity building to strengthen delivery of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAHN) services to adolescents in target communities (e.g., training of health workers); and iii) capacity building of national, regional and continental institutions to strengthen advocacy and political commitment on RMNCAHN and for policy making, monitoring and evaluation related to demographic dividend and gender issues. The project will also fund knowledge exchanges to facilitate peer learning and strengthen countries’ implementation capacity and will include an ambitious learning agenda to contribute to the global evidence base on what works at scale in adolescent programming. No infrastructure investments are planned as activities leverage existing infrastructure in the target communities. D. Environmental and Social Overview D.1 Overview of Environmental and Social Project Settings This Additional Financing (AF) involves two new countries under the project: Mali and Mauritania, where activities would take place nationwide. The project will mostly fund consulting, communication costs, training services, and medical supplies. The project will also finance subsidies to vulnerable women’s small and micro businesses as part of the economic empowerment component 1.4. Minor civil works, such as the renovation and construction of latrines and fences, may also be financed. Any activity leading to substantial or high E&S risks and impacts, or those leading to Feb 11, 2025 Page 3 of 9 The World Bank Sub-saharan Africa Women’s Empowerment And Demographic Dividend Plus Project (P176693) impacts associated with land acquisition, involuntary resettlement or restriction of land use, will be excluded from project financing. D.2 Overview of Borrower’s Institutional Capacity for Managing Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts The Sahel Women's Empowerment and Demographics Project P150080 (SWEDD 2) under the World Bank’s former safeguard policies, which included Mali and Mauritania, closed in December 2024. While the former SWEDD project in Mali and Mauritania were both categorized as “C” under the Bank’s former Safeguard Policy, the Bank monitored the PMUs’ E&S performance, including the management of grievances until the projects’ closure. Overall, both PMUs recruited an E&S specialist, and at the end of project implementation were able to integrate basic E&S mitigation measures into the minor civil works (i.e. latrine construction) and apply Codes of Conduct on project workers. While the grievance mechanism was operational in Mali with 16 grievances received and addressed, it was not in Mauritania and will have to be revised under the AF. Capacity-building for both PMUs will have to be provided given that it will be their first experience applying the ESF. The project management units (PMUs) that were in place for the former project SWEDD2 will be maintained in each country. It is proposed that both PMU recruit a full-time environmental and social specialist and GBV specialist. In addition, a security specialist will be hired in Mali on a part-time and as-needed basis. II. SUMMARY OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL (ES) RISKS AND IMPACTS A. Environmental and Social Risk Classification (ESRC) Moderate A.1 Environmental Risk Rating Moderate Public Disclosure The activities planned in the AF are the same as those of the parent project, with the addition of two countries (Mali and Mauritania). Activities in Mali and Mauritania will be conducted nationwide. The components and subcomponents of the parent Project will be maintained, in addition to new ones, as dissemination messages using social media and campaigns will be conducted at the community level to reach more vulnerable groups, safe spaces for internally displaced youth, and the inclusion of nutrition as part of the curriculum for safe spaces. In Mali, in addition, the program will support the development of a curriculum for life skills and sexual and reproductive health knowledge to be implemented by the Improving Education Quality and Results for All Project (MIQRA, 164032), the update of the mapping of GBV services in Mali, the operations of the legal platform that support the review and revision of Mali’s legal framework to address legal drivers of gender disparities. For Mauritania, activities will be carried out through the design and implementation of gender-transformative interventions that promote the social and economic autonomy of girls and women; the improvement of the availability of quality SRMNIA-N services and the number of qualified health workers at community level; and the promotion, commitment and capacity of regions to develop gender policies and manage projects. The environmental risk rating of this AF is considered low as the parent project. Potential risks and impacts on the environment are not expected to be irreversible since the planned constructions will be small-scale (rehabilitation and construction of latrines, construction of fencing walls) requiring only the application of simple measures. Component 3 activities could still lead to the mobilization of suppliers and service providers for the acquisition of equipment and the delivery of services. The main potential risks associated with these activities are the lack of skills necessary to carry out project tasks in accordance with their contractual commitments on medical Waste Management and occupational and Community Health and Safety. This risk could be managed by a Biomedical Waste Management Plan which can be developed based on the capitalization of health projects in both countries. In addition there is a potential risk of environmental and resource pollution in the Feb 11, 2025 Page 4 of 9 The World Bank Sub-saharan Africa Women’s Empowerment And Demographic Dividend Plus Project (P176693) intervention area with the implementation of economic activities for beneficiaries at the community level These activities, which aim to improve the income of beneficiaries, will be screened each time to identify the appropriate measures to be put in place to mitigate potential risks.. Potential risks to small-scale construction activities (dust emissions, noise pollution, inert waste, etc.), if they arise, will be managed through the application of simple measures that will be integrated into the contractual clauses of the companies involved. Moderate A.2 Social Risk Rating The key social risks associated with the project include elite capture, the potential exclusion of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups from project benefits and the rise of grievances and discontent from non-project beneficiaries. These risks have already been in part mitigated by the project design that prioritize vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and individuals, and can be further minimized by a strong communication and outreach campaign on eligibility criteria and selection process as well as robust grievance mechanisms. The project will also generate risks associated with minor civil works, such as occupational and community health and safety risks (noise, vibration, the risk of child or forced labor when local contractors hires daily labor, etc…). However, these risks are expected to be minimal given that any civil work that lead to land acquisition, restriction of access or land use or involuntary resettlement, or that lead to substantial or high E&S risks and impacts will be excluded from project financing. As the PMUs in Mali and Mauritania do not have prior experience with the ESF, their capacity to identify, manage and monitor social risks in line with the ESSS is weak. As these risks are localized and can easily mitigated with appropriate mitigation measures and capacity-building, the social risk rating has been assessed as Moderate. B. Environment and Social Standards (ESS) that Apply to the Activities Being Considered Public Disclosure B.1 Relevance of Environmental and Social Standards ESS1 - Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts Relevant Overall, project activities will entail technical assistance, capacity-building activities, the acquisition of IT equipment and medicine associated with reproductive health. Civil works will be limited to activities with low to moderate E&S risk rating and exclude any activity leading to land acquisition, restriction of access or involuntary resettlement. Key E&S risks thus include elite capture, grievances associated with the allocation of the grant subsidy program under subcomponent 1.4, SEA/SH risks, as well as generic E&S risks associated with minor civil works, such as occupational and community health and safety risks (noise, vibration, the risk of child or forced labor when local contractors hires daily labor, etc.…). Under Component 3 (capacity building to strengthen delivery of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAHN) services to adolescents in target communities), potential impacts are expected to come mainly from planned activities with the acquisition of medical supplies and equipment with the low to moderate waste that will be generated. These waste consisting mainly of expired or unused medicines can contribute to environmental pollution when not managed properly. To minimize the risks highlighted above, the Borrower will implement a communication campaign to disseminate information on the eligibility criteria and selection process and put in place a robust grievance mechanism. For small scale civil works, a list of activities excluded from financing will be included in the project Manual of Operations (MoP) and grant allocation guidelines. E&S measures for civil works will include the application of Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) or Good Practices Codes, and the inclusion of generic and specific E&S clauses in contractors' bidding documents as relevant. Risks related to the production of biomedical waste will be managed by a Feb 11, 2025 Page 5 of 9 The World Bank Sub-saharan Africa Women’s Empowerment And Demographic Dividend Plus Project (P176693) Biomedical Waste Management Plan which can be developed based on the capitalization of health projects in both countries. With regards to the subsidy/grant allocation program under the economic empowerment subcomponent 1.4, the PMU will put in place an E&S screening process. A Code of Conduct will be applied to all project workers to minimize SEA/SH risks. Moreover, the project also offers a great opportunity to mitigate risks of SEA/SH through some activities under its component 1, and specifically sub-component 1.5 (GBV focused communication material, mapping of GBV services). ESS10 - Stakeholder Engagement and Information Disclosure Relevant Key project stakeholders will include project beneficiaries in Mali and Mauritania: women receiving health, nutrition and family planning services, adolescent girls receiving vocational training or schooling services, as well as young women and adolescent girls benefitting from project subsidies to establish their business. Beneficiaries will also include boys and young men benefitting from behavior change activities. Other stakeholders include project workers (see detail in ESS2 below), religious and traditional leaders, as well as representatives from ministries and civil society, including women’s associations. Both PMUs have prepared a preliminary Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP), which will be disclosed prior to appraisal and updated as needed. With regards to the grievance mechanism, the Mali PMU will build on the mechanism established under the former SWEDD 2 project. The mechanism was fully operational under the former project and addressed a total of 16 grievances. Should activities expand to new areas, additional committees will be established. The grievance mechanism in Mauritania will have to be revised to ensure it is adapted to project beneficiaries and sufficiently disseminated, as the mechanism under the formal project never became fully operational. Public Disclosure ESS2 - Labor and Working Conditions Relevant The project will involve the following types of workers: (i) direct workers represented by PMU staff; (ii) contracted workers who are employees of the service providers and local contractors as well as individual consultants hired for technical assistance and capacity-building activities; (iii) employees of primary suppliers (IT equipment, medical supplies, civil work material); (iv) community workers, which include volunteers involved in information/outreach campaign and behavior-change activities as well as associated government workers in the health, education and vocational training activities. Key risks and impacts associated with ESS2 are limited and may include traffic accidents during field work activities, potential for child or forced labor for the small contractors doing works in remote areas – although the workforce requirement for civil works is expected to be minimal risks as well as potential for sexual harassment. Given the limited ESS2 risks, an LMP will not be prepared. Key ESS2 considerations, such as the minimum age to work on the project (18 years old), terms and condition for community workers, driving safety measures and the application of a Code of Conduct (CoC) will be directly integrated in the Project’s Manual of Operation (MOP) for each PMU in addition to the ESCPs. ESS3 - Resource Efficiency and Pollution Prevention and Management Relevant This standard is relevant. Potential risks to small-scale construction activities (dust emissions, noise pollution, inert waste, etc.) are negligible and will be managed with the application of simple mitigation measures. However activities related to strengthening delivery of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAHN) services to adolescents in target communities can generate pharmaceutical waste consisting mainly of expired or unused medicines, but can also contribute to environmental pollution when not managed properly. These Feb 11, 2025 Page 6 of 9 The World Bank Sub-saharan Africa Women’s Empowerment And Demographic Dividend Plus Project (P176693) risks will be managed with the development of specific tools such as Biomedical Waste Management mitigation measures either integrated into the service providers' contract or in the ESMP as relevant. ESS4 - Community Health and Safety Relevant Key risks and impacts associated with ESS4 include minor disturbances associated with the civil works (noise and vibrations), potential exposure to sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment (SEA/SH), especially with regards to the housing of girls to encourage them to stay in school and the grant allocation program (economic empowerment activity under 1.4). Given the security situation in Mali, the PMU may rely on military personnel in a way that is consistent with the Bank’s requirement on use of security forces. Should this be confirmed, the PMU will have to prepare a Security Management Plan (SMP). In Mali, the project will leverage and scale-up the work done on mapping GBV services using Kobo toolbox, thus enhancing the timely and survivor-centered referral of GBV survivors to medical, psychosocial and legal structures. ESS5 - Land Acquisition, Restrictions on Land Use and Involuntary Resettlement Not Currently Relevant Not relevant. Any activity that lead to land acquisition, restriction of access or land use or involuntary resettlement, will be excluded from project financing. ESS6 - Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Not Currently Relevant Resources Not relevant. Public Disclosure ESS7 - Indigenous Peoples/Sub-Saharan African Historically Underserved Traditional Not Currently Relevant Local Communities Not relevant. ESS8 - Cultural Heritage Not Currently Relevant Not relevant. ESS9 - Financial Intermediaries Not Currently Relevant Not relevant. B.2 Legal Operational Policies that Apply OP 7.50 Operations on International Waterways No OP 7.60 Operations in Disputed Areas No B.3 Other Salient Features Use of Borrower Framework No Feb 11, 2025 Page 7 of 9 The World Bank Sub-saharan Africa Women’s Empowerment And Demographic Dividend Plus Project (P176693) The Borrower's Framework will not be used. Use of Common Approach No Common Approach is not being considered for this project. C. Overview of Required Environmental and Social Risk Management Activities C.1 What Borrower environmental and social analyses, instruments, plans and/or frameworks are planned or required by implementation? None. III. CONTACT POINT World Bank Task Team Leader: Eleonora Del Valle Cavagnero Title: Senior Economist Email: ecavagnero@worldbank.org TTL Contact: Olga Guerrero Horas Job Title: Health Specialist Public Disclosure Email: oguerrerohoras@worldbank.org TTL Contact: Kofi Amponsah Job Title: Senior Economist, Health Email: kamponsah@worldbank.org TTL Contact: Djibrilla Karamoko Job Title: Senior Health Specialist Email: dkaramoko@worldbank.org TTL Contact: Teegwende Valerie Porgo Job Title: Senior Health Specialist Email: tporgo@worldbank.org IV. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT Feb 11, 2025 Page 8 of 9 The World Bank Sub-saharan Africa Women’s Empowerment And Demographic Dividend Plus Project (P176693) The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 473-1000 Web: http://www.worldbank.org/projects V. APPROVAL Eleonora Del Valle Cavagnero, Olga Guerrero Horas, Kofi Amponsah, Djibrilla Karamoko, Task Team Leader(s): Teegwende Valerie Porgo ADM Environmental Sophie Lo Diop Specialist: ADM Social Specialist: Eloise Sophie Fluet Public Disclosure Feb 11, 2025 Page 9 of 9