$
Report No: RES00613
RESTRUCTURING PAPER
ON A
PROPOSED PROJECT RESTRUCTURING
OF
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency Project
APPROVED ON 17-Dec-2020
TO
Save the Children Fund, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme
(WFP)
Education
Middle East And North Africa
Regional Vice President: Ousmane Dione
Regional Director: Fadia M. Saadah
Country Director: Stephane Guimbert
Practice Manager: Fadila Caillaud
Task Team Leader(s): Thanh Thi Mai, Mahmoud Abduh Ali Elsayed
The World Bank
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency Project (P175036)
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
ASER Annual Status of Education Report
EMIS Education Management Information System
E&S Environmental and Social
ESCP Environmental and Social Commitment Plan
ESPIG Education Sector Plan Implementation Grant
GPE Global Partnership for Education
GRM Grievance Redress Mechanism
IDA International Development Association
IRG Internationally Recognized Government
IP Implementing partner
M&E Monitoring and Evaluation
MTR Mid Term Review
MOE Ministry of Education
PDO Project Development Objective
REAL Restoring Education and Learning
RFT Rural Female Teacher
SCI Save the Children International
TPMA Third-Party Monitoring Agencies
UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund
WB World Bank
WFP World Food Programme
The World Bank
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency Project (P175036)
The World Bank
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency Project (P175036)
@#&OPS~Doctype~OPS^dynamics@restrhybridbasicdata#doctemplate
BASIC DATA
Product Information
Operation ID Operation Name
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency
P175036
Project
Product/Financing Instrument Geographical Identifier
Investment Project Financing (IPF) Yemen, Republic of
Approval Date Current Closing Date
17-Dec-2020 30-Jun-2025
Environmental and Social Risk Classification (ESRC)
Substantial
Organizations
Borrower Responsible Agency
Save the Children Fund, United Nations Children's Fund Save the Children International, United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP) (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP)
@#&OPS~Doctype~OPS^dynamics@restrhybridoperationstatus#doctemplate
OPERATION STATUS
Project Development Objective (DO)
Original Development Objective
The project development objective is to maintain access to basic education, improve conditions for learning and
strengthen education sector capacity in selected districts of the Republic of Yemen.
Disbursement Summary (in USD million)
Source of Funds Net Commitment Disbursed Undisbursed % Disbursed
i
The World Bank
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency Project (P175036)
IBRD -- -- -- 0
IDA 94.14 91.86 3.73 96.10
Grants 52.80 44.48 8.32 84.25
Policy Waivers
Does this restructuring trigger the need for any policy
waiver(s)? No
@#&OPS~Doctype~OPS^dynamics@restrhybridmpa#doctemplate
@#&OPS~Doctype~OPS^dynamics@restrhybridmpa#doctemplate
ii
The World Bank
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency Project (P175036)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. PROJECT STATUS AND RATIONALE FOR RESTRUCTURING ........................................................................................1
II. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED CHANGES ....................................................................................................................2
III. PROPOSED CHANGES ................................................................................................................................................3
IV. DETAILED CHANGE(S) ...............................................................................................................................................4
The World Bank
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency Project (P175036)
I. PROJECT STATUS AND RATIONALE FOR RESTRUCTURING
1. This restructuring aims to ensure that the project achieves its Project Development Objective (PDO) despite the
challenging context in Yemen.
2. The restructuring includes two phases: Phase 1 includes key changes to the IDA grant D7650, which have already
been approved under Restructuring Paper No: RES00155. This second phase restructuring covers the extension of the
closing dates of two Global Partnership for Education (GPE) grants, TF-B6906 and TF-to June 30, 2025.
3. The proposed extension of the closing dates has been endorsed by the Local Education Group and the GPE.
Project Status
4. Project Overview. The Restoring Education and Learning Emergency (REAL) Project was approved by the World
Bank on December 17, 2020, and became effective on January 6, 2021. The Project is financed by a US$100 million IDA
Grant and co-financed by three Global Partnership for Education (GPE) grants totaling US$52.8 million. The Project is
implemented through UN agencies – United Nations’ Children Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Program (WFP) - and Save
the Children International (SCI) – in accordance with World Bank guidelines and procedures for Yemen. UNICEF and WFP
are co-recipients of IDA grants D7640 and D7650; UNICEF is also the recipient of the GPE Accelerated Funding (AF) Grant
TF-B6905, and co-recipient with SCI of the GPE Education Sector Program Implementation Grant (ESPIG) Multiplier grants
TF-B6906 and TFB6907.
5. The Project supports (i) priority interventions to sustain access and ensure learning (namely support to teachers
in the form of training and performance-based payments, school feeding, provision of learning materials and school
supplies, and rehabilitation of school infrastructure); and (ii) the strengthening of local capacity and system resilience in
targeted governorates and building capacity for Ministry of Education (MOE) education officials.
6. Progress towards achievement of the Project Development Objectives (PDO). The progress towards
achievement of the PDO is on track with four out of five PDO indicators having surpassed their end targets. Most notably,
the number of students enrolled in grades 1, 2, and 3 in targeted schools increased from 221,017 in 21/22 school year (SY)
to 240,663 in 23/24 SY, an almost 10 percent increase over the last three years. The transition from Grade 3 to Grade 4
has been consistently maintained at 92 percent, significantly higher than the project original target of 80 percent. 1,030
schools have administered at least one grade level learning assessment during an academic year (compared to the end
target of 800 schools), and 608,516 students in target districts have benefitted from direct interventions to enhance
learning (compared to the end target of 332,000).1 The fifth PDO indicator on schools reporting aggregate school-level
indicators to district level will be met in school year 2024/25 when school staff will be trained and supported on this
intervention. Given this progress, the PDO assessment as of June 30, 2024, was satisfactory.
7. Implementation progress Project implementation is progressing well across all the components and the
implementation progress rating is maintained at satisfactory, reflecting the continued progress recorded across all Project
activities since the mid-term review (MTR) in August 2023. The REAL project has now reached (i) close to 600,000 children
with date bars and high-energy biscuits, (ii) 34,970 regular, 4,597 temporary/volunteer and 2,135 rural female teachers
with incentives and salary allowance support, (iii) 22,942 students with remedial education, (iv) 240,766 students from
grades 3-5 with learning gap diagnostic assessment to identify the students who will participate in the scaling up phase of
1The coverage of the REAL project extends beyond the 14 target districts as some activities such as teacher payments and support to Rural Female Teachers cover broader
geographic scope. The estimated total number of children benefiting directly and indirectly from any intervention under the REAL project is 1.7 million students,
representing about 30 percent of school children in the country.
Page 1
The World Bank
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency Project (P175036)
the remedial learning, (v) 867 schools receiving infrastructure improvement package, (vi) 560,000 students received school
bags for the school year 2023/24 and (vii) more than 9,000 grades 1 to 3 teachers are being trained on core teaching skills
such as classroom management, psychosocial support to students, literacy and numeracy pedagogy and student
assessment. Disbursements currently stand at US$$138 million (US$96 million for IDA and US$42 million for the GPE trust
funds), which represents 90% of the total US$152 million financing.
8. Monitoring and Evaluation. The Implementing Agencies for the benefit of the Republic of Yemen, namely UNICEF,
SCI and WFP, with the support from the World Bank team, have established a joint database of participating schools and
this dashboard is being updated monthly to track the progress in the delivery of project results. The Project has also
engaged Third-party monitors agencies (TPMA) to conduct verification of progress of project activities i.e., schools’ inputs,
infrastructure improvement and teacher training and supervision. The TPMA reports have been discussed and reviewed
with the World Bank. The World Bank also conducted sampled phone interviews of beneficiary schools in Internationally
Recognized Government (IRG) areas to provide further insights on project progress and identify issues and challenges that
should be addressed. Finally, SCI conducted the assessment of student learning for Grade 2 and 3 in REAL participating
schools and will continue to conduct these assessments in school year 2023/24 and 2024/25 to help inform and focus the
Project activities on the ultimate outcome of improving student learning.
Rationale for Restructuring
9. Extension of closing dates of the two grants to June 30, 2025. There was an 18-month delay in launching the
project activities due to (i) more than a year after approval was needed to reach an agreement with the government on
project targeted areas; and (ii) the grant agreement between SCI and the WB only became effective in June 2022. As a
result of these delays, the IPs’ implementation timeline was shortened and in the case of SCI significantly so.
Implementation has accelerated substantially in fiscal year (FY) 2023, with disbursement doubling that of FY2022, reaching
75 percent. However, to deliver all remaining activities, the project will need the full 2024/25 school year. Therefore, a
six-month extension of the two GPE grants TF-B6906 and TF-B6907 is recommended. Under para. 51 of the IPF directive,
the PDO remains achievable, the progress of the Recipient is satisfactory, and the Bank and the recipient agreed to set an
action plan to finalize the activities by the proposed extension of the closing date.
II. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED CHANGES
10. GPE grant TF-B6906 (implemented by UNICEF):
• The closing date of the grant will be extended to June 30, 2025.
11. GPE Grant TF-B6907 (implemented by SCI):
• The closing date of the grant will be extended to June 30, 2025.
Page 2
The World Bank
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency Project (P175036)
Summary of Performance of E&S Risk Compliance
The overall performance of the E&S is moderately unsatisfactory due to noncompliance with ESS2 and ESS4 as detailed
in items 4, 6 and 7.
1. Capacity Building: Training was provided to more than 38,000 project workers on various E&S requirements
2. Site Monitoring and OHS: Implementing agencies are conducting regular field visits and spot checks to ensure
compliance with E&S requirements, with no incidents reported since the last mission.
3. Stakeholder Engagement and updated SEP: Joint stakeholder engagement sessions have been conducted from
September to December 2023, with thousands participating in consultations that will inform the updated
Stakeholder Engagement Plan.
4. Labor and Working Conditions: All project workers signed the Code of Conduct, however MoE staff did not.
UNICEF is committed to working to address this as part of the ESCP compliance.
5. Grievance Mechanism (GM): Around 7000 inquiries and grievances were received and handled by the three
agencies (UNICEF, WFP and SCI).
6. SEA/SH reported incident: UNICEF reported an SEA/SH incident with delayed notification to the World Bank,
resulting in a temporary project disbursement suspension. UNICEF has agreed to a set of corrective actions in
the updated ESCP and the Bank monitors UNICEF’s progress on these corrective actions monthly. Meetings
were held in June, July and August 2024 but for the September 2024 meeting, UNICEF asked to postpone until
the extension of the project is granted.
7. Security Management Plan (SMP): SCI is conducting investigations into the detention and death of their Safety
& Security Director, with reviews still in progress. UNICEF and SCI have reported additional staff being
detained in June 2024.
8. ESCP update and disclosure: The ESCP updated and agreed with UNICEF has been disclosed. All measures
agreed in the updated ESCP will apply to all schools remaining in the project.
@#&OPS~Doctype~OPS^dynamics@restrhybridsummarychanges#doctemplate
Summary changes
III. PROPOSED CHANGES
Operation Information Proposed Changes Operation Information Proposed Changes
Development Objective No Loan Closing Date Extension Yes
Page 3
The World Bank
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency Project (P175036)
Summary Description
No Implementation Schedule Yes
(Operation Abstract)
Legal Operational Policies No Loan Cancellations No
MFD/PCE No Reallocations No
Results No Financial Management No
Risks No Procurement No
Legal Covenants No Institutional Arrangement No
Conditions No
Implementation Modalities No
Disbursements Estimates No
Disbursements Arrangements No
DDO No
Clients No
Appraisal Summary No
Components No
@#&OPS~Doctype~OPS^dynamics@restrhybriddetailedchanges-disclose#doctemplate
IV. DETAILED CHANGE(S)
COSTS & FINANCING
Private Capital Facilitation
Is this an MFD-Enabling Project (MFD-EP)?
Is this project Private Capital Enabling (PCE)?
LOANS
Loan Closing
Original Revised Proposed Proposed Deadline
Loan/Credit/Trust
Status Closing Closing(s) Closing for Withdrawal
Fund
Applications
IDA-D7640-001 Effective 16-Dec-2024 16-Dec-2024 30-Jun-2025 30-Oct-2025
Page 4
The World Bank
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency Project (P175036)
IDA-D7650-001 Effective 16-Dec-2024 30-Jun-2025 30-Jun-2025 30-Oct-2025
TF-B6905-001 Closed 30-May-2022 12-Oct-2023
TF-B6906-001 Effective 30-Nov-2024 30-Nov-2024 30-Jun-2025 30-Oct-2025
TF-B6907-001 Effective 16-Dec-2024 16-Dec-2024 30-Jun-2025 30-Oct-2025
ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL
Environmental & Social Assessment
According to the E/S Specialist are there changes proposed to the operation’s design that No
would impact the Bank’s E&S assessment?”
Page 5
The World Bank
Yemen Restoring Education and Learning Emergency Project (P175036)
Page 6