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INTEGRATED SAFEGUARDS DATA SHEET 
CONCEPT STAGE 
Report No.:  AC888 
 
Date ISDS Prepared/Updated: June 10, 2004 
 
I.  BASIC INFORMATION 
 
A.  Basic Project Data 
 
Country: Colombia 
Project ID: P088857 
Project Name: COLOMBIA- 
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE LOAN to 
support the Second Programmatic Labor 
Reform and Social Structural Adjustment 
Loan 
Task Team Leader: Vicente Paqueo, 
LCSHS 
Estimated Appraisal Date: July 21, 2004 
Estimated Board Date: October 14, 2004 
Managing Unit: LCSHS-DPT 
Lending Instrument: Specific Investment 
Loan 
Sector: Other social services (45%);Health 
(30%);Primary education (15%);Secondary 
education (10%) 
Theme: Social risk coping (P);Other social 
protection and risk management 
(P);Education for all (P);Social risk 
reduction (P);Education for the knowledge 
economy (S) 
Safeguard Policies Specialists in the task team:  
Loan/Credit amount ($m.):  
IBRD: 2.0 
Other financing amounts by source:  
($m) 
B.  Project Objectives [from section 2 of PCN] 
 
The TAL would support the government efforts to implement wide-ranging and profound social 
reforms.  In this context, its main development objectives include the improvement of: (a) the 
MSP’s capacity to develop and implement a working social protection network to protect the 
poor and vulnerable, (b) the capacity of the Ministry of Education (MEN) to better implement 
new decentralization reforms, and (c) the Department of National Planning’s (DNP) capacity for 
monitoring and evaluation of social programs.  
 
Bank support would allow the different implementing agencies to reinforce their institutions by 
developing better regulatory decrees and other regulations, design information systems and tools, 
and improve targeting and outcomes of the country’s key social assistance, health and education 
programs.  
 
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These technical tools, while developed to some extent by external consultants and experts, are 
expected to strengthen mainstream institutional capacity specifically of the MSP and MEN by 
the assimilation of the new instruments developed by the TAL. For instance, with TAL support, 
MEN will evaluate how accurate is the enrollment data provided by State Secretaries of 
Education to calculate education transfers from the central government. Currently, state 
Secretaries of Education have an incentive to overstate enrollment to receive more resources 
from the central government.  This assessment will provide auditing methodologies that the 
MEN can incorporate to tackle and detect information problems early on in the process and take 
corrective actions. The technical support to the MSP would help it tackle the coordination of 
large programs such as SENA, ICBF and 
Cajas de Compensación Familiar 
by establishing 
working agreements and mechanism based on the new division of responsibilities in which the 
MSP assumes policy making, coordination and supervision roles (not previously existing), and 
by developing the information systems and channels to achieve such coordination. The MSP will 
develop mechanisms for verification by analyzing databases of beneficiaries of programs to 
ensure that all are following targeting criteria established by such Ministry. Also, the TAL would 
permit DNP’s Public Policy Evaluation Unit (formerly SINERGIA) to undertake more key 
evaluation studies and learn from them, develop better monitoring and evaluation instruments, 
and institutionalize impact evaluation.   
 
The TAL will help the GOC address some intersectoral issues between the MSP and the MEN.  
For example, it would provide assistance to help clarify regulatory Decrees and implementation 
of the new roles in technical training provided in the recent CONPES document on the National 
Skills Formation System and the new role of SENA. In this framework,  the MSP assumes the 
role of policy making and certifies training programs (previously made by SENA) and the MEN 
oversees technical aspects of training. SENA will be charged with providing specified training 
under certain conditions and regulations.  
 
The performance of the project would be measured by the completion rate of planned studies, 
information systems, surveys, issuance of needed regulations/decrees/policy documents to 
advance the reforms, and the rate of adoption of the new institutional mechanisms and 
instruments financed under the TAL operation.  
 
C.  Project Description [from section 3 of PCN] 
 
The loan of $2.0 million is proposed. This would be used to finance the following main 
components. The distribution of this amount among the three components is still under 
discussion with GOC. MSP, however, is expected to get the lion share, considering that most of 
the reforms to be implemented are under its responsibility. 
 
Component 1
:
Assistance for MSP.
 
This component would provide technical assistance to 
MSP to ensure timely, sustained, and effective implementation of health, labor, training and 
social assistance reforms.  Specifically, it would finance the hiring of consultants who would 
work with the DNP, MEN, and MSP to (a) develop the implementation strategies, action plans 
and instruments needed to implement reforms of ICBF (Institute for Child and Family Welfare), 
SENA (National Training Institute), the 
Cajas de Compensación Familiar 
 (workers’ family 
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assistance program) and others; (b) undertake diagnostic studies and development of alternative 
institutional and organizational arrangements for the training and social protection programs, 
including early child education, programs for adolescent and unskilled youth and for the elderly 
with no formal social assistance; (c) develop a system of output-based indicators for following 
up progress in the achievement of agreed social protection system targets; and (d) establishment 
of an impact evaluation system for the main social protection programs under the MSP and 
development of key household surveys for said purpose.  
 
This component would enable the new MSP to advance: (a) institutional and technical capacity 
to design and implement a better social protection system, (b) design and implementation of an 
effective monitoring system for programs and agencies under its jurisdiction, and (c) design and 
implementation of an effective impact evaluation system for major programs and institutions 
under the MSP.  The Social Protection System, as envisioned by the MSP, has four key areas that 
this component will cover: (i) labor market policies (e.g., training, active labor market policies 
such as wage subsidies, and social assistance to the unemployed); (ii) social assistance to special 
vulnerable groups such as young children, adolescents and elderly poor; (iii) health sector 
insurance for the poor; and (iv) micro/credit programs.  Coordination of all these programs is an 
enormous institutional challenge for the MSP, as most of these programs are run by separate 
semi/autonomous agencies like ICBF, SENA and the 
Cajas de Compensación
 
Familiar
.
Component 2
:
Assistance to MEN. 
 
The project would support: (a) a study of the current 
process of collecting and verifying enrollment and other data used to calculate the amount of 
education transfers to territories to detect flaws in the process; (b) based on said study, 
development of more adequate system for data audits, safeguard procedures and penalty schemes 
against fraud and manipulation; (c) review and dissemination of country and international 
experiences regarding the use of “contracts” and other innovative schemes for the delivery 
primary and secondary education services; (d) development of policies and implementation 
strategies to ensure that the decentralization reform actually leads to school empowerment and 
motivation for quality improvements; and (e) developing and pilot-testing ways of tracking 
public education and health expenditures financed by transfers under Law 715 to their 
beneficiaries. This would be undertaken in coordination with the evaluation of Law 715.  The 
MEN and DNP would examine the impact of the new allocation scheme on patterns of resource 
utilization, education outputs of territorial entities and utilization of the teaching force (see 
Component 3). 
 
This component would improve MEN’s capacity to better implement the education reform 
provision of Law 715. Under the new decentralization law, resources are transferred from the 
central to state and municipal levels largely on the basis of enrollment.  While the allocation 
scheme under Law 715 is a sound approach to improve efficiency and equity across territorial 
entities and to promote rationalization of the teaching force, it requires good auditing and control 
systems to minimize fraud and manipulation and ensure the veracity of the information. 
Moreover, for decentralization to have an impact on school performance, it is important for the 
territorial entities to put in place measures that empower and motivate schools, parents, and civil 
society to improve its quality and efficiency.  
 
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Component 3
:
Assistance to DNP
.
The TAL would suppo
rt the effort of DNP’s Public Policy 
Evaluation Unit to develop a culture of evaluation and citizens’ monitoring and feedback 
regarding key public policies and programs to promote transparency and social accountability. 
To this effect, the project would support, in conjunction with other activities, the following: (a) 
an evaluation study of  the general participation system (revenue sharing) including the adequacy 
of the instrument and formula used, the impact on the socio/economic variables financed with 
that spending, equity of spending, among other things (this will be undertaken jointly with MEN 
and MSP); (b) development of a detailed implementation program for the periodic evaluation of 
selected social programs, such as SENA’s impact on employment, wages and productivity 
among trainees and firms; and (c) detailed implementation design and institutionalization of the 
Cómo Vamos?
 social control system, based on the successful experience of Bogotá.   
 
The Public Policy Evaluation Unit has already made significant progress in establishing a system 
to monitor progress against set targets for most central government institutions and programs 
covered in the National Development Plan.  It also has taken steps towards the 
institutionalization of a system for impact evaluation of major social programs, starting with the 
impact evaluation of the Red de Apoyo Social (RAS) programs and the forging of a consensus in 
GOC to include in the Organic Budget Law a requirement for periodic impact evaluation of 
major programs. This component would further advance the establishment of a culture of impact 
evaluation and citizens’ monitoring/feedback. 
 
D.  Project location (if known) 
 
[Guideline:  If the location is not yet identified, please indicate if there are alternative locations 
under consideration or how the location is to be determined during project preparation] 
 
E.  Borrower’s Institutional Capacity for Safeguard Policies [from PCN] 
 
[Guideline: Based on past experience and other available information]
 
II.  SAFEGUARD POLICIES THAT MIGHT APPLY 
 
Applicable?
Safeguard Policy 
If Applicable, How Might It Apply? 
[
]
Environmental Assessment
(
OP
/
BP
4.01) 
[
]
Natural Habitats
(
OP
/
BP
4.04) 
[
]
Pest Management
(
OP 4.09
)
[
]
Involuntary Resettlement
(
OP
/
BP
4.12) 
[
]
Indigenous Peoples
(
OD 4.20
)
[
]
Forests
(
OP
/
BP
4.36) 
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[
]
Safety of Dams
(
OP
/
BP
4.37) 
[
]
Cultural Property
(draft OP 4.11 - 
OPN 11.03
)
[
]
Projects in Disputed Areas
(
OP
/
BP
/
GP
7.60)
*
[
]
Projects on International Waterways
(
OP
/
BP
/
GP
7.50) 
Environmental Assessment Category:
 
[
]
A
[
]
B
[X] C   [ ] FI   [ ] TBD (to be determined) 
 
If TBD, explain determinants of classification and give steps that will be taken to determine that 
EA category (mandatory): 
 
III.  SAFEGUARD PREPARATION PLAN 
 
A.  Target date for the Quality Enhancement Review (QER), at which time the PAD-stage ISDS 
would be prepared. 
 
B.  For simple projects that will not require a QER, the target date for preparing the PAD-stage 
ISDS 
 
C.  Time frame for launching and completing the safeguard-related studies that may be needed.  
The specific studies and their timing
1
should be specified in the PAD-stage ISDS. 
 
IV.  APPROVALS 
 
Signed and submitted by: 
 
Task Team Leader: 
Vicente Paqueo 
Date 
Approved by: 
 
Regional Safeguards Coordinator: 
Name 
Date 
Comments 
Sector Manager: 
Name 
Date 
Comments 
*
By supporting the proposed project, the Bank does not intend to prejudice the final determination of the parties' claims on the 
disputed areas
 
1
Reminder: The Bank's Disclosure Policy requires that safeguard-related documents be disclosed before appraisal (i) at the 
InfoShop and (ii) in-country, at publicly accessible locations and in a form and language that are accessible to potentially affected 
persons.
 
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