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1 Public Disclosure Authorized MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA Lebanon Social Protection & Labor Global Practice Recipient Executed Activities Investment Project Financing FY 2014 Seq No: 5 ARCHIVED on 09-Jan-2017 ISR26670 Implementing Agencies: Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Social Affairs Public Disclosure Authorized Key Dates Key Project Dates Bank Approval Date:06-Jun-2014 Planned Mid Term Review Date:01-Feb-2016 Original Closing Date:31-Dec-2018 Project Development Objectives Effectiveness Date:18-Aug-2014 Actual Mid-Term Review Date:11-Feb-2016 Revised Closing Date:31-Dec-2018 Public Disclosure Authorized Project Development Objective (from Project Appraisal Document) The objective of the Project is to expand the coverage and enhance the social assistance package of the National Poverty Targeting Program (NPTP) to Lebanese affected by the Syrian crisis and all Lebanese households under the extreme poverty line. Has the Project Development Objective been changed since Board Approval of the Project Objective? Yes Board Approved Revised Project Development Objective (If project is formally restructured)phrpdodel The objective of the Project is to expand the coverage and enhance the social assistance package of the National Poverty Targeting Program (NPTP) to Lebanese affected by the Syrian crisis and all Lebanese households under the extreme poverty line, as well as to assess the effectiveness of a graduation pilot. Components Public Disclosure Authorized Name Component 1: Administration of NPTP:(Cost $0.50 M) Component 2: Social Assistance:(Cost $7.00 M) Component 3: NPTP Graduation Pilot:(Cost $2.50 M) Overall Ratings Name Previous Rating Current Rating Progress towards achievement of PDO Satisfactory Satisfactory Overall Implementation Progress (IP) Satisfactory Satisfactory Overall Risk Rating Moderate Moderate 1/9/2017 Page 1 of 10

2 Implementation Status and Key Decisions Component 1: Administration of the NPTP The objective of this component is to ensure an effective and efficient administration and implementation of the project through its structures in the MOSA and the PCM. It is a continuation and expansion of activities financed under the parent project, as well as the inclusion of a new component. It includes: i) supporting the NPTP Project Management teams at MOSA and PCM; (ii) recertification of applicants including new PMT formula; (iii) upgrading NPTP MIS; (iv) refining the GRM; (v) monitoring and evaluation of the NPTP implementation; (vi) outreach campaign; (vii) provision of training to Beneficiaries on the use of Food Vouchers, and technical assistance to the NPTP Project Unit in managing, assessing and monitoring the implementation of the e-card Food Voucher program; and (viii) supporting the Fiduciary Operations Team (FOT) which is responsible for implementation of the procurement and financial functions of the project. Progress to date: Project management in MOSA has been rehauled with the recent appointment of a new Director General in MOSA that will strengthen the NPTP program and its integration into MOSA programs. Immediately upon his appointment, the DG worked with the Bank team on a new organogram for the NPTP which promises to be more effective. This coincided with the appointment of a new Project Manager as well. Recertification of Beneficiaries. Recertification of all 110,000 households and any new applicants should have been completed by December 2016, based on a new PMT formula developed early 2016 with TA from the World Bank. However, recertification has been delayed due to several reasons most important of which is the (temporary) allocation of the NPTP social workers to conduct a census of Syrian refugees - another program being implemented by MOSA. This has now been rectified and the social workers reallocated to the NPTP. A new timetable for recertification has been agreed with MOSA during the December mission which will see it completed by August NPTP MIS. The mission agreed with the NPTP on the need for an upgraded MIS. This will be done in two phases: a short-term upgrade financed under this project and a larger overhaul new system which will require more time and resources. The short-term upgrade will also accommodate the GRM system (see below). Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM): Based on discussions on GRM objectives and needs at the MoSA NPTP offices with various members of the NPTP unit, agreement was reached on the following: (I) Drafting a GRM-specific Operational Manual outlining the protocols and procedures for grievance redress, shared with the World Bank for comments and feedback (by Feb 28, 2017); (ii) Establishing a Grievance Desk, based on GRM staff requirements, roles and procedures for current program needs (By March 31, 2017); (iii) Optimizing Existing MIS/GRS applications by capturing more data fields in existing Call Card system, including developing a simple dashboard for analytics and quality control of complaints (Ongoing); and (iv) Fortifying Communication/Outreach Campaigns to inform people at local and national levels of NPTP and grievance mechanisms (Ongoing until Recertification results). Monitoring and Evaluation. The existing monitoring system is producing sufficient indicators for basic monitoring (primarily from the PCM team). However, as the system is becoming more complex, an enhanced M&E system is required. The mission agreed with the NPTP team on the development of an M&E plan which will include program and household level indicators, as well as a robust impact evaluation for the e-card food voucher program and the graduation pilot. A priority is recruitment of an M&E officer. Outreach campaign. An initial campaign for recertification was conducted in the fall mostly through mobile messenging. In addition, posters were available at the social development centers informing potential and current beneficiaries. However, this will need to be strengthened in the next few months. Training on e-card Food Voucher. Several trainings were conducted by the WFP staff to the social workers, NPTP staff, and beneficiaries. This is expected to continue with the additional financing and new beneficiaries. Fiduciary Operations Team (FOT). The FOT continues to perform its duties and functions well including procurement and financial management. No issues on the procurement side and performance continues to be satisfactory. On Financial Management performance of the project is downgraded to MS from satisfactory due to the delays in the transfer of funds to the project account due to internal procedures within PCM that requires that the transfer request be submitted to the Court of Accounts for review prior to sending to MOF. FOT will re-discuss the procedures within PCM in order to eliminate this step. The WFP part has been fully utilized and the remaining funds (approx. US$ 300K) will be returned Audit report for year 2015 has been submitted and found acceptable. The next audit will cover fiscal year 2016 and will be due by June 30, With respect to the Additional Financing funds, FOT is following on the process of opening the bank account and will claim the first advance subsequently. Component 2: Social Assistance This component provides a package of social assistance benefits to the extremely poor Lebanese households and those affected by the Syrian crisis. The program s assistance to date consists of: (i) health coverage through a waiver of 10 15% for hospital co-payments; (ii) waivers for school registration fees and books public elementary, high, and vocational schools; (iii) food assistance via the electronic card food voucher program. To date, the program counts 105,811 beneficiary households (460,281 individuals) eligible to receive education and health subsidies, both of which are financed by the GoL, while US$3.76 from the E-NPTP Grant financed the provision e-card food vouchers to the poorest 5,076 NPTP beneficiary households. The NPTP e-card food voucher program has attracted the attention of donors and partner agencies. For example, the German government has contributed to date approximately US$7.3 million. Since August 2016, the coverage of the e-card food voucher has been expanding at a rate of approximately 1,000 households per month. As such, the number of NPTP beneficiary households receiving the food assistance voucher through the e- card is expected to reach 10,008 households (52,715 individuals) by end of December Building on the positive impact of the e-card food voucher witnessed under the E-NPTP project, US$7 million is allocated under the AF for the continuation and expansion of the e-card food voucher program. The disbursement of the AF Grant is expected to start in March 2017, covering the poorest 10,008 NPTP beneficiary households for a period of five months. With respect to the implementation arrangements of the e-card food voucher, it will also remain as the arrangements established under the E-NPTP. Component 3: NPTP Graduation Pilot Under this component, through the E-NPTP AF, the Government of Lebanon will be able to pilot a graduation program (NPTP-G), which will seek to 1/9/2017 Page 2 of 10

3 promote increased and sustainable levels of income among some of the poorest NPTP households, in order to improve their overall relative poverty levels. The NPTP-G will target 600 households from among the 10,000 recertified NPTP beneficiary households. Prior to the launching of the NPTP-G, several preparatory activities will need to be launched by early January 2017, and which include the drafting of the NPTP-G Annex to the Program s Operations Manual, as well as the launching of the recruitment process for: (i) NPTP-G Sub-Coordinator and M&E Specialist; (ii) two companies that will be in charge of carrying out the market analyses, whose main objective is to identify the assets to be transferred to the NPTP-G beneficiary households; and (iii) the company that will be in charge of the data collection for the baseline survey of the NPTP-G Impact Evaluation. 1/9/2017 Page 3 of 10

4 Risks Systematic Operations Risk-rating Tool Risk Category Rating at Approval Previous Rating Current Rating Political and Governance -- Substantial Substantial Macroeconomic -- Substantial Substantial Sector Strategies and Policies -- Substantial Substantial Technical Design of Project or Program -- Moderate Moderate Institutional Capacity for Implementation and Sustainability -- Moderate Moderate Fiduciary -- Moderate Moderate Environment and Social -- Moderate Moderate 1/9/2017 Page 4 of 10

5 Stakeholders -- Moderate Moderate Other -- Moderate -- Overall -- Moderate Moderate Results Project Development Objective Indicators Direct project beneficiaries (Number, Core) Value 195, , , , Date 31-Dec Jun Dec Dec-2018 Female beneficiaries (Percentage, Core Supplement) Value Selected NPTP-G Household members reporting being employed or self employed (Percentage, Custom) Value NPTP beneficiaries from extremely poor households as a share of total NPTP beneficiaries (Percentage, Custom) Value /9/2017 Page 5 of 10

6 Date 31-Dec Dec Dec Dec-2018 Targeted Households having increased their total income (Percentage, Custom) Value Beneficiaries of safety net programs, of which are: E-card food vouchers (Number, Custom) Value , , , Date 18-Sep Dec Dec Dec-2018 Targeted Households having improved poverty level (Percentage, Custom) Value Overall Comments Intermediate Results Indicators 1/9/2017 Page 6 of 10

7 Number of NPTP Applicants (Number, Custom) Value 480, , , , Date 31-Dec Jun Dec Dec-2018 Targeted Households reporting increase in savings (Percentage, Custom) Value Members of targeted Households reporting increase in soft skills (Percentage, Custom) Value HHs benefiting from the NPTP-G (Number, Custom) Value /9/2017 Page 7 of 10

8 Individuals benefiting from NPTP-G (Number, Custom Supplement) Value , Percentage of Females benefiting from the NPTP-G (Percentage, Custom Supplement) Value Targeted HHs reporting increase in Food Consumption Score (Percentage, Custom) Value Time lapse between application and eligibility notification (Months, Custom) Value Date 31-Dec Dec Dec Dec /9/2017 Page 8 of 10

9 Household awareness of NPTP (Percentage, Custom) Value Date 31-Dec Dec Dec Dec-2018 Proportion of assisted people informed about the e-card food program (who is included, what people receive, and where they can complain) (Percentage, Custom) Value Date 31-Dec Dec Dec Dec-2018 Targeted Households reporting increase in revenue of productive assets (Percentage, Custom) Value Overall Comments Data on Financial Performance Disbursements (by loan) Project Loan/Credit/TF Status Currency Original Revised Cancelled Disbursed Undisbursed Disbursed P TF Effective USD % P TF-A2803 Effective USD % Key Dates (by loan) 1/9/2017 Page 9 of 10

10 Project Loan/Credit/TF Status Approval Date Signing Date Effectiveness Date Orig. Closing Date Rev. Closing Date P TF Effective 18-Aug Aug Aug Dec Dec-2018 P TF-A2803 Effective 29-Oct Oct Oct Dec Dec-2018 Cumulative Disbursements Restructuring History There has been no restructuring to date. Related Project(s) P Additional Financing for Emergency National Poverty Targeting Program 1/9/2017 Page 10 of 10