Japan PHRD Technical Assistance Program Application for Project Preparation Technical Assistance Grant FY Round 2

Transcription

1 Public Disclosure Authorized Japan PHRD Technical Assistance Program Application for Project Preparation Technical Assistance Grant FY Round 2 Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized B.1 Project Development Objectives: The development objectives of the project are to: (1) improve the outcomes of basic social welfare and development services in reducing vulnerability of the poorest and marginalized groups; (2) improve the governance of basic social assistance and social protection ser\iice delivery through integrated reforms at national and local level; (3) build capacity of the DSWD and associated agencies in performance-oriented budgeting and management. B.2 Category C.1 Consultants'Services: Co2 Goods, Training and Incremental Operating Costs: (maximum 10% of total grant amount) Amount of the Grant Allocated (expressed in U.S.dollars) US$ 450,000 US$ 50,000 C.3 Total Grant Amount: US$ 500,000 Public Disclosure Authorized if allowed: E.1 Are Interim Unaudited Financial Reports required? E.2 Frequency of Unaudited Financial Reports, if required: E.3 Audit Requirements: Yes US$ 50,000 Yes Semi-annual Annual Audit F.1 Grant Approval Date: 06/16/2006 F.2 Anticipated Grant Closing Date:

2 Detailed Information Trust Fund Number (Tor TFa Use) : Proiect 10 number APPROVED VPU/Network Bank Financing (US$ Million) -IBRD : Loan -IDA Credit I Expected Board Approval Date - Task Team Leader TTL's Other staff who will need access to this proposal 03/31/2008 Ihawkins@worldbank.orq Andrew N. Parker, Maria Loreto Padua, Lourdes L. Anducta, Cesar Palma Banzon, LynnettE~ Dela Cruz Perez, Preselyn Abella, Dominic ReYE~s Aumentado, Yolanda J. Azarcon 2.1 The project is/will be included in one of the following: CAS - CAS Board Presentation 05/17/2005 Date: Report Number: PH TaskID#: Page Reference: Project Name in CAS is "National Program Support for Social Protection. See Annex B3 2.2 Country and Sector Context Persistant high poverty headcount and high inequality have confronted the Philippines in the past several decades. An increasing number among the poor have been excluded from sharing the benefits of development and have become very vulnerable to social, economic and environmental risks and pressures. These vulnerable groups include the children iin need of special protection; women in especially difficult circumstances, disadvantaged youth, persons with disabilities; marginalized older persons; informal settlers in urban poor communities; indigenous peoples; landless farmers; disadvantaged fisherfolks; familie~; impoverished by catastrophic health care costs and victims of natural disasters. BeforE~ the issuance of the Local Government Code, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) had full control over the delivery of basic social services that represent a significant component of the country's social protection sector that focuses on addressing the nee~ds of vulnerable groups. With the passage of the Code, the delivery of most basic services has been devolved to the local government units (LGUs) with the intent of improving acces:; and ensuring participation of the vulnerable groups in governance and decision-making. Although the DSWD retains the national leadership or "steering" role in social assistance and sol:;ial protection, its major functions is now focused on policy formulation; standard setting; program development, technical assistance and resource augmentation, although it has retaine(j selected special social services delivery responsibilities as mandated by other laws. To operationalize the shift in their functions following decentralization, the Department prepared its "Rationalization and Streamlining Plan" (RSP) as adopted through Executive Order l'jo. 15 (1998) and later enhanced through Executive Order No. 221 (2003). In the midst of shifing its instutional capacity to assume its new mandate, the DSWD was confronted with the heightened demand for delivery of basic social protection services given the increasing number and diversity of the needs of vulnerable groups especially during occurrence of natural disasters and fiscal crisis.. Thus, DSWD's efforts to undertake a comprehensive

3 reform program was constantly diverted by the need to address public demands for basic social servies and diffused the limited resources. Consequently, this also weakened DSWD's institutional linkages with the LGUs, non-governmental organizations (NGOs)and other government agencies which are now the primary service providers. DSWD now wishe~) to consolidate their experiences during the more than 10 years of devolution in order to adopt a sector reform program that will allow the Department to fully assume its "steering" role. The sector reform program for SWD is in line with the national platform of the current (~AS that supports government agencies's initiative to enhance delivery of services through responsive prioritization, policy, planning, program development, monitoring and evaluation systems. The pursuit of said reform will also contribute to the local platform as it will ultimately re-establish/enhance DSWD's partnership with the LGUs, NGOs, communit), groups and the private sector. Along with the other social development reform programs on health and education the SWD reform program is expected trigger a more comprehen~;ive reform on social protection thus contribute to the achievement of the CAS goal on SOCi;31 inclusion Project Description The Project will support DSWD to lead the implementation of a social policy reform agenda, and a process of institutional reform to better fit the Department to lead and steer implementation. Initially, it is envisioned that the Project will operationalize key reform agenda in the areas of a) Evidence- based policy formulation and advocacy as well as standard I setting; b) Innovative resource mobilization strategies; c) Supporting results-based IOC.31 social welfare and development strategies; d) Enhancing management of retained ser/ices; e) Sector performance tracking and Dissemination and f) Results-based monitoring amj evaluation system. Loan funds are envisaged to finance eligible expenditures in priori~/line items in the DSWD's regular budget, in manner of SEMP2, that supports the agreed reform agenda. The operation may have some cross-sectoral components, in the manner of ~)EMP2 and ECD Project, given that effective action on some DSWD objectives requires cross-sectoral coordination of programs. The expected components of the project are: (1) Capacity building for social policy and standard-setting; (2) Enhancing management of retained DSWD services; (3) Enhancing performance of local social welfare, protection and development services; (3) Support for cross-sectoral social protection functions of government. 2.4 Project Preparation Grants for Upper Middle Income Countries. Explain how the project will, in the priority areas, deliver services to the needy or to targ,eted beneficiaries. Not applicable 2.5 Implementation Experience Please describe the implementation experience and outcomes of past and ongoing sector operations that are relevant to this project. The DSWD has recently completed the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Project. lrhis financed central technical assistance and Local Government Unit (LGU) delivery of enhanced early childhood development services. As an inter-agency project, the ECD Project provided for the DSWD to coordinate ECD basic services of the DOH and DepEd. An empirical evaluation study demonstrated significant improvement in child cognitive scores and sclme improvement in nutrition indicators attributable to project interventions. On June 30, 2006, DSWD will complete the Second Social Expenditure Management Project (SEMP2), which the financed eligible expenditures from the regular DSWD budget, for the ClOSS (a community-based poverty alleviation program) and for residential care services, alongside complementary reform of public financial management. Both Projects have been rated satisfactory and both provided various studies and experiences which would serve as basis for enhancing management of centers and institutions as well as for upscaling of a targeted community-based strategy for poverty reduction. The Department is currently implementing the KALAHI-CIDSS Project which adopts a community-driven development approach for poverty reduction in the poorest municipalities in the poorest provinces. This Project aims to empower disadvantaged communities to participate in identifying, developing and managing community sub-projects that respond to their priority needs and enhances local governance for poverty reduction. AlthoUQh the Dace

4 of scale-up under the Project is partially constrained by a lack of budget space, substantial progress has occurred and the Project has been rated satisfactory in terms of the empowerment indicators in the recently completed Mid-term Review. An implementation grant has been requested to assist with the capacity building of the DSWD because of marginally satisfactory rating on implementation progress. However, the context for this rating is that of a highly ambitious and complex communil:y driven development project which accounts for around 40% of the DSWD's budget and around one third of its staff, and which faces the implementation challenge of achievin~1 institutionalization of participatory governance in hundreds of municipalities across the country. The DSWD's project management of the recently-closed cross-sectoral ECD project was efficient and effective and resulted in timely completion of the Project. The DSWDI's component of the SEMP 2 also demonstrated satisfactory implementation progress anlj development impact. The DSWD is also one of the leading cohort of pilot agencies in implementing public financial management and procurement reform. For these reasonls, the DSWD is assessed as having adequate capacity to manage the proposed preparation grant funds. Furthermore, the proposed new project under preparation will adopt a similar design to the successful SEMP 2 project, and so the DSWD is assessed as having adequate capacity to manage the proposed new project. 2.6 ~~ Safeguard Issues If the Bank-funded project is classified as Category A, please explain the significant adl/erse impact that may result during project implementation, and how they are expected to be addressed. The proposed operation is likely to trigger Indigenous Peoples Safeguards. Environmental category is expected to be B or C (depends on whether project will include civil works) 3.1 Describe the Components of the Grant (Text limited to 1/2 page) The PHRD grant will support the DSWD in formulating the National Sector Support for Social Welfare and Development Reform Project. During the second quarter of CY2006, the DSWD will conduct a series of learning forum and stakeholders' consultation to assess the emerging social assistance and protection issues as well as take stock of the various innovative approaches related to localized social welfare and development services; NGO-private-public partnership development; alternative resource mobilization, among others. Based on these consultations/learning fora, the Department will formulate a comprehensive social policy framework and implementation strategy for increasing progress in improving key social welfare and development outcomes in a decentralized environment. DSWD will subse,quently revisit its organizational vision and strategic plan, and develop an institutional capacity building plan to re-orient the organization to lead the sector reform agenda more effectively. The PHRD grant will be used to formulate the detailed design or implementation detail~; of selected key social policy reform agenda strategies as well as provide core capacity building activities to prepare DSWD to implement said reforms and ensure social acceptability of the same. 1) Designing the Policy and Institutional Reform Agenda: This component will finance consultants'services and consultation and validation workshops to prepare and design the key reform agenda, and implementation strategies. The development of the agenda will e..olve from learning fora/ stakeholders'consultations to be conducted in the second quarter of CY2006 and is envisaged to focus on the areas of concern as stated in Section 2.3, to wit: a) Evidence-based policy advocacy and standard-setting social welfare, social assistance and protection; b) Medium term fiscal planning and projections for costing social welfare, assistance and protection mandates, and setting priorities based on MTEF fiscal planning scenarios; c) Identifying alternative mechanisms and innovative resource mobilization strategies to address unfunded and under-funded mandates; this could include cost-sharing and resources mobilization schemes among the LGUs, NGOs, private-public sector partnership, and volunteer development; d) Supporting results-based local social welfare and development strategies; e) Enhancing management of retained DSWD services -draining on various studies conducted under SEMP 2; e) Sector performance tracking and dissemination and f) designing and developing a baseline of a result-based monitoring and evaluation system. For each pillar of the reform agenda, the consultants will prepare the design to include the key strategies; sub-components; costing, operational guidelines; 'Nork

5 system and institutional or organizational arrangements. 2) Enhancing Institutional Capacity for Implementation: This will involve the identification of key competency areas which are required to undertake the reform; determination of thf~ gaps of current staff and organizational set-up; designing the capacity building plan to addre:5s the gap and conduct of key capacity building activities that will prepare the DSWD (and relf~vant attached agencies and partners in cross-sectoral programs) for implementation of the reform. 3) Social Assessment/Social Marketing: This will involve the conduct of stakeholders consultation to draw their inputs about the reform package and define their respective roles in implementing the same as well as formulating a social marketing plan and IPPF to ensure the ",., ~~~~~P:~i~~ of major stakeholders in pursuing the reform agenda Grant Cost (Text limited to ~ page) Provide the total cost of each Component of the Grant. 4.1 Grant Execution: Recipient Executed 4.2 Grant ImDlementation A~ency Grant Implementing Agency: Department of Social Welfare and Development Agency Address: Batasan Complex, Capitol District Quezon City, Philippines Contact Name and Phone: Secretary J Esperanza --, Cabral,, '---I (632)

6 Created By: Maria Loreto Padua Last Update: 05/08/200609:13:26 PM