Public Disclosure Authorized WEST BANK AND GAZA: REAL ESTATE REGISTRATION PROJECT (P168576) Terms of Reference – Social Assessment Lead Consultant 1. Background Public Disclosure Authorized The World Bank is working together with the Palestinian Authority (PA) to finalize the preparation of a Real Estate Registration Project whose objective is to enhance tenure security and improve real estate registration services. These objectives will be achieved through advancing the systematic registration of properties in Areas A and B of the West Bank, which is currently being undertaken by the Land and Water Settlement Commission (LWSC), in collaboration with Local Government Units. The project will support ongoing systematic approach comprehensively benefits citizens, businesses including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and public entities through real estate registration and improvement of real estate services. The project will only involve soft activities for land registration and hence will not involve any construction activities or rehabilitation of infrastructure. The project activities are not expected to cause any significant, direct or indirect environmental impacts. However, there are some social Public Disclosure Authorized risks involved that need to be addressed. Accordingly, this TOR is prepared for the preparation of the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) that will be the basis for the Social Management Plan (SMP). The SIA is prepared to investigate the social impacts/risks related to the project and provide mitigation measures to address them. The SIA and then the SMP will include a robust GRM system with detailed roles and responsibilities. The proposed project for which this SIA will be prepared will support the Palestinian Authority (PA) to register land/property mainly in Areas A and B. Some LGUs do land adjustments based on existing law that may include either or both of the following situations: (i) parcel reshaping to make parcels more usable; and (ii) establishing right of way and access which may include acquisition of a portion of the parcel by the State. The project will only finance registration activities for properties that do not include the acquisition by the State of land to establish rights of way/access. No titling involving acquisition of land in the name of the state and/or for public Public Disclosure Authorized use will be financed by the project. However, there may be a risk associated with land acquisition activities carried out by the PA with its own funding in the vicinity of or in areas immediately adjacent to parcels covered by the Project. The main social risks related to land registration could include: (i) the exclusion of those without land title or documentation; (ii) possible disputes between land users and land owners; (iii) possible conflict between family members; and (iv) the risk of the exclusion of female members of the households; (v) the risk of exclusion of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups including squatters or the displaced. There could also be competing claims on land at the time of registration. To assess and mitigate all these risks a social impact assessment will be undertaken within the first three 1 months of the project becoming effective. The LWSC, established in April 2016, is responsible for the systematic registration process. The agency partners closely with LGUs (municipalities and village councils), who sign Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with the LWSC to jointly implement settlement surveys. The LWSC will be responsible under the proposed project for completing systematic land registration for the designated targets in the project’s target areas. The Palestinian Land Authority (PLA) is responsible for activities related to the completion of registration, cadastre and valuation of the real estate properties. It provides services in ten offices distributed around the country, operating in a semi-decentralized manner. The agency will be one of the main counterparts for the project and the project will support building its technical capacity and its transformation into a modern, service-oriented organization that provides e-services to government, businesses, and citizens. The PLA will work closely with project counterparts to design the automation of the PLA and to establish a national Geodetic Reference Framework. 2. Lessons from World Bank supported Land Administration Projects Enhancing Tenure Security Land administration projects contribute to the security of tenure and transferability of property rights by strengthening land administration services. Making land tenure more secure is a process, not a single event. It is also a very context-specific concept, with no absolute standards by which security of tenure can be defined. Generally, tenure security is defined as a combination of the following variables: recognized by all relevant stakeholders; not vulnerable to changes in context; enforceable; and durable (“long” time horizon). The global sustainable development goals (SDGs) outline the importance of tenure security in target 1.4.2 Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, with legally recognized documentation and who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and by type of tenure. While community norms may provide a perceived tenure security, as pressure on land resources increases, documentation of land rights may help property holders to be more secure and more likely to invest in improvements to the property, as well as reducing potential for land conflicts. The lack of property ownership/use data also negatively affects tax revenue and effective planning for growth and development. Interventions tend to have better results when they were sufficiently tailored to match a number of local conditions. This includes having a comprehensive understanding of the underlying sources of tenure insecurity in each context and ensuring that projects are adequately tailored to address them. Incrementally strengthening the legal and policy framework is integral to the process, as is factoring in local capacity to implement the proposed measure and sustain project activities and taking measures to enhance this capacity. Land and real estate administration requires inter- disciplinary approaches for which capacity building is key. Long-term support and political commitment is another significant factor, which has bearing on many of the other issues. 2 Social Impact Experience from land tenure security projects suggests that social impacts need to be anticipated in project design and monitored, not assumed, even when laws and procedures are the same for all potential beneficiaries. Targeted measures to reach marginal groups need to be specifically provided for in the project design and monitored during implementation. There is also a need to better incorporate measures to address the needs of poor and vulnerable groups into longer-term land and real estate administration programs (World Bank, Lessons from Land Administration Projects: A Review of Project Performance Assessments, 2015). Land disputes are a common feature of both rural and urban areas. Conflicts are tied to increasing population pressure; conflicting land uses, such as grazing versus cultivation; proliferating peri- urban development, overlapping land concessions, and “land grabbing”. Women’s land rights are relatively well-supported in Palestine’s formal legal framework but women’s land rights are often undermined by customary laws, which are widely practiced, and which favor male inheritance. 3. Real Estate Registration Project The proposed project components are summarized as follows: Component 1: Systematic Land and Property Registration (US$7.8 million). The objective of this component is to support the PA in its plan to complete systematic land registration (SLR) across the Palestinian territories over a four-year period through a results-based payments approach. LWSC will be responsible for implementing this component, as it has legal responsibility for the completion of the settlement activities. WB funding will support SLR financing in Areas A and B. It will also support the enhancement of institutional functions and capacity at LWSC. The component is structured in a four-year plan in alignment with the business plan prepared by LWSC. The component will also focus on ensuring the rights of women and vulnerable groups are protected by ensuring that they participate in the SLR process and promoting the registration of their rights. One of the subcomponents of this component is the development of a Gender Action Plan. Additionally, the component will aim to develop a streamlined methodology and approach to accelerate on-demand registration for businesses as part of the SLR process. The delivery of Component 1 will take a phased approach and will require a strong project management plan, which will be supported by a Project Management Information System (PMIS). Component 2: Institutional Modernization of the PLA (US$4.0 million). This component will be implemented by the PLA and will build its technical capacity and support its transformation into a modern, service-oriented organization that provides e-services to government, businesses, and citizens. Business process re-engineering and subsequent automation will streamline the PLA service provision, achieve digital transformation, increase service quality and transparency, and improve service delivery. The component will further support improving property value information through the development of mass valuation models. Component 3: Project Management and Outreach (US$0.8 million). Component 3 will support the development and implementation of project management functions in the PLA and LWSC, including Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), and will be mapped to the PLA. This will finance the external project audit, Social Impact Assessment (SIA), and mid-term and final project 3 evaluations, in addition to any additional staff needs for project management, including a project coordinator, social safeguards specialist, and procurement staff. Existing systems within the PLA and LWSC will be utilized and WB support will be used to enhance the workplans for existing staff members. The hiring of short-term staff will be considered for filling additional staff needs. The component will finance customer surveys conducted at launch, mid-term, and completion to monitor customer satisfaction and provide a venue for citizen engagement. The component will also finance the development and implementation of a public awareness campaign to increase citizen participation, with a focus on women and marginal groups in line with the GAP. 4. Objective of the Assessment The objective of the assessment is to identify project design elements that contribute to a socially inclusive and beneficiary-responsive land administration and tenure security project. The objective will be achieved by identifying relevant barriers, constraints, and potential impacts facing vulnerable groups and providing recommendations to remove barriers and mitigate impacts. In addition, the SIA will obtain information on attitudes and perceptions of registration and attendant services. The SIA will further assess and define the actual risk stemming from land acquisition for rights of way carried out in areas adjecent to parcels covered by the Project by the PA with its own funding. Where necessary, the social impact assessment will suggest areas for further social diagnostic work that may be required to clarify the situation in the Palestinian territories. Finally, it will assess the existing Grievance Readdress Mechanism (GRM) within PLA and LWSC and provide a detailed project specific GRM. The SIA is the basis for the preparation of the SMP in which all the mitigation measures are provided as actions and if those actions require budget, an indicative budget and the timeline for the implementation will be included in the SMP. 5. Scope of Work The SIA will be informed by lessons from donor supported land tenure and administration projects in West Bank and Gaza and other WB supported land tenure and administration projects in rural and urban areas in the region and elsewhere. In addition, the SIA will consider the findings of the recent ASA on land - The Socio-economic effects of Weak land Registration & Administration in the West Bank - that was partially prepared for the preparation of this project (the study is attached to this TOR). The SIA will be undertaken in a number of urban areas [the exact numbers and locations will be determined] that will be included in the project. The Social Imapct Assessment will be the basis for the SMP, which will inform the proejct on the social impacts that could be likely from proposed activities under Component 1, specifically from proposed accelerated property registration that could negatively impact women and vulnerbale groups. A Gender Action Plan is going to be papreared during the implmentation of this component to ensure the rights of women and vunerbable groups. This SIA will also feed into the Gender Action Plan. The SMP will provide guidance on screening of potential social impacts and recommend appropriate measures to manage any risks. The Consultant will undertake the following tasks: 4 (a) Review the social context within which the project will be implemented. The Consultant will undertake a brief desk review focused on the socio-cultural, institutional and political context. Existing studies, surveys, and other secondary literature as well as project reports and materials should be reviewed. (b) Identify key stakeholders. The Consultant will map relevant stakeholders, identifying groups that will benefit (directly or indirectly) from the project, may lose from the project, may be excluded from the benefits of the project, etc. The stakeholder mapping will take a broad view and may include special interest groups.1 Particular attention is to be paid to identifying groups that are vulnerable to being marginalized or excluded as project beneficiaries in the project area. The Consultant should identify varying levels of vulnerability within groups; for example, widows and female-headed households, women in polygamous households, and instances where there might be multiple vulnerabilities due to age, gender, and disabilities. (c) Conduct an analysis of groups that are vulnerable to exclusion from project benefits. Following from (b) above, and the identification of groups that are vulnerable to exclusion, the Consultant will detail why these groups are vulnerable (for example allocation and titling norms, and lack of access to relevant institutions), and discuss elements in the proposed projects that would contribute to or compound vulnerability (such as barriers to access such as cost and social norms, customary norms and practices, etc.). The analysis will include a brief description of vulnerability including demographic information and socio-economic traits. The consultant will also review the legal framework guiding land inheritance for women as well as the customary and traditions of specific localities and make recommendations to address these. The Consultant will identify potential impacts related to the proposed project (including processes and institutional structure) and provide recommendations on how to mitigate negative impacts (such as eliminating barriers to vulnerable groups), enhance positive impacts for beneficiaries, and mitigate the risks of compounded vulnerability. (d) Conduct an analysis of the process of land acquisition by the State for the establishments of rights of way/access and/or for other public uses in the course of systematic land registration. The analysis should review and conduct an assessment of the following: (i) the legal framework and any associated implementation procedures that govern this issue, including institutional arrangements (i.e., the roles, respectively, of the LGUs and land administration agencies); (ii) how frequently these provisions are invoked; (iii) the typology of the nature and significance of the impacts that arise when these provisions are used (i.e., any economic impacts etc.); (iv) what steps if any does the government take to mitigate potential impacts; (v) whether disputes arise over the use of these provisions; if so, how widespread are these, and what has been the track record for their resolution; (vi) if possible, a definition and assessment of the benefits, if any, that affected landowners receive when these provisions are invoked. 1 Special interest groups may include private business, apartment owners/dwellers, resident associations, female headed households, widows and vulnerable groups. 5 (e) Undertake a diagnostic of grievance mechanisms. The Consultant will identify forms of grievance redress available to individuals (including the vulnerable) on land allocation and registration matters at both the LWSC and PLA. This will require a review and analysis of the relevant legal framework for settling grievances, such as land courts to deal specifically with land-related conflicts, resolution of land disputes, and the improvement of processes for investors to acquire land which will also be reviewed. This is in addition to reviewing the existing grievance redress mechanisms within the LWSC and PLA and the processes used to address grievance. The Consultant will assess the levels of access to different beneficiaries (identifying barriers to accessibility), efficacy of different processes (cost/time), institutional challenges (such as records and documentation), levels of satisfaction with processes and outcomes (through the lens of vulnerability), etc. Any trends by type and stakeholder group affected should be identified. Based on the diagnostic the Consultant will prepare general recommendations to be addressed during the project implementation and to guide the design of a complaints mechanism and for existing legal aid initiatives, is that will be needed. Recommendations should reflect the findings of the diagnostics vis-à-vis equal access to beneficiaries, inequalities in access to technology, social norms, etc. (f) Identify attitudes and perceptions of various groups regarding land/property registration, issuance of titles, interactions with government institutions responsible for land, and land use planning. This shall be a qualitative assessment, focus on information flows related to issuance of titles, the biggest problems in the procedure, concerns about the title process, and perception of changes in the title process. The study should also look at perceptions, experiences and knowledge related to the land use planning processes (both urban and rural). In addition, the study will explore the perceptions of the institutional structure, access to services, barriers and constraints, etc. (g) Overview of the nature, frequency and pattern of conflict over land and the informal/formal conflict resolution mechanisms: The consultant will provide an overview of the different types of conflict related to land, the parties involved (e.g. conflict with neighbors, families, between local jurisdictions, conflict over conflicting land uses, conflict due to overlapping concessions, land grabbing, conflict involving state institutions) and the changes in the nature of conflict over time. The consultant will also assess perception of real authority towards informal mechanisms for conflict resolution and their efficacy and effectiveness. Based on the analysis the consultant will provide guidance on possible triggers of potential local conflict associated with the implementation of the proposed project and on ways for early detection, prevention and mitigation. 6. Suggested Data Collection, Research Methods The SIA will rely on qualitative methods and data as well as literature and legal reviews and qualitative assessments using focus groups, in-depth interviews, small case studies (2-3 pages), 6 consultative group meetings, press clipping analysis, and field observation of the project’s key stakeholder groups (in the project area). Focus group discussions and interviews should also involve groups and individuals with experience in land titling/certificating, understanding the process and drawing lessons from what worked and what did not and how they perceive their tenure now. Design of the sampling regime for the focus groups, interview, etc., shall be the responsibility of the consultant, but to be carried out in close consultation with relevant staff of and the LWSC and PLA. 7. Expected Outputs The Consultant will prepare a report in English and to be translated into Arabic after review and clearance, which will include, but will not be limited to the following sections: an executive summary, introduction and background, objectives, methodology, analysis and findings, and recommendations (outreach and awareness, grievance redress mechanisms, participatory mechanisms, institutional structure, customer service, indicators, baseline data, etc.). Relevant graphs, tables, and maps should be included as well as annexes with relevant detailed information. All the above will be the basis for the SMP that includes a number of actions based on the above findings and actions with the timeline for each action, responsible entity/staff for each action, budget, if needed. Consultant’s Services The Consultant will be responsible for preparing the SIA and SMP, including, but not be limited to: i. Define the scope of the social impact assessment in consultation with LWSC and PLA and produce an inception report. ii. Literature and legal review and design the assessment approach including formulation of detailed guidelines for qualitative tools (these may include interviews, focus groups, case studies, etc.). iii. Field execution of the qualitative assessment including focus groups, interviews, etc. iv. Data analysis, write-ups and preparation of the draft final and final reports. Qualifications • University degree in social sciences (e.g., sociology, political science, international relations, communications), jurisprudence, economics, urban and regional planning, land administration/tenure, or other similar subjects is required; • At least 7 years of proven working experience in the field of social development and data collection with qualitative methods. • Proven capacity in analyzing qualitative data, producing clearly written and well-presented outputs, and communicating results to partners, stakeholders and donors (writing samples will be requested) is required. • Experience with internationally-supported development projects related to property/land reform, institutional development, related legal aspects, and other topics of relevance to the assignment; 7 • Computer skills, and fluency in written and spoken English language are required; The Consultant Team Leader will work under the guidance of these TOR and will report to Project Managers at the LWSC and PLA and also coordinate with the Bank’s Task Team Leader for periodic inputs and guidance - including experienced persons with skills and qualifications to conduct social analysis and local consultations. The assignment may require more than one lead consultant. In this case, the Assessment should have one Team Leader and a number of experts as required. The details will have to be specified in the Inception Report that would be submitted by one week of the assignment along with the other requirements detailed below. Deliverables The consultancy assignment is expected to be completed within a maximum of 45 days from the day of contract signing. The table below is an illustrative presentation of the consultancy schedule and deliverables. Week Main Activities Deliverables and Timing 1 Preparation of the inception Inception report and work plan to be submitted report and detailed work plan. within 10 days after commencement of the assignment. 2 Literature and legal review, To be submitted within 20 days after preparation of qualitative survey commencement of the assignment. design. 3 Qualitative data collection; data To be submitted within 35 days of analysis and preliminary report. commencement of assignment. 4 Final report. Final report with comments addressed to be submitted within 10 days after receiving comments from the LWSC, PLA and the Bank. 5 SMP. This will be submitted along with the final draft. Submission and presentation of inception report Selected Consultant(s) will be required to prepare, submit and present an inception report that: (i) Demonstrates that the Consultant understands the overall scope and nature of the Social Assessment preparation work, and what will be required to respond satisfactorily to each component of the TOR; (ii) Demonstrates that the Consultant has relevant and appropriate experience to carry out all components of the TOR. (iii) Describes the overall methodology for carrying out each component of the TOR, including data collection and analysis methods; and (iv) Provides a detailed initial plan of work and outputs. Reporting: The Consultant(s) shall report to the PLA and LWSC Project Managers. 8