The World Bank Niger Safety Net Project (P123399) REPORT NO.: RES36892 DOCUMENT OF THE WORLD BANK RESTRUCTURING PAPER ON A PROPOSED PROJECT RESTRUCTURING OF NIGER SAFETY NET PROJECT APPROVED ON MAY 19, 2011 TO REPUBLIC OF NIGER SOCIAL PROTECTION & JOBS AFRICA Regional Vice President: Hafez M. H. Ghanem Country Director: Soukeyna Kane Senior Global Practice Director: Michal J. Rutkowski Practice Manager/Manager: Jehan Arulpragasam Task Team Leader: Carlo Del Ninno The World Bank Niger Safety Net Project (P123399) I. BASIC DATA Product Information Project ID Financing Instrument P123399 Investment Project Financing Original EA Category Current EA Category Partial Assessment (B) Partial Assessment (B) Approval Date Current Closing Date 19-May-2011 30-Jun-2019 Organizations Borrower Responsible Agency Republic of Niger Cellule Filets Sociaux, Cabinet du Premier Ministre Project Development Objective (PDO) Original PDO The project development objective (PDO) is to establish and support an effective safety net system which will increase access of poor and food insecure people to cash transfer and cash for work programs. Current PDO The project development objective is to establish and support an effective and adaptive safety net system that will increase access of poor and vulnerable people to cash transfer and cash for work programs. Summary Status of Financing Net Ln/Cr/Tf Approval Signing Effectiveness Closing Commitment Disbursed Undisbursed IDA-D1130 07-Apr-2016 15-Apr-2016 26-Jun-2016 30-Jun-2019 22.50 21.41 1.48 IDA-49200 19-May-2011 14-Jul-2011 11-Oct-2011 30-Jun-2017 68.32 62.91 0 TF-A2304 07-Apr-2016 15-Apr-2016 28-Jun-2016 30-Jun-2019 8.50 8.40 .10 The World Bank Niger Safety Net Project (P123399) Policy Waiver(s) Does this restructuring trigger the need for any policy waiver(s)? No I. SUMMARY OF PROJECT STATUS AND PROPOSED CHANGES The project overall performance remains satisfactory at the time of the March 2019 supervision mission. The overall disbursement rate as of April 2, 2019, was 98 percent (100 percent on IDA 4920-NE, 95 percent on IDA D1130 and 98 percent on TF-A2304 trust funds). The project is on track to achieve its development objective. So far it has made substantial progress in the achievement of its key results indicators, which have been already met or exceeded. The total number of beneficiaries covered since the beginning of the project in all 8 regions of Niger has reached approximately 1,088213 people (51 percent women) against a target of 759,000. The World Bank provides technical support and financial resources to the Government of Niger to establish and support an effective and adaptive safety nets system that will increase access of poor and vulnerable people to cash transfer and cash for work programs. These contribute to make households more resilient to shocks, build human capital for young children, and foster more productive income-generating activities. The operational work is facilitated by the Adaptive Social Protection Program, supported by a multi-donors Trust Fund, which also supports a range of related analytical activities on poverty and vulnerability, new tools and instrument for resilience, learning from innovative approaches and impact evaluations. Under the Adaptive Social Protection Program an emergency cash transfer was scheduled for 5,000 households. This shock responsive program was first tested in 2016 in Diffa region to address the humanitarian crises in the poor communities, which have been highly impacted by the attacks from Boko Haram. The region is under pressure from both the refugees and returnees from northern Nigeria and internal displaced population subject to insecurity due to the Boko Haram attacks. In response to the request from the Government, 2,456 households received an emergency cash transfer in Diffa. In, 2017, the program was extended to the region of Agadez to benefit 2,500 poor households located in the northern regions impacted by the insecurity from Mali. In total, 4,691 households have benefited from a monthly transfer of 10,000 FCFA for a total of 12 months to help coping with the impact of shocks both in Diffa and Agadez. Cash transfer and the related accompanying measures activities have been almost completed. Their implementation has encountered some delays due to cash flow constraints. This has resulted in the extension of the closure of the second cycle of transfers in some regions from March 2018 until February 2019. In addition, in the new regions including Agadez, Diffa and Tillabéry, there are still a number of payments to be made by end of June 30, 2019. To ensure that beneficiaries in the new regions get all 24 months of cash transfers by the closing date of the project, one option is to accelerate payments by grouping more than two payments within a month. A better alternative is to keep the beneficiaries of the new regions in the program for a few more months, with a short extension of the current closing date of the project to maximize the impact of cash transfer programs on the welfare of the households. To promote the development of the human capital of the children of the poorest households, the safety nets project has supported the implementation of the behavioral change accompanying measures as part of the cash transfer component. The implementation of the behavioral accompanying measures has been completed in the first five regions of intervention of the Project (Dosso, Maradi, Tahoua, Tillabéry, Zinder). In the new regions (Agadez, Diffa and Niamey), seven (7) out of the 14 modules have been implemented in the field. The major challenge will be the The World Bank Niger Safety Net Project (P123399) implementation of the remaining 7 modules in two months, i.e. by June 2019. Several options are under discussions with the government. One option is to accelerate the implementation of all the project activities. A better alternative is to keep the beneficiaries in the program for a longer period. The implementation of the productive accompanying measures is proceeding well. However, the cash injection in the second wave of villages called "late villages" experienced some delays. Beneficiaries in eight of the 17 communes have received their cash injection in February 2019. As a result, it will be necessary to retain 84 local coaches until May 2019 to continue the supervision of beneficiaries within three communes Karma (40 coaches), Kornaka (35 coaches) and Kantché (11 coaches). Cash for work activities are ongoing with the emphasis on completing activities in a couple of regions. More focus has been given to the accompanying measures aimed at enhancing community resilience. As a result, accompanying measures for the 112 former selected sites (CFW 2013-2015) have been completed in Maradi, Tahoua, Tillabéry, and Zinder. The project is also completing the georeferencing all the CFW worksites. So far, 223 villages out of the total of 330 villages where CFW interventions done in 2013-2016 have been georeferenced. The remainder are expected to be completed by the end of May 2019. Regarding the institutional support to the National Institution for the Prevention and Management of Food Crisis (Dispositif National de Prevention et de Gestion des Crises Alimentaires DNPGCA or DN), which is aimed to strengthen the coordination of the safety nets interventions and ensure that the safety net responses are based on analysis, is progressing well, despite some delays in the implementation. To support the improvement of the monitoring and evaluation system, the DN has launched the recruitment process of the consultant in charge of the elaboration of its M&E Manual. This Manual will help setting up an effective M&E system at the Permanent Secretary of the Dispositif which will oversee the coordination of all the safety nets interventions in the country. In addition, a joint workshop held in Niamey at the end of January 2019 with the participation of the DNPGCA, the Ministry of Employment, labor and social Protection and the World Bank outlined a shared ASPP vision for the country. The World Bank also provided support to the government on the implementation of a Unified Social Registry (USR). A harmonized questionnaire containing the minimum set of variables required to implement both HEA and PMT targeting methodologies was elaborated and validated by the government and development partners. This questionnaire was already tested by the Safety Nets Project on more than 100,000 households. A clear roadmap and a detailed action plan provided for the implementation of the USR within the next two years. Discussion is ongoing both with the government and humanitarian and development actors to accelerate the implementation of the USR. The government has already allocated office space for the USR within the building of the Permanent Secretary of the DNPGCA. In addition, large-scale evaluations have documented the effectiveness of the project in facilitating savings and investments, promoting parenting practices for early childhood development, as well as its targeting performance: i) Impact evaluation on cash transfers and resilience; ii) Impact evaluation report on the value-added of behavioral accompanying measures to the cash transfer project; iii) Impact evaluation of cash transfers and productive inclusion; iv) Impact evaluation on cash for work component; v) a prospective targeting assessment; and vi) a price study. Finally, the World Bank has just completed in April 2019 a Public Expenditure Review on Social Protection (PER). The objective of this activity is to contribute to creating the information on the financing structure of SPJ spending in Niger that policy makers need in formulating policies towards improving efficiency of existing spending and in improving fiscal sustainability of the SPL system. In 2017, a data collection for the Atlas of Social protection indicators (ASPIRE) was conducted with the objective of improving SPL data quality comparability and availability across all countries to better inform the design of SPL policies, programs, and systems. The new US$80 Million Adaptive Safety Nets Project (P166602) was signed on January 25th, 2019. Activities required for the effectiveness are ongoing with strong commitment from the government to meet the deadline of May 28th. The World Bank Niger Safety Net Project (P123399) The new project shares some of the same components and activities of the parent project and will help strengthening the results achieved. The proposed restructuring aims to extend the closing date of the current project (P123399) from the end of June to December 31, 2019. This will be the second extension for a cumulative number of 18 months. It was agreed with the client that all resources allocated to the project will be made available immediately to prevent funds from being returned at the end of the project on June 30, 2019. By the end of March 2019, 98 percent of the project resources of US$101 million have been spent. The extension of this closing date to December 2019 will allow the safety nets project to continue performing its activities and in particular to: i) provide cash transfers, and accompanying measures to beneficiaries over a few months past June 2019; ii) complete the implementation of the accompanying measures for cash for work for the second phase of 2018; and iii) ensure the project achieves the development indicators relative to the institutional support, while continuing its normal activities and have a seamless transition after the new safety nets project becomes effective before the end of May 2019. In its letter dated May 3, 2019, requesting extension, the Government stated that this restructuring will allow the project to reach all expected results II. DETAILED CHANGES LOAN CLOSING DATE(S) Original Revised Proposed Proposed Deadline Ln/Cr/Tf Status Closing Closing(s) Closing for Withdrawal Applications IDA-49200 Closed 30-Jun-2017 17-May-2018 IDA-D1130 Effective 30-Jun-2019 31-Dec-2019 30-Apr-2020 TF-A2304 Effective 30-Jun-2018 30-Jun-2019