PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID)

CONCEPT STAGE

Report No.: AB4414

Project Name / Sindh Education Sector Reform Project
Region / SOUTH ASIA
Sector / General education sector (57%);Sub-national government administration (43%)
Project ID / P107300
Borrower(s) / GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN
Government of Pakistan
Pakistan
Implementing Agency / Reform Support Unit, Education and Literacy Department, Government of Sindh
NJV Building, Opposite Radio Pakistan,
MA Jinnah Road,
Sindh
Pakistan
Tel: 92-(0)21 -2779323; 2775608 Fax: 92-(0)21-2775740
Environment Category / [ ] A [X] B [ ] C [ ] FI [ ] TBD (to be determined)
Date PID Prepared / December 16, 2008
Estimated Date of Appraisal Authorization / March 31, 2009
Estimated Date of Board Approval / May 28, 2009

1.  Key development issues and rationale for Bank involvement

Sindh is Pakistan’s second largest province in terms of both population and economic output. It has historically been the industrial and commercial hub, and is the country’s most urbanized province at 49.5%. It also has the highest output per capita among the provinces. Despite this position, the province performs poorly across a range of socioeconomic indicators, including the incidence of household poverty, especially in rural areas. In terms of school participation, based on recent household data, 56.3% of children aged 5-15 years attend formal school in Sindh relative to 63.5% in all-Pakistan. Participation is particularly low for rural girls at 31.7%. In terms of school completion, conditional on ever having attended formal school, an encouraging 90% of individuals aged 15-19 years have completed primary school (grade 5). However, only 61% of individuals aged 20-24 years have completed secondary school (grade 10). Again, secondary school completion is particularly poor for rural girls at 25.8%. Finally, in terms of student learning, data from recent national achievement tests in public schools suggest that children perform far below official curriculum levels in Sindh, as they do across the country, in core subjects

To address these challenges, the Government of Sindh (GoS) launched a comprehensive and ambitious medium term reform program in 2006/07. The Sindh Education Sector Reform Program (SERP), as it is called, seeks to improve access, equity and quality in education by improving governance and institutionalizing accountability in education service delivery. The design of SERP has benefitted from lessons learned from Sindh’s own past experience with education reforms, from other provinces in Pakistan, and from other countries in the region. These lessons include the importance of (i) political commitment and ownership; (ii) combining sector-specific interventions to improve access and quality with those that address the core constraints of governance and accountability in the education sector, and with broader fiscal, financial management and governance reforms; (iii) extensive consultation and participation of stakeholders, including district and school management and local communities; and (iv) credible and well-run monitoring and evaluation systems to provide feedback into policy and the design of interventions. Many of the specific reforms and interventions in SERP were also informed by a range of analytical and advisory work.

The World Bank (WB) supported the design and implementation of the first year of the reform program through technical assistance and through financial support from the First Sindh Education Sector Development Policy Credit (SEDPC I) approved by the WB’s Board in June 2007. Complementary financial and technical support to SERP is also provided by the European Commission (EC).

The new government that came to office in February 2008 has made education a top priority, unambiguously stated its ownership of and commitment to the SERP, and it determination to address the implementation slowdown that emerged in the second half of 2007. Evidence of its commitment is seen in the championship of SERP at the highest political and bureaucratic levels, and in the renewed energy to pursuing the reforms and achieving the performance milestones embedded in the SERP policy matrix. It has requested continued support for the SERP from the WB. In addition to the financing, GoS particularly values the WB’s technical inputs, the leverage provided by WB support for carrying out difficult reforms, and the facilitation of donor harmonization around a common policy framework. The proposed new project responds to GoS’s request.

The rationale for WB involvement is compelling. First, given Sindh’s size and the magnitude of its challenges, improving education outcomes in the province is key to addressing the poverty and human development challenges in the country as a whole, and for the achievement of Pakistan’s PRSP objectives and MDG goals. The SERP as designed provides a sound and promising strategy for improving educational outcomes in the province. Second, the WB is seen as a credible partner that can engage across sectors to support education reforms within a wider context, to (i) improve fiscal sustainability, (ii) institutionalize results-based management, and (iii) strengthen country systems for financial management and procurement. The proposed support is fully consistent with the FY06-09 Country Assistance Strategy (CAS), which envisions an expansion in lending for human development, in support of the government’s priorities for sustaining growth and accelerating poverty reduction

2.  Proposed objective(s)

The development objective of the proposed project is to support the GoS’s medium term SERP. The objectives of SERP are to increase school participation, reduce gender and rural/urban disparities in schooling outcomes, increase retention and transition, and improve quality. Success in meeting SERP objectives are proposed to be measured by the following outcome indicators:

·  Increase Net Enrollment Rates in primary, middle and secondary education from baselines of 50%, 17%, and 19% respectively

·  Increase in the ratio of girls to boys NER in primary and middle schools in rural areas from baselines of 63% and 39% respectively.

·  Increase in the transition rates for rural girls in public primary to middle school in rural areas.

·  Regular and improved monitoring of completion rates and student learning outcomes

3.  Preliminary description

Due to uncertainties at the national macroeconomic level, it was agreed that the WB would redesign the modality of its support to SERP to replace the planned budget support series with a Specific Investment Loan (SIL). This would provide greater predictability of WB support to an increased pace of SERP implementation. The design of the new project has also benefited from the experience since SEDPC I, which has reinforced earlier lessons, and provided some new ones including (i) the importance of championship and ownership of the highest levels and beyond the education department; (ii) the leverage provided by fast-disbursing performance based financing from development partners; (iii) the importance of sustained WB engagement and dialogue for effective design and implementation; and (iv) the role of systematic communications strategy for wider understanding and ownership of the reforms.

The proposed project would be a US$300 million SIL that uses a Sector Wide Approach (SWAp) to support the implementation of the SERP over a three year period. There are two project components: (i) a SWAp component that will reimburse selected SERP Eligible Expenditure Programs (EEPs) over six-month intervals, with the event and amount of reimbursements conditioned on the achievement of disbursement-linked indicators (DLIs) which are SERP performance benchmarks; and (ii) a technical assistance (TA) component (tentatively a maximum of 2% of the credit amount) which would cover residual TA needs after considering available non-lending or grant financed TA from all DPs.

Achievement of agreed Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) will be required for reimbursement against the EEPs. The proposed indicators include key outcome indicators as well as policy, institutional development and output indicators embedded in the SERP which is structured into four complementary pillars that aim to improve (i) fiscal sustainability and the effectiveness of public expenditures including in education; (ii) education sector management; (iii) access to quality schooling with a particular focus on rural areas and girls; and (iv) the quality of teaching and student learning. Indicators for the four SERP pillars include:

·  In Pillar 1 (which is designed to improve fiscal sustainability and effectiveness of public expenditures, including in education): preparation of medium term fiscal and budget frameworks and of annual provincial budgets consistent with medium term fiscal targets, gradual introduction of results based budgeting beginning with the education sector, an indicator of improved internal control and audit accountability in the education sector, and steps to strengthen procurement processes in the province and sector.

·  In Pillar 2 (which aims to improve education sector management through reforms to strengthen the functioning, capacity and accountability of provincial, district and school level management): defined annual improvements in the annual school census as a tool of provincial monitoring, the development, approval and gradual implementation of a program to strengthen district education (including in quality assurance of schools) and school management committees (in school development planning), and performance based financing of school rehabilitation programs by districts.

·  In Pillar 3 (which is designed to improve access to quality schooling with a particular focus on rural areas and girls): performance in the delivery of incentive (demand-side) programs such as free textbooks and targeted girls’ secondary school stipends, and the new geographically-targeted differential stipends program for secondary school girls, gradual phasing in of a public-private partnership program which provides per student subsidies (higher for girls) to entrepreneurs to start and operate private schools in underserved rural localities, and steps towards the establishment of an autonomous educational foundation that will be responsible for PPP programs in the province.

·  In Pillar 4, (which aims to improve the quality of teaching and student learning): transparent merit based recruitment of teachers on school specific contracts, the development, approval and gradual implementation of a teacher education and professional development program which builds in quality assurance of training (with the use of universal standards and competencies increasing used for teacher recruitment and for professional development), and implementation of annual provincial diagnostic assessments to monitor and obtain feedback on student learning.

The TA component will support the operations objectives in all pillars. EEPs will be finalized based on the findings of the ongoing financial management and procurement assessments. Proposed EEPs include both sizeable EEPs (e.g. salaries of primary and secondary education sector staff, secondary school girls’ stipends, and funds to school management committees) and also a few smaller ones that are high priority programs in terms of potential impact on the development objectives (e.g., public private partnerships; monitoring and evaluation). The EEPs fund directly or indirectly the sector objectives and institutional reforms. The DLI and TA reinforce implementation of the EEPs.

The project thus provides a package of financial, policy and technical support to the sector as well as on key cross-cutting areas related to effective use of public expenditures. Like the DPC series it replaces, it is performance based and potentially fast-disbursing, and strengthens or builds on country systems for budget and education sector management, financial management and procurement. This was considered the most suitable instrument – to provide continuity of DP support to an ongoing program – while still responding to the changed macroeconomic reality.

The Reform Steering Committee (SC) chaired by the Chief Secretary of the province and represented by education, finance and planning and development departments, remains responsible for providing high level oversight and guidance and for interdepartmental coordination. It oversees and supports the Reform Support Unit (RSU), established in the education department and responsible for implementation and for monitoring and coordination of sector reform efforts. While the RSU is responsible for coordination of policy development activities, monitoring and reporting, and implementation of provincial incentive programs, implementation of various reform activities is the responsibility of different provincial and decentralized entities. Monitoring and evaluation is integrated into the SERP design (through DLIs, TA and EEPs) and includes the annual census of public schools, monitoring and evaluation of operational performance of SERP interventions both by the RSU and by independent research organizations, monitoring of student learning outcomes over time, expenditure tracking and benefit incidence, and rigorous impact evaluations using prospective designs of selected programs.

4.  Safeguard policies that might apply

The majority of SERP program activities is environmentally benign and will result in enhanced environmental benefits. However, some of the activities (e.g. rehabilitation of schools under terms of partnership – TOP – agreements with the districts, or provision of facilities under the public private partnership component) require additional measures as part of the environmental due diligence. An implementation plan for gradually addressing issues relating to ensuring safe drinking water and sanitation facilities, protection against natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, and for improving school design, construction, operations and maintenance standards and third party supervision protocol is under preparation and will be supported (by DLIs and TA) under the project. SERP as designed is not expected to have social safeguard impacts and therefore is unlikely to trigger WB policies on involuntary resettlement and indigenous people. Additional land needs, if any, under the PPP program or TOP program would be met largely through use of public or community lands, lease or even purchasing of private lands through negotiations on a willing-buyer-willing seller basis. These environmental and social safeguards and monitoring arrangements will be elaborated in an Environmental and Social Management Framework.

5.  Tentative financing

Source: / ($m.)
BORROWER/RECIPIENT / 1440
International Development Association (IDA) / 300
European Commission (EC) / 46.06
Total / 1786.06

6.  Contact point

Contact: Reema Nayar

Title: Sr Economist

Tel: (202) 473-3468

Fax:

Email:

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