-
Note de couverture de la requête d’un
financement accéléré COVID-19 pour le Benin
CONTEXTE
Pays : Benin
Agent (s) partenaire(s) : Banque mondiale
Agence(s) de coordination : UNICEF.
Intitulé du programme : BENIN COVID-19 Education Response GPE
Project.
Montant total du financement accéléré COVID-19 : 10 000 000
$US
Commissions de l’agent partenaire (en supplément du montant
total du financement accéléré COVID-19 demandé)1 :
250 000 US$
Commissions de l’agent partenaire en % du montant total du
financement accéléré demandé :
2,5%
Date de soumission de la requête pour un financement accéléré
COVID-19 :
5/13/2020
Date estimée de démarrage du financement accéléré COVID-19 :
6/18/2020
Date estimée de clôture du financement accéléré COVID-19 (doit
correspondre au dernier jour du mois, par exemple : le 30 juin
2021) :
12/31/2021
Date prévue pour la remise du rapport de fin d’exécution (au
maximum 6 mois après la date de clôture du programme) :
6/30/2022
Modalités du financement - (mettre un ‘X’)
Fonds commun sectoriel
Fonds commun de projet / Cofinancement
X Projet autonome
1 Commissions de l’agent partenaire : Les commissions générales
de l’agent partenaire s’ajoutent à l’AMP et sont déterminées selon
les règles internes de l’agent partenaire. Réglées au siège de
l’agent partenaire, elles correspondent à des frais généraux et
contribuent généralement au défraiement des frais administratifs et
autres charges encourues au titre de la gestion et de
l’administration des fonds transférés. Ces commissions sont
prédéterminées dans l’accord sur les procédures financières conclu
entre l’agent partenaire et l’administrateur fiduciaire du PME.
-
Note à l’attention de l’utilisateur
Vérification de l’éligibilité :
➔ Avant de soumettre une requête de financement accéléré
COVID-19, le Gouvernement ou
l’Agence de coordination informe le Secrétariat de l’intention
du pays de présenter une requête
et fournit un calendrier pour la soumission de la requête auprès
du Secrétariat.
Lignes directrices pour le financement accéléré :
➔ Les candidats doivent lire directive relatives au dépôt d'une
requête d’un financement accéléré COVID-19, qui explique le
processus d’élaboration de la requête, y compris le calendrier, les
étapes nécessaires. Si le candidat a besoin d’informations
supplémentaires, il peut contacter le responsable-pays au
Secrétariat.
https://www.globalpartnership.org/content/guidelines-covid-19-coronavirus-accelerated-funding-windowhttps://www.globalpartnership.org/content/guidelines-covid-19-coronavirus-accelerated-funding-window
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FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Report No: PCBASIC0223261
INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT AND/OR
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION
PROJECT APPRAISAL DOCUMENT
ON A
PROPOSED GRANT
IN THE AMOUNT OF US$ 7 MILLION
TO THE
REPUBLIC OF BENIN
FOR A
BENIN COVID-19 EDUCATION RESPONSE GPE PROJECT
July 10, 2020
{Education Global Practice} {Africa Region}
OR
This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by
recipients only in the performance of their official duties. Its
contents may not otherwise be disclosed without World Bank
authorization.
This document is being made publicly available prior to Board
consideration. This does not imply a presumed outcome. This
document may be updated following Board consideration and the
updated document will be made publicly available in accordance with
the Bank’s policy on Access to Information.
-
CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS
(Exchange Rate Effective {June 29, 2020})
Currency Unit = CFA
F CFA 583.7 = US$1
FISCAL YEAR
January 1 - December 31
-
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
AFD French Development Agency (Agence Française de
Développement) APA Alternate Procurement Arrangements AWP Annual
Work Program AWPB Annual Work Plan and Budget BCEAO Central Bank of
West African States (Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de
l’Ouest)
BEPC Exam for the LSE Certificate (Brevet d’Etudes du Premier
Cycle) CAA Autonomous Debt Centralization Department CBO/EPT
Beninese Coalition of Education for All Organizations (Coalition
Beninoise des
Organisations de l’Education pour Tous) CEP Primary School
Certificate (Certificat d’Etudes Primaires) CERC Contingent
Emergency Response Component CF Financial Control Directorate
(Contrôle Financier) CM2 Sixth Grade Students (CM2) (end of primary
education) COGEP School-Based Management Committees (Comité de
Gestion de l’Ecole Primaire).
CP Second Grade Students (CP) CPF Country Partnership Framework
CRS Catholic Relief Services
CSDM Disbursement and Procurement Monitoring Committee (Comité
de suivi des Décaissements et des Marchés)
D/IGPM Director of Pedagogical Inspection and Innovation
(D/IGPM) D/INFRE Director of the National Institute for Training
and Research in Education (D/INFRE) D/INIFRCF Director of the
National Engineering Institute for Training and Capacity Building
of Trainers
(D/INIFRCF)
DAF Director of Administration and Finance DAF/MEMP
Administration and Finances Department for MEMP (Direction de
l’Administration et des
Finances MEMP) DDEMP Regional Directorates of Education for MEMP
(Direction Départementale des Enseignements
Maternel et Primaire) DDESTFP Regional Directorates of Education
for MESTFP (Direction Départementale des Enseignements
Secondaire, Technique et de la Formation Professionnelle)
DEM Directorate of Pre School (Direction de l'Enseignement
Maternel) DEP Director of Primary Education DFIL Disbursement and
Financial Information Letter DGB General Directorate of Budget
(Direction Générale du Budget) DGES Director of General Secondary
Education DGFID Investment and Development Financing DGPD General
Directorates of Development Policies DGTCP Directorate General of
the Treasury and Public Accounting (Direction Générale du Budget
et
de la Comptabilité Publique)
DIPIQ Director of Pedagogical Inspection, Innovation and Quality
DNCMP National Procurement Control Directorate (Direction Nationale
de Contrôle des Marchés
Publics)
DPP Director of Programming and Planning
-
E&S Environment and Safeguards ECF Extended Credit Facility
EMIS Education Management Information System ESCP Environmental and
Social Commitment Plan ESP Education Sector Plan ESRS Environmental
and Social Review Summary F CFA Franc From the African Financial
Community (Franc de la Communauté Financière d'Afrique) FCB-PME
Common Budgetary Fund -GPE (Fonds Commun Budgétaire – Partenariat
Mondial pour
l’Education -FCB-PME
FDI Foreign Direct Investment FI Financial Intermediaries FM
Financial Management FTI-FCB Fast Track Initiative - Common
Budgetary Fund (Initiative Fast-Track- Fonds Commun
Budgétaire)
GAP Government Action Program GDP Gross Domestic Product GEMS
Geo-Enabling Method for Monitoring and Supervision GER Gross
Enrollment Ratio GIR Gross Intake Rate GIZ German Corporation for
International Cooperation GoB Government of Benin GPE Global
Partnership for Education GPI Gender Parity Index GRM Grievance
Redress Mechanism GRS Grievance Redress Service HCI Human Capital
Index HDI Human Development Index IBRD International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development ICR Implementation Completion and
Results Report ICT Information and Communication Technology ICWMP
Infectious Control and Waste Management Plan IDA International
Development Association IFRs Interim Financial Reports IGF General
Inspectorate of Finance IMF International Monetary Fund IPF
Investment Project Financing LEG Local Education Group LES Lower
Secondary Education (Premier Cycle de l’Enseignement Secondaire
Général)
LMP Labor Management Procedure LSE Lower secondary education LSS
Lower secondary school M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MEMP
Ministry of Pre- and Primary School (Ministère des Enseignements
Maternel et Primaire)
MESFTP Ministry of Secondary, Technical Education and Vocational
Training (Ministère des Enseignements Secondaire, Technique et de
la Formation et Professionnelle)
-
MESRS Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
(Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche
Scientifique)
MEU Monitoring and Evaluation Unit MoD Ministry of Development
MoEs Ministries of Education MoF Ministry of Finance MPA Multiphase
Programmatic Approach MTR Mid-Term Review NGOs Non-Governmental
Organizations NPF New Procurement Framework OHS Occupational,
Health and Safety PA Pedagogic Advisers PAG Government Action
Program PASEC Regional Assessment for Francophone Countries
(Programme d’Analyse du Secteur de
l’Education de la CONFEMEN)
PBC Performance-Based Conditions PBI Performance-Based
Incentives PCR Primary Completion Rate PCU Project Coordination
Unit PDO Project Development Objective PIM Project Implementation
Manual PP Percentage Points PPSD Project Procurement Strategy for
Development PSC Project Steering Committee PTA Parent Teacher
Association PTAB Annual Work Plan and Budget (Plan de Travail
Annuel et Budget) PU Procurement Units SDGs Social Development
Goals (SDGs) SEA-SH Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Sexual
Harassment SEP Stakeholder Engagement Plan SGM Secretary General of
the Ministry SIDC Secure Identification Credentials SIP Strategic
Integrated Plan SOP Series of Projects SPM Procurement Specialist
(Spécialiste en Passation des Marchés) SSA Sub-Saharan Africa STEP
Systematic tracking of Exchanges in Procurement STP Technical
Permanent Secretariat (Secretariat Technique Permanent) ToRs Terms
of Reference UATS Technical Support and Monitoring Unit (Unité
d’Appui Technique et de Suivi)
UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund USE Upper Secondary
Education VfM Value for Money WASH Water, Sanitation and
Hygiene
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WB World Bank WBG World Bank Group WFP World Food Program WHO
World Health Organization
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Page 1 of 64
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DATASHEET
.................................................................................
Error! Bookmark not defined.
I. STRATEGIC CONTEXT
......................................................................................................
6
A. Country
Context................................................................................................................................
6
B. Sectoral and Institutional Context
....................................................................................................
8
C. Relevance to Higher Level Objectives
.............................................................................................
12
II. PROJECT DESCRIPTION
..................................................................................................
13
A. Project Development Objective
.....................................................................................................
13
B. Project Components
.......................................................................................................................
13
C. Project Beneficiaries
.......................................................................................................................
19
D. Results Chain
..................................................................................................................................
20
E. Rationale for Bank Involvement and Role of Partners
...................................................................
20
F. Lessons Learned and Reflected in the Project Design
....................................................................
21
III. IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS
............................................................................
23
A. Institutional and Implementation Arrangements
..........................................................................
23
B. Results Monitoring and Evaluation
Arrangements.........................................................................
24
C. Sustainability
...................................................................................................................................
25
IV. PROJECT APPRAISAL SUMMARY
...................................................................................
25
A. Technical, Economic and Financial Analysis (if applicable)
......................................................... 25
B. Fiduciary
..........................................................................................................................................
26
C. Legal Operational Policies
...............................................................................................................
28
D. Environmental and Social
...............................................................................................................
28
V. GRIEVANCE REDRESS SERVICES
.....................................................................................
31
VI. KEY RISKS
.....................................................................................................................
31
VII. RESULTS FRAMEWORK AND MONITORING
...................................................................
32
ANNEX 1: Implementation Arrangements and Support Plan
.......................................... 42
ANNEX 2: Detailed project costs
....................................................................................
53
ANNEX 3- Key Education Sector Challenges Prior to the COVID-19
Pandemic ................. 56
ANNEX 4: KEY RISKS
......................................................................................................
58
.
....................................................................................................................................
60
ANNEX 5: Map of Benin showing districts with a PCR lower than
50% ........................... 60
Annex 6- Detailed Implementation Plan
........................................................................
61
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Page 2 of 64
DATASHEET
BASIC INFORMATION BASIC_INFO_TABLE
Country(ies) Project Name
Benin Benin COVID-19 Education Response GPE Project
Project ID Financing Instrument Environmental and Social Risk
Classification
Process
P174186 Investment Project Financing
Moderate Urgent Need or Capacity Constraints (FCC)
Financing & Implementation Modalities
[ ] Multiphase Programmatic Approach (MPA) [ ] Contingent
Emergency Response Component (CERC)
[ ] Series of Projects (SOP) [ ] Fragile State(s)
[ ] Performance-Based Conditions (PBCs) [ ] Small State(s)
[ ] Financial Intermediaries (FI) [✓] Fragile within a
non-fragile Country
[ ] Project-Based Guarantee [ ] Conflict
[ ] Deferred Drawdown [✓] Responding to Natural or Man-made
Disaster
[ ] Alternate Procurement Arrangements (APA) [ ] Hands-on
Enhanced Implementation Support (HEIS)
Expected Approval Date Expected Closing Date
26-Aug-2020 31-Dec-2021
Bank/IFC Collaboration
No
Proposed Development Objective(s)
The proposed project's development objectives are to: (a) ensure
continuity of teaching during and after the COVID -19 pandemic,
particularly in deprived communes in the Recipient’s territory; and
(b) increase the Government’s preparedness to mitigate the effects
of future crises
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Components
Component Name Cost (US$, millions)
Component 1: Ensuring safe reopening of schools and return of
students, especially in deprived communes
5.74
Component 2: Improving preparedness to mitigate the effects of
future crises 0.72
Component 3: Ensuring monitoring, management and coordination of
the project 0.39
Bank supervision cost 0.15
Organizations
Borrower: Ministry of Economy and Finance
Implementing Agency: Ministry of Pre and Primary Schools
PROJECT FINANCING DATA (US$, Millions)
SUMMARY-NewFin1
Total Project Cost 7.00
Total Financing 7.00
of which IBRD/IDA 0.00
Financing Gap 0.00
DETAILS -NewFinEnh1
Non-World Bank Group Financing
Trust Funds 7.00
Education for All - Fast Track Initiative 7.00
INSTITUTIONAL DATA Practice Area (Lead) Contributing Practice
Areas
Education
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The World Bank Benin COVID-19 Education Response GPE Project
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SYSTEMATIC OPERATIONS RISK-RATING TOOL (SORT)
Risk Category Rating
1. Political and Governance ⚫ Moderate
2. Macroeconomic ⚫ Moderate
3. Sector Strategies and Policies ⚫ Moderate
4. Technical Design of Project or Program ⚫ Moderate
5. Institutional Capacity for Implementation and Sustainability
⚫ Moderate
6. Fiduciary ⚫ Moderate
7. Environment and Social ⚫ Moderate
8. Stakeholders ⚫ Low
9. Other
10. Overall ⚫ Moderate
COMPLIANCE
Policy Does the project depart from the CPF in content or in
other significant respects?
[ ] Yes [✓] No
Does the project require any waivers of Bank policies?
[✓] Yes [ ] No
Have these been approved by Bank management?
[✓] Yes [ ] No
Is approval for any policy waiver sought from the Board?
[ ] Yes [✓] No
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The World Bank Benin COVID-19 Education Response GPE Project
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Environmental and Social Standards Relevance Given its Context
at the Time of Appraisal
E & S Standards Relevance
Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and
Impacts Relevant
Stakeholder Engagement and Information Disclosure Relevant
Labor and Working Conditions Relevant
Resource Efficiency and Pollution Prevention and Management Not
Currently Relevant
Community Health and Safety Relevant
Land Acquisition, Restrictions on Land Use and Involuntary
Resettlement Not Currently Relevant
Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living
Natural
Resources
Not Currently Relevant
Indigenous Peoples/Sub-Saharan African Historically Underserved
Traditional
Local Communities
Not Currently Relevant
Cultural Heritage Not Currently Relevant
Financial Intermediaries Not Currently Relevant
NOTE: For further information regarding the World Bank’s due
diligence assessment of the Project’s potential environmental and
social risks and impacts, please refer to the Project’s Appraisal
Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS). Legal Covenants
Conditions
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I. STRATEGIC CONTEXT
1. School closures due to COVID-19 will negatively impact
education outcomes in Benin and affect its Human capital index. The
first confirmed COVID-19 case in Benin was announced on March 16,
20202. Specific measures have been taken by the Government of Benin
(GoB) to manage the COVID-19 outbreak, including school closures
from March 27 to May 10, 2020. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic,
Benin was facing a learning crisis and considerable geographic and
social disparities in the provision and quality of education
services. The Human Capital Index (HCI) scores, which measures the
productivity of people given their health and education, is
currently 41 percent for Benin3. This ranks Benin at 125th out of
157 countries worldwide and 14th of 39 Sub-Saharan countries
included in the HCI survey. School closures will further
deteriorate education outcomes for children if actions are not
urgently implemented. Immediate action is therefore required to
ensure continuity of teaching and during and after the COVID-19
pandemic.
2. The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) has approved a US$
7 million4 to Benin on June 17, 2020, from the GPE COVID-19
accelerated funding window. This accelerated funding window is
designed to provide governments with the financing and technical
resources required to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19
pandemic on their education systems and to support recovery efforts
in their country.
A. Country Context
3. Benin is a small West-African coastal country with a
predominantly young, and rapidly growing, population. Estimated at
11.80 million in 2019, up from the 2013 census population of 9.98
million, the population is growing at a rapid rate of approximately
3 percent per year5. The population is young, with a median age of
18.2 years. With about 42.5 percent of the population under the age
of 15, Benin ranks among the top 25 countries worldwide in terms of
the largest percentage of young people6. This proportion rises to
63 percent for those under the age of 25. The labor market is also
under extreme pressure as approximately 200,000 young people reach
working age each year7. 4. Despite Benin being one of the fastest
growing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with growth
averaging 6.3 percent in 2017-2019, the poverty rate remains high
at 45.4 percent in 2019 (US$1.9 a day threshold, 2011 PPP). Growth
in recent years has mainly been driven by booming cotton
production, and strong construction and port activity following a
series of reforms that improved port management and facilitated
trade. An important feature of Benin’s economy is the strong
economic and trade linkages with Nigeria (e.g. more than half of
exports in 2018). This relationship has aided Benin when Nigerian
growth has been robust, but it has also increased risks and limited
the structural transformation of the economy. As a result, aside
from agriculture, the economy is dominated by informal commerce and
trade. The low-productivity informal economy represents 65
2 As of June 3, 2020, Benin reported 261 cases of COVID-19. Of
the confirmed cases, 109 cases are still active, 148 cases
recovered (and patients have since been dispatched), and 4 cases
have resulted in death. 3 This means that a child born today will
only be 41 percent as productive as she/he could be if she/he
enjoyed complete education and full health 4 This amount includes
the Bank supervision cost. 5 United Nations, Department of Economic
and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019). World Population
Prospects: The 2019 Revision. 6 Benin ranks 22 out of 217 in terms
of percentage of the population with an age under 15 (World Bank
staff estimates based on age/sex distributions of United Nations
Population Division's World Population Prospects: 2019 Revision). 7
INSAE, State of Employment in Benin (August 2017).
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The World Bank Benin COVID-19 Education Response GPE Project
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percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs
approximately 90 percent of the labor force.8 Consequently, poverty
and poor human capital results remains a defining characteristic of
Benin. 5. Facing two external shocks, Nigeria’s border closure
since August 2019, and the negative effects of the COVID-19
pandemic, Benin’s growth will be challenged in 2020. Economic
activity remained robust in 2019 with real GDP growth reaching 6.9
percent in 2019 (4 percent per capita) as manufacturing and
services picked up, compensating for the fall in exports due to the
border closure with Nigeria. However, due to the combined effect of
the COVID-19 pandemic and protracted border closure, growth is
expected to sharply drop to 3.2 percent in 2020. Benin has one of
the lowest levels of tax-revenue to GDP in SSA, amounting to 10.6
percent in 2019, rapidly limiting its response capacity to external
shocks.
6. A protracted COVID-19 crisis is likely to substantially
reduce household income, possibly undermining some of the welfare
gains of recent years. In 2019, 44.5 percent of the population was
estimated to live under the poverty line of US$1.9/day (2011 PPP)
based on World Bank projections. Under the baseline scenario, with
real GDP per capita only increasing by 0.5 percent in 2020, poverty
reduction decelerates significantly from an annual pace of about 3
percent in the previous two years to virtually zero in 2020. More
alarming, poverty rates reach pre-2016 levels under the downside
scenario in 2020, as real GDP per capita declines by 1 percent and
growth in agriculture and services is hampered, reverting recent
gains in poverty reduction. Poor households will be primarily
affected by a loss of labor and non-labor income.9 The expected
effects of containment measures on food prices will also be
particularly detrimental for vulnerable households. Further, on top
of these traditional channels are the added shocks linked to
health, the disruption of public service delivery (e.g. school
feeding programs), and the medium-term impact of the sale of
productive assets. The latter would have negative repercussions on
human capital accumulation in the long term. The GoB’s National
Response Plan should help mitigate these negative effects. 7.
Anticipating the large economic and social impacts of COVID-19,
authorities have requested technical and financial support from
International Financial Institutions (IFIs). On May 15, 2020, the
IMF Executive Board completed the 6th and final review of the
Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Arrangement. The completion of the
sixth review enabled the disbursement of SDR 91.931 million (about
US$125 million); of which SDR 76.013 million (about US$103.3
million) to support the COVID-19 response requested by the
Government. The World Bank, in turn, is supporting the health
sector through three ongoing operations10 (US$138million) and is
preparing rapid budget support program though Supplemental
Financing (US$50 million)11. Despite these commitments, the
financing gap remains large.
8. Progress towards the education-related Social Development
Goals (SDGs) has been steady but achieving the envisaged targets
will require a more rapid rate of progress than those observed
during the previous decade. Achieving universal completion rates
and gender parity are two key aims of the SDGs. Improvement in the
primary completion rate (PCR) has been too slow in recent years (65
percent in 2005/2006 vs. 67.5 percent in 2017/2018) to put the
country on track to achieve universal primary completion.
Similarly, although there is
8 Systematic Country Diagnostic 2017, Report 114822-BJ. 9 If low
as a share of GDP (1.9 percent in 2019), remittances tend to
represent a significant share of poor household income. 10 The
three operations are: Regional Disease Surveillance Systems
Enhancement Program (REDISSE), CERC of Nutrition Project and Benin
COVID-19 fats-track project. 11 The proposed Development policy
Operations (DPO) provides an additional funding of US$ 50 million
for the first Fiscal Reform and Structural Transformation to help
the Government of Benin fill an unanticipated financing gap due to
the impact of COVID-19 outbreak.
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progress on gender parity in lower secondary education—with the
gender parity index (GPI) increasing from 54.5 percent in 2005/2006
to 88.1 percent in 2017-2018—additional efforts are needed to
achieve equal access for girls and young women across all levels of
education.
B. Sectoral and Institutional Context 9. Benin’s general
education system is divided into four levels and there are
approximately 3 million students in basic education. The four
levels include a: (i) two-year preschool cycle for four and
five-year-old; (ii) six-year primary cycle beginning at age six;
(iii) seven-year secondary education cycle, consisting of a
four-year lower level leading to a college certificate, and a
three-year upper level leading to a Baccalaureate diploma; and (iv)
higher education system that provides bachelors, masters and
doctorate degrees (some private institutions provide two-year
certificate programs). Since the approval by the Government of the
new Education Sector Plan (ESP) 2018-2030 in June 2018, basic
education encompasses pre-school to lower secondary education with
an overall duration of 12 years. There is also non-formal basic
education which consists of alternative forms of education and
apprenticeship schemes for pre-professionalization. Only primary
school enrollment and attendance are compulsory. As shown in Table
1, the number of students enrolled in pre-primary, primary, and
lower general secondary school in the 2019-20 school year is about
3.0 million. Private schools’ students account for 25.5 percent and
16.5 percent in primary and lower secondary schools, respectively.
Table 1 Enrollment by education level (public and private) for the
2019-2020 SY
Level of education Number of schools Number of students Number
of teachers
Pre-primary* 2,828 156,218 3,518
Primary* 11,090 2,182,724 56,813
Lower secondary 1,750 641,071 15,547
Total 15,668 2,980,013 75,878 *Provisional data Source:
Provisional statistical yearbooks of MEMP and MESTFP-Benin
10. The education sector is managed by three ministries: (i)
Ministry of Pre- and Primary School (Ministère des Enseignements
Maternel et Primaire, MEMP); (ii) Ministry of Secondary, Technical
Education and Vocational Training (Ministère des Enseignements
Secondaire, Technique et de la Formation et Professionnelle,
MESFTP); and (iii) Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific
Research (Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche
Scientifique, MESRS). The first two ministries each have 12
regional directorates. For the MEMP, at the decentralized level,
there are 85 primary school districts consolidated into 45
sub-regional school inspectorates, each led by an inspector who is
assisted by educational advisers. 11. Starting in October 2016, the
Government has extended its school feeding program in order to
increase equitable access to and retention in primary education. To
reduce the burden for households, school fees were abolished in
2006 for all pre-primary and primary school students, as well as
for girls enrolled in lower secondary schools. A public financial
compensation program—aimed at counterbalancing the loss of
resources for schools—has been put in place. In addition,
considering that school canteens can contribute to improve school
attendance, learning outcomes and good nutrition for children, the
Government has been supporting 3,852 schools by providing one meal
to each child per day. This program complements the meals which are
already provided by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in 143
supported schools. The management of this feeding program has
been
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delegated to the World Food Program (WFP). About 684,059
students, representing approximately 41.2 percent of public primary
school students, have been fed by school canteens. Students fed
through the WFP initiative, pay approximately 25 FCFA (about
US$0.05) per day, representing about US$7.5 per school year. This
implies a significant cost for households, particularly for
families from the lower economic quintiles. 12. The World Bank is
also financing School Feeding and Nutrition in 10-12 communes of
the country, as well as supporting initiatives aimed at increasing
girls’ empowerment. The Early Years Nutrition and Child Development
Project financed by the Bank is supporting “Integrated Primary
School Feeding and Nutrition” in 10-12 communes in developing a
home-grown school feeding (HGSF) program for 125 primary schools
comprising an average of 25,000 school children per year, to
alleviate short-term hunger in undernourished school children,
incentivize parents to enroll their children in school, and
increase community involvement. The Bank-financed Sahel Women’s
Empowerment and Demographics Project (SWEDD) has a subcomponent
supporting “empowerment of women and girls” that will provide
learning opportunities for girls aged 14 to 18 and economic
opportunities for young girls aged 18 to 24 who are either out of
school or unemployed. Support will be particularly targeted to
girls from families living in extreme poverty. 13. Tangible
progress has been made in increasing access to basic education as
shown in Table 2, even if the trend decreased from 2016.
Table 2: Evolution of Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) and
Completion Rate in Basic Education (in percent) from 2011 to
2019
Gross Enrolment rate (GER) Completion rate
2010/11 2015/16 2018/19 2010/11 2015/16 2018/19
Preschool 11.6 15.6 16.8 n.a. n.a. n.a.
Primary school 114.5 115.4 108.3 69.6 71.3 54.8
Lower secondary school 62.9 70 50.1 40.8 44.4 40.9 Source:
DPP/MEMP and DPP/MESTFP-Benin
14. Despite achievements in terms of increased access to
education, there are persistent and considerable geographic and
social disparities in the provision and quality of primary
education services. The 12 regions (see map in Annex) of the
country can be classified into four groups with regards to Gross
Intake Rate (GIR) and Primary Completion Rate (PCR). The first
group includes the Alibori region where the primary GIR (35
percent) and PCR (24 percent)12 are particularly low. The second
group includes the Atacora and Borgou regions, which both have an
average primary GIR of 68 percent and a PCR of 56 percent and 47
percent, respectively. The third group is comprised of Atlantique,
Collines, Couffo, Donga, Plateau and Zou regions, where the primary
GIR is between 80 and 90 percent and the PCR between 56 and 65
percent. The fourth group includes the regions of Littoral, Ouémé,
and Mono, which had a relatively high primary GIR of 97 percent and
a high PCR of 73 percent. According to the 2016 statistical
yearbook, there are 20 deprived school districts with a PCR below
50 percent. A total of 11 out of the 20 deprived school districts,
are in the Alibori and Borgou regions.13 15. The gender gap widens
as students move through the education system. Although the
difference in
12 The source for access rates used here is EMICOV 2015. 13 All
six of the districts in Alibori and five out the eight districts in
Borgou, are classified as deprived according to the 2016
statistical yearbook.
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enrollment rates and completion rates between boys and girls at
the primary level is relatively small (PCR is 66 percent for girls
vs. 71 percent for boys), the gender gap widens as students move
through the education system, with girls’ enrollment consistently
lagging behind that of boys. Indeed, while the intake rate for
girls is 62 percent and 70 percent for boys in Lower Secondary
Education (Premier Cycle de l’Enseignement Secondaire Général,
LSE), completion rates are only 39 percent for girls and 51 percent
for boys. 16. Key education sector challenges prior to the COVID-19
pandemic are described in detailed in Annex 3. 17. The Benin Global
Partnership for Education Phase 3 Project, financed by a Global
Partnership for Education grant in the amount of US$18.9 million,
is attempting to address part of these challenges. The Project was
approved by the World Bank’s Africa Regional Vice President on July
17, 2019 and the grant agreement was signed on September 19, 2019.
The Project’s development objectives are to: (i) improve the
quality of teaching and learning in basic education with an
emphasis on the early grades; and (ii) strengthening equity in
primary education, particularly in four regions of the country. The
Project is financing, among other, the following activities: (i)
improvement of grades 1 and 2 curricula to enhance the quality of
basic education; (ii) improvement of teachers’ knowledge on
curricula and teaching practices in primary and lower secondary
schools; (iii) promotion of equitable access to schooling through
support to grades 1 and 2 students in public primary schools in the
deprived districts of Alibori and Borgou regions; and (iv) grants
to sub-regional inspectorates aiming to strengthen teachers’
pedagogical support, following inspectors’ and educational
advisors’ class visits.
The COVID 19 Challenges 18. As part of its response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Benin closed all schools
(preschool, primary, secondary, vocational education, and
universities) through May 10, 2020. Initially, on March 24, 2020,
the Government decided to close schools from March 30 to April 13,
2020. Given the rapid spread of the virus, the Government
subsequently extended school closures until May 10, 2020.
Consequently, about 16,000 schools (all levels of education
combined) were closed, affecting more than 3.3 million students and
88,000 teachers. Pursuant to the Government’s recent decision: (i)
schools re-opened on May 11 for grade 6 and secondary level
students; and (ii) grades 1 to 5 students are expected return to
schools from August 4 to September 11 in order to complete the
2019-2020 school year. 19. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to
negatively impact the education sector in a number of ways:
• Spending on the education sector could also be affected, thus
impacting quality of education. In recent years, total expenditures
(recurrent and capital) for education have averaged 28 percent of
government expenditures (excluding debt service), representing
about 4.3 percent of GDP. The financial prioritization of the
education sector has been crucial to: (i) support extension of
school canteens program; (ii) provide textbooks and learning
materials for basic education; and (iii) recruit new teachers,
among others. Because the COVID-19 pandemic will likely to reduce
economic activity and growth, Government revenues are also expected
to dramatically drop. Given fiscal constraints that may result from
the crisis, the teaching environment may worsen because non-salary
expenditures, which are already low, could be further reduced (it
is unlikely that the Government would lower spending for salaries).
Expenditures for textbooks, learning materials, or infrastructure
improvements could decline, worsening the quality of education
provided.
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• School closures are expected to lead to learning loss and
increased inequality. Learning poverty has existed before the
COVID-19 pandemic. The closure of schools will not only exacerbate
learning poverty, but also increase learning inequality because the
wealthiest families will be able to maintain their children’s
learning at home by providing textbooks and other learning
materials or hiring private tutors to mitigate any interruption in
instruction. Therefore, once schools re-open, some children will
find themselves at a disadvantage compared to their better educated
peers.
• Student dropout rates could rise, negatively impacting the
primary completion rate, as well as transition rates to secondary
education. Because the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a severe
economic crisis, households are facing rising unemployment and
income losses: these trends will likely continue once school
sessions resume. The economic downturn may cause the poorest
households to keep children at home even after school re-opens,
increasing the number of out-of-school children. Therefore, the PCR
will likely decrease, putting the country off-track to achieve the
education SDGs. In addition, parents’ ability to contribute to
educational inputs may also be more limited, impacting the quality
of schooling provided.
• School closures may also disproportionately impact girls. The
crisis could lead to an increase in the burden of care-related
tasks. Girls may often be expected to take on additional
responsibilities due to social expectations, such as household and
domestic chores. In economically disadvantaged areas, girls tend to
marry and have children early. Additional barriers to girls’ school
participation and retention include poverty and high school fees,
poor infrastructure and distances to schools, unsafe learning
environments, and increased exposure to violence and sexual
harassment or abuse.
• Teaching quality will likely suffer. The increase in food
prices may lead to lower purchasing power of teachers, which in
turn, may reduce teachers’ motivation and the teaching quality. In
addition, teachers are not trained to conduct remedial
education.
20. In this context, maintaining and/or increasing enrollment
rates once schools re-open would require several actions:
communications and awareness-raising campaigns; reduction of the
opportunity cost of schooling for poorer families; actions to
secure safe and inclusive schools; etc. 21. To mitigate the impact
of the COVID-19 the Government prepared an education response plan.
Following school closures, a sector response task force, including
education partners, has been put in place to strengthen the
education sector’s ability to effectively mitigate—as well as
address—the negative impacts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The response plan primarily aims at: (i) minimizing the adverse
effects of COVID-19 pandemic on students, teachers and the
education system at large; and (ii) enhancing the capacity of the
MoEs and stakeholders to promote protection of students and
teachers and ensure continuity of teaching. It represents an
opportunity to build the core foundation required to foster
improvements in the quality of the teaching and learning
environment in Benin in the short term, as well as in the medium
and long-term. This will entail building robust remote learning
systems and building the capacity of the Government—and by
extension the education sector—to adequately deal with potential
shocks and crises in the future. The planned activities include,
distance learning through radio, TV, messages and digital solutions
(like online learning), and specific and targeted support to ensure
mobile phone accessibility is improved in order to reach a larger
number of students. In this context, in early April 2020, the MoEs
put in place teams for the preparation of broadcast lessons for
students in exam classes (both in primary a secondary education).
Because many of these initiatives are being implemented for the
first
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time in Benin, technical assistance has been recruited to help
the Government roll out some of these activities. In particular, in
the first week of May 2020, lesson plans were delivered to primary
school schools via radio to ensure the maximation number of
students were able to benefit. Since re-opening of classrooms for
some students began on May 11 2020, this experience will be
considered as pilot and will help to draw a number of important
lessons which will subsequently be used to refine these
radio-instruction programs. However, the important lesson learned
with the COVID-19 pandemic has been the need of the country to be
more prepared and ready to anticipate and cope with future shocks
to the education sector.
C. Relevance to Higher Level Objectives
22. The proposed Project is closely aligned with the 2019-2023
Country Partnership Framework (CPF) and contributes to the
development of human capital. Specifically, the proposed Project
will directly contribute to the 2019-2023 CPF’s strategic Focus
Areas 2—Building Human Capital—one objective of which is to improve
the relevance of education and professional training in order to
improve the technical capacity of the labor force. The proposed
Project will also contribute to the Human Capital Project. First,
by protecting students from the impact of the pandemic, and
subsequently, by ensuring continuity of teaching and learning.
Efforts will also be made to further build the resilience of the
education sector in order to minimize the negative impacts of
potential shocks in the future. Ultimately, the proposed Project
will strive to provide children in Benin with continued access to
education during, and following, the COVID-19 pandemic.
23. The Education COVID-19 Response Project is fully aligned
with the Government Response plan both at the national and sector
levels. The Government of Benin has developed a National Education
COVID-19 Response in joint collaboration with all donors. The plan
primarily aims to: (i) support the continuity of learning; (ii)
anticipate measures to be taken towards schools re-opening and
supporting safe practice in schools; and (iii) reinforce system
resilience. The proposed Project is designed on the basis of the
Government’s COVID-19 Action Plan, aiming to support, along with
the other development partners, the client’s emergency response to
this pandemic. At the national level, the Government of Benin has
developed a National COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan. The
proposed Project’s design takes into consideration the measures
described under each of the five strategic pillars outlined in the
National Action Plan: (i) country-level coordination, planning, and
monitoring; (ii) risk communication and community engagement; (iii)
surveillance, rapid response teams, cases investigation and entry
points; (iv) equipment of national laboratory with necessary
machines for diagnosis tests; and (v) case management, infection
prevention and control. As indicated in paragraph 40 below, other
development partners from the Local Education Group, led by UNICEF,
are also expected to help finance the Government’s COVID-19 Action
Plan.
24. The WBG remains committed to providing a fast and flexible
response to the COVID-19 epidemic, utilizing all WBG operational
and policy instruments and working in close partnership with
Government and other agencies. The proposed Project will be the
Bank’s first intervention to respond to the COVID-19 impact on the
education sector in Benin. This COVID-19 response is closely
aligned with the proposed WBG response to COVID-19 in Benin which
includes emergency financing, policy advice, and technical
assistance, building on existing instruments to support the
Government of Benin in addressing the health sector and broader
development impacts of COVID-19. Improving Benin’s economic and
development trajectory after COVID-19 will require increased focus
on improving its human capital outcomes and addressing disparities
in poor and remote areas, especially in the country’s deprived
disadvantaged communes.
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25. The World bank has established itself as a trusted partner,
with a comparative advantage anchored in its longstanding presence
in the policy dialogue, high-quality analytical work and technical
support, breadth of financial instruments, convening power, and
capacity to forge partnerships. The Bank is recognized as an
effective partner in addressing vulnerability, including through
innovative work in social protection (through the national registry
and expanding safety net) and climate change mitigation. The WBG’s
diagnostics, policy reform initiatives and investments have helped
to create a more level playing field, improved sector governance,
and bolstered domestic growth and development in client countries
around the world. This pandemic also provides the Bank with the
opportunity to drawn upon its recent experience supporting
governments across the African continent in the fight against the
Ebola virus. Many of the lessons learned from that emergency
response will be highly relevant in the context of the COVID-19
pandemic as well. The Bank will also use its convening power to
support this emergency response in a very agile and effective
manner.
II. PROJECT DESCRIPTION
A. Project Development Objective
PDO Statement The proposed project’s development objectives are
to: (a) ensure continuity of teaching during and after the COVID
-19 pandemic, particularly in deprived communes in the Recipient’s
territory; and (b) increase the Government’s preparedness to
mitigate the effects of future crises.
PDO Level Indicators
26. Progress towards achievement of the PDO would be measured by
the following indicators:
• Children previously enrolled in schools who return to school
once the school system is re-opened (Total in number and
percentage, girls and deprived communes in percentage);
• Schools equipped with minimum hygiene standards for prevention
of COVID-19 (Total in percentage; number of schools)
• Schools offering remediation programs in deprived communes
once the school system is re-opened (total in percentage, number of
primary schools, number of lower secondary schools);
• National strategy for continuity of learning for all children
developed and disseminated.
B. Project Components
27. To maximize the impact of the project, the Government and
Local Education Group (LEG) jointly agreed to focus part of the
project interventions on deprived communes which are communes where
primary completion rate is below 50 percent. The negative spillover
effects of the COVID-19 pandemic might be particularly severe in
these deprived communes, thus justifying the Project’s focus on
providing targeted support to these vulnerable communities . Based
on this criterion, 20 out of the 77 communes in the country were
selected (see map in annex 5). The number of students in these 20
communes represents in 2020, 20 percent ofprimary students in
public schools and 13.1 percent of lower secondary students in
public schools. Interventions focusing only on deprived communes
are under subcomponent 3 of the component 1. All other
interventions are countrywide.
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Component 1: Ensuring safe reopening of schools and return of
students, particularly in deprived communes (US$5.74 million)
28. Disruptions to instructional time in the classroom can have
a severe impact on a child’s ability to learn. The longer
marginalized children are out of school, the less likely they are
to return. Children from the poorest households are already almost
two times more likely to be out of primary school than those from
the richest quintile14. Being out of school also increases the risk
of teenage pregnancy, sexual exploitation, child marriage,
violence, among other threats. Further, prolonged closures disrupt
essential school-based services such as immunization, school
feeding, and mental health and psychosocial support, and can cause
stress and anxiety due to the loss of peer interaction and
disrupted routines. These negative impacts are likely to be
significantly higher for marginalized children, such as those
living in deprived communes and children living with
disabilities.
29. The proposed Project will support the Government of Benin’s
plans for re-opening schools and keeping learners safe. In this
regard, the re-opening of schools must be done by taking a number
of essential measures to ensure the safe return of as many pupils
as possible, especially pupils from deprived communes. To achieve
this, Component 1 will support: (i) community mobilization
activities; (ii) provision of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
to ensure schools have appropriate hygienic measures in place for
students and teachers; (iii) provision of grants to schools to
encourage disadvantaged students to return; and (iv) remedial
programs for students at risk of repetition and drop-out.
30. Sub-component 1.1 Media campaign and community sensitization
for returning to school and disease control and prevention. This
sub-component will support community sensitization and
communication by financing community awareness campaigns within the
communities through local community organizers and facilitators as
well as radio/television campaigns to encourage parents and
communities to send children back to school and maintain good
hygiene practices during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Activities to be supported under this sub-component include: (i)
back-to-school media campaigns through community awareness and
mobilization campaigns that target political and administrative
officials, Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), teachers and school
leaders, and School-Based Management Committees (Comité de Gestion
de l’Ecole Primaire—COGEPs); (ii) gender sensitization campaigns
that focus on girls at risk of dropping out, as well as measures to
prevent gender-based violence (including sexual exploitation and
abuse, sexual harassment), and issues related to unequal social
norms; (iii) media campaigns for disease control and prevention to
educate community members, teachers, students, and parents, on
disease prevention, by financing radio/television campaigns to
encourage good hygiene practices during and after the crisis and to
ensure safety for all; and (iv) a campaign, using community
organizers/facilitators to mobilize communities and parents
associations (PTAs) to strengthen communication and support for
teachers and students as they re-enter school.
31. Sub-component 1.2: Ensuring schools are safe for re-opening.
This sub-component will support: (i) WASH activities to ensure safe
water, adequate sanitation, and hygiene education in schools; and
(ii) the provision of hygiene kits. Most of these activities will
be financed by providing grants to schools using the established
school grants mechanism set up under the Government budget. It is
also expected that UNICEF will play an active role in providing the
installation of WASH facilities. Activities under this subcomponent
include:
14 Source : Note d’analyse sectorielle du système d’éducation et
de la formation
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(i) Provision of hand washing facilities. Given to its
comparative advantages, and by utilizing resources
allocated to this proposed Project, UNICEF will be responsible
for providing schools with hand-washing
stations. A contractual agreement between the Bank and UNICEF
will be signed so that the latter
institution can carry out this activity using the resources
allocated to this proposed Project. These hand-
washing stations will be installed at the entrance of each
classroom and administrative office. A total of
20,440 hand-washing devices will be purchased by UNICEF and
distributed as follows: 1,600 for
preschools; 15,000 for primary schools; and 3,840 for lower
secondary school (LSS). Schools which
enrolled students with disabilities will be prioritized in the
distribution of the hand-washing devices.
(ii) Provision of hygiene kits, soap, masks and water. Grants
provided by the Government in pre-and-
primary schools and tuition fees collected in LSS will be used
to acquire hygiene kits and soap where
needed, as well as hand washing kits to schools that need the
kits. The proposed Project will also provide
grants to approximately 2,000 primary schools and 170 LSS. These
grants will be used to introduce
alternative measures for ensuring permanent availability of
water for handwashing devices in schools
without water points15. The proposed amount of the grant for
each school is estimated to be on average
US$250 and US$400 for primary and LSS, respectively. The actual
amount to be allocated to schools will
depend on the distance to be traveled to access the water point.
In addition, the grants can be used to
acquire masks for teachers and school administrators,
particularly for those that are most vulnerable to
the virus, in case where the ones promised by the Government
have not been delivered on time.
(iii) Support for school infirmaries. School grants can be used
to provide infirmary staff with training on good
hygiene practices and prevention measures to curtail the spread
of the virus. This may include training on
identification of symptoms, provision of thermoflash
(thermometer with infrared ray), surgical masks, etc.
The number of school infirmaries is 46 in LSS16. Each targeted
school is expected to receive about US$470.
32. Sub-component 1.3: Ensuring continuity of learning and
tracking of student progress. Prior to schools’ closures, much of
the annual academic programs were delivered to learners. Despite
academic programs being advanced, ensuring teaching and learning
continuity is crucial to prevent learning losses and to reduce the
risks of students dropping out. This component will: (i) support
remedial programs for students at risk of repetition or dropping
out; and (ii) provide subsidies to schools, through grants, to
offset the cost of schooling in deprived communes. Activities under
this sub-component will include the following:
(i) Provision of remedial (catch-up) programs for students at
risk of repetition and dropping out in all
grades of primary (grades 1 to 6) and grade 10 of lower
secondary schools in the 20 deprived communes, particularly
students with learning disabilities. To plan for learning recovery
at the re-opening of schools, learning gaps and learning loss will
need to be assessed in key disciplines among
15 The Government has an ambitious program to provide universal
access to water supply in both urban and rural areas by 2021. The
program is under implementation. Discussions are underway with
government agencies coordinating this program in order to set up
connections with schools without water points in areas of
interventions of project when possible. Currently, the coverage of
water point is 46 percent and 76.5 percent for primary and
secondary schools, respectively. 16 There are no school infirmaries
in primary schools
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grades 1 to 5 students17. The identification of students will
apply to both public and private specialized schools for children
with disabilities. Once identified, these students, along with
those students in grades 6 and 10, will be provided with remedial
programs to help them catch-up on grade level material. The
remedial programs already exist and are currently offered to grade
6 students preparing for the final primary exam. To achieve this,
the Project will: (i) provide resources to regional directorates to
conduct rapid assessments of grades 1-5 students’ knowledge to
identify at risk students for remedial programs; and (ii) provide
grants in an amount of US$200 to approximately 1995 schools (of
which 175 LSS), including 120 schools enrolling students with
disabilities to cover internal travel cost of teachers on
non-working days/hours to extend remedial programs to all grades of
primary and grade 10 of lower secondary schools in the 20 deprived
communes.
(ii) Compensation of part of incidental costs paid for school
canteens in deprived communes. Schools grants can also be used to
provide subsidies to primary schools to run canteens in deprived
communes, thereby reducing the cost to parents and students of
running the canteens which may prevent disadvantage students from
returning to school. The grants will cover three-fifth (3/5) of
amount paid by parents in school canteens: 2,475 F CFA (about
US$4.5) per student. The estimated number of students concerned is
220,000.
(iii) Provision of school kits for deprived communes and
children with disabilities. The proposed Project will support the
provision of school kits for both public and specialized schools
for children with disabilities, comprised of school supplies and
textbooks for grades 1 and 2 students in nine18 (9) deprived
communes. Specifically, girls in grades 7 and 8 (2 first grades of
lower secondary schools) in the 9 communes19 will also receive
school kits, including textbooks in two key disciplines. The
content of kits for each grade already exists. The estimated number
of students receiving these kits are 72,500 and 16,500 in primary
and secondary schools, respectively. About 1,050 children with
disabilities in public and not for profit schools countrywide will
also receive these kits. The unit amount of the kits is about US$
10, US$20, and US$30 for primary, secondary and disabilities
students, respectively. UNICEF is expected to lead the
implementation of these activities with additional resources from
the current project, given their ongoing programs related to
provision of kits including school supplies and uniforms, in close
collaboration with the Bank and other donors, in 3 out of the 12
regions of the country: Borgou, Alibori, and Zou.
33. In addition to these activities, the ongoing GPE Project
Phase 3 will support practical training for teachers to regularly
assess students learning lags in order to determine which areas of
the curriculum will need the most work and pedagogical techniques
to close gaps.
Component 2: Improving preparedness to mitigate the effects of
future crises (US$0.72 million)
34. Component 2 aims to support the Government’s efforts to
strengthen the education system’s resilience in the medium and long
term. Benin remains vulnerable to shocks: The 2017 World Risk
Report ranked Benin 25th out of 171 countries in terms of risks
related to natural disasters, and 11th in terms of lack of adaptive
capacities.20
17 Schools have already been reopened for other grades in basic
education. 18 The ongoing GPE project has been supported other 11
deprived communes in close collaboration with UNICEF. 19 UNICEF has
been provided kits for grades 7 and 8 girl students in the 11
deprived communes. 20 The World Risk Index is calculated based on
exposure to five types of natural hazards (Earthquakes, cyclones,
floods, droughts, and sea-
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Therefore, sustainable remote learning opportunities will need
to be expanded to mitigate the negative effects of potential school
closures in the future. Further, capacity building measures need to
be in place at all levels of the education service delivery chain
to ensure schooling and learning continuity and to mitigate the
negative effects of potential shocks in the future. Component 2
includes two sub-components: (i) expanding sustainable remote
learning opportunities; and (ii) building capacity to mitigate the
effects of the crisis and anticipate future shocks in the education
sector. 35. Sub-component 2.1: Expanding sustainable remote
learning opportunities. Expanding remote learning is the primary
goal of sub-component 2.1. The proposed Project will support the
Government’s goal of be establishing and mainstreaming distance
learning systems and programs. This sub-component supports the
following activities:
(i) Setting up the enabling environment for distance learning:
The proposed Project will support the development of partnerships
between Ministries of Education and national radio and TV stations,
as well as community radios and other local radios, to facilitate
the broadcasting of distance learning courses. To enable the
production of high-quality audio, visual and digital education
content, production rooms will be equipped with the necessary
material. The launch of the soon to be finalized global digital
distance learning education platform21 will also be supported by
the proposed Project.
(ii) Supporting teachers: To ensure effective remote learning,
teachers need to be adequately trained in
distance teaching methods or other alternatives forms of
training which do not conform to the traditional face-to-face
teaching modality. Training teachers in digital skills, in a
context where teaching may increasingly involve the use of
technological tools, is also essential. The number of teachers to
be trained is estimated to be 300, of which 100 will be LSS
teachers. An electronic tablet will be provided to each teacher
involved in the training and a tracking system will be put in place
to locate these devices and track their proper use. The proposed
Project will also pilot the concept of blended classes, i.e.
classes that combine distance learning with face-to-face lessons,
in a small sample of classrooms.
(iii) Developing distance learning contents: Teachers trained
will develop remote, distance learning
programs, as well as self-learning materials to be used mainly
in cases of other shocks in key disciplines. The proposed Project
will finance a pilot production of quality audio, visual and
digital media as well as self-learning workbooks and other
materials, including for children with learning difficulties and
children with disabilities, to ensure equity in education and
learning.
36. Sub-component 2.2. Building capacity to anticipate and cope
with future shocks in education. The objective of sub-component 2.2
is to build the capacity of the key education actors (from national
level to school level) to be better prepared to cope with any
future crises that may result in school closures or may lead to
other detrimental effects on the education system. In other words,
the objective of this sub-component is to build the overall
resilience of the education system in Benin. Sub-component 2.2
supports the following activities:
level rise); vulnerability on the basis of infrastructure/food
supply/economic conditions as well as coping and adaptive
capacities, which depend on governance, preparedness/early
warnings, healthcare, social and material security.
http://weltrisikobericht.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/WRR_2017_E2.pdf
21 A global digital distance learning education platform for West
and Central Africa French speaking countries is under preparation
with the support of the World Bank Education Global Practices and
will be finalized by end July2020.
http://weltrisikobericht.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/WRR_2017_E2.pdfhttp://weltrisikobericht.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/WRR_2017_E2.pdf
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(i) Setting up an enabling policy framework: : The proposed
Project will support an evaluation of COVID-
19 education management; what has been done during the COVID-19
crisis and how it could have been done better. Establishing
policies and good practices on how to maintain and/or improve
teaching and learning during times of crisis is essential to ensure
the resiliency of the education system is strengthened. These
efforts should strive to draw upon the good practices and policies
employed in countries across the world. The goal is to identify
areas of relative strength and weakness and use this information to
guide Benin’s policies and practices during emergencies. At the
same time, this can be a shared endeavor in which Benin not only
learns from other countries, but also shares its own experience and
lessons learned with other countries. In addition, the proposed
Project will support the development of a national strategy for
education and learning continuity in the event of shocks and school
closures. Further, an Education Emergency Response Plan will be
developed and integrated into the Education Sector Plan 2018-2030.
At school level, a guidance note on school re-openings will be
developed to ensure better preparedness after floods or other types
of natural disasters.
(ii) Building back better with an effective data system: The
post-COVID phase will offer many other
opportunities to “build back better”. The proposed Project will
support the strengthening of an effective data system, including
the development of a methodology to identify vulnerable and at-risk
students with the objective of more easily identifying and
supporting them in the event of a crisis. This will allow the
Ministry of Education to track whether learning outcomes are being
maintained and/or improved, what factors are driving improvements,
and what remedial measures need to be put in place to ensure that
all students are provided with the opportunity to excel.
Component 3: Ensuring monitoring, management, and coordination
of the project (US$0.39 million)
37. Component 3 aims to ensure the effective implementation of
the daily operations of the proposed Project and to build knowledge
and competencies to improve services delivery. Overall, project
management will be implemented by drawing heavily on the
implementation arrangements which were established under the
recently approved Benin Global Partnership for Education Project
Phase 3 (P167432). Implementation arrangements are detailed under
Annex 1. The component will support the following key
interventions:
(i) Project management and coordination including the following
activities: - Preparation and execution of the eighteen (18)
months’ work plan and budget, and procurement
plan; - Monitoring of the results framework and quarterly
reporting; - Facilitate project communication; - Efficient
fiduciary and safeguards implementation and reporting; and -
Establishment and operationalization of a grievance redressal
mechanism.
(ii) Strengthening monitoring of the project activities. The
objective of this activity is to improve the capacity of the MoEs
to systematically track progress in the implementation of the
project based on the project results framework. To this end, the
project will support: (i) the collection of school data on a
regular basis; (ii) the STP responsible for monitoring the ESP
indicators on behalf of the MoEs;
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and (iii) the Coalition Beninoise des Organisations de
l’Education pour Tous (CBO/EPT)22 to report on citizen feedback on
service delivery with the objective of identifying and addressing
bottlenecks
Project cost and financing
38. The Project is expected to be implemented over an 18-month
period. GPE has approved a grant in the amount of US$7 million on
June 17, 2020 to finance the implementation of this proposed
emergency operation . The table below shows a summary of the
Project costs by sub-component. The detail costs are found in Annex
2.
Table 3: Project Cost per Component and Sub-component (US$
million)
Components/sub-components Project
cost GPE
Financing Percent
Financing
Component 1: Ensuring safe reopening of schools and return of
students, especially vulnerable and disadvantaged students
5.74 5.74 100
1.1 media campaign and community sensitization 0.32 0.32 100
1.2 Ensuring continuity of learning and tracking of student
results 2.84 2.84 100
1.3 Ensuring continuity of teaching and tracking of student
results 2.58 2.58 100
Component 2: Strengthening education system resilience in the
medium and long term
0.72 0.72 100
2.1 Expanding sustainable remote learning opportunities 0.53
0.53 100
2.2 Building capacity to anticipate and cope with future shocks
in education 0.19 0.19 100
Component 3: Ensuring monitoring, management and coordination of
the project 0.39 0.39 100
Bank Supervision cost 0.15 0.15 100
Total 7.00 7.00 100
C. Project Beneficiaries
39. Overall, 793,600 students are expected to benefit from all
project components (not double counting students who may benefit
from more than one activity/component). In addition, teachers,
school head teachers, pedagogical advisors, and inspectors will
also benefit from trainings. Detailed direct beneficiaries
include:
• Approximately 793,600 students and 19,800 teachers who will
benefit from hand washing devices
• Approximately 220,000 students from schools with canteens will
be waived from incidental canteen costs
22 CBO/EPT is an umbrella organization of NGOs working for
education in Benin
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• Approximately 90,050 students of which 16,500 for LSS who will
benefit from school kits
• Approximately 344,000 students at risk of repletion will
receive remedial program
• Approximately 300 teachers will receive training in distance
teaching methods.
D. Results Chain
40. Links between the project activities, outputs, intermediate
level results and long-term outcomes are illustrated in the
schematic diagram presented below:
Components Interventions Outputs Outcomes (PDO level
indicators)
1.Ensuring safe reopening of schools and return of students,
especially vulnerable and disadvantaged students
1.1 Media campaign and community sensitization for returning to
school and disease control and prevention. 1.2. Ensuring schools
are safe for re-opening (provision of hand washing facilities and
hygiene kits, and support for school infirmaries) 1.3 Ensuring
continuity of learning and tracking of student progress (remedial
programs, compensation of school canteen fees, school kits)
Communities and children are sensitized to school return and
disease control and prevention Schools are safe for return
Dropouts are contained, especially among vulnerable students and
girls
Children have access to hygiene and sanitation kits in
schools
Schools are reopened in a safe environment, and children return
to school
2. Improving preparedness to mitigate the effects of future
crises
2.1 Sustainable remote learning opportunities are expanded
(partnerships between MOE and national TV and radio stations
established; teachers are supported, and distance learning content
is developed). 2.2. Capacity to anticipate and cope with future
shocks is built (policy framework and effective data collection
system is set up)
-Established improved remote learning system post crisis -
teachers are trained in distance teaching tools and distance
learning contents are developed. -Ministry’s capacity is
strengthened to better respond to future crisis -Effective data
system to identify at-risk students is in place
Remote learning opportunities are in place and the education
system is more resilient
post crisis.
E. Rationale for Bank Involvement and Role of Partners
41. Investing in human capital formation is a top priority of
the GoB and this strategic objective is highlighted in The
Government Action Program (PAG) 2016-2021. The PAG strongly
emphasizes the need to help create more formalized employment
opportunities for Benin’s burgeoning youth population, as well as
to improve health, education and social protections. The CPF
2019-2023 promotes two objectives to address the PAG’s national
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priorities: (i) improving relevance of education and
professional training for strengthened job creation; and (ii)
improving social protection, health and nutrition systems.
42. The World Bank’s value-added stems from its expertise in
supporting countries further strengthen their basic education
system. The World Bank has a long and successful experience in
working with the Government on supporting and strengthening basic
education. The World Bank has extensive technical and operational
knowledge in the areas supported by the proposed Project—both in
the sub-region and globally. Through its over 12 years of
experience in leading the Fast Track Initiative - Common Budgetary
Fund (Initiative Fast-Track- Fonds Commun Budgétaire-FTI-FCB) or
Common Budgetary Fund -GPE (Fonds Commun Budgétaire – Partenariat
Mondial pour l’Education -FCB-PME ) pooled funds the World Bank has
gained an understanding of the education sector issues and has
developed strategies and methods to support the Government most
efficiently. The proposed Project, which is fully funded by the
GPE, will leverage the World Bank’s experience in neighboring
countries as well as lessons learned from previous and ongoing
projects in similar settings. The Bank also has gained experience
in supporting governments across the African continent in the fight
against the Ebola virus. Lessons learned from that emergency
response will be highly relevant in the context of the COVID-19
pandemic. The proposed Project is expected to complement specific
assistance provided by a number of bilateral donors, such as French
Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Swiss
Cooperation, and multilateral organizations, such as the Unied
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Food Program (WFP), UNESCO;
etc. The support of these agencies includes:
a) Multiplication and dissemination of information posters and
posters on hand washing; b) Support to learning continuity during
the school’s closure; c) Equipment of some schools with minimum
hygiene standard equipment, including hand washing
facilities23 for prevention of COVID-19; d) Construction of
blocks of latrines and water points in some schools.
43. Development Partners—including the key members of the Local
Education Group (LEG)—have played an important role in the
preparation of the proposed Project. Faced with this COVID-19
pandemic, a team led by the lead donor (UNICEF) and comprising most
of education donors and representatives of the three ministers of
education (MEMP; MESFTP and, Ministry of Higher Education and
Scientific Research (MESRS)) has been set up to prepare a strategic
integrated plan (SIP) to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the
education system. The activities of the proposed Project are
derived directly from the SIP. During project preparation, the
Local Education Group (LEG), chaired by the MEMP, has been
regularly consulted to ensure both strong project coordination, as
well as a robust technical design. The proposed Project’s documents
have been shared, discussed, and endorsed by the LEG and have
benefitted from regular consultative feedback with key
stakeholders. For project implementation, regular meetings of the
LEG will enable the team to monitor implementation progress and to
help resolve any potential implementation and/or coordination
issues. For project implementation supervision, it is expected that
combined or joint missions with other partners will be carried
out.
F. Lessons Learned and Reflected in the Project Design
44. Project design incorporates lessons learned from: (i) the
two previous GPE projects (FTI-2008-2012 and PME-
23 The number of washing facilities provided by other donors did
not yet cover 30 percent of the needs. The MoEs, in close
collaboration with donors will coordinate their distribution.
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2014-2018) that were supervised by the World Bank and for which
resources were pooled with other donors funds; and (ii) other
recent education pilot projects in Benin, including those supported
by the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) and
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The most important lessons
which have been incorporated are the following: ✓ Targeting
education policies to reach the most deprived areas will better
help the Government meet the
Millennium Development Goals in education, as well as to improve
the impact of project interventions. The previous project (Benin
FTI program-P110576) showed modest impact in improving the primary
completion rate (PRC) due to the fact that the Government’s
policies and project interventions were not focused on the most
deprived areas.
✓ Support to access and equity in education are relevant for
Benin to attain universal primary education. This is particularly
important for children in deprived communes with limited modes of
access to education during COVID-19. The chances of a child to
access the various levels of primary education largely depend on
the wealth quintile to which his/her parent belongs to. The higher
the parent's wealth quintile, the higher the child's chances of
attending and remaining in school. If we focus on the lowest and
highest economic quintiles, we observe in 2015 that for the
poorest, the primary school access rate is 68 percent and the
completion rate is 39 percent; conversely, among the wealthiest
quintile, these indicators are 94 percent and 79 percent,
respectively24.
✓ The targeted allocation of scare resources to the most
deprived communes can be an effective way of
improving education outcomes within these areas—thus narrowing
the performance gap between the wealthier and poorer communes in
Benin. Under the Benin GPE Phase 2 Project (P129600), school kits,
including stationery, school bags and uniforms, were provided to
grade 1 and 2 girls in 25 deprived communes out of a total of 77
communes in the country. Available data shows that the effect of
this activity was positive because the average increase in girls
GER in deprived communes has quadrupled in the same period compared
to the national average’
✓ In a context of frequent government turnover and institutional
reorganization, the establishment of an efficient and appropriately
staffed project coordination unit under the leadership of the
Government can help ensure continuity during the project
implementation. The proposed institutional arrangements are
expected to minimize turnover-related delays, maintaining the
institutional memory of a project, and reducing transaction costs
by serving as a focal point on project implementation guidelines
and procedures.
✓ The establishment of a robust M&E system should be
prioritized in order to ensure the various outputs and outcomes
achieved under Projects are systematically tracked and evaluated.
Previous projects implemented in Benin have experienced challenges
in the collection of data due to gaps in the EMIS system data. This
has led to the need for complementary data collection efforts to
fill these gaps. Establishing and maintaining a robust and agile
M&E system will be prioritized under the proposed Project.
✓ Pooled fund mechanisms can provide a coherent framework for
donor collaboration and coordination. Pooled funds can initially be
a challenge to establish. However, once criteria for the fund are
agreed, they
24 Source: 2017 sector analysis note-Benin
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help ensure complementarity of donor investments. The proposed
Project is expected to use the previously established pooled funds
procedures (that included terms of reference, detailed activity
sheets, etc.) for each activity. These procedures will help
formalize and rationalize the execution of activities and ensure
accountability. This will help to sustain and institutionalize the
established pooled fund procedures. “
III. IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS
A. Institutional and Implementation Arrangements
45. At the central level, apart from minor changes, the proposed
Project will use the institutional arrangements of the Benin GPE
Project- Phase 3 (P167432) which were inspired by the pooled fund
arrangements. The modifications that will be made to accommodate
the proposed Project are:
(i) New members—with experience in health-related interventions
and in the production of distance learning lessons—will be added to
the Project Steering Committee (PSC). The new members are: (i) two
representatives of Ministry of Health; (ii) one representative of
Ministry of Digital Economy; and (iii) two representatives from the
donor community in the education sector.
(ii) The existing Technical Support and Monitoring Unit (Unité
d’Appui Technique et de Suivi, (UATS)),
which is a technical assistance provider, as well as the
day-to-day coordinator of the Benin GPE Phase 3 project, will be
further strengthened with the recruitment of four additional staff:
(i) a procurement specialist assistant; (ii) a monitoring and
evaluation specialist assistant; and (iii) an environmental and a
social safeguard specialists.
46. At the operational level, apart from the UATS, the Technical
Permanent Secretariat (Secretariat Technique Permanent, (STP) and
the Disbursement and Procurement Monitoring Committee (Comité de
suivi des Décaissements et des Marchés, (CSDM) will play an
important role in the effective implementation of the activities.
Their respective responsibilities are detailed in Annex 1.
47. Technical departments of the three ministries involved in
the proposed Project will be in charge of the implementation of
their respective activities. Under the authority of the Secretary
General of the MEMP, the departments implementing the Project
Components and Sub-components are described in Annex 1.
48. In each of the 12 regions, the proposed Project’s activities
will be coordinated by the regional directorates under the
supervision of the Secretary General of each of the three
ministries. For primary schools, the Sub-Regional School
Inspectorates under the supervision of the Regional Directorates
will be the key entities for overseeing project activities and
compiling the data supplied by the schools for M&E.
49. At the school level, the school head is responsible for all
the project activities taking place in the school, including the
distribution of students’ uniforms in primary schools and
distribution of girls’ kits and textbooks in lower secondary
schools. At the community level, the COGEPs/ COGES composed of
representatives of parents, school staff and local resource persons
will be in charge of supporting schools to deliver the agreed
results, and to monitor and report on the functioning of
schools.
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50. The above-mentioned arrangements are detailed in Annex 1 and
will be complemented by an Annex to the existing Project
Implementation Manual (PIM) developed for the Benin GPE Phase 3
operation, which sets forth all the operational and procedural
steps for project implementation, including a detailed description
of the roles and responsibilities of the aforementioned
implementing units.
B. Results Monitoring and Evaluation Arrangements
51. The Education COVID-19 Project implementation will be
monitored through a series of monitoring and evaluation (M&E)
activities. Routine monitoring and reporting on the proposed
Project’s outputs will provide information on the progress of
implementation and help the team take corrective actions during the
course of implementation . The objectives of the M&E activities
will be to: (i) track progress and provide timely feedback to the
Government, MEMP, and the Bank team on implementation status and
deliverables; (ii) provide preliminary evidence on the
effectiveness of the intervention; and (iii) capture initial
lessons learned from the design and implementation to improve
future emergency operations. T