The World Bankdocuments.worldbank.org/curated/.../pdf/Benin-Early-Years-Nutrition-… · the world bank for official use only report no: pad2899 international development association

Document of

The World Bank FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Report No: PAD2899

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION

PROJECT APPRAISAL DOCUMENT

ON A

PROPOSED GRANT

IN THE AMOUNT OF SDR 36 MILLION (US$50 MILLION EQUIVALENT)

TO THE

REPUBLIC OF BENIN

FOR THE

EARLY YEARS NUTRITION AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

January 30, 2019

Health, Nutrition & Population Global Practice Africa Region

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.

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CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS

(Exchange Rate Effective December 31, 2018)

Currency Unit = EURO

US$1 = EURO 0.87321

US$1 = Franc CFA 573

US$1 = SDR 0.719

FISCAL YEAR

January 1 - December 31

Regional Vice President: Hafez M. H. Ghanem

Country Director: Pierre Frank Laporte

Senior Global Practice Director: Timothy Grant Evans

Practice Manager: Gaston Sorgho

Task Team Leaders: Menno Mulder-Sibanda, Jenny R. Gold, Yacinthe Gbaye

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ANCB National Association of Communes of Benin (Association Nationale des Communes du

Bénin) ARCH Program for the Reinforcement of Human Capital (Assurance pour le Renforcement du

Capital Humain) ASCINB Civil Society Association for the Intensification of Nutrition in Benin (Association de la

Société Civile pour l'Intensification de la Nutrition au Bénin) AWPB Annual Work Plan and Budget BCEAO Central Bank of West African States (Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest) BD Bidding Document BER Bid Evaluation Report CAA Autonomous Amortization Fund (Caisse Autonome d’Amortissement) CAN Food and Nutrition Council (Conseil de l’Alimentation et de la Nutrition) CBO Community-based Organization CCC Commune Multisectoral Consultative Committee (Cadre Communal de Concertation) CCMP Procurement Control Unit (Cellule de Contrôle des Marchés Publics) CDC Regional Consultative Committee (Cadre Départemental de Concertation) CONAFIL National Commission for Local Financing (Commission Nationale des Finances Locales) CPF Country Partnership Framework CSANE Nutrition and Child Development Surveillance and Support Committee (Comité de

Surveillance et d’Appui à la Nutrition et au Développement de l’Enfance) CSO Civil Society Organization DA Designated Account DFIL Disbursement and Financial Information Letter DHS Demographic Health Survey DLI Disbursement Linked Indicators DP Direct Payment ECD Early Childhood Development EU European Union EYNCDP Early Years Nutrition and Child Development Project FADeC Commune Development (Fonds d’Appui au Développement des Communes) FM Financial Management FY Fiscal Year GDP Gross Domestic Product GNI Gross National Income GoB Government of Benin GPN General Procurement Notice GrACE Community Child Support Group (Groupe d’Assistance Communautaire pour l’Enfance) GRM Grievance Redress Mechanism HCI Human Capital Index HD Human Development HGSF Home-grown School Feeding IBM Iterative Beneficiary Monitoring IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development IDA International Development Association

IEG International Evaluation Group IEY Investing in the Early Years IFAC International Federation of Accountants IFR Interim un-audited Financial Reports IGF General Inspectorate of Finance (Inspection Générale des Finances) IPF Investment Project Financing IYCF Infant and Young Child Feeding JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency KAP Knowledge Attitude and Practice M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MAEP Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (Ministère de l'Agriculture de l'Elevage et de

la Pêche) MASM Ministry of Social Affairs and Microfinance (Ministère des Affaires Sociales et de la Micro

Finance) MENC Ministry of Digital Economy and Communication (Ministère de l'Economie Numérique et de

la Communication) MDGL Ministry of Decentralization and Local Governance (Ministère de la Décentralisation et de

la Gouvernance Locale) MEF Ministry of Economy and Finance (Ministère de l'Économie et des Finance) MEMP Ministry of Preschool and Primary Education (Ministère de Enseignement Maternel et

Primaire) MICS Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey MISP Ministry of Interior and Public Security (Ministère de l'intérieur et de la Sécurité Publique) MJ Ministry of Justice (Ministère de la Justice) MPD Ministry of Planning and Development (Ministère du Plan et du Développement) MS Ministry of Health (Ministère de la Santé) NPF New Procurement Framework PMASN Multi-Sectoral Food Health Nutrition Project PND National Development Plan (Plan National de Développement) PRMP Person in Charge of Procurement (Personne Responsable des Marchés Publics) NGO Non-governmental Organization ORTB Public Television and Radio PAG Government Program of Action (Programme d’Actions du Gouvernement) PDC Commune Development Plan (Plan de Développement Communal) PDO Project Development Objective PEE Essential Early Learning Practices (Pratiques Essentielles d’Eveil) PFE Essential Family Practices (Pratiques familiales essentielles) PIM Project Implementation Manual PPSD Project Procurement Strategy for Development PSC Project Steering Committee RfP Request for Proposal ROI Return on Investments SBCC Social and Behavioral Change Communication SCD Systematic Country Diagnostic SDG Sustainable Development Goals SDR Special Drawing Rights

SIDC Secure Identification Credentials SOP Series of Projects SP-CAN Permanent Secretariat of the National Food and Nutrition Council (Secrétariat Permanent

du Conseil de l’Alimentation et de la Nutrition) SPN Specific Procurement Notice SUN Scaling Up Nutrition TA Technical Assistant ToR Terms of Reference UNDB United Nations Development Business UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund WA Withdrawal Application WBG World Bank Group WFP World Food Programme WHO World Health Organization

The World Bank Early Years Nutrtion and Child Development Project (P166211)

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BASIC INFORMATION

BASIC INFO TABLE

Country(ies) Project Name

Benin Early Years Nutrition and Child Development Project

Project ID Financing Instrument Environmental Assessment Category

P166211 Investment Project Financing C-Not Required

Financing & Implementation Modalities

[ ] Multiphase Programmatic Approach (MPA) [✓] Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC)

[✓] Series of Projects (SOP) [ ] Fragile State(s)

[ ] Disbursement-linked Indicators (DLIs) [ ] 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)

Expected Approval Date Expected Closing Date

21-Feb-2019 31-May-2024

Bank/IFC Collaboration

No

Proposed Development Objective(s)

S-PDO is to reduce stunting and improve ECD outcomes in children under five years of age in targeted communes The PDO (SOP-1) is to improve the delivery of early nutrition and childhood development interventions and services in targeted areas of benefiting Communes in the Recipient's territory.

Components


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Component Name Cost (US$, millions)

Management and Coordination of Interventions for the Early Years 10.80

Community-based Interventions for the Early Years 29.80

Integrated Primary School Feeding and Nutrition 9.40

Contingency Emergency Response Component 0.00

Organizations

Borrower: Republic of Benin

Implementing Agency: Permanent Secretariat of the national Food and Nutrition Council (SP CAN)

PROJECT FINANCING DATA (US$, Millions)

SUMMARY-NewFin1

Total Project Cost 50.00

Total Financing 50.00

of which IBRD/IDA 50.00

Financing Gap 0.00

DETAILS-NewFinEnh1

World Bank Group Financing

International Development Association (IDA) 50.00

IDA Grant 50.00

IDA Resources (in US$, Millions)

Credit Amount Grant Amount Guarantee Amount Total Amount

National PBA 0.00 50.00 0.00 50.00

Total 0.00 50.00 0.00 50.00

Expected Disbursements (in US$, Millions)


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WB Fiscal Year 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Annual 0.42 4.89 8.53 12.54 11.85 9.74 2.03

Cumulative 0.42 5.32 13.85 26.39 38.24 47.97 50.00

INSTITUTIONAL DATA

Practice Area (Lead) Contributing Practice Areas

Health, Nutrition & Population Education, Gender, Governance, Social Protection & Labor Climate Change and Disaster Screening

This operation has been screened for short and long-term climate change and disaster risks

Gender Tag Does the project plan to undertake any of the following?

a. Analysis to identify Project-relevant gaps between males and females, especially in light of country gaps identified through SCD and CPF Yes

b. Specific action(s) to address the gender gaps identified in (a) and/or to improve women or men's empowerment Yes

c. Include Indicators in results framework to monitor outcomes from actions identified in (b) Yes

SYSTEMATIC OPERATIONS RISK-RATING TOOL (SORT)

Risk Category Rating 1. Political and Governance Moderate

2. Macroeconomic Moderate

3. Sector Strategies and Policies Substantial

4. Technical Design of Project or Program Substantial

5. Institutional Capacity for Implementation and Sustainability Substantial

6. Fiduciary Moderate


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7. Environment and Social Low 8. Stakeholders Low

9. Other

10. Overall Substantial

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 Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Yes No

Environmental Assessment OP/BP 4.01 ✔

Performance Standards for Private Sector Activities OP/BP 4.03 ✔

Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 ✔

Forests OP/BP 4.36 ✔

Pest Management OP 4.09 ✔

Physical Cultural Resources OP/BP 4.11 ✔

Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 ✔

Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP 4.12 ✔

Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 ✔

Projects on International Waterways OP/BP 7.50 ✔

Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP 7.60 ✔ Legal Covenants

Sections and Description Schedule 2, Section I.A.1: The Recipient shall establish no later than four (4) months after the Effective Date and maintain throughout the period of Project implementation, the Project Steering Committee to ensure the proper


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high-level oversight of the Project and coordination among the Recipient’s ministries and agencies, with terms of reference, mandate, composition and resources satisfactory to the Association as further described in the Project Implementation Manual. Sections and Description Schedule 2, Section 1.A.3: The Recipient shall no later than three (3) months after the Effective Date or such later date as the Association may agree, (i) nominate a representative in charge of procurement within the SP-CAN, satisfactory to the Association; and, (ii) conduct one training for selected NGOs to reinforce their procurement capacity. Sections and Description Schedule 2, Section 1.A.4: The Recipient shall no later than four (4) months after the Effective Date or such later date as the Association may agree, select and hire within the SP-CAN and with terms of reference and qualifications satisfactory to the Association: (i) a Project manager in charge of overseeingregional teams; (ii) a technical officer in charge of technical support on early child nutrition and development for the Project; (iii) an accountant; (iv) a communications specialist; and (v) a Project officer to support Part 3 of the Project. Sections and Description Schedule 2, Section 1.A.5: The Recipient shall no later than six (6) months after the Effective Date or such later date as the Association may agree, (i) conclude an agreement with the Recipient’s Inspection Générale des Finances to include the Project in its annual work program and carry out semi-annual internal auditing; and (ii) recruit an external auditor acceptable to the Association.

Conditions

Type Description Effectiveness The Recipient has adopted a Project Implementation Manual in form and substance

satisfactory to the Association in accordance with the provisions of Section I.E of Schedule 2 to this Agreement.

Type Description Disbursement Under Category (2), until and unless the Association has received evidence satisfactory in

form and substance that at least one NGO Financing Agreement has been signed. Type Description Disbursement Under Category (4), for Emergency Expenditures under Part 4 of the Project, unless and until

the Association is satisfied, and has notified the Recipient of its satisfaction, that the Recipient has determined that an Eligible Crisis or Emergency has occurred, hasfurnished the Association a request to include said activities in the CERC Part in order to respond to said Eligible Crisis or Emergency, and the Association has agreed with such determination, accepted said request and notified the Recipient thereof.


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Type Description Disbursement Under Category (4), for Emergency Expenditures under Part 4 of the Project, unless and until

the Association is satisfied, and has notified the Recipient of its satisfaction, that the Recipient has prepared and disclosed all safeguards documents required for saidactivities, and the Recipient has fulfilled any actions which are required to be taken under said documents, all in accordance with the Association’s safeguards policies and procedures, for purposes of such activities.


the Association is satisfied, and has notified the Recipient of its satisfaction, that the Recipient’s Coordinating Authority has adequate staff and resources, in accordance with the provisions of Section I.F of Schedule 2 to this Agreement for the purposes of such activities.


the Association is satisfied, and has notified the Recipient of its satisfaction, that the Recipient has adopted an CERC Operations Manual in form, substance and manner acceptable to the Association and the provisions of the CERC Operations Manual remain, or have been updated in accordance with the provisions of Section I.F of Schedule 2 to this Agreement so as to be appropriate for the inclusion and implementation of said activities under the CERC Part.


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BENIN

EARLY YEARS NUTRTION AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. STRATEGIC CONTEXT ...................................................................................................... 8

A. Country Context ................................................................................................................ 8

B. Sectoral and Institutional Context ................................................................................... 9

C. Relevance to Higher Level Objectives ............................................................................ 18

II. PROJECT DESCRIPTION .................................................................................................. 20

A. Series of Projects Approach for Early Years Nutrition and Child Development ........... 20 B. Project Development Objective (PDO) .......................................................................... 25

C. Project Components ....................................................................................................... 26

D. Project Beneficiaries ....................................................................................................... 35

E. Project Results Chain ...................................................................................................... 36

F. Rationale for World Bank Involvement and Role of Partners ...................................... 38 G. Lessons Learned and Reflected in the Project Design ................................................... 39

III. IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS ............................................................................ 39

A. Institutional and Implementation Arrangements ......................................................... 39

B. Results Monitoring and Evaluation Arrangement ......................................................... 42

C. Sustainability ................................................................................................................... 44

IV. APPRAISAL SUMMARY .................................................................................................. 45

A. Technical, Economic and Financial Analysis (if applicable) ........................................... 45 B. Fiduciary .......................................................................................................................... 47

C. Safeguards ....................................................................................................................... 49

V. KEY RISKS ..................................................................................................................... 51

A. Overall Risk Rating and Explanation of Key Risks.......................................................... 51

VI. RESULTS FRAMEWORK AND MONITORING ..................................................................... 53

ANNEX A: DETAILED PROJECT DESCRIPTION ......................................................................... 62

ANNEX B: IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS AND SUPPORT PLAN ................................... 78


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I. STRATEGIC CONTEXT A. Country Context

1. Benin is a West-African coastal country of 114,760 km2 with a growing population of about 11.8 million people (or 100 people per km2), of which a large proportion are young people aged below 15 years (approximately 43 percent). Between 2012 and 2016, Benin’s economic growth rate reached 4.9 percent and in 2017, it reached 5.4 percent. This positive trend is expected to continue, with an average of 6.3 percent growth estimated for the period of 2018-2020. Despite steady growth, Benin remains a low-income country with a per capita income of US$771 in 2016. Per the 2015 Human Development Index, Benin ranks 167th out of 187 countries. While poverty improved marginally from 2006 to 2015, the absolute number of the country’s poor increased from 5.0 to 5.3 million people, given the rapid population growth of about 3.2 percent. The average annual growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is about 1 percent, below the Sub-Saharan African average and far below the best performing economies. A substantial portion of the population live in high vulnerability, especially in rural areas, which account for 56 percent of the population, and 65 percent of the poor population (World Bank, 2016). 2. Benin’s economy is concentrated around agricultural production, informal transit trade to Nigeria and a few large formal enterprises. Most rural poor are smallholder farmers, cultivating maize, other cereals, and various roots as well as raising small livestock for domestic consumption and selling cotton, cashew, shea butter, oil-palm and fruits and vegetables as cash crops. Agricultural yields are low and below the average of other countries in the region. Agricultural GDP growth has been the result of acreage expansion and increased labor effort as opposed to productivity improvements as a result of modern inputs and technologies. In addition, Benin has a large informal economy (55 percent in 2014), much of which is linked to the transit of goods from and to Nigeria by land and water. 3. Benin is widely regarded as one of the more successful cases of democratic transition within Africa. Since 1991, elections have been held on peaceful terms without incident. In 2016 the Presidential election was won by Patrice Talon, a prominent businessman. The current Government has widespread population support. However, there are high expectations to accelerate economic growth, provide opportunities for youth and improve the quality of decentralized public services. These are key challenges, especially given the past volatility of economic growth linked to political cycles (for example, in 2005, 2010, and 2015 economic performance worsened). According to the World Governance Indicators, in terms of government effectiveness Benin is placed in the 33rd percentile, with no change since 2006; in terms of political stability Benin ranks in the 49th percentile, a decrease from 64th in 2006; in terms of voice and accountability Benin ranks in the 63rd percentile, an increase from 58th in 2006.

4. In 2016, the new Government of Benin (GoB) adopted an ambitious reform program called Government Program of Action (Programme d’Actions du Gouvernement, 2016-2021, PAG), with a focus on improving human capital development and decentralization. In the PAG, nutrition is a transversal priority. The Program aims to improve the productivity and living conditions of the population, aligning to the 2025 vision for Benin. Human capital development is also pillar of the new eight-year National Development Plan (Plan National de Développement, 2018-2025; PND). The PND sets objectives and targets for human capital development. The Program for the Reinforcement of Human Capital (Assurance


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pour le Renfocement du Capital Humain; ARCH) is the Government’s main social protection initiative aimed at strengthening human capital development.

B. Sectoral and Institutional Context

Sectoral Context

5. Improving early nutrition and learning outcomes in Benin is fundamental to accelerate its human capital formation and advance economic and social development. The Human Capital index (HCI) for Benin is 0.41 (October 2018), which is comparable to Sub-Sharan Africa’s average of 0.40. The HCI measures the human capital that a child born today can expect to attain, given the risks of poor health and poor education in the country. The units represent productivity relative to a benchmark of complete education and full health, on a scale of 0 to 1. Benin has a relatively poor HCI because many of its young children lack opportunities that are critical for adequate child development which in turn determines later well-being and development. Children’s outcomes are poor across a range of different human development (HD) indicators and efforts to improve outcomes are constrained by a fragmented and often ineffective system of service delivery. 6. The environment and experiences to which young children are exposed affect the development of brain architecture, which provides the foundation for all future learning, behavior, and well-being. Brains are built over time, starting before birth, through the complex formation of neural connections. In the first few years of life, more than one million new neural connections form every second. These connections enable lightning-fast communication among neurons that specialize in different kinds of brain functions based on stimuli to which the child is exposed early in life. A strong brain architecture is thus key for the accumulation of skills linked to positive outcomes and success throughout later stages in life.1 In the first five years of life, brain plasticity is the greatest it will ever be.2 The benefits of investments in life’s early years is thus crucial because of its unique opportunities that can improve the country’s HCI. Recent evidence has shown that the return on investments (ROI) of programs targeting the early years is very high and varies between 1:6 and 1:17.3 Due to the long-lasting and far-reaching benefits, investments in the early years can break intergenerational transmission of poverty, boost shared prosperity, and promote equity.4 7. Benin has made some progress on child health, but child malnutrition remains a major impediment to ensuring optimal formation of human capital in the country, and one of the key markers of poverty and vulnerability. Benin has about 3.3 million children between 0-8 years of age, including 1.8 million children 0-4 years (World Bank 2015). Under-five mortality rates in Benin dropped from 160 (per 1000 live births) in 2001 (Demographic Health Survey; DHS) to 115 in 2014 (Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey; MICS). This is mainly due to improvements in the use of bed nets in households (81 percent, MICS 2014), children receiving vitamin A supplementation (95 percent, Ministry of Health (MS) 2016), and immunization coverage (63 percent of children are vaccinated for measles, MICS 2014). Child malnutrition,

1 Carneiro and Heckman 2003; Cunha and Heckman 2007; Cunha et al. 2005; Heckman 2006. 2 Young 2002; Young and Mustard 2007. 3 Shonkoff and Phillips 2000; Lancet series, Advancing Early Childhood Development: from Science to Scale, 2016. 4 Alderman and Vegas 2011; Heckman and Masterov 2007; Naudeau et al. 2011.


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however, including fetal growth restriction, suboptimum breastfeeding, stunting, wasting, iron and other vitamin and mineral deficiencies continue to cause up to 45 percent of under-five deaths annually (Black et al, 2013).

Table 1: Outcomes on selected early years indicators (2006 DHS; 2012 DHS; 2014 MICS)5

INDICATORS 2006 2012 2014

Change since 2006

Health and Nutrition Status Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births) 67 42 67 NC Under Five Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births) 125 70 115 NC Total Fertility Rate 5.7 4.9 5.7 NC % women age 15-49 who are anemic 61 41 - ++ % undernourished women 9 6 - ++ % overweight and obese women 19 27 - --- % low birth weight babies 13 13 13 NC Anemia (% of children under 5) 78 58 - ++ Stunting (% of children under 5) 45 - 34 ++ Health Services % women 15-49 using any contraceptive method 17 13 18 ++ % women 20-24 years who gave live birth before age 18 23 23 19 ++ % women who receive at least 4 antenatal care visits 61 58 59 NC % of children age 6-59 months receiving vitamin A supplementation 61 49 - --- % children 12-23 months completely vaccinated by age 12 months 40 43 42 NC % children under 5 treated for diarrhea 23 50 25 NC Feeding/Care behaviors % children 0-24 months initiating breastfeeding within 1 hour after birth - 50 47 NC % children 0-5 months exclusively breastfeeding 43 32 41 NC % children 6-23 months consuming a minimum acceptable diet by age - - 14 % children 6-23 months having received minimum meal frequency 49 42 53 ++ % children 0-59 months in household consuming adequately iodized salt 60 - 39 --- Early Learning % children 36-59 months in preschool program - - 13 % children 36-59 months engaged 4 learning activities in last 3 days - - 28 Gender % literacy females 15-24 33 31 41 ++ % married couples jointly deciding on the use of money 9 11 - NC % husband making health care decisions for women 44 36 - NC Water and Sanitation % households with access to improved water source 35 77 72 ++ % households with improved toilet 15 16 33 ++

NC = No change; ++ = Relative improvement by 10 percent or more; --- = Relative deterioration by 10 percent or more.

5 Key indicators from the DHS 2018 (main report is not yet available) do not show any major deviance from the trend shown in Table 1:Total Fertility of 5.7; Stunting of children under 5, 32 percent; women 15-49 using any contraceptive method, 16 percent; women who received at least 4 antenatal care visits, 52 percent; children under 5 treated for diarrhea, 37 percent; children 0-5 months exclusively breastfeeding, 42 percent.


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8. Health and social services have improved but often do not reach the majority of vulnerable women and children. Maternal mortality fell from 498 (per 100,000 live births) in 1996 to 347 in 2014. The rate of assisted delivery in health facilities is relatively high at 77 percent (MICS 2014), but there remain inequities in access to care between regions and wealth quintiles. Many families do not use facility-based health services, due to long distance, ignorance, gender constraints, high costs, among other factors. Only 35 percent of women in the poorest quintile have the minimum recommended number of four pre-natal visits during their pregnancy, compared to 59 percent nationally. About 31 percent of children in the poorest households are not registered at birth, compared to four percent in wealthier households (MICS 2014). Furthermore, the quality of services to provide a continuum of care for women and children from pregnancy and birth through the early years remains weak. Table 1 gives an overview of relevant early years indicators in as far as data is available. 9. Childhood stunting remains high compared to other West African countries and poses considerable risk of delayed socio-economic growth. Stunting prevalence among children under-five, which is among the best markers to assess child development, increased sharply from 39 percent to 45 percent (DHS 2001; 2006), but then dropped to 34 percent (MICS 2014), yielding only a marginal improvement in stunting rates since 2001. The initial data for the DHS 2018 shows a further drop to 32 percent. The drop since 2014 is due to the country’s increasing attention to community-based nutrition, which had diminished in the previous years. Compared to other countries in the region and their Gross National Income (GNI), Benin is not faring all too well (Figure 1). Moreover, due to population growth and continued high fertility, the total number of stunted children has increased since 2001. Childhood stunting is the result of inadequate food intake and repeated disease incidence, particularly in the first 1,000 days of life. Infant and young child feeding practices, nurturing care, birth spacing, clean water, sanitation, stimulation, and primary health care services are important factors for good nutrition and child development, yet many children fail to benefit from the kind of care, services, learning and environmental conditions that would allow them to reach their full potential later in life. Most children (59 percent) are not exclusively breastfed during the first six months; and only 25 percent of children 6-24 months in Benin have the minimum required food diversity for their development (MICS 2014). Stunting is estimated to cost Sub-Saharan African countries an average GDP reduction of about nine percent annually. Benin’s per capita income is about 12 percent less than it would have been if none of its workforce had been stunted in childhood (Galasso and Wagstaff 2017). 10. The first 1,000 days, from conception to two years of age, is a critical window to address stunting. There is strong global evidence showing that the “first 1,000 days” of a child’s life is the most critical for addressing malnutrition; this is the segment of the life cycle when most human capital formation occurs in terms of physical growth and rapid brain development. If a child does not receive proper nutrition during this critical period, irreversible damage can occur. In Benin, growth retardation starts during pregnancy with 19 percent of Beninese children born stunted. The rate of stunting rapidly increases to approximately 40 percent at the age of 24 months after which it levels off. Maternal nutrition, particularly maternal anemia, and teen-age pregnancy are important causes. Equally important is the fact that one in five women aged 20-24 years have experienced a live birth before the age of 18 years, when their own minds and bodies have not yet fully matured and are stretched to provide for a rapidly growing fetus.

11. Stunting prevalence is highest for the 40 percent of poorest households and in remote and isolated regions, implying potentially lower prospects for their future. Per the 2014 MICS, stunting is


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more than twice as high among the poorest population quintile (46 percent) than among the wealthiest quintile (18 percent). Stunting is also higher in children where the mother has no education (39 percent of the population). Geographically, stunting is highest in the North, where poverty rates are the highest (Figure 2), and there are many remote areas with limited access to services. However, there are also pockets of poverty around economic areas in the South (Nga Thi Viet Nguyen and Dizon 2017). Malnutrition in the early years is known to impair cognitive, physiological and socioemotional development, thereby undermining educational performance during school age, health, and earning potential as an adult. Poverty, malnutrition, and low educational attainment tend to be mutually reinforcing and self-perpetuating as a poverty trap. Conversely, children who are not stunted have a 33 percent higher chance to escape poverty. Figure 1: Stunting rates and GNI per Capita in various West-African countries

Source: World Bank Development Indicators, 2018.

12. Children vulnerable to the multiple risk factors for stunting are often the same children most at risk for long-term disadvantages in learning and cognitive abilities. This cognitive lag is often associated with inadequate parenting practices amongst caregivers. In Benin, few parents are supported or informed on child stimulation and nurturing care whereas these are instrumental for socioemotional and cognitive development. Inadequate parenting and lack of adequate early stimulation are serious issues because by the time a child reaches age three, it may be too late to harness their cognitive potential (Hart and Risley, 1995). Nationally, only 28 percent of children aged 36-59 months and 18 percent in the poorest income quartile are engaged in four or more activities that stimulate learning. Conversely, about 91 percent of families use some form of violent discipline (psychological, physical, or other) for children aged 1-14 years, and 49 percent of women in the lowest income quintile justify domestic violence in the household. In addition, most children of relevant ages do not have access to preschool which is essential for early learning and school readiness; only 13 percent of children 36-59 months nationally, and two percent in the poorest income quintile attend some form of early childhood education (MICS, 2014). Preschool participation slightly favors girls over boys (13.5 versus 12.6 percent).

Mali

BeninBurkina Faso

Liberia

GuinéeCote d'Ivoire

Togo

Gambia

SenegalGhana

Nigeria

ChadNiger

Sierra Leone

Madagasgar

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30

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0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500

Stun

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GNI per capita (Atlas method)


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13. Parenting education, early stimulation, responsive and nurturing interactions between children and parents, and early learning are key to ensure young children are fully prepared to thrive in school and life. Improving parents’ engagement in early stimulation and learning and promoting a positive and enabling environment for children’s cognitive, emotional and social development is critical to harness the intellectual and socio-emotional potential of young children. Although there is still limited evidence on the best approach to deliver these services at scale, early experiences indicate that incorporating early stimulation interventions into community-based health and nutrition services is more cost effective than delivering Early Childhood Development (ECD) interventions alone (Gowani et al., 2014). Integrated community-based service delivery6 also provides a natural entry point to access vulnerable families and engage mothers (and other family members) in responsive breastfeeding and complementary feeding. Moreover, it is more cost-effective to intervene early in life as the brain is still in the process of developing and be influenced to establish a positive developmental track. Ensuring disadvantaged children are on-track from a young age can address underlying constraints and inequalities which limit opportunities for human capital accumulation later in life. A key aspect of the effectiveness of community-based programs is the use of different approaches to influence on multiple aspects of behavioral change in families tailored to the local context, e.g., Reach Up and Learn and the Care for Child Development.7 Figure 2: Poverty rates and poverty density in Benin in 2015

Source: Nguyen and Dizon, 2017.

6 Integrated community-based program is referring to the combination of nutrition, early stimulation and learning interventions for young children in one package, such that children receive a combination of interventions to maximize outcomes. 7 UNICEF/WHO; Britto et al, 2017.


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14. While preschool participation may slightly favor girls over boys, the opposite is true in primary education. Net enrolment in primary schools is 88 percent among girls but 100 percent for boys (UNICEF, 2017). Moreover, while primary school enrolment has improved over the years, Benin does not have the best results in terms of keeping students in school and their school performance. School dropout is around 20 percent and grade repetition stands at more than 10 percent. As a result, the survival rate to last primary grade is low, and again slightly favoring boys (59 percent) over girls (56 percent). Nutrition deficiencies during the first 1,000 days as well as short term hunger during the school going years contribute to the high dropout and repeater rates and low survival rate. The extra demands on school-age children (to perform chores at home and walk long distances to school), particularly girls, create a need for energy that is much greater than that of younger children. Available data indicate high levels of protein-energy malnutrition and short-term hunger among school-age children. Institutional context

15. On the back of new evidence at the global level and growing international recognition of the complexity of bringing about successful nutrition policies, the Government demonstrated strong commitment to multisectoral and stakeholder coordination to address multifaceted challenges underlying nutrition and child growth. The GoB expressed their commitment when joining the global Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement in 2011 and has taken strong leadership in developing multisectoral policy and actions for nutrition since 2009. A multisectoral policy coordination platform, the Food and Nutrition Council (Conseil de l’Alimentation et de la Nutrition, CAN) and a Permanent Secretariat (SP-CAN) has been established bringing together different sectors (including agriculture, health, social protection, finance, planning, decentralization, industry sectors, national associations, academia and civil society) under the auspices of the President to develop and coordinate multisectoral nutrition policies and programs for enhanced human development. Each of these authorities is expected to take actions to address nutrition strategically. The SP-CAN is the operational arm of the national structure (CAN) that ensures the multisectoral coordination of food and nutrition policies and programs. This is a new paradigm for all sectors and building the capacity of the CAN to effectively coordinate actions horizontally (between sectors) as well as vertically (between levels of administration) is a long but high priority process. The multisectoral coordination by CAN and SP-CAN is illustrated in Figure 3. The World Bank has supported the CAN through the Benin Multisectoral Food Health Nutrition Project (PMASN, P143652, 2014-2019).

16. The CAN is leading the development of a harmonized approach for the promotion of improved nutrition in the first 1,000 days by improving decentralized multisectoral service delivery. This approach is thus far actively supported in 40 out of the nation’s 77 communes with all 77 communes expressing commitment to nutrition in the new generation of their Development Plans (Plan de Développement Communal or PDC).8 These 40 communes have established multisectoral consultative committees (i.e., Cadre Communal de Concertation or CCC) to strengthen the coordination of nutrition and child growth promotion service delivery. The CCCs bring together a wide array of actors at the commune level including commune council members, representatives from line ministries at the decentralized level, public service providers, representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local associations, and prominent community members, including traditional and religious authorities. Each CCC is housed in and

8 Benin is subdivided in 12 administrative regions (Département) and 77 communes (communes). The communes are local authorities with legal status and financial autonomy and are governed freely by an elected council. The Mayor is the executive authority of the commune.


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chaired by the Mayor’s office, which in turn is assisted by a full-time nutrition focal point. Performance of the CCCs vary according to local leadership but is improving across the board as communes gain experience and receive ongoing technical support from the SP-CAN, the regional authorities, and the National Association of Communes (Association Nationale des Communes du Bénin or ANCB). Key challenges include coordinating a diverse package of quality services and targeting services to the most vulnerable households.

Figure 3: Multisectoral coordination by CAN and SP-CAN

17. At community level, the Community Child Support Groups (Groupe d’Assistance Communautaire pour l’Enfance, GrACE) form the main channel through which early nutrition and child development services are delivered. The GrACE are community care groups of approximately 20-25 members who are trained to deliver services with a focus on social and behavior change communication (SBCC). GrACE members are trained on different topics. Each GrACE member takes around 10-15 households under his/her wings for door-to-door services. Depending on the size of the community, there can be multiple GrACE in one community which together ensure maximum coverage of communication interventions and services. More than 12,000 people are currently members of GrACE. GrACE members also work with community and religious leaders and public service providers, decentralized providers (from health, agriculture, and social protection). The structure provides an inclusive form of community mobilization that to date has been used for nutrition and is still relatively new to Benin. Broadening this model will tackle the challenge of coordinating multiple divergent actors to deliver additional child development services such as early stimulation and learning at community level.

18. There is an opportunity to reinforce the existing multisector platform on nutrition and form new synergies for early child stimulation, learning and protection. The National Policy for the Integrated Development of Young Child in Benin was developed in 2010 by a multisectoral committee chaired by the Ministry of Planning and Development (Ministère du Plan et du Développement, MPD) with support from UNICEF. The policy calls for integrated actions in areas of parenting education, child stimulation, sanitation, child rights, food production, access to health services, communication and education. Underlying this is the national Children’s Act (Le Code de l’enfant au Bénin), which guides the protection and wellbeing of children, including access to birth registration, health and education and parental roles to feed, nurture and protect children from violence, as well as mediation of families in cases where there is a concern for


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the wellbeing of the child. The MPD, also a member of CAN, has chaired a second related but separate committee for the development of a policy on child protection. However, actual implementation of these policies has been limited. Most (sectoral) policies have not mainstreamed ECD strategies or actions. 19. Investing in the early years is a complex business because of the compartmentalization of child nutrition and development efforts. Multiple authorities bring a piece of the puzzle, each with their own approach (Table 2). Moreover, across the multiple sectoral policies there is limited selectivity around what is most needed to ensure on-track development of young children. These factors combined impede the development of a vision around how to integrate interventions at the community-level. Early learning interventions remain fragmented, uncoordinated and at small scale making them cost more and less effective. For example, the Ministry in charge of Social Affairs has developed some resources for parenting education. The Ministry of Preschool and Primary Education (MEMP), which also developed resources for parenting education in collaboration with UNICEF, looks after preprimary education in only a few selected communities. Even where preschools exist, little is done to support parents in their caregivers’ roles, thereby undermining mutually supportive parent-children-learning relationship to reinforce early learning and development of the child.

Table 2: Key public-sector actors engaged in early child nutrition and development in Benin

Institutions Key Functions/Responsibilities President’s Office, National Food and Nutrition Council (CAN)

Coordinate multisectoral actions on nutrition and early child development.

Ministry of Planning and Development (MPD)

Facilitate multisectoral policy actions. Mobilization of external resources. Monitoring of project execution.

Ministry of Social Affairs and Microfinance (MASM)

Strengthen families’ capacities in providing nurturing care to young children.

Provide protection, security and care, and stimulation to vulnerable children via its social protection centers.

Ensure the implementation of the national child code (Code de l’Enfant).

Ministry of Preschool and Primary Education (MEMP)

Establish and oversee the good functioning of preschools (including community-based early learning centers) for children 3-5 years.

Ministry of Health (MS) Provide health services for women and children during pregnancy

and early childhood. Promote sanitary practices.

Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MAEP)

Support women with young children in diverse and nutritious food production and transformation for child feeding and food security.

Ministry of Decentralization and Local Governance (MDGL)

Support decentralized strategy and planning, including the National Commission for Local Financing (Commission Nationale des Finances Locales or CONAFIL) and Commune Development Fund (Fonds d’Appui au Développement des Communes or FADeC).

Ministry of Interior and Public Security (MISP), Department of Civil Status Mobilize local leaders and register all births.

Ministry of Justice (MJ) Promote and ensure children’s rights. Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) Allocation of national resources to priority programs and sectors.


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20. The conditions are ripe for targeted investments in the early years with high returns on human capital formation. Mainstreaming early nutrition, early stimulation and learning and child protection would require strengthening the decentralized CCC platforms and GrACE networks across villages to include parenting education for more effective stimulation, community-based early learning as well as other evidence-based approaches. Current interventions will need to be strengthened by integrating other social services into the platform to reduce the likelihood of irreversible damages to the physical and cognitive development of the child.

21. In Benin, various NGOs support pilot experiences with early learning activities for the development of young children. These experiments are often small-scale and short-lived, therefore having limited benefit, and often do not appear in the statistics. Among the major challenges of the activities implemented so far are: (i) the high cost of extending these experiences to scale; (ii) weak knowledge sharing and strategic collaboration with relevant government structures; and (iii) the weak implication of parents in early learning activities. Therefore, there is a need to: (i) better capitalize the various models that are effective at lower cost and can be replicated at the commune level to ensure greater coverage; (ii) improve the spatial prioritization of interventions and resources to maximize results; and (iii) address the multiple underlying factors influencing nutrition and child development.

22. The Government is committed to strengthening the delivery of an integrated package of nutrition and early child development services at the community level, as well as to ensure advanced strategies to effectively target services. Sectoral services at the commune level, such as health, social protection and education lack sufficient outreach to deliver services outside the physical facilities. As a result, women who, for instance, do not give birth in a health facility, are likely not to access post-natal consultations or have their birth registered. Their children are also likely to be deprived of essential (life-saving) health services such as immunization and vitamin A supplementation, as well as other social services. In places where community outreach exists (by relais communautaire), these often lack an organizational structure and support to deliver quality services. The CCC platform made up of public service providers and commune-level authorities, together with the GrACE model, significantly enhances the delivery of a package of integrated early nutrition and child development services and form the best opportunity to expand utilization and coverage of key services in rural communities. 23. Successful community nutrition and early learning programs must target parents and caregivers with activities aimed at changing parenting behaviors, transforming gender roles, and engaging community leaders. A gender study conducted by the CAN in 2016 identified the patrimonial influence of the male partner in his family as a main constraint to empowering women’s decision-making regarding the use of nutrition and child development services and decisions in the household (CAN, 2016). Despite the predisposition of women to participate in community activities, they are often excluded from decision-making at family and community level. The quasi-total absence of women among the 5,295 village chiefs nationwide is expressive of this situation, in addition to their under-representation in other elective and professional positions, including in civil society organizations (CSOs). The man’s family establishes a women’s schedule and influences decisions over activities from food preparation to health care and child discipline, especially among less educated women. Communication, community mobilization and service delivery need to address these constraints, targeting the co-responsibility of both parents to: (i) encourage men's participation in nutrition and early learning activities; (ii) improve women’s role in food production;


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(iii) engage community leaders in promoting co-empowerment of both parents on the critical window of the early years; and (iv) enhance women's participation in local committees and decision-making.

24. In addition to the early years agenda to improve human capital formation, the Government is committed to improving access to quality primary education, particularly among girls, to ensure progress in learning achievement. School feeding has been identified as one of the key measures to address short-term hunger and correct primary school dropout and retention rates. A national program currently supports school feeding in 2,566 of the 8,169 public primary schools nationwide (31 percent). The Government has set an ambitious target of reaching 51 percent of all public primary schools with its school feeding program by 2021. School feeding combined with essential health and sanitation services (deworming, iron supplementation, latrines and hygiene) is highly cost-effective, increases the efficacy of other investments in the early years, ensures better educational outcomes and improves social equity by enhancing access to schools for the most disadvantaged children, particularly girls. 25. Leadership capacity at the decentralized levels will need to be strengthened to effectively expand services for child growth and learning in communes. Most early learning and nutrition programs have been planned, monitored and managed by and from the central level, influencing the scale, scope, effectiveness, ownership, and sustainability of programs. With the emphasis on local governance there is an opportunity to reverse this constraint, and empower local government, civil society and community groups, through their participation in the CCC, to manage and roll-out early years investment programs. To enhance ownership, communes will be encouraged to systematically plan and budget actions for the early years in their local development plans (PDC). The relevant stakeholders will work with CONAFIL to amend the commune budget framework as well as FADeC, which is the mechanism by which national resources are transferred to the communes, to better enable the communes to invest in early years activities. 26. There is also the challenge of data collection, use for monitoring, evaluation (M&E) and learning to reinforce the impact of interventions, and accountability to communities. The data to inform early years investments is spread across sectors, and often needs to be collected at the community level, where systems do not exist. SP-CAN has been working with 40 communes to develop a system to collect routine data on key nutrition indicators through the CCC and GrACE. This system requires reinforcement to include a more complete set of indicators for nutrition and early learning, and tools to facilitate timely integration and use of the data for decision-making. Furthermore, evaluation of the impact of interventions in communities can be costly, limiting the number of community experiences, with good evidence of results. In addition, there is limited accountability of services to provide real benefits for families. Community groups such as parents’ groups, for example, lack participation in (local) government decisions to influence services for young child development. Moreover, these groups often lack knowledge and organization to effectively promote the rights of families in terms of actual benefits to expect from services, limiting the opportunity for meaningful collaboration to improve the quality and tailoring of services.

C. Relevance to Higher Level Objectives

27. The project aligns to the Government’s objectives and targets for the eight-year PND; in particular, the first strategic objective of human capital development by bringing together multisectoral actions to develop human capital and decentralized public services through early child nutrition, learning and development. The project mobilizes multisectoral and multi-stakeholder action and broad


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empowerment of communes and communities to ensure results, the project will provide critical learning to achieve the human capital targets of the PND and support ARCH (specifically related to stunting and child development). The PND is the main strategy to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. 28. Benin is building on its pioneering role in developing multisectoral policy and services for nutrition, increasing the focus on human capital; Benin is joining the list of countries committed to the Investing in the Early Years (IEY) initiative. The proposed project builds on and institutionalizes the foundational achievements of the PMASN, 2014-2019, which enabled the CAN, to demonstrate a proof of concept for multisectoral coordination and a new system of decentralized services for nutrition and enhanced human development. The new project will broaden the focus on key actions for human development in the early years of life, such as parenting skills, early stimulation of children to prepare them for lifelong learning, and child protection including the right to birth registration, in addition to promoting nutrition and healthy growth. 29. The proposed Early Years Nutrition and Child Development Project (EYNCDP) supports the achievement of the World Bank’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting joint prosperity in Benin. It also directly relates to the Human Capital Project (HCP) which aims to enhance investment in people through nutrition, health care, quality education, jobs and skills to build human capital, a key to ending extreme poverty and creating more inclusive societies. Improving the nutrition status of women and children in the critical period of 1000 days, will help ensure that children reach their full physical and cognitive potential, and increase their productivity as adults, leading to higher incomes. By focusing on the most food and nutrition insecure communes, it will aim at decreasing economic inequality and improving the livelihoods to those in the bottom 40 percent of the income bracket. With its emphasis on child growth promotion and enhanced service delivery, the project contributes to the Health, Nutrition, Population Global Practice goal of achieving universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, and access to quality essential health care services. 30. The EYNCDP is fully aligned with the focus area of investing in human capital of the new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) FY19-FY23.9 The CPF identifies investing in human capital as one of three focus areas for reversing Benin’s slow progress towards the goals of eliminating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. The CPF aims at increasing the inclusion of the poorest 40 percent of the population by improving their capacity, productivity and resilience to achieve a higher level of human capital development. The CPF calls for improving relevance of education and professional training for strengthened job creation (Objective 5) as well as improving social protection systems (Objective 6) to invest in human capital. The project falls under Objective 6 in its support of holistic efforts for young children in beneficiary households to achieve their full physical and cogitative potential, and to communities to become more resilient and protected against all manifestations of nutrition deficiencies. The program also contributes to the SDGs targeted by the CPF: SDG2, end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture; SDG3, ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages, and SDG5, achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. 31. Achieving results while institutionalizing multisectoral coordination and community action on early child nutrition and development requires a longer-term horizon of development support. To this 9 World Bank report number 123031-BJ, June 2018.


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aim, the World Bank is using a Series of Projects (SOP) approach with three Investment Project Financing (IPF) as subsequent and slightly overlapping phases in the series that respond to the learning needs of multisectoral and community action to advance outcomes for the government’s human capital agenda in the PND. The innovative use of the SOP approach for a stand-alone investment, incorporates flexibility to allow for adaptive learning for subsequent phases in support of the national program, while signaling the World Bank’s long-term commitment. The first project of the series is fully aligned to the PAG (2016-2021) and multisectoral nutrition policy, as well as policies for the development and protection of young children, and the sector strategies of education, social protection, health, agriculture and civil status. 32. Reducing stunting and promoting healthy and productive lives are national goals, supported by the SDGs. The SOP approach with a longer-term horizon allows: (i) continuity of engagement with the country client to achieve a longer-term development goal along a logical causal framework; (ii) development of institutional capacity to sustain a national and decentralized multisectoral system of services to support children and caregivers in the early years, with emphasis on disadvantaged communities; (iii) flexibility to structure and adapt support to the program through phases based on learning during implementation, and in turn, use the learning focus to embed new systems of adaptive management in the Government as well as reinforce coordinated multisectoral and partner actions for on-track achievement of human capital outcomes for the PND and PAG; (iv) efficiency gains between the preparation of successive projects, since implementation can continue seamlessly to support the PND (and second stage of the PAG), integrating lessons, to maximize program results; (v) the possibility to transform outcomes for a generation of children whose families receive a continuum of services at an intensity that can change social norms, such that outcomes can persist to transform child development in communities.

33. The SOP approach will contribute to results in decentralized governance and women’s economic empowerment central to the PND, CPF and PAG development outcomes. The projects will build collaborative leadership across sectors, focusing on the capacity of local governments to coordinate, plan, implement, finance and monitor multisectoral social services, institutionalizing a system of decentralized public services for nutrition and early learning and local governance and accountability in terms of ownership and results in communities. In targeting parents, the projects will influence social norms and gender roles including women’s co-responsibility with men in household and community decision-making, in relation to child nutrition and development.

II. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

A. Series of Projects Approach for Early Years Nutrition and Child Development Theory of Change of the SOP 34. The SOP will progressively improve nutrition and child development outcomes through a multifaceted theory of change (Figure 4). It requires a harmonized multi-sector package of integrated early nutrition and learning interventions and services delivered to caregivers and children, starting before pregnancy until the child reaches age five. While expanding the number of communities, following the same caregivers and children through a series of projects that operate like phases is critical to influence a widespread shift in family behaviors and practices to feed, stimulate and promote learning of children. Influencing nutrition and child development outcomes ((i.e., reducing stunting and improving the early


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childhood development index) of a generation of children and creating a new social norm of family-child caregiving exceeds the standard horizon of a single project. Moreover, at the impact level, the hope is to transform the outcomes of the current cohort of children and contribute to breaking the vicious cycle of risk faced by their future children. The SOP approach supports the development of human capital of a cohort of children, such that Benin can raise its HCI and these children can advance in school and contribute to the work force in the long-term. Once the delivery of an integrated package of services is developed and strengthened, i.e., the basis for the system of integrated services is established, the package of interventions will progressively be scaled-up to 80 percent of young children across all benefiting communities in the 77 communes. The initial focus is on 48 communes to ensure effective development of integrated services in terms of quality of services and ownership by local government and communities. 35. The change process will involve institutionalizing multisectoral coordination, policy efficiencies and strong ownership for effective decentralized service delivery arrangements in communes and requires a sustained and continuous engagement over the lifespan of the PND. Importantly these changes will be supported by intense social mobilization and communication, nationally, and across all communes to influence the deepening shift in knowledge, behaviors and practices of caregivers (fathers and mothers), families and leadership. These changes will improve the delivery of an integrated package of community-based services, which will be progressively owned and managed by communes. The projects will prioritize poor and rural communities, with inequalities in disaggregated outcomes. 36. The first project is about learning how to develop, integrate and effectively deliver the services in terms of the continuum of care of children, ensuring weekly home visits, in-depth parenting session support, quality support to food production/transformation to ensure women have ways to feed children, and continued nutrition of children into primary school years. Key interventions in the service package include home visits, community outreach services to groups of caregivers and their young children (parent education, social dialogue, growth and child development monitoring, food production, life skills, etc.) and learning and play space. The challenge will be learning to deliver these interventions in an integrated way to maximize the benefits for children and ownership of the communes. 37. The second and third projects will focus on ways to improve ownership and access to services across all 77 communes, while broadening SBCC to generate large scale demand to utilize the services, and better targeting risk groups to address inequalities. There will be a growing focus on results-based delivery of the services within the public service framework of communes. This will progressively improve outcomes, institutionalize a system of services by the CCC and GrACE, and make attention to child development a social norm within the targeted communes. 38. Extensive social mobilization will reinforce broad ownership within communes and communities. This will include leadership mechanisms to engage decentralized sectors, NGOs and community groups to collaboratively manage, plan, monitor, and own the delivery of the integrated package of services. This will be complemented by intense, targeted and consistent communication of key messages to families in communities over extended years and sharing of knowledge by leaders and service providers (particularly GrACE) to influence the widespread adoption of new behaviors, values and practices by caregivers and the co-responsibility of parents for child development within families, shifting gender and social norms. This cultural shift will be supported by decentralized SBCC strategies and plans.


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Figure 4: Overview of project sequencing and theory of change


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39. National coordination will progressively deepen the harmonization of services, the quality of services, and policy guidance to support a framework for the communes to measure, finance and manage the services. Multisectoral reforms and learning from evidence, knowledge sharing, and operational research will converge sectors around the delivery of a minimum package of integrated services in a way that can most efficiently and effectively address underlying causes of nutritional deficiencies and suboptimal child development. Learning and M&E will be institutionalized at each level of the multisector system to improve decision-making and lines of accountability (national, regional, commune, community). Supervision and capacity building plans will progressively reinforce decentralized leadership, the implementation of quality interventions and services, results management processes and tools for adaptive learning and the integration of actions in policy reforms, strategy, annual planning and financing. SOP Development Objective (S-PDO) 40. As a contribution to the government’s goal of improving human capital, the S-PDO is to reduce stunting and improve ECD outcomes in children under five years of age in targeted communes. The indicators are: (i) the stunting rate of children under five in targeted communes; and (ii) the ECD index (percentage) of children 36-59 months of age in the targeted communes. The ECD index measures child development in four domains including, reading, calculating; physics; and socioemotional learning. SOP Framework 41. The three partly overlapping phases of five, four and four years respectively will be implemented over a period of 12 years. The partial overlap will ensure that essential activities in each phase continue, reinforcing institutional and behavioral changes, and maximizing outcomes in communities. It also enhances complementarity and the incorporation of lessons and best practices from the preceding project(s) (Table 3). The design of each phase (project) will consider the capacity of the institutions in relation to the technical and programmatic competencies in place. The lessons will have broad influence on all actors in the coordinating sectors, given they would inform the NDP implementation and frame a collaborated rollout of key systems and services for early years related human capital formation in the country. The timing and sequencing of phases is optimized to allow for a deepening continuum of support to a generation of children, along the phases of the NDP. A different sequencing would not provide the same reinforcing intensity to catalyze the desired broad social and systems transformations. The first phase is described in detail in this document. Subsequent phases may adjust based on experience and lessons learned from the preceding experience. 42. The three projects are currently envisioned as three stand-alone IPF. Depending on client capacity and learning from preceding projects, the last project may move to the use of Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLI) for commune and sector financing as a blend operation. Table 3 summarizes the framework supported by the SOP. 43. The first project (SOP-1; five years; US$50 million equivalent) is aimed at improving the delivery of selected health and nutrition interventions in 48 communes, integrating early stimulation, parenting education and early learning to promote on-track early child development and supporting integrated primary school feeding in 10-12 communes. A significant part of the operation will focus on tailored social and behavior change interventions as well as social media that mobilize broad local ownership and societal


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awareness on the importance the early years interventions. This will include support to improve policy and multisectoral coordination, decentralized leadership and management across 77 communes, while building direct capacity of 48 communes to deliver a quality package of integrated interventions and services, with efficiency to reach households and children across targeted communities. 44. Project 2 (SOP-2; four years; estimated US$50 million equivalent; beginning in year 4) will expand the access of services to all communes and strengthen the decentralized system to ensure a minimal package of services. The second project will refine the targeting mechanism to ensure vulnerable groups benefit from the services and expand the package of services to other targeted age groups, particularly adolescents. This project will support the Government with results-based management of their early years programs through capacity building modalities and key reforms to ensure a sustainable institutional architecture that supports the self-management of a minimum package of services in communes and communities. The second project will also deepen the engagement of key sectors to improve early nutrition and learning outcomes as long-term priorities with sustained high-level commitment and a broad set of stakeholders.

Table 3: SOP framework for early years nutrition and child development

S-PDO: Reduce stunting and improve ECD outcomes in children under 5 years of age in targeted communes

SOP Proposed PDO

Estimated amount in

US$ million

Estimated approval

(duration) Description

Estimated Environmental and Social risk

1

Improve the delivery of early nutrition and childhood development interventions and services in targeted areas of benefiting Communes in the Recipient’s territory

50

February 2019

(5 years)

Delivery of integrated package of interventions in 40 communes; intersectoral coordination; intense coverage of families in targeted communities; SBCC and social mobilization; M&E and learning systems developed; roadmap for commune ownership.

Low

2

Increase access to and utilization of community-based interventions and services for early nutrition and childhood development in targeted communes

50

2023 (4 years)

Expansion to all 77 communes; consolidating a minimum package of services with refined beneficiary targeting; widespread behavioral change; institutionalized M&E and learning systems; piloting of enhanced ownership in 10 percent of communes.

Low

3

Improve early years nutrition and child development outcomes in targeted Communes

40

2026 (4 years)

Improved outcomes through results-based management of interventions; new model behaviors; enhanced ownership in 50 percent of communes.

Low

Estimate for the program 140


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45. The third project (SOP-3; four years; estimated US$40 million equivalent; beginning in year 7) will reinforce results and support the consolidation of institutional capacities and achievements to sustain a system to deliver decentralized services in communes. Results-based management will be institutionalized at the different levels of the system for sustained systemic reforms. Depending on context and capacities, this project could move to a DLI based approach to improve commune performance. At the impact level, the project will support a cohort of children being able to reach their full development potential by promoting healthy growth, stimulation and early learning. Together these activities will improve children’s readiness for human capital accumulation throughout their life course. Learning Agenda 46. Learning will be mainstreamed with activities taking place quarterly and annually, with deeper evaluation and process learning at the mid-term of a project and between projects. The learning will be iteratively targeted throughout implementation to improve outcomes and address key questions and challenges related to implementation and decentralized service delivery. Learning will include process evaluations, beneficiary feedback, routine review of results, study visits, and project evaluations, results-based coaching of teams implementing interventions within the communes, an operational research agenda, knowledge management of lessons from experience, and knowledge exchange, e.g., among communes and experienced counterparts. Learning processes will be institutionalized from project 1 (SOP-1), with deeper imbedding of multisectoral M&E and learning systems in the second and third projects. Learning will focus on multisectoral policies, the decentralized package of services, cost, the delivery of interventions in communities, behavioral change, and women’s empowerment and co-relationships in families. The learning will be led by the multisectoral coordination platforms implementing the projects, nationally, regionally and in the communes, creating a culture of utilizing evidence and lessons from experience to adaptively manage implementation through continuously deepening learning and analysis

B. Project Development Objective (PDO)

PDO Statement (SOP-1)

47. The PDO is to improve the delivery of early nutrition and childhood development interventions and services in targeted areas of benefiting Communes in the Recipient’s territory.


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PDO-Level Results Indicators 48. The proposed outcome indicators of the PDO are as follows:

Indicator Explanation

(i) Children 0-24 months who benefit from a package of nutrition and child stimulation services

The indicator will assess the delivery of an integrated package of services in targeted communes, focusing on young children benefiting in the first 1,000 days of life and having received nutrition and child stimulation in a combined package to maximize benefits. The children will have benefited from continued nutrition and child stimulation interventions delivered by the GrACE at household and community level within the previous three months, i.e., services will be delivered weekly, following the same families.

(ii) Household visits by GrACE members in the past one month

This indicator will assess the intensity of the community-based platform for the delivery and continued follow-up of caregivers and children 0-5 years receiving the package of services in targeted communes by the GrACE, with a home visit catchment of about 10-15 households and two visits per week per family.

(iii) Caregivers with children 0-59 months who have received education on parenting practices that promote ECD within the previous three months; and of which % male

The indicator will assess the delivery of ECD services to a cohort of caregivers, i.e., consisting of a weekly program of intensive learning and repeat education and hands-on practice support. The percent of fathers or men who have received the education will also be monitored to influence the co-responsibility of men in caring for a child’s development.

(iv) Women with children 0-59 months trained and practicing household gardens, small animal raising, or transformation of diverse foods rich in nutrition within the last six months

The indicator will assess the delivery of agricultural supported nutrition services and the effectiveness in terms catalyzing new behaviors to improve child feeding in targeted communes.

(v) School-going children who received at least one meal per day within the previous three months

This indicator will assess the delivery of the program of integrated school-based health and nutrition services.

C. Project Components

Component 1: Management and Coordination of Interventions for the Early Years (US$10.8 million equivalent) 49. The objective of this component is to improve policy, multisectoral strategy, and governance arrangements for an integrated approach to coordinate implementation of early years’ nutrition and child development interventions. This will involve mobilizing stakeholders to collaboratively develop the package of integrated nutrition and ECD services destined for communes and communities (Box A.1). Coordination will engage central and decentralized levels, reinforcing a multisectoral consultative committees or Cadre de Concertation at each level to bring together stakeholders to institutionalize the package of services and monitor, evaluate and learn from the actions (see Table A.1 for the list of actors in the Cadre de Concertation at central, regional, commune and community level, respectively). The Cadres


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de Concertation have already been put in place by the PMASN but requires reinforcement to address nutrition and ECD issues synergistically. Typical expenditures will include training, supervision, monitoring, workshops, operating costs of coordinating structures at the commune and central levels, consultants, non-consulting services, reproduction of material, and equipment. Subcomponent 1.1: Planning and Implementation Coordination (US$4.0 million) 50. At the national level, the project will reinforce the existing multisectoral coordination platforms of the CAN and MPD. Consensus will be built around an integrated policy framework, strategy, guideline, cascading roadmap, and results framework to institutionalize a results-focused system for the coordinated implementation of the package of nutrition and ECD services. The package builds on the existing nutrition and child development policies and acts to protect and stimulate child learning and growth. Implementation of the package will involve coordinated actions of government ministries and agencies (including those in charge of social protection, education, health, agriculture, justice, water, communication, interior) and non-government (including NGOs, academia, national associations, etc.). The package of services will be anchored at the commune level to empower local government to lead implementation. The national level support will include learning materials, training and coordination activities to guide the development of the decentralized services in communes and communities. 51. At the levels of the administrative regions (préfecture and département), frameworks for coordinating technical mentoring and supervision, and guiding communes in the planning and budgeting of the services will be strengthened. The project will reinforce the coordination between the Cadres de Concertation and the MDGL to align to existing decentralization efforts. A joint supervision and monitoring system will be set-up with multiple sectors to track commune performance. Guidance would be developed to support communes to mainstream the nutrition and ECD services in the PDC and annual work plan, coordinate support from multiple partners to maximize the coverage of interventions, as well as use FADeC resources to finance core interventions at the commune level. 52. At the commune level, leadership to deliver multisectoral services will be strengthened. The project will reinforce the mayor’s office and the CCCs in developing annual work plans and engaging sector, non-government and community stakeholders to coordinate and implement the package of nutrition and ECD services. This approach aligns to the Government’s strategy to develop capacity in communes to manage, plan and finance public services. Commune work plans will be developed in line with local level results framework that will be integrated in the commune’s development plan or PDC. 53. The communes will be supported by capacity building action plan, results-based leadership coaching and performance-based contracting of NGOs to reinforce the effective delivery of the package of early nutrition and child development services. A capacity building plan will be developed with communes and sectoral service providers to reinforce the provision of the services over the time frame of the project. The capacity building will be most intensive in the first two years of the project to progressively develop know-how to effectively deliver the services, with focus on new services, not developed through the PMASN. The capacity plan will be informed by a baseline assessment to map the existing interventions and capacity in the communes, since some interventions have already been developed through the PMASN, Government initiatives and NGOs. The capacity building plan will include results-based leadership coaching to support multisectoral teams to analyze challenges and learn how work together to deliver


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services to advance key indicators. It will also include the performance-based contracting of NGOs to train and provide technical support to the community-based provision of services by GrACE members and community groups, as well as sectoral service delivery providers. Subcomponent 1.2: Monitoring, Evaluation and Multi-Stakeholder Learning (US$3.8 million) 54. The objective of this subcomponent is to use information for decision-making at the national and decentralized level to guide the effective implementation of nutritional and ECD interventions and services. Accordingly, the activities include the following: the targeting of interventions, beneficiary assessment of results and testimonies, knowledge management for learning about new innovations, and M&E and decision-making by the CCC to manage results at each level. 55. Community tools will be developed to ensure services reach vulnerable households with children. This will include the development of a register to monitor child growth and development. The project will also support communes to use existing data on household poverty to target interventions to reach vulnerable families. Accordingly, specific interventions will be developed to accompany children identified as vulnerable, including a mediation mechanism to approach families that are not utilizing the services or otherwise benefitting from the interventions due to social or other constraints. 56. Iterative Beneficiary Monitoring (IBM) will be used to assess the influence of the services on beneficiaries throughout implementation. IBM uses small samples to ask questions about outcomes at the beneficiary level. The project will use IBM for quantitative and qualitative data including testimonies of significant change experiences. By assessing outcomes and improvements iteratively during implementation, this will provide information that can be used to reinforce the impact of the community interventions as well as provide content for reporting project results. 57. A citizen scorecard will be developed to monitor community feedback on the delivery of the nutrition and ECD services, focusing on the voice of women and parent groups. Families, especially, mothers, often have limited decision-making power to influence services to support the development of children. The score card will assess mothers’ satisfaction with services using key indicators from the communal results framework. The implementation of the scorecard will include an iterative dialogue at commune level to improve services annually, based on the community feedback. The NGO in each commune will facilitate the community Nutrition and Child Development Surveillance and Support Committee (Comité de Surveillance et d’Appui à la Nutrition et au Développement de l’Enfance, CSANE) to annually implement the scorecard together with the CCC. 58. A national knowledge management strategy will be developed to support learning on the effectiveness of nutrition and ECD interventions, including an operational research agenda, knowledge exchanges, and a qualitative method to capture knowledge. An operational research agenda will be developed to gather evidence on interventions in the Benin context, including studies on the cost-effectiveness of different approaches to inform the investment case for the long-term institutionalization of services in the Government program. The research agenda will engage national stakeholders, from sectors, NGOs and academia as well as communes. Knowledge exchanges will be organized for learning on experiential lessons, i.e., what has worked and not worked in different contexts. This is critical given the pioneering nature of the project, and need for cross-fertilization of experiences across communes, as well


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as countries implementing similar approaches. The ANCB will engage with the CAN to lead peer-to-peer learning across communes to support the CCCs in the implementation of the multisector services. The project will also apply multiple qualitative methods of process learning and knowledge capture, such as outcome harvesting (i.e., collecting evidence of what has changed and, then, working backwards, determining whether and how an intervention has contributed to these changes) and positive deviance approach to create a toolkit to share implementation knowledge and lessons from implementation. 59. Monitoring, evaluation and decision-making by national stakeholders and communes will be strengthened by developing a package of tools for result management. This will include triangulating different data sources to inform implementation decisions: data on community satisfaction with services from the citizens’ scorecard; data on community knowledge and behaviors from knowledge attitude and practice (KAP) surveys; data from qualitative analyses conducted to understand implementation bottlenecks at the commune level; data from community services delivered by the GrACE; data from sectoral services (health, social protection, education, agriculture); data from a baseline and end-line survey. Each commune will develop a common results framework and dashboard to follow key indicators, and CCC members will receive coaching to use the data for decisions to reinforce the early years nutrition and child development outcomes. Multisectoral review meetings will reinforce the use of data to inform project improvements. Data sources will also be aggregated nationally to compare the situation across communes, including using geo-spatial analysis to visually compare progress on key indicators in different communities. Leadership coaching will support multisectoral teams in a commune to work together to plan the package of services, analyze bottlenecks to delivering the services, and tailor local innovations to accelerate implementation and advance key indicators in the communal results framework. Other accompanying activities will provide the communes with knowledge, tools and technical support to ensure the quality of the services. Subcomponent 1.3: Project Management (US$3.0 million) 60. This includes day-to-day management of project activities by SP-CAN and the coordinators and accountants at regional level. Expenses will include technical assistance, consultants, workshops, formal trainings, on the job trainings, study tours, surveys and other types of evaluation tools, as well as coordination and communication activities. Equipment required for staff involved in project implementation will also be included. Component 2: Community-based Interventions for the Early Years (US$29.8 million equivalent). 61. The component is the operational core of the project, with the objective to improve the delivery of the package of services (Annex A; Box 1) at community level. This component will support the Recipient to: (i) improve public service delivery on nutrition and ECD by the members of the CCC; and (ii) carry out communal subprojects for, inter alia, community mobilization and SBCC. The activities will: (i) strengthen the role of public services of health, agriculture, education and social promotion in delivering services and providing support to the community actions on parenting education, child growth promotion, stimulation and early learning; and (ii) support the GrACE, and the CSANE to implement the early years interventions in coordination with the commune level CCC. The CSANE is the steering committee at community level. The GrACE members will be equipped to deliver door-to-door household and community level services that are complementary to and extend the reach of sectoral services, enabling more frequent and broader


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coverage and utilization, even in remote villages. This component will finance grants to NGOs for the implementation of the communal sub-projects (Subcomponent 2.1), as well as consultants, non-consulting services, training, supervision, monitoring, workshops, reproduction of material, and equipment. Subcomponent 2.1: Early Child Nutrition and Development (US$25.0 million) 62. Targeted communes (48) will intensify the delivery of community-based growth promotion and nutrition services for pregnant women and caregivers of children 0-5 years, with specific targeting of children in the first 1,000 days, from conception to 23 months of age. The services will intensify the following nutrition actions in the package of services: community screening and management of acute malnutrition according to national guidelines; counseling on Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF); growth monitoring and promotion; outreach to the community to monitor health and nutrition needs of pregnant and post-partum women; promotion of handwashing and small latrines in households; and training of caregivers with young children in the production, transformation and storage of diverse nutritious foods to address food security. A number of these services have already been established in 40 communes through the PMASN but require further reinforcement to institutionalize their structure and quality for long-term delivery in the communes. The project will use additional delivery models with proven effectiveness such as the Community-led Total Sanitation adapted to the context of Benin. Emphasis will be given to community ownership and solidarity through community planning, accountability and peer support. 63. The interventions will be delivered through door-to-door household visits, group education and discussion, training of women and parent groups, and community meetings. The interventions will be implemented by the GrACE in villages, supported by local leaders, CSOs and the CCC. Community sessions will engage all household in the beneficiary villages. Household visits will be targeted to provide closer follow-up of women and children during the first 1,000 days, from conception to 23 months. Each GrACE member will cover about 10-15 households. 64. The same 48 communes will develop and gradually integrate new ECD services with the nutrition services to provide stimulation, protection and early learning activities in communities for children 0-5 years, and their caregivers. The following child development actions will be newly developed to ensure a more holistic package of services: community monitoring of children’s developmental stages according to nationally developed guidelines; education and coaching of parents on early stimulation; promotion of birth registration; establishment of community-based child play and learning spaces; formation of relevant peer clubs; promotion of men’s participation in child development activities; referral of caregivers and children to facility-based services offered by the health center and Center for Social Promotion. The integrated delivery of stimulation, protection and education into the existing nutrition platforms in targeted villages will improve the efficacy of the actions, boost cost-effectiveness, increase the engagement with caregivers and children, and promote behavioral changes. 65. The monitoring of children’s development will build community capacity to ensure children are developmentally on-track. Children’s developmental stage will be monitored using a standardized assessment tool, and community leaders will work with the CSANE, and the Center for Social Promotion to maintain a registry that tracks children identified as developmentally vulnerable. This service will be


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integrated with existing child nutrition and growth promotion activities. Vulnerable children will be referred to the appropriate public services and receive follow-up home visits. 66. Parenting education activities will strengthen existing government efforts for the protection and on-track development of young children. Parents and key caregivers play a critical role in creating the basic conditions that will affect the entire life course of their children. In the first years of a child's life, parents are the main point of contact and the best fit people to provide nurturing care. The parenting education program will build knowledge and skills that promote child stimulation, good health and nutrition, and protection. The modules to be developed will build on existing parent education modules developed by the Government and UNICEF named Essential Family Early Learning Practices (Pratiques Familiales Essentielles, or PFE, and Pratiques Essentielles d’Eveil or PEE). The parenting education activities will influence the co-responsibility of mothers, fathers and other caregivers engaged with young children, and the perception they have of young children, beyond health and physical growth to consider the importance of cognitive, emotional and social development as well as child protection and rights. The activities will integrate and promote: stimulation through play and parent-child dialogue, early learning, hygiene and sanitation, good nutrition and health actions, safety and security measures, positive discipline, birth registration as well as other child rights and protection. The modes of implementation will vary based on the targets. Households with young children, below age 3 will benefit from the activities through home-based visits, integrated with the nutritional counseling services. Households with children 3-5 years will engage in parenting education and support services at community-based child play and learning spaces. Parent education would be provided by trained community facilitators under the auspices of the commune. The parent education sessions will use modules that are developed by multisectoral actors, and that are user-friendly, include picture boxes for illiterate audiences, as well as practical tools and guides for parents to immediately put in effect what is taught. 67. Communes will establish community-based child play and learning spaces to promote early learning of pre-school age children, aged 3-5 years. The child play and learning spaces will be entirely led and set-up by the community themselves but using the Government’s endorsed preschool curricula to ensure adequate stimulation for children, and readiness for primary school. The spaces will offer games and be animated by trained facilitators who are also member of a GrACE. Any refurbishment of these will be conducted using a climate-smart approach ensuring that passive cooling measures such as shading or tree planting are used to surround these community child play and learning spaces and reduce their vulnerability to heat. The child spaces will be located in the heart of communities, thus reducing the need for families to travel long distances to participate in activites, mitigating transport related carbon emissions. The commune administration will work with community leaders and parents’ associations to establish the child spaces under the guidance of, and support from the relevant focal points in the CCC (education and social promotion). This will include the community providing a fixed and safe location in the village within proximity of households, such that families will not need to travel long distances to participate in the activities. The project will finance the training of facilitators, and the provision of equipment and learning materials to ensure a child-friendly spaces. Guidance on the running of child play and learning spaces will be developed with relevant stakeholders before the activities are rolled out. The MEMP will take the lead in developing early learning modules adapted from existing national modules that are adapted to the community-based model.


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68. A life skills and functional literacy training will be developed to focus on young mothers with limited formal education, with the aim of empowering the decision-making of women around the proper and holistic development of young children. The life skills modules will be delivered in group education sessions, by trained community facilitators in collaboration with local NGOs. 69. Peer support groups will be formed to discuss issues on early nutrition, child development and the rights of children and mothers. These groups will showcase positive deviants and encourage role models to share best practices, including underlying values and knowledge on the early years that drive the good behaviors through open discussions around issues often tabooed thereby limiting families from adopting better practices that advance optimal child development, and legal rights of women and children. The clubs will be led by community mentors, i.e., model mothers, fathers, children or grandmothers, who are trained to facilitate discussions on targeted themes related to early child nutrition and development. Subcomponent 2.2: Communication (US$4.8 million). 70. The objective of this subcomponent is to generate political and community commitment to improve coverage and utilization of nutrition and ECD interventions and services, and to influence knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and practices that improve the child nutrition and development outcomes. The component will support community mobilization, and SBCC nationally and at the decentralized level. A SBCC strategic plan that will integrate ECD messages will be developed in the first year of the project based on the existing national SBCC strategy. The strategic plan will address the following inter-related areas of action: social mobilization of change agents; behavioral change communication; and advocacy. Expenditures will include consultants, analytical work, workshops, development of SBCC tools and multimedia campaign around key themes. 71. As part of the SBCC strategy, the project will develop a community mobilization plan to involve key decentralized stakeholders who can impact results in the communes. The plan will aim to engage targeted change agents, such as elected officials, community leaders, associations, media and private sector, in actions at decentralized levels to improve the delivery of early years nutrition and child development interventions and services. The development of the community mobilization plan will include a stakeholder analysis, and an assessment of organizational, social, behavioral, gender, and policy related institutional constraints, which require a redress to sustainably improve the coverage and utilization of the services. The ex-ante analysis will be used to prioritize the mobilization of key stakeholders and specify roles and areas of action for stakeholder coordination at decentralized levels. Stakeholders will be mobilized with the view of optimizing roles and integrating related actions to support effective coordination and implementation of the nutrition and ECD services. 72. Each commune will use the national SBCC plan, the community mobilization plan and an assessment of local knowledge, attitudes and practices to develop its communal action plan. Key messages might be around themes, such as child feeding, age-appropriate stimulation of children, positive discipline behaviors, and protection of children from violence. The communal action plan, including clear communication messages and involvement of key influential actors in communities, will be used by community actors such as community radio, peer clubs, GrACE, and community leaders. Key messages will be adapted to the local context. Activities will include the mobilization of model figures (future mothers,


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mothers, fathers, religious and traditional leaders) in communities, and organization of dialogue forums on key education and communication themes. 73. The SBCC interventions will be accompanied by a communication and multimedia campaign at national level to amplify the messages. These national communications will involve testimonies from artists, national partners and stakeholders, and influential leaders. The entertainment education approach will be used to capture public interest and entertain while educating. This will intensify the influence of interventions on future mothers, parents (mothers and fathers), other caregivers and influential leaders to promote utilization of the nutrition and ECD services and to take-on visible new behaviors and practices to positively support the young children. The focus will be on influencing changes in social, cultural and gender norms, which may otherwise constrain results by inhibiting decision-making by mothers and caregivers to ensure their children’s development is on track. Influencing these underlying constraints is critical to develop a conducive family and community environment with positive social support structures for continued practice of the interventions by parents for current children, as well as future children. 74. Benin has a multitude of mass communication channels that cater to a heterogeneous public simultaneously and instantaneously. The public television and radio (ORTB) offer national coverage by broadcasting in several languages. There are ten private television channels, 16 commercial private radio stations, 38 private and community radio stations. and five confessional radios. Many of the SBCC interventions rely on media partners to deliver their messages. Their ability to play the role of partner would be strengthened through a process of constructive engagement and capacity strengthening over the long term, and not via simple 'pay to play' approaches. 75. At the national level, an institutional communication plan will be developed to foster political commitment and leverage multisectoral partnerships. The plan will identify strategic actions and roles across the multitude of actors in the multisectoral coordination platform of the CAN and MPD. The strategy will include a plan for horizontal and vertical communication across the different levels of administration and governance. Activities will include workshops and other advocacy activities to generate political leadership, and prioritize budget, resources and coordinated areas of actions across communes. These activities will target and involve all 77 communes and be tailored to their capacities. Component 3: Integrated Primary School Feeding and Nutrition (US$9.4 million equivalent) 76. The project will support 10-12 communes in developing a home-grown school feeding (HGSF) program for 125 primary schools to alleviate short-term hunger in undernourished or otherwise well-nourished school children, motivate parents to enroll their children in school, and increase community involvement. The HGSF approach links the provision of school meals to the production by local small-scale farmers. For as much as possible, the ingredients for the school meals will be sourced from within the commune. The project will strengthen the production and storage capacity of local associations of small producers. Moreover, each school will be encouraged to establish school gardens that will yield staple, fruits and vegetables able to meet nutitional requirments for the changing climate and tree planting to provide cooling through shading as well as improved local water utilization. The provision of locally sourced nutritious foods will reduce the need to source food from more distant markets reducing transport related carbon emissions. Produce from these gardens will be used to complement school meals. The children will


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be involved in the school gardening project. Under the oversight of parent school committees, the schools will depend on the community for preparing and serving meals to children. 77. The school feeding will be comprised of a hot lunch to an average of 25,000 school children per year at an average cost of US$0.25-0.30 per child per day. In line with nutrition education messages, school meals will use diversified foods to provide a good balance of protein, fat, vitamins and minerals and the most cost-efficient use of locally available ingredients. 78. The integrated approach to school feeding will include various accompanying nutrition and health interventions that will benefit the learning outcomes of primary school-going children. A nutrition and health education program will cover aspects of basic hygiene, water conservation, environmental protection, food for growth using the life-cycle approach, and vegetable gardening. Learning will be enhanced through supply and use of education materials including booklets, pamphlets, posters, dramas and other means. The Health Districts will provide a six-monthly deworming regime of Mebendazole per child to treat against roundworm, whipworm and hookworm infestations. The deworming program will assist to improve the nutritional status of the children, reduce symptoms of general discomfort and acute symptoms such as abdominal pain, nausea and coughing. These symptoms are closely related to the intensity of intestinal parasitic infection. Studies have demonstrated remarkable growth spurts as a result of deworming, in addition to improved ability to learn. The deworming program will involve a training component for teachers and the community on the benefit and modalities of the implementation. The training will include record keeping and accountability processes. MS and the Health Districts will also distribute iron/folic acid supplements to the school-going children and undertake regular health checkups, including weight and height measurement, inspection of basic sanitation, inspection of cooking facilities and eating areas, screening and referral for conditions such as sight, hearing, asthma and epilepsy. 79. The integrated primary school feeding and nutrition in 125 schools in 10-12 communes complements support to the integrated school feeding program by other stakeholders, notably, the GoB, the World Food Program and Catholic Relief Services. The 10-12 communes will mainly be selected among the 48 project supported communes in départements, where school dropout, particularly among girls, is the highest, and where the lowest proportion of primary schools are served with school feeding interventions. This project intends to provide a model for community-based implementation and decentralized management by local governments that will be shared with other stakeholders in the sector. This component will basically finance a grant to a contracted service provider. Component 4: Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC) (US$0 million) 80. A CERC will be included under the project in accordance with World Bank IPF Policy, paragraphs 12 and 13 for projects in situations of urgent need of assistance or capacity constraints. This will allow for rapid reallocation of project proceeds in the event of a natural or man-made disaster or crisis that has caused, or is likely to imminently cause, a major adverse economic and/or social impact.


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Project Cost and Financing Project Components Project cost IDA Financing

Component 1: Management and Coordination of Interventions for the Early Years

Subcomponent 1.1: Planning and Implementation Coordination 4.0 4.0

Subcomponent 1.2: Monitoring, Evaluation and Multi-Stakeholder Learning 3.8 3.8

Subcomponent 1.3: Project Management 3.0 3.0

Component 2: Community-based Interventions for the Early Years

Subcomponent 2.1: Early Child Nutrition and Development 25.0 25.0

Subcomponent 2.2: Communication 4.8 4.8

Component 3: Integrated Primary School Feeding and Nutrition 9.4 9.4

Component 4: Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC) 0.0 0.0

Total Project Costs 50.0 50.0

Total Financing Required 50.0 50.0

D. Project Beneficiaries

81. The project will be implemented in all 12 administrative regions (Département) of Benin, targeting interventions to specific communes and villages based on need. All 77 communes will receive support to mainstream strategies, budgets and plans for nutrition and child development. Direct implementation support to build capacity of the CCC to deliver early nutrition and child development services in communities will be targeted at the 48 communes, 40 of which have started to develop the integrated service delivery platforms with support from the PMASN (2013-2019). The 40 communes were identified on the basis of their food and nutrition insecurity and poverty level. The identification of specific villages for the interventions will be based on nutrition, early learning, and poverty criteria, e.g., stunting in children 0-5 years, number of children 0-5 years benefitting from community-based learning intervention, percent of post-partum care, poverty rate and density, and proportion of children without birth registration. The selection may also consider the distance of villages from sectoral services and the existing capacity of the GrACE platforms, with the view to institutionalize a minimal level of capacity to manage the delivery of a package of services. 82. The primary project beneficiaries will be children under five years of age and primary school going children aged between five and 12 years as well as their mothers, fathers and other caregivers (grandparents, adolescents, etc.) in the targeted communes. Of special priority are children in their first 1,000 days of life (Table 4). The project will endeavor to target specific interventions to vulnerable households with children under five in villages across 48 communes using data from the national poverty registry (community-based monitoring system) managed by the social affairs sector. The project also expects to reach about 25,000 children aged five to 12 in 10-12 communes with integrated school feeding


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and nutrition interventions. These 10-12 communes will largely be regions (départements) where school dropout is highest and fewer schools are served with school feeding programs. Table 4: Estimated project beneficiaries across 40 targeted communes

Administrative region

Number of Com-munes

expected to benefit

Expected coverage of villages

Targeted project beneficiaries

House-holds

Pregnant women

Breast-feeding women Mothers

Children < 5 Fathers

Girl care-

givers, future

mothers Grand-

mothers Zou, Collines 7 45% 32,991 3,340 11,736 18,515 50,846 27,566 12,227 5,732 Atlantique, Litoral 4 48% 22,840 2,780 9,476 13,703 27,764 8,385 7,293 4,434

Atacora, Donga 7 52% 30,762 5,667 20,838 26,182 52,861 26,362 9,108 6,459

Borgou, Alibori 8 34% 31,239 8,147 25,127 29,535 68,375 32,646 12,944 5,851 Ouémé, Plateau 7 49% 27,245 2,678 12,114 19,422 38,545 22,361 8,552 4,030

Mono, Cuoffo 7 52% 32,917 3,666 15,111 19,091 36,286 19,910 13,487 11,044 NATIONAL 40 46% 177,994 26,278 94,402 126,448 274,677 137,230 63,611 37,550

83. The operation will also benefit the multisectoral CCCs in communes to manage decentralized nutrition and enhanced human development services. In communities, the operation will benefit the CSANE and GrACE platforms, building their capacity to coordinate and deliver quality services to rural and urban households. The different levels of project beneficiaries are shown in Figure B.1 (Annex B), with local government, communities and parents and children at the center. At the commune level, the operation, will strengthen the capacity of the CCC to manage and make decisions around nutrition and ECD interventions and services. In the administrative regions, the operation will build capacity of the Regional Consultative Committees (Cadre Départemental de Concertation or CDC) to mainstream nutrition and child development in communes. At the national level, the main beneficiaries are the CAN, the ANCB and other coordination forums responsible for multisectoral policies and actions on early child nutrition and development.

E. Project Results Chain

84. The PDO of improving the delivery of early nutrition and child development interventions and services in targeted areas of benefiting communes will be achieved through a multi-facetted strategy (Figure 5) of: (1) building institutional capacity for management and coordination of early years interventions including capacity for M&E and multi-stakeholder learning to reinforce the outcomes of decentralized services; 2) increasing delivery of an integrated package of interventions and services in disadvantaged communities with a strong focus on SBCC; 3) an integrated approach to school feeding and nutrition; and 4) project management. 85. National coordination of ministries and stakeholders engaged in nutrition and ECD will align policy, strategies and financing, harmonizing multisectoral guidance to implement a decentralized package of services. Regional administrations will use the guidance to mainstream nutrition and ECD in


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commune strategies, budgets and work plans, improving the delivery of a minimum package of interventions across Benin’s 77 communes. In 48 communes, performance-based contracting of NGOs will provide deeper result-focused support to develop the services, with defined outcomes and capacity building plans, including coaching and technical support. This will empower collaborative multisector and actor leadership within the CCC to achieve key performance indicators and roll-out the package of services for beneficiary households, with attention to poor and vulnerable communities.

Figure 5: Overview of the Theory of Change of the project: Improve the delivery of early nutrition and child development interventions and services in targeted areas of benefiting Communes in the Recipient’s territory

86. M&E, knowledge and experience sharing, and beneficiary feedback will be used to improve services, based on evidence, lessons and responsiveness to community needs. M&E will support decisions nationally and in communes to target interventions, address bottlenecks, maximize local ownership and accountability to citizens, maximize cost-benefits and institutionalize and scale-up services in the Government program through an investment plan. 87. Community actions led by the CCC and facilitated by NGOs will develop the competence of the CSANE and GrACE in 48 communes to maximize delivery of the decentralized package of services (child growth promotion, child stimulation, play and early learning, parent education, nutritional care, etc.). Once decentralized sectors and community actors are trained and mobilized, services will be rolled-out through a results-based action learning approach, where improvements are continuously made to optimize outcomes, based on M&E, evidence and implementation experience. In collaboration with the CCC, the NGO will work closely with the CSANE and GrACE to reinforce the daily, monthly and quarterly delivery of the services. This will ensure outcomes are met to deliver quality services, and ensure just-in time technical


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support, monitoring and mentoring to develop sustained capacity for the long-term management of an effective and tailored mix of services at community level. 88. SBCC will mobilize national and local stakeholders (local leaders, media, and others) with clear messages, building political commitment, shifting gender and social norms around nutrition and ECD to address underlying challenges, and influence knowledge, values and behaviors in families to stimulate learning, and protect and feed children. At commune level, SBCC will engage model leaders, break-taboos around parent-child relationships, introduce new gender roles to care for children, and ensure a conducive environment for mothers (and fathers) to make decisions for their child’s development. Community mobilization will also reinforce the ownership and commitment of local leaders, providers and beneficiaries around the package of services in communities.

89. School feeding combined with essential health, hygiene and sanitation services will enhance the efficacy of other investments in the early years, ensuring better educational outcomes and improving social equity by enhancing access to and retention in schools for the most disadvantaged children, particularly girls. 90. The longer-term impact for Benin is having more young children developmentally on track with greater equality across socio-economic status, ready for continued life learning, and an institutionalized service platform covering rural communities.

F. Rationale for World Bank Involvement and Role of Partners 91. The project seeks to strengthen the policy effectiveness of investments in the early years by supporting changes towards coordinated planning, implementation and monitoring of multisectoral interventions. The World Bank is in a unique position to accompany such a change process given its capacity to act across different sectors. The World Bank already has a long-standing partnership with the GoB which has been seeking to improve child nutrition and development. The World Bank Group (WBG) has been engaged in nutrition policy dialogue with the GoB since 2008 through informal technical assistance followed by a recipient-executed small-grant pilot operation (P124191; 2011-2016) a recipient-executed technical assistance project (P131975; 2013-16) and the IDA-financed PMASN (P143652; 2014-2019). The WBG team worked closely with the Core Group for Nutrition, the CAN and the SP-CAN on supporting the development of the national nutrition strategic plan including the costing, the national SBCC strategy, and the M&E framework. Recent analytical work included studies on the role of gender norms in child care and the problem of aflatoxin contamination in staple foods. Ongoing technical assistance on child nutrition and development themes include leadership coaching of local governments. 92. The WBG is uniquely placed as a development assistance convener for the early years in Benin. Stakeholders within the Government see the World Bank as one of the key development partners supporting nutrition and child development policy and program development. The proposed operation would be the largest new investment directly supporting early years nutrition and child development interventions. This investment, combined with the global experience in supporting nutrition, maternal and child health, and ECD, positions the World Bank very well to accompany the GoB in strengthening and expanding essential services for the early years. Other development partners, including the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), the Swiss Cooperation, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the


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World Food Programme (WFP) and the European Union (EU) are also involved in the policy dialogue on early child nutrition and development, and the World Bank and UNICEF will coordinate the support to the early years interventions at the community level, including mobilization of additional technical and financial resources.

G. Lessons Learned and Reflected in the Project Design

93. The project builds on the experiences gained across human development sectors over the last decades, particularly within areas of education, nutrition, health and governance. This includes lessons from the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), analytical work from human development sectors, and the growing lessons and evaluation data coming from the launch of Early Years Initiatives globally. 94. In nutrition, the World Bank has engaged with the GoB through two successive projects, which provide lessons for multisectoral and decentralized support to communes and communities. The PMASN implemented in 40 communes in Benin (P143652; 2014-2019) and the preceding Community Nutrition Project (P124191; 2011-2016) implemented in 10 pilot communes in Benin by Plan International. These projects provide lessons for the current project in terms of: (i) multisectoral coordination of policy; (ii) capacity building for decentralized management of service delivery to communities through the consultative committees at commune level; (iii) the development of M&E capacity within the communes and communities for routine data monitoring; (iv) the promotion of local government ownership of the program; (v) the social mobilization of leaders, media and other actors as change agents to influence parents to adopt key messages; (vi) the dialogue between parents to influence gender dynamics in families; and (vii) the community mobilization, organization and empowerment through community support groups (i.e., GrACE). Other key experience from Benin are in life skills training, parent education and community-based delivery of child stimulation and early learning. These experiences are being mapped to inform project implementation. In addition to lessons from Benin, key lessons learned from research, evaluation and other countries are reflected in the project design (Table A.3).

III. IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS

A. Institutional and Implementation Arrangements

95. The institutional, implementation and coordination arrangements for the project will be anchored on existing platforms adapted to reflect the need for a multisectoral approach to nutrition improvement for child development (Figure 6). The SP-CAN will be the implementing agency responsible for the coordination and management of project implementation by multiple stakeholders at the operational level. The SP-CAN is the operational arm of the CAN, is experienced in coordinating inputs from multiple line ministries for the implementation of project activities and has satisfactorily implemented the PMASN (2013-2019). The Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Social Affairs and Local Government are active members of CAN. The MEMP will be a key new ministry to engage in the development of the early learning activities. The other arrangements are the same as successfully managed under the PMASN. In terms of capacity, SP-CAN is composed of a Permanent Secretary, a team responsible for Procurement, a team responsible for Financial Management (FM), an Internal Auditor, a team responsible for M&E, a Project Officer in charge of Community Mobilization and Communication (consultant), a team of regional coordinators and


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accountants (consultants) to support decentralized implementation of the project. In addition, SP-CAN will need to hire additional Technical Assistants (TA) to ensure efficient implementation of the project. These TA should be in place within four months after project effectiveness and include: (i) a Project Manager/Officer who oversees the regional teams and provides overall support to the project; (ii) a Technical Officer for the Early Years who provides technical backstopping on the early years interventions, (iii) a qualified and experienced Accountant to strengthen the FM team; (iv) a Communication Specialist to provide technical support on all communication matters and build capacity among stakeholders; and (v) a Project Officer on school feeding to assist with the integrated school feeding and nutrition component. 96. Project oversight will be provided by a Project Steering Committee (PSC) made up of Ministries represented by their Chief of Staff of key ministries associated with the project (e.g., health, agriculture, social affairs, preschool education, decentralization, planning and development, and economy and finance) in addition to the Permanent Secretary of CAN and a representative of the Civil Society Association for the Intensification of Nutrition in Benin (ASCINB). The PSC will be created and chaired by the Minister in charge of Development or the General Secretary of the President. The PSC will have to be established within four months after project effectiveness. 97. A Technical Working Group, similar to the project preparation working group, will be set-up to solicit diverse knowledge inputs from different sectors, including preschool education, social affairs, health, agriculture, and local governance, among others. The Technical Working Group will include government (and non-government) members with key knowledge to provide technical inputs to SP-CAN. The technical working group will be chaired by the SP-CAN.

Figure 6: Project implementation arrangements

98. The coordination platforms at the local and community levels are the CDC, CCC and CSANE. In the administrative regions, the CDC will be responsible for coordination, including strategic orientation, managing synergies and resource deployment across communes. The communes represent the operational level of the project. The Commune Council will mobilize sector representatives, NGOs, local leaders, consultants and firms, and media to reinforce community level interventions. The CCC will ensure the multisectoral coordination for the planning, monitoring, supervision, evaluation and reporting of the


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nutrition and ECD interventions. Under the leadership of the Commune Council, the CCC will develop a common results framework which will serve as the basis for annual work programs and budgets. The activities in the work program can be financially supported by the SP-CAN with the proceeds of the project based on a partnership agreement between the SP-CAN and Communal Councils. The terms and conditions of these partnership agreements will be further described in the Project Implementation Manual (PIM). 99. NGOs will be mobilized through performance-based contracting to carry out communal subprojects to assist with the community mobilization and SBCC on behalf of the Commune Council. NGOs will be asked to prepare, in collaboration with the CCC, communal subproject proposals. Subject to the endorsement of the Commune authorities, a grant agreement will be signed between the SP-CAN and the NGO, co-signed by the Commune authority as a third party. The NGO will be supervised and evaluated by the SP-CAN, line ministries and Commune Councils. 100. In communities, the CSANE will be responsible for coordinating the community actions. The GrACE will be the structure whose members are the main implementers of interventions and services to beneficiaries. Community outreach for the management of acute malnutrition, the management of childhood diseases, and the monitoring of women during pregnancy and post-partum will be conducted jointly with relais communautaire and health workers. Training related to food production, transformation, and diversification, as well as safe storage will be implemented jointly with agriculture extension agents, community associations and CSOs, such as women’s and men’s groups. 101. The implementation of the integrated primary school feeding and nutrition component will be contracted out to a qualified school feeding service provider on a competitive basis following World Bank procurement procedures. The terms of reference (ToR) for this work will be developed ahead of time. Implementation will follow the same implementation modalities as the other components to ensure a coordinated approach with the interventions that are targeted to the early years in the project. This means that communes are the entry point for planning and monitoring of the school feeding and nutrition component and implementation follows a community-based approach that includes the CSANE and GrACE. 102. Capacity building action plans will be developed with the objective to reinforce the role of the local stakeholders in the delivery of the services. Key areas of multisector collaboration to develop content for the services are shown in Table 5. Materials, such as orientation and implementation guides, training modules, and communication tools will be adapted from existing experiences by line ministries, NGOs or academia, or newly developed as needed. Accordingly, the health system will be engaged through outreach strategies to follow pregnant women and young children on nutrition and child development, and through health promotion on hygiene and sanitation. Given the diverse learning themes required, preschool education and social affairs will jointly develop and implement the curriculum, guidelines and strategy for the organization of the play labs, parental education services, and social dialogue in peer clubs. Similarly, the education and youth employment sectors will be engaged by establishing life skills and literacy approaches for young mothers. To enhance household food security and diversification, the agriculture sector will strengthen women and men groups’ capacity in the production, transformation and storage of diverse and nutritious food.


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Table 5: Key areas of multisector and non-government collaboration to develop the community services

Health, Social Affairs - Outreach strategies for pregnant women, lactating mothers and young children - Integrated management of acute malnutrition, including referral and counter-referral - Training and supervision of GrACE members and local facilitators - Health promotion on hygiene and sanitation including the elimination of open defecation

Education, Social Affairs, Youth Employment - Training and supervision of GrACE members and local facilitators on parenting education, early learning and

social dialogue - Selection of vulnerable families - Monitoring of relevant ECD indicators - Life skills and literacy training for young and future mothers

Agriculture - Training and supervision of women’s and men’s groups in the production and transformation of diverse

nutritious foods - Promotion of a value chain for local food economies through production, transformation and conservation

Interior - Birth registration in communities

103. The project will use adaptive learning to enhance the capacity, performance and ownership of service provision by the CCC and GrACE. Performance-based contracting of NGOs will reinforce the services delivered by community groups. The Government has used performance-based contracting successfully in the PMASN. In close collaboration with the CCC, the NGO will work with the CSANE to reinforce the quantity and quality of services delivered by members of the GrACE. The CCC ensures a synergistic balance between community actions and sectoral service delivery by health, social protection, agriculture, preschool education, and youth employment, enabling broader coverage, even in remote villages. GrACE members will receive dedicated training to engage in a range of community interventions on nutrition and child development. The NGOs will use an action learning approach to mentor the GrACE to advance their know-how to implement the services and coming up with new solutions to problems faced at community level. The NGOs will receive contracts with key performance-based targets on capacity development of the GrACE and CCC to delivery services. The role of NGOs will often vary according to contextual factors at commune level. 104. Before the effective date, the Government will prepare a PIM, containing detailed arrangements and procedures for: (i) institutional coordination and project implementation; (ii) the roles and responsibilities of all involved stakeholders; (iii) project budgeting, accounting, disbursement and FM; (iv) procurement; (v) monitoring, evaluation, reporting and communication; (vi) the selection criteria of villages and communes; (vii) the hiring process of lead NGOs; and (viii) other administrative, financial and organizational arrangements and procedures.

B. Results Monitoring and Evaluation Arrangement

105. SP-CAN will manage the M&E arrangements with inputs from the national Technical Working Group, and information from decentralized structures in the project’s implementation cascade (CDC, CCC and CSANE) on project outcomes, indicators, processes and outputs. The Planning Directorates of line ministries, the Regional Coordination of SP-CAN and the contracted NGOs will build M&E capacity of the


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focal points in the decentralized structures to ensure the timely and quality collection of M&E data, and submission of reports. This arrangement builds on those already in place to monitor nutrition outcomes through the PMASN, while adding new tools to monitor early child stimulation and learning related indicators. 106. The main sources of data for the indicators in the project results framework are the information systems of line ministries, and project activity reports from the Regional Coordination, communes and NGOs. Community data come from community registers used to monitor implementation of interventions at community level. For now, data collection in communities will be a paper-based system as per the PMASN. However, the project will pilot an e-tracker mobile system to reinforce the longer-term M&E system to collect data from the GrACE in the community. 107. The M&E system of the project will strengthen the multisectoral M&E system developed under the PMASN. The M&E system will be designed to make decisions on needed course corrections during implementation and foster learning on implementation processes. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches will be utilized for process learning studies to inform implementation. An M&E plan will be developed before effectiveness to detail project monitoring and reporting. Key parts of the M&E system are described in Table 6.

Table 6: Key parts of the M&E system Parts Description Decentralized dashboards

To monitor project indicators (national, regional, commune, community), and integrate indicator data from multiple stakeholders for utilization in decision-making. The project will build on the dashboard system already developed under the PMASN

Process evaluations

To strengthen learning from implementation and decision-making on the effectiveness and efficiency of project interventions. Process evaluations will be used to gather information on the usefulness and design of the different components of the project and identify bottlenecks or constraints and possible solutions to improve implementation. The findings will provide insights on organizational and behavioral changes as well as how to reinforce implementation to improve the achievement of the results indicators.

Beneficiary feedback

To provide insights on the effectiveness of interventions on beneficiaries; to reinforce community engagement for better nutrition and child development outcomes; to provide a cycle of responsiveness to address community needs. Key tools will include a citizen score card, and iterative beneficiary assessment.

Routine review meetings

To make decisions to improve implementation using M&E information from indicators, qualitative studies, beneficiary feedback, etc. Decision-making tools will be developed to support the Cadre de Concertation at each level (national, regional, commune).

Project evaluation

To compare outcomes across communes. The project will conduct a baseline and end-line survey on key outcomes of the project at commune level. The phased expansion of interventions in communities will provide an opportunity for a quasi-experimental design. Moreover, the tracking of child development by community will provide a roster of children to follow through the early years to assess impact.


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C. Sustainability

108. The Government commitment to multisectoral action on human capital development is evidenced by the PAG and PND (2018-2025). Moreover, the operation aligns to the multisectoral nutrition policy, policies for the development and protection of young children, and the sector strategies of education, school feeding, social protection, health, agriculture and civil administration. 109. The central role by the communes reinforces Benin’s policies of decentralized governance. The project will reinforce communes’ leadership to coordinate multisectoral planning, supervision, M&E, and financing around services for improved nutrition and ECD outcomes. These efforts will build institutional capacity for the devolved management of the services. The focus on reaching vulnerable families, beneficiary feedback and learning to improve results will further reinforce commune level decision-making to improve services, responding to needs of vulnerable groups in communities, particularly of women and young children, and community participation in ensuring services and benefits to families. 110. The project’s design will develop long-term policy efficiency to support human capital improvements. Component 1 will support the development of multisectoral policies, strategies and guidelines, and strengthen the role of the CCCs in the decentralized management of early nutrition and child development improvements. The gains in efficiency and effectiveness of operationalizing multisectoral services through the CCC, rather than through fragmented sectoral service provision, have already been demonstrated. Lessons learned suggest that the integration of child stimulation and early learning will enhance these results.

111. Community-based action for nutrition and child development will be mainstreamed through the strengthening of implementation and monitoring capacity of the CSANE and GrACE structures. The PMASN demonstrated that reinforcing community capacity through: (i) action learning and hands-on mentoring; (ii) creating community groups to leverage existing social support structures to coordinate roles, knowledge and skills to deliver services at the household level; and (iii) developing lines of accountability to local authorities, significantly improves the quality and coverage of services in rural areas. 112. Emphasis on the first 1,000 days sets a foundation to prepare parents and children for early learning and development. The project invests in a generation of children who will have a strong early start. Over the long-term the improvements in human capital that are generated by the project could transform development outcomes in the country. Parental practices are often passed on to next generations, hence the changes in parenting practices influenced by the project could influence several generations of children. Moreover, most families have multiple children, hence, there would be a spillover of the practices to other children in the family. 113. The SBCC strategies and early learning interventions will shift social and gender norms to influence long-term changes in community values and family perceptions. Through SBCC, influential actors in communities (traditional leaders, religious leaders, women’s groups, other) will be equipped with knowledge and tools to be positive role models with the potential to shift social and gender norms, which inhibit positive nutrition and child development practices in families. These changes will ultimately influence how families perceive children, their rights and their development.


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IV. APPRAISAL SUMMARY A. Technical, Economic and Financial Analysis

114. The PDO will be achieved through coordinated efforts of the different stakeholders to increase the delivery of interventions and services for early nutrition, child stimulation, child learning and protection in communes across the country. This investment will ensure more children benefit from these interventions, particularly in poor communities. In turn, the cohort of children reached will be more likely to be developmentally on-track in terms of their health, social support, readiness for education, and potential for long-term economic contribution to their community, increasing Benin’s accumulation of human capital for productivity and growth. This section presents the rationale for public investment, the World Bank’s involvement and the economic returns that justify the use of scarce-resources for the project. Public Investment 115. Quality nutrition and child development programs impact the physical, cognitive and socio-emotional development of children, and generate significant economic returns in terms of a generation of children that can grow to be productive adults, despite poverty and other vulnerabilities. Carneiro and Heckman (2003) demonstrate that investing in the early years has a higher rate of return than interventions targeted at any other life stage. The Lancet series (2018; 2016; 2013) recommended reinforcing healthy home care and nutritional support, with early child simulation, especially in the first 1,000 days of life to enable children to have a healthy and more prosperous future. A World Bank study found returns on every dollar invested in nutrition are about US$4 for the wasting target, US$11 for the stunting target, US$12 for the anemia target, and US$35 for the exclusive breastfeeding target (Kakietek, et al. 2017). Moreover, evidence from longitudinal evaluations of ECD programs (Schweinhart et al. 2005) demonstrated long-term gains from investing early in disadvantaged children, in terms of higher rates of school completion and higher rates of earnings in their adult life. Chronic malnutrition is estimated to reduce a person’s lifetime earnings by at least 10 percent. Similarly, a 1 percent loss in adult height results in a 2 to 2.4 percent loss in productivity. These economic costs and benefits are greatest for vulnerable populations. Benin’s per capita income is about 12 percent less that it would have been if none of its workforce had been stunted in childhood (Galasso and Wagstaff 2017). 116. Publicly financed early child nutrition and development programs are an important instrument to reduce inequality and promote productivity later in life. Most children require access to public services for health care, nutrition support and early learning. The challenge has been the cost of scaling-up services, particularly for ECD in rural areas. Facility-based ECD services for children 3 to 5 years are estimated at US$42 per child in Benin (Jaramillo and Mingat 2008), and this may be a low estimate (for example, US$58 per child in Mauritania) (Van Ravens and Aggio, 2008). Moreover, these programs often have additional out-of-pocket costs and do not influence behaviors of early stimulation and learning in the home. The development of community-based programs that include parental education has been shown as a cost-effective approach to support vulnerable households to change the development track of their children (Table 7). A publicly affordable integrated early nutrition and child development package is estimate at about US$10 per child annually (Kakietek, et al. 2017). The direct cost of the community-based package of services in the project is estimated at US$7 per child/mother or US$15 per household.


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Table 7: Cost-effective interventions in the package supported by the project

Intervention10 Cost Benefit Community-based parent learning and ECD

US$4 (Bangladesh) - US$10 (India) - US$13 (Mauritania) per child/year (Van Ravens and Aggio 2008; Mason et al. 1999)

Increased parenting knowledge can lead to home stimulation and learning activities for children, and higher child development outcomes (Engle et al. 2011).

Exclusive breastfeeding support through six months

US$0.30 - 0.40 per birth to promote breastfeeding (Horton, et al, 2008)

Infants who are breastfed are six times more likely to survive, six times less likely to die from diarrhea and 2.4 times less likely to die from acute respiratory infections in the first six months (Jones et al, 2003); breastfeeding is also associated with higher cognitive development (Horta and Victora 2013).

Growth monitoring and promotion

No additional cost if included in community nutrition programs

May reduce child deaths before 36 months; and support a 15 percent reduction in prevalence of stunting at 36 months of age (Bhutta et al. 2008).

Hygiene and hand washing

No additional cost if included in community nutrition programs

May reduce diarrhea cases by as much as 30 percent (Horton, Shekar, McDonald, 2010; Mason et al, 1999)

Birth registration

US$0.23 (Tanzania) - US$0.83 (India) per case of civil registra-tion (Abou Zahar, et al. 2007)

Protects children’s right to identity and access to services including health, education, and social protection; It can protect children against early marriage and child labor.

Micronutrient supplemen-tation

US$0.20 per person/year for flour fortification (Fiedler et al, 2008); US$1.20 per child/ year for Vitamin A (Neidecker-Gonzales et al. 2007); US$0.05 per person/year for salt iodization (Horton et al. 2008)

May reduce risk of low birthweight babies by 88 percent; Iodine for pregnant mothers can reduce risk of severe stunting by 27 percent; and increase child development scores by 10-20 percent (Bhutta et al. 2013); Vitamin A supplementation can reduce risk of child mortality (6-59 months) by 24 percent (Horton, et al, 2008).

School feeding into primary years

US$0.25 - US$0.30 per student/meal or about US$40 - US$48 per student/ school year (Benin) (Garnier and Gbénou 2010)

Improves nutrition and thus learning capacity; Increase enrollment, lower absenteeism and dropout rates; Supports child development through improved learning and nutrition, and can provide a social safety net in poor communities.

World Bank Value Added 117. The World Bank is in a unique position to accompany multisectoral efforts to strengthen early years programming. The World Bank has a long-standing partnership with the GoB, including the Core Group for Nutrition, the CAN and SP-CAN on the development of the national nutrition strategic plan, nutritional policies, the national SBCC strategy, and the M&E framework. Stakeholders within the Government see the World Bank as one of the key development partners supporting nutrition and child development policy and program development. The project will be the largest new investment directly supporting early years child nutrition and development interventions. This investment, combined with the global experience in supporting nutrition, maternal and child health, and ECD, positions the World Bank very well to accompany the GoB in expanding essential services for the early years.

10 Investing in Young Children for High Returns, Amina et al. 2014, World Bank.


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Economic impact 118. The cost-benefit analysis used to assess the project’s economic returns, confirms that investment in early years interventions has a high Internal Return Rate, with the project’s rate at about 19 percent. The present discounted value approach is used in the assessment. An investment is justified on economic grounds if the present discounted value is positive. The cost and benefits were discounted at a five percent rate, and the discount was varied from three percent to eight percent for the sensitivity analysis. The assessment considered the benefits of the package of nutrition services for children under 5, the integrated stimulation support to parents and households, the benefits of the scaled-up SBCC approached expected to be supported by the project. The estimate is sensitive to changes in the coverage of beneficiaries, with returns increasing the more households and children that are reached. Behavioral change interventions at scale have an estimated benefit of US$50 to US$150 per disability adjusted life year averted (Horton 2017). Early child stimulation and learning through home-based parenting support is estimated to provide a cost effectiveness of US$361.3 per unit improvement in child behavior (Batura et al. 2014). Community-based management of acute nutrition has an estimated benefit of US$41 per disability adjusted life year averted (Bachmann 2009). 119. The high return from the parenting interventions will be maximized in the project by following families for about a two-year period. Moreover, the project will bring long-term benefits to society, over 25 years parenting interventions can provide benefits of US$26,508 per family (Batura et al. 2014). The benefits of the water sanitation improvements are not assessed given they are part of an integrated package. Water and sanitation interventions are estimated to provide benefits of US$3 to US$34 per dollar invested (Hutton and Haller 2004). The cost savings of increasing exclusive breastfeeding are also high, while not assessed; costs saved per increased month of exclusive breast feeding range from US$19.4 to US$180.6 (Batura et al. 2014). 120. The economic return on school feeding is estimated to provide a return of US$3 to US$10 for every US$1 invested (WFP 2016). The main benefit is the improved health and education of school children, supporting school attendance and productivity for them to become working adults. The same WFP study found that school feeding increased enrollment (+8 percent) and school attendance (+6 percent), reduced dropout rates (-4 percent), in addition to improving test results. 121. The project builds on the global consensus of investment in early years programs, and an array of evidence including the Lancet Series on Advancing ECD (2016, 2011, 2007), and the Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Nutrition (2013 and 2018). The project also aligns to the World Bank Early Years Investment Framework, children need to be well nourished and healthy during the first 1,000 days, receive early stimulation and learning opportunities from birth onwards and be nurtured and protected from stress. The project addresses key challenges in each of the areas in the Benin context.

B. Fiduciary

Financial Management

122. A FM assessment was undertaken to evaluate the adequacy of the FM arrangements for the EYNCDP. This project will be implemented by the SP-CAN under the President’s office. The objective of the


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assessment was to determine whether this implementing entity has acceptable FM arrangements (i.e., system of planning and budgeting, accounting, internal controls, funds flow, financial reporting, and auditing) in place that satisfy the World Bank’s Policy and Directive – IPF which describes the overall World Bank FM policies and procedures. The implementing entity’s arrangements are acceptable as they are considered capable of recording correctly all budgets, transactions and balances, supporting the preparation of regular and reliable financial statements, safeguarding the entities’ assets, and are subject to auditing arrangements acceptable to the World Bank. The FM arrangements for the EYNCDP will build on SP-CAN’s achievements under the ongoing Multisectoral Food Health Nutrition Project (PMASN; P143652) funded by the World Bank. The PMASN’s FM performance was rated Moderately Satisfactory following the last supervision mission of January 2018. The SP-CAN will be responsible for coordinating the day-to-day implementation of the EYNCDP, including FM, organizational aspects and M&E. Based on the assessment carried out in accordance with the FM Manual for World Bank IPF Operations that became effective on March 1, 2010 and re-issued on February 10, 2017, it was established that the SP-CAN has acceptable FM capacity to implement the project. 123. Going forward and in order to mitigate the fiduciary risk to the extent possible, the following actions will need to be implemented: (i) the recruitment by SP-CAN of an experienced and qualified accountant under ToR acceptable to IDA; (ii) the update of the PMASN’s project implementation manual and manual of administrative, financial and accounting procedures to include the new project specificities; (iii) the revisiting of the project software parameters to take into consideration the specificity of the new project; and (iv) the recruitment of an independent external auditor based on acceptable ToR. 124. The overall risk for the EYNCDP is rated Substantial taking into account the country context, the multiplicity of actors and beneficiaries who are located in remote and dispersed areas around the country combined with the nature of activities supported by the project and the World Bank’s minimum requirements under World Bank Policy and Directive – IPF which describes the overall World Bank FM policies and procedures. The proposed risks mitigation measures will strengthen the internal control environment and maintain the continuous timely and reliability of information produced by the SP-CAN and an adequate segregation of duties. These mitigation measures have been incorporated into the design of the project FM arrangements. It is considered that the FM will satisfy the World Bank’s minimum requirements under World Bank Policy and Directive – IPF once the proposed mitigation measures are met (see Table B.4). The proposed FM arrangements including the mitigation measures for this project are considered adequate to meet the World Bank’s minimum FM requirements under World Bank IPF Policy and Directive. Procurement

125. The Borrower will carry out procurement for the proposed project in accordance with the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” (Procurement Regulations) dated July 2016 and revised in November 2017 and August 2018 under the “New Procurement Framework (NPF), and the “Guidelines on Preventing and Combating Fraud and Corruption in Projects Financed by International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) Loans and IDA Credits and Grants”, dated July 1, 2016, and other provisions stipulated in the Financing Agreement.


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126. Procurement shall be carried out by the SP-CAN staffed with a Procurement Specialist who will be responsible to supervise and coordinate the day-to-day procurement implementation of the EYNCDP. All procuring entities as well as bidders, and service providers, i.e. suppliers, contractors and consultants shall observe the highest standard of ethics during the procurement and execution of contracts financed under the project in accordance with paragraph 3.32 and Annex IV of the Procurement Regulations. 127. The Borrower (with assistance from the World Bank) prepared the Project Procurement Strategy for Development (PPSD) which describes how procurement activities will support project operations for the achievement of PDOs and deliver Value for Money. The procurement strategy is linked to the project implementation strategy ensuring proper sequencing of the activities. It considers institutional arrangements for procurement; roles and responsibilities; thresholds, procurement methods, and prior review, and the requirements for carrying out procurement. It also includes a detailed assessment and description of state government capacity for carrying out procurement and managing contract implementation, within an acceptable governance structure and accountability framework. Other issues considered includes the behaviors, trends and capabilities of the market (i.e. Market Analysis) to respond to the procurement plan. 128. Project design will enable the Borrower to carry out Advance Contracting and Retroactive Financing in accordance with Section V (5.1 & 5.2) of the World Bank Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers. The retroactive financing will be allowed up to 20 percent of the grant covering the expenditures incurred by the project, not more than 12 months before the date of the signing of the Financing Agreement. A detailed procurement description and institutional arrangements can be found in Annex B.

C. Safeguards Environmental safeguards 129. The project is rated as Environmental Assessment Category C, as it is not expected that project activities will impact the environment in an adverse manner. 130. Climate Co-benefits. This project has been screened for climate change and the following vulnerabilities were identified through the process: extreme and unpredictable weather conditions have already impacted health and nutrition outcomes in country, and this is expected to worsen in the future with more infectious disease and exacerbated food insecurity and malnutrition. Of all climate-sensitive health impacts, malnutrition stands out because it is already such a critical issue. Increases in extreme weather will disrupt food and health system supply chains. Protein and nutrient content of some cereal crops will decline with rising atmospheric concentrations of CO2. Poor rural households that are food insecure can be easily disrupted by climate-related factors because they are vulnerable and have few mechanisms to smooth shocks and stresses. In a country where more than 30 percent of children suffer from chronic malnutrition, there is considerable need to develop multi-sectoral solutions for reliable, affordable, and climate-smart access to food. The project intends to address these vulnerabilities through three activities providing both mitigation and adaptation measures.


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131. Firstly, under Subcomponent 2.1, the project will support an estimated 500 village-based child play and learning spaces set up by communities by financing the training of facilitators, the fabrication of local toys, and the provision of learning and reporting materials. Any refurbishment of these will be conducted using a climate-smart approach ensuring that passive cooling measures such as shading or tree planting are used to surround these community child play and learning spaces. These measures will help these learning spaces to both reduce their vulnerability to heat. The child spaces will be located in the heart of communities, thus reducing the need for families to travel long distances to participate in activites, mitigating transport related carbon emissions. The running of child play and learning spaces is estimated to cost around US$1.7 million over the course of the project excluding project management and overhead costs. 132. Secondly, under Component 3, the project will provide financial support for the establishment of up to 125 school gardens which will recommend planting of food plants able to meet nutitional requirments for the changing climate and will encourage tree planting to provide cooling through shading as well as improved local water utilization. The provision of locally sourced nutritious foods will also reduce the need to source food from more distant markets reducing transport related carbon emissions. This activity is estimated to cost US$0.81 million over the life of the project exclusing project management and administration costs. 133. Finally, the project will provide community based efforts to enhance household food security and improve child feeding practices. Targeted households will carry out community based initiatives to diversify food production and transformation. These will increase intake of diversified quality food among local communities and households. Those interventions will increase adaptation to climate change risks such as food and nutrition insecurity. Social safeguards 134. Many socio-cultural issues, notably social factors and traditional beliefs, determine mother and child care practice and behaviors and thereby nutritional status, growth and development. The EYNCDP will invest in community-based mobilization and communication to enhance the awareness and capacity to prevent malnutrition and promote healthy growth and development in children. A key feature of the community-based component is the mobilization of key actors at the community level, including village leaders and influential family members such as fathers, grandmothers, and mothers-in-law. Issues affecting nutrition and care will be periodically discussed with these groups as a means of bringing women’s issues to the forefront of community discussions. This model therefore creates a unique opportunity to channel women’s voices all the way up to the level where communal plans and budgets are conceived, elaborated, and implemented. The activities are not expected to have potential social adverse impacts 135. Gender and Vulnerability. The project recognizes gender equality and women’s empowerment as key factors for the attainment of the PDO. Therefore, the project will be supporting measures that strengthen the capacity of women and enhance the role of men in child development activities. The SP-CAN conducted a comprehensive gender study on the role and norms of gender in household food security and health in 2016. Based on the findings of this study, a community dialogue approach including tools will be developed as part of the EYNCDP. This will be aligned with the parent education activities in which the role of all parents in promoting and protecting child development will be discussed.


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136. Citizen Engagement. The project will include the principles of citizen engagement through the development and implementation of a communications strategy. Citizen engagement indicators have been included in the results matrix. Citizen engagement is being facilitated by the clear identification of beneficiaries (children, men and women, communities, NGOs, local and central administration) during preparation, implementation, and evaluation. Throughout the project, citizens will be consulted, and opportunities will be provided to collaborate with the project and participate in the sustainability of the investments Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM)

137. Communities and individuals who believe that they are adversely affected by a World Bank (WB) supported project may submit complaints to existing project-level grievance redress mechanisms or the WB’s Grievance Redress Service (GRS). The GRS ensures that complaints received are promptly reviewed in order to address project-related concerns. Project affected communities and individuals may submit their complaint to the WB’s independent Inspection Panel which determines whether harm occurred, or could occur, as a result of WB non-compliance with its policies and procedures. Complaints may be submitted at any time after concerns have been brought directly to the World Bank's attention, and Bank Management has been given an opportunity to respond. For information on how to submit complaints to the World Bank’s corporate Grievance Redress Service (GRS), please visit http://www.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/products-and-services/grievance-redress-service. For information on how to submit complaints to the World Bank Inspection Panel, please visit www.inspectionpanel.org

V. KEY RISKS

A. Overall Risk Rating and Explanation of Key Risks

Risk Category Rating - Political and governance Moderate - Macroeconomic Moderate - Sector strategies and policies Substantial - Institutional capacity for implementation and sustainability Substantial - Technical design Substantial - Fiduciary Moderate - Environment and social Low - Stakeholders Low

Overall Substantial

138. Overall project risk is rated as substantial. The risks below emerged from the systematic operations risk-rating tool that could affect the achievement of the PDO. 139. Sector strategy and policies’ risks are rated substantial. The project outcomes will only be achieved through interventions from a variety of different sectors, delivered by diverse stakeholders


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through a range of different channels. Consequently, the project necessitates a complex multisector, stakeholder design that engages communities, parents, service providers and children, taking into consideration the entire system. The main mitigation is expanding the existing multisectoral arrangements used for nutrition in Benin for governing nutrition and child development service provision. The CAN already have proven experience coordinating complex strategy and policy reforms, which involve many of the same partners. The key additional sector is education. 140. The risk associated with institutional capacity for implementation and sustainability is rated substantial. SP-CAN has experience managing the PMASN, which was a similarly complex project that involved extensive institutional capacity development. However, integration of ECD adds new actors and reinforcement needs. The project will engage multiple levels of government and communities to implement the multisectoral interventions and services. There will be an extensive need to reinforce capacity within communes and communities. Effective engagement of communes and communities is essential for risk mitigation. A stakeholder mapping will be conducted to identify capacity needs to mobilize actors in the context of ECD, and the project will develop a strategy to plan capacity building of knowledge, skills and implementation know-how to reinforce key institutional changes. 141. The risk associated with the technical design of the project is substantial. There is a good base of large- and small-scale experiences with a wide variety of ECD interventions from which lessons and good practices can be drawn. In addition, SP-CAN has extensive implementation experience. However, there is a challenge to rapid scaling up and ensuring quality of ECD interventions. The project team will pay careful attention to these design aspects of the project, prioritizing the possibilities of building on existing platforms to quickly reach large numbers of the target population. Component 1 will include a series of low-cost evaluations and studies to test and improve interventions including assessment of feedback from beneficiaries and ensure opportunities for course correction throughout project implementation. .


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VI. RESULTS FRAMEWORK AND MONITORING

Results Framework COUNTRY: Benin

Early Years Nutrition and Child Development Project Project Development Objective(s) S-PDO is to reduce stunting and improve ECD outcomes in children under five years of age in targeted communes The PDO (SOP-1) is to improve the delivery of early nutrition and childhood development interventions and services in targeted areas of benefiting Communes in the Recipient's territory.

Project Development Objective Indicators

RESULT_FRAME_T BL_ PD O

Indicator Name DLI Baseline End Target

PDO (SOP-1): Improve the delivery of early nutrition and childhood development interventions

Children 0-24 months who benefit from a package of nutrition and child stimulation services (Percentage) 0.00 30.00

Household visits by GrACE members in the past one month (Number) 0.00 200,000.00

Caregivers with children 0-59 months who have received education on parenting practices that promote ECD within the previous three months (Percentage)

0.00 70.00

Of which % male (Percentage) 0.00 40.00

Women with children 0-59 months trained and practicing household gardens, small animal raising, or transformation of diverse foods rich in nutrition within the last 6 months (Number)

9,000.00 20,000.00


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RESULT_FRAME_T BL_ PD O


School-going children who received at least one meal per day within the previous three months (Number) 0.00 15,000.00

PDO Table SPACE

Intermediate Results Indicators by Components

RESULT_FRAME_T BL_ IO


Management and Coordination of Early Years Interventions

Validation of manuel of harmonized package of services (Yes/No) No Yes

Communes that have conducted joint missions to support implementation at community level in the last 6 months (Percentage)

20.00 80.00

Communes that have put in place a feedback mechanism for citizen beneficiaries (Number) 0.00 50.00

People who have received essential health, nutrition, and population (HNP) services (CRI, Number) 0.00 1,200,500.00

Number of women and children who have received basic nutrition services (CRI, Number) 0.00 1,200,500.00

Regional and national reviews held to evaluate progress (Number) 0.00 23.00

Community-based Interventions for the Early Years

Children aged 0-24 months receiving monthly growth monitoring and promotion (Percentage) 75.00 80.00

Children followed by GrACE in targeted communes with a verified certification of birth (Percentage) 0.00 85.00

Communes that have an advanced strategy to provide 0.00 40.00


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RESULT_FRAME_T BL_ IO


community-based prenatal and post-natal services, according to a checklist (Number)

Functional community spaces for child learning and play (Number) 0.00 200.00

GrACE members trained to deliver services (Number) 20,000.00 30,000.00

Households with children 0-5 years of age with a hand washing station with soap and water (Number) 15,000.00 30,000.00

Children 36-59 months with adult member engaged in at least 4 learning activities in last 3 days (Percentage) 28.00 70.00

Community leaders who participated in community radio programs on new themes and approaches to ECD (Number) 0.00 1,000.00

Integrated Primary School Feeding and Nutrition

Local producers engaged in assocations for the provision of food to school (Number) 0.00 100.00

Primary school-age children dewormed (Number) 0.00 50,000.00 IO Table SPACE

UL Table SPACE

Monitoring & Evaluation Plan: PDO Indicators

Indicator Name Definition/Description Frequency Datasource Methodology for Data Collection

Responsibility for Data Collection

Children 0-24 months who benefit from a package of nutrition and child stimulation services

Numerator: Number of children aged 0-24 months benefiting from a weekly package of integrated nutrition and stimulation

Every 6 months

Community registry

Routine reporting from districts

GrACE, NGO


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interventions during the previous three months Denominator: Total number of children aged 0-24 months targets in the intervention area in the same time period

Household visits by GrACE members in the past one month

Number of home visits provided by the GrACE in the previous month; this will not be cumulative, with the aim of 10-15 visits per GrACE member per month.

Quarterly

Community register and photo from home visits

Routine reporting from districts

NGO; Commune

Caregivers with children 0-59 months who have received education on parenting practices that promote ECD within the previous three months

Numerator: Number of caregivers (mother, father, grandparents or another direct guardian) of children aged 0-59 months who receive parenting education in the previous three months Denominator: Total number of caregivers of children aged 0-59 target in the targeted area in the same time period

Every 6 months

Community registry

Routine reporting from communes

GrACE; NGO

Of which % male

Numerator: Number of male caregivers (mother, father, grandparents or another direct guardian) of children aged 0-59 months who receive parenting

Every 6 months


Community registry

GrACE; NGO


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education in the previous three months Denominator: Total number of caregivers of children aged 0-59 target in the targeted area in the same time period

Women with children 0-59 months trained and practicing household gardens, small animal raising, or transformation of diverse foods rich in nutrition within the last 6 months

Women with children under five trained in at least one of household gardening, small livestock, or diversified and nutrient-rich food processing in the last 6 months

Every 6 months

Community registry


GrACE; Agriculture

School-going children who received at least one meal per day within the previous three months

Numerator: Number of school-going children who received at least one meal per day in the previous 6 months (Cumulative)

Every 6 months

School meal providers and school registry

Communes supported by integrated school feeding

NGO; Commune

ME PDO Table SPACE

Monitoring & Evaluation Plan: Intermediate Results Indicators

Indicator Name Definition/Description Frequency Datasource Methodology for Data Collection

Responsibility for Data Collection

Validation of manuel of harmonized package of services

The government will develop a harmonized multisectoral manual to guide the package of integrated services in the communes. This will be assessed qualitatively using

Every 6 months

Project reports

Assessment of manual implementation in review meetings

SP-CAN


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four level: 1) Not yet developed; 2) Road map developed; 3) Piloting of manual in communes; 4) Validated manual.

Communes that have conducted joint missions to support implementation at community level in the last 6 months

Numerator: Number of communes that have conducted joint missions to support implementation at community level in the last 6 months Denominator: Total number of targeted communes

Every 6 months

Project reports

Supervision report

Regional Project Coordination

Communes that have put in place a feedback mechanism for citizen beneficiaries

Number of communes that have put in place a feedback mechanism for citizen beneficiaries

Every 6 months

Project reports

Document review

Regional Project Coordination

People who have received essential health, nutrition, and population (HNP) services

Annual

Community register

Nutritional services in communes

SP-CAN

Number of women and children who have received basic nutrition services Annual

Community registry

Cumulative number of female caregivers and children in the communes that have received nutritional services.

SP-CAN

Regional and national reviews held to evaluate progress

Number of reviews held with project implementers at the regional and national level, expecting at least 4

Every 6 months

Project reports

Review of minutes

SP-CAN


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annually.

Children aged 0-24 months receiving monthly growth monitoring and promotion

Numerator: Number of children aged 0-24 months receiving monthly growth monitoring and promotion Denominator: Total number of children in age group in the same period and target area

Quarterly

Community Registry

Routine commune reporting

GrACE; NGO

Children followed by GrACE in targeted communes with a verified certification of birth

Numerator: Number of children 0-5 in targeted communes with a verified birth certificate in the previous six months Denominator: Number of children 0-5 years of age in targeted communes in the time period

Annual

Commune reports; archived photos

Photo verification of birth certificate of children 0-5 years

GrACE; NGO

Communes that have an advanced strategy to provide community-based prenatal and post-natal services, according to a checklist

A checklist will be developed to assess the indicator at commune level

Every 6 months

Project reports

Sector coordination

MS; SP-CAN

Functional community spaces for child learning and play

A checklist will be developed to assess the functionality of the child learning and play spaces.

Every 6 months

Community checklist


MEMP; SP-CAN

GrACE members trained to deliver services

Number of GrACE members trained to deliver nutrition, learning and stimulation interventions

Every 6 months

Project reports

Sector coordination

MEMP; SP-CAN


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and services

Households with children 0-5 years of age with a hand washing station with soap and water

Number of households with hand washing stations as reported in home visits

Every 6 months

Commune reporting

Sector coordination

NGO; commune

Children 36-59 months with adult member engaged in at least 4 learning activities in last 3 days

Numerator: Number of children 36-59 months with adult member engaged in at least 4 learning activities in last 3 days Denominator: Number of children 36-59 months in targeted area for the same period

Every 2 years

Survey reports

MICS; commune survey

SP-CAN

Community leaders who participated in community radio programs on new themes and approaches to ECD

Number of community leaders who participated in community radio programs on new themes and approaches to ECD

Every 6 months

Community registry


NGO

Local producers engaged in assocations for the provision of food to school

Number of local producers engaged in associations in communes to provide food for schools

Every 6 months

Project reports

NGO, agency managing school feeding

SP-CAN

Primary school-age children dewormed

Cumulative number of school-age children receiving deworming treatment in primary schools.

Every 6 months

Project reports

MOH; NGO, agency managing school feeding

SP-CAN

ME IO Table SPACE


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ANNEX A: DETAILED PROJECT DESCRIPTION

COUNTRY: Benin

Early Years Nutrtion and Child Development Project 1. The project’s main focus is on social and behavior change of key household practices at the community level and delivery of basic public services. The proposed project will support priority investments as identified by the GoB through community action and improved service delivery at the local level, while strengthening the capacity for multisectoral coordination by the Food and Nutrition Council (CAN) at all institutional levels for improved food, health and nutrition outcomes. 2. The project will have four components: Component 1 will address broader objectives of strengthening and supporting multisectoral action and collaboration at the national and decentralized policy levels needed to properly manage the investments in the early years and achieve lasting results in nutrition. This component also covers day-to-day management of project activities. Component 2 will focus on commune-level action for the protection and promotion of early years nutrition and child development interventions at community level. Activities under this component will build on the experience of the World Bank-supported Multisectoral Food Health Nutrition Project (MFHNP; P143652) implemented by the Permanent Secretariat of the Food and Nutrition Council in 40 communes. Component 3 will complement national support for the integrated primary school feeding program as well as the early child care and development interventions supported through Component 2. Component 4 will allow for rapid reallocation of project proceeds in the event of a natural or man-made disaster or crisis. The design of the project is summarized in Table A.2. The components, subcomponents and activities are based on addressing key outcomes and underlying constraints in the early nutrition and child development context in Benin.

Project Components

Component 1: Management and Coordination of Interventions for the Early Years (US$10.8 million equivalent) 3. The objective of this component is to improve policy, multisectoral strategy, and governance arrangements for an integrated and coordinated approach of early years’ nutrition and child development interventions. This will involve mobilizing stakeholders to collaboratively develop the package of integrated nutrition and ECD services destined for communes and communities (Box A.1). Coordination will involve central and decentralized levels, reinforcing multisectoral consultative committees or Cadres de Concertation at each level to bring together stakeholders to institutionalize the package of services. Table A.1 lists the actors in the Cadre de Concertation at central, regional, commune and community level, respectively. Importantly, this network of Cadre de Concertation is already developed through the PMASN, but requires reinforcement to address nutrition and ECD issues synergistically. Typical expenditures will include training, supervision, monitoring, workshops, operating costs of coordinating structures at the commune and central levels, consultants, reproduction of material, and equipment.


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Subcomponent 1.1: Planning and Implementation Coordination (US$4.0 million) 4. At the national level, the project will reinforce the existing multisectoral coordination platforms of the CAN and in the Ministry of Planning and Development. Consensus will be built around an integrated policy framework, strategy, guideline, cascading roadmap, and results framework to institutionalize a results-focused system for the coordinated implementation of the package of nutrition and ECD services. The package builds on the existing nutrition and child development policies and acts to protect and stimulate child learning and growth. Implementation of the package will involve coordinated actions of government ministries and agencies (including those in charge of social protection, education, health, agriculture, justice, water, communication, interior) and non-government (including NGOs, academia, national associations, etc.). The package of services will be anchored at the commune level to empower local government to lead implementation. The national level support will include learning materials, training and coordination activities to guide the development of the decentralized services in communes and communities. 5. At the level of the administrative regions (préfecture and département), frameworks for coordinating technical mentoring and supervision, and guiding communes in the planning and budgeting of the services will be strengthened. The project will reinforce the Cadre de Concertation in coordination with the MDGL to align to existing decentralization efforts. A joint supervision and monitoring system will be set-up with multiple sectors to track commune performance. Guidance will be developed to support communes to mainstream the nutrition and ECD services in the PDC, common results framework, and annual work plan, coordinate support from multiple partners to maximize the coverage of interventions, as well as use FADeC resources to finance core interventions at the commune level. 6. At the commune level, leadership to deliver multisectoral services will be strengthened. The project will reinforce the mayor’s office and the CCCs in developing annual work plans and engaging sector, non-government and community stakeholders to coordinate and implement the package of nutrition and ECD services. This approach aligns to the Government’s strategy to develop capacity in communes to manage, plan and finance public services. Commune work plans will be developed in line with local level results framework that will be integrated in the commune’s development plan or PDC and use of FADeC resources.

7. The communes will be supported by capacity building action plan and performance-based contracting of NGOs to reinforce the effective delivery of the package of early nutrition and child development services. A capacity building plan will be developed with communes and sectoral service providers to reinforce the provision of the services over the time frame of the project. The capacity building will be most intensive in the first two years of the project to progressively develop know-how to effectively deliver the services, with focus on new services, not developed through the PMASN. The capacity plan will be informed by a baseline assessment to map the existing interventions and capacity in the communes, since some interventions have already been developed through the PMASN, Government initiatives and NGOs. The capacity building plan will include the performance-based contracting of NGOs to train and provide technical support to the community-based provision of services by GrACE members and community groups, as well as sectoral service delivery providers.


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8. The stakeholders to be coordinated at each level are shown in Table A.1. This coordination reinforces existing platforms already developed for coordination of nutrition.

Table A.1: Actors in multisectoral consultative committees or Cadre de Concertation at each level

Cadre National de Concertation : CAN, SP-CAN Comité National de Protection de l’Enfant (National Child Protection Committee) Conseil Consultatif National des Enfants (National Child Consultative Council) Ministries: MPD, MDGL, MASM, MEMP, MS, MAEP, MJ, MENC, MEF, MISP ANCB, CONAFIL, National Agricultural Development Fund Technical partners, NGOs, Media, Academia, CSOs, Private sector including producer associations, Agence

Nationale des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises (National Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises), Ligue pour la défense des consommateurs (Consumer Defense League)

Parliament Network of Children; Youth associations engaged in the protection of children; Association of Children Mayors

Cadre Départemental de Concertation (CDC): Regional Coordination of SP-CAN Conférence Administrative Départementale (Regional Administrative Conference) Technical committees (protection of children, rights, education, health) Sectoral representation (social protection, education, health, agriculture, justice, water, development,

finance) Associations d’Intercommunalité (Intercommunal Associations) Technical partners, NGOs, Media, Private sector, Academia, CSOs

Cadre Communal de Concertation (CCC): Commune Counsel Decentralized Sectors (social protection, education, health, agriculture) Sectors Services Providers (e.g. Center for Social Promotion, health center) Technical committees (protection of children, rights, education, health) NGOs, Associations and Clubs, Media

Comité de Surveillance et d’Appui à la Nutrition et au Développement de l’Enfance (CSANE) : Local Elected Leaders, Community and Religious Leaders GrACE; Community-based Organizations (CBOs); Outreach agents from decentralized sectors CSOs involved in the community services (Local Media, Local NGOs, Community Groups (mothers, parents,

children, etc.), Clubs (peer educators, grandmothers, fathers, etc.)

Subcomponent 1.2: Monitoring, Evaluation and Multi-Stakeholder Learning (US$3.8 million) 9. This subcomponent is to use information for decision-making at the national and decentralized level to guide the effective implementation of nutritional and ECD interventions and services. Accordingly, the activities include the following: the targeting of interventions, beneficiary assessment of results and testimonies, knowledge management for learning about new innovations, and M&E and decision-making by the CCC to manage results at each level.

10. Community tools will be developed to ensure services reach vulnerable households with children. This will include the development of a register to monitor child growth and development. The project will also support communes to use existing data on household poverty to target interventions to reach vulnerable families. Accordingly, specific interventions will be developed to accompany children


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identified as vulnerable, including a mediation mechanism to approach families that are not utilizing the services or otherwise benefitting from the interventions due to social or other constraints. 11. IBM will be used to assess the influence of the services on beneficiaries throughout implementation. IBM uses small samples to ask questions about outcomes at the beneficiary level. The project will use IBM for quantitative and qualitative data including testimonies of significant change experiences. By assessing outcomes and improvements iteratively during implementation, this will provide information that can be used to reinforce the impact of the community interventions as well as provide content for reporting project results.

12. A citizen scorecard will be developed to monitor community feedback on the delivery of the nutrition and ECD services, focusing on the voice of women and parent groups. Families, especially, mothers, often have limited decision-making power to influence services to support the development of children. The score card will assess mothers’ satisfaction with services using key indicators from the communal results framework. The implementation of the scorecard will include an iterative dialogue at commune level to improve services annually, based on the community feedback. The NGO in each commune will facilitate the CSANE to annually implement the scorecard together with the CCC.

13. A knowledge management strategy will be developed to support implementation learning to improve the effectiveness of nutrition and ECD interventions, including an operational research agenda, knowledge exchanges, and a qualitative method to capture knowledge. An operational research agenda will be developed to gather evidence on interventions in the Benin context, including studies on the cost-effectiveness of different approaches to inform the investment case for the long-term institutionalization of services in the Government program. The research agenda will engage national stakeholders, from sectors, NGOs and academia as well as communes. Knowledge exchanges will be organized for learning on experiential lessons, i.e., what has worked and not worked in different contexts. This is critical given the pioneering nature of the project, and need for cross-fertilization of experiences across communes, as well as countries implementing similar approaches. The ANCB will engage with the CAN to lead the knowledge sharing including peer-to-peer learning across communes to support the CCCs in the implementation of the multisector services. The project will use qualitative methods of process learning and knowledge capture, such as outcome harvesting (i.e., collecting evidence of what has changed and working backwards, determining whether and how an intervention has contributed to these changes) and positive deviance approach to create a toolkit to share implementation knowledge and lessons from implementation. 14. Monitoring, evaluation and decision-making by national stakeholders and communes will be strengthened by developing tools for result management. This will include triangulating different data sources to inform implementation decisions: data on community satisfaction with services from the citizens’ scorecard; data on community knowledge and behaviors from KAP surveys; data from qualitative analyses conducted to understand implementation bottlenecks at the commune level; data from community services delivered by the GrACE; data from sectoral services (health, social protection, education, agriculture); data from a baseline and end-line survey. Each commune will develop a common results framework and dashboard to follow key indicators, and CCC members will receive coaching to use the data for decisions to reinforce the early years nutrition and child development outcomes. Multisectoral review meetings will reinforce the use of data to inform project improvements. Data sources will also be aggregated nationally to compare the situation across communes, including using geo-spatial analysis to


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visually compare progress on key indicators in different communities. Leadership coaching will support multisectoral teams in a commune to work together to plan the package of services, analyze bottlenecks to delivering the services, and tailor local innovations to accelerate implementation and advance key indicators in the communal results framework. Other accompanying activities will provide the communes with knowledge, tools and technical support to ensure the quality of the services. Subcomponent 1.3: Project Management (US$3.0 million) 15. This includes day-to-day management of project activities by the SP-CAN and the coordinators and accountants at regional level. Expenses will include technical assistance, consultants, workshops, formal trainings, on the job trainings, study tours, surveys and other types of evaluation tools, as well as coordination and communication activities. Equipment required for staff involved in project implementation (e.g. IT, transport, utilities) will also be included.

Component 2: Community-based Interventions for the Early Years (US$29.8 million). 16. The component is the operational core of the project, with the objective of expanding the coverage of the package of services (Box A.1) at the community level to improve nutrition and child development outcomes. This component will support the Government to: (i) improve public service delivery on nutrition and ECD by the members of the CCC; and (ii) carry out communal subprojects for, inter alia, community mobilization and SBCC. The activities will: (i) strengthen the role of public service providers of health, agriculture, education and social promotion in delivering services and providing support to community actions on parenting education, child growth promotion, stimulation and early learning; and (ii) support the GrACE, and the CSANE to implement the early years interventions in coordination with the commune level CCC. The GrACE members will be equipped to deliver door-to-door household and community level services in villages that are complementary to and extend the reach of sectoral services (of social protection, education, health, agriculture), enabling more frequent and broader coverage and utilization, even in remote villages. Subcomponent 2.1: Early Child Nutrition and Development (US$25.0 million) 17. Targeted communes (48) will extend community-based growth promotion and nutrition services for pregnant women and caregivers of children 0-5 years, with specific targeting of children in the first 1,000 days, from conception to 23 months of age. The services include the following nutrition actions in the package of services: community screening and management of acute malnutrition according to national guidelines; counseling on IYCF; outreach to communities to monitor health and nutrition needs of pregnant and post-partum women; promotion of handwashing and small latrines in households; and training of caregivers with young children in the production, transformation and storage of diverse nutritious foods to address food security. A number of these services have already been established in 40 communes through the PMASN but require further reinforcement to institutionalize their structure and quality for long-term delivery in the communes. The project will use additional delivery models with proven effectiveness such as the Community-led Total Sanitation adapted to the context of Benin. Emphasis will be given to community ownership and solidarity through community planning, accountability, peer support, and revolving mechanisms where appropriate.


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18. The interventions will be delivered through door-to-door household visits, group education and discussion, training of women and parent groups, and community meetings. The interventions will be implemented by the GrACE in villages, supported by local leaders, CSOs and the CCC. Community sessions will engage all household in the beneficiary villages. Household visits will be targeted to provide closer follow-up of women and children during the first 1,000 days, from conception to 23 months. Each GrACE member will cover about 10-15 households. 19. The same 48 communes will develop and gradually integrate new services with the nutrition services to provide stimulation, protection and early learning activities in communities for children 0-5 years, and their caregivers. The following child development actions will be developed to ensure a holistic package of services: community monitoring of children’s developmental stages according to nationally developed guidelines; education and coaching of parents on early stimulation; promotion of birth registration; establishment of community-based child play and learning spaces; formation of relevant peer clubs; promotion of men’s participation in child development activities; referral of caregivers and children to facility-based services offered by the health center and Center for Social Promotion. The integration of stimulation, protection and education into the existing nutrition platforms in targeted villages will improve the efficacy of the actions, boost cost-effectiveness, increase the engagement with caregivers and children, and promote behavioral changes. 20. The monitoring of children’s development will build community capacity to ensure children are developmentally on-track. Children’s developmental stage will be monitored using a standardized assessment tool, and community leaders will work with the CSANE, and the Center for Social Promotion to maintain a registry that tracks children identified as developmentally vulnerable. This service will be integrated with existing child nutrition and growth promotion activities. Vulnerable children will be referred to the appropriate public services and receive follow-up home visits. 21. Parenting education activities (including education on birth registration) will strengthen existing government efforts for the protection and on-track development of young children. Parents and key caregivers play a critical role in creating the basic conditions that will affect the entire life course of their children. In the first years of a child's life, parents are the main point of contact and the best fit people to provide nurturing care. The parenting education and coaching program will build knowledge and skills that promote child stimulation, good health and nutrition, and protection. The modules to be developed will build on existing parent education modules developed by the Government and UNICEF PFE and PEE). The parenting education activities will influence the co-responsibility of mothers, fathers and other caregivers engaged with young children, and the perception they have of young children, beyond health and physical growth to consider the importance of cognitive, emotional and social development as well as child protection and rights. The activities will integrate and promote: stimulation through play and verbal communication, early learning, hygiene and sanitation, good nutrition and health actions, safety and security measures, positive discipline, birth registration as well as other child rights and protection. The modes of implementation will vary based on the targets. Households with young children, below age 3 will benefit from the activities through home-based visits, integrated with the nutritional counseling services. Households with children 3-5 years will engage in parenting education and coaching services at community-based child play and learning spaces. Parent education would be provided by trained community facilitators under the auspices of the commune. The parent education sessions will use modules that are


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user-friendly, include picture boxes for illiterate audiences, as well as practical tools and guides for parents to immediately put in effect what is taught. 22. Communes will establish community-based child play and learning spaces to promote early learning of children aged 3-5 years. The child play and learning spaces will be entirely led and set-up by communities but using the Government’s endorsed preschool curricula to ensure adequate stimulation for children, and readiness for primary school. The spaces will offer games and be animated by trained facilitators who are also member of a GrACE. Any refurbishment of these will be conducted using a climate-smart approach ensuring that passive cooling measures such as shading or tree planting are used to surround these community child play and learning spaces and reduce their vulnerability to heat. The child spaces will be located in communities, thus reducing the need for families to travel long distances to participate in activites, mitigating transport related carbon emissions. The commune administration will work with community leaders and parents’ associations to establish the child spaces under the guidance of, and support from the relevant focal points in the CCC (education and social promotion). This will include the community providing a fixed and safe location in the village within proximity of households. The project will finance training of facilitators, and provision of equipment and learning materials to ensure child-friendly spaces. Guidance on the running of child play and learning spaces will be developed with relevant stakeholders before the activities are rolled out. The MEMP will take the lead in developing early learning modules adapted from existing modules that are adapted for community level. 23. A life skills and functional literacy training will be developed to focus on young mothers with limited formal education, with the aim of empowering the decision-making of women around the proper and holistic development of young children. The life skills modules will be delivered in group education sessions, by trained community facilitators in collaboration with local NGOs.

Box A.1: Package of Essential Early Nutrition and Learning Actions: Home visits Community growth monitoring and promotion Community Management of Acute Malnutrition and

Childhood Illnesses Counseling on infant and young child feeding (IYCF)

practices* Promotion of proper hygiene practices including

handwashing Promotion of simple, household-level, safe water

technologies Nutrition counseling during pregnancy and post-

partum Promotion of backyard and community gardens and

small animal husbandry to produce diversified food Promotion of appropriate technologies for storage

and transformation of nutrient rich food Promotion of latrines to end open defecation Community monitoring of child development Parental education on responsive and nurturing

care, early stimulation and learning Promotion of birth registration of young children Community play and learning spaces for children Peer clubs for social dialogue on issues of ECD and

the Code of the Child Life skill and literacy training of young mothers with

limited formal education Community mediation support to monitor

vulnerable children Promotion of men's participation in child

development activities Referral of caregivers and children to facility-based

health and protection services offered by the health center and Center for Social Promotion

*IYCF includes the promotion of early initiation of breastfeeding, colostrum feeding, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, continued breastfeeding for 24 months, complementary feeding, use of iodized salt.


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24. Peer support groups will be formed to discuss issues on early nutrition, child development and the rights of children and mothers. The peer groups will showcase positive deviants and encourage role models to share best practices with their peers, including underlying values and knowledge on the early years that drive the good behaviors. The clubs will introduce open discussions around issues often tabooed thereby limiting families from adopting better practices that advance optimal child development, and legal rights of women and children. The clubs will be led by community mentors, i.e., model mothers, fathers, children or grandmothers, who are trained to facilitate discussions on targeted themes related to early child nutrition and development. Box A.1 provides an overview of the package of early nutrition and child development interventions at community level.

Subcomponent 2.2: Communication (US$4.8 million).

25. This subcomponent is to generate political commitment to improve coverage and utilization of nutrition and ECD interventions and services, and to influence knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and practices that improve the child nutrition and development outcomes. The component will support community mobilization, and SBCC nationally and at the decentralized level. A SBCC strategic plan integrating ECD messages will be developed in the first year of the project based on the existing national SBCC strategy. The plan addresses the following inter-related areas of action: social mobilization of change agents; behavioral change communication; institutional communication and advocacy. Expenditures will include consultants, analytical work, workshops, development of SBCC tools, and multimedia campaigns around key thematic issues. 26. As part of the SBCC strategy, the project will develop a community mobilization plan to involve key decentralized stakeholders who can impact results in the communes. The plan will aim to engage targeted change agents, such as elected officials, community leaders, associations, media and private sector in actions at decentralized levels to improve the delivery of early years nutrition and child development interventions and services. The development of the community mobilization plan will include a stakeholder analysis, and an assessment of organizational, social, behavioral, gender, and policy related institutional constraints, which require a redress to sustainably improve the coverage and utilization of the services. The ex-ante analysis will be used to prioritize the mobilization of key stakeholders and specify roles and areas of action for stakeholder coordination at national and decentralized levels. Stakeholders will be mobilized with the objective to optimize roles and integrate related actions to support effective coordination and implementation of the nutrition and ECD services. 27. Each commune will use the national SBCC plan, the community mobilization plan and an assessment of local knowledge, attitudes and practices to develop its communal action plan. Key messages, adapted to local context, will focus on themes, such as child feeding, age-appropriate stimulation of children, positive discipline behaviors, and protection of children from violence. The communal action plan, including clear communication messages, will be used by community actors such as community radio, peer clubs, GrACE, and community leaders. Activities will include the mobilization of model figures (future mothers, mothers, fathers, religious and traditional leaders) in communities, and organization of dialogue forums on key education and communication themes. 28. The SBCC interventions will be accompanied by a communication and multimedia campaign at national level to amplify the messages. These national communications will involve nationwide medias,


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artists, national partners and stakeholders, and influential leaders through testimonies. The entertainment education approach will be used to capture public interest and entertain while educating. This will intensify the influence of interventions on future mothers, parents (mothers and fathers), other caregivers and influential leaders to use nutrition and ECD services and to take-on visible new behaviors and practices to positively support the young children. The focus will be on influencing changes in social, cultural and gender norms, which may otherwise constrain results by inhibiting decision-making by mothers and caregivers to ensure their children’s development is on track. Influencing these underlying constraints is critical to develop a conducive family and community environment with positive social support structures for continued practice of the interventions by parents for current children, as well as future children.

29. Benin has a multitude of mass communication channels that cater to a heterogeneous public simultaneously and instantaneously. The ORTB offer national coverage by broadcasting in several languages. There are other 10 private television channels, 16 commercial private radio stations, 38 private and community radio stations. and 5 confessional radios. Many of the SBCC interventions rely on media partners to deliver their messages. Their ability to play the role of partner would be strengthened through a process of constructive engagement and capacity strengthening over the long term, and not via simple 'pay to play' approaches. 30. At the national level, an institutional communication plan will be developed to foster political commitment and leverage multisectoral partnerships. The plan will identify strategic actions and roles across the multitude of actors in the multisectoral coordination platform of the CAN and Ministry of Planning and Development. The strategy will include a plan for horizontal and vertical communication across the different levels of administration and governance. Activities will include workshops and other advocacy activities to generate political leadership, and prioritize budget, resources and coordinated areas of actions across communes. These activities will target and involve all 77 communes and be tailored to their capacities. Box A.2 provides an overview of the communication strategy. Component 3: Integrated Primary School Feeding and Nutrition (US$9.4 million equivalent). 31. The project will support 10-12 communes in developing a HGSF program for 125 primary schools to alleviate short-term hunger in undernourished or otherwise well-nourished school children, motivate parents to enroll their children in school, and increase community involvement. The HGSF approach links the provision of school meals to the production by local small-scale farmers. For as much as possible, the ingredients for the school meals will be sourced from within the commune. The project will strengthen the production and storage capacity of local associations of small producers. Moreover, each school will be encouraged to establish school gardens that will yield staple, fruits and vegetables able to meet nutitional requirments for the changing climate and tree planting to provide cooling through shading as well as improved local water utilization. The provision of locally sourced nutritious foods will reduce the

Box A.2: Communication strategy for early nutrition and child development • Social and behavior change communication

themes: • Exclusive breastfeeding • Infant and young child feeding • Personal, food and environmental hygiene • Micronutrient rich and fortified foods • Maternal health and nutrition • Birth spacing and delayed first pregnancy • Positive discipline • Nurturing care and parenting skills • Child learning and development

• Social mobilization in support of the social and behavior change communication strategy

• Institutional communication and advocacy


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need to source food from more distant markets reducing transport related carbon emissions. Produce from these gardens will be used to complement school meals. The children will be involved in the school gardening project. Under the oversight of parent school committees, the schools will depend on the community for preparing and serving meals to children. 32. School meals will be comprised of a hot lunch at an average cost of US$0.25-0.30 per child per day. In line with the current practice of school meals in Benin, the food basket should provide approximately 750-1,000 Kcals, 18-27 gr proteins and 15-23 gr fats per child per school day. In addition, the rations will meet at least 50 percent of the daily micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) requirements of the children.

33. The integrated approach to school feeding will include various nutrition and health interventions that benefit the learning outcomes of primary school-going children. A nutrition and health education program will cover aspects of basic hygiene, water conservation, environmental protection, food for growth using the life-cycle approach, and vegetable gardening. Learning will be enhanced through supply and use of education materials including booklets, pamphlets, posters, dramas and other means. MS and Health Districts will provide a six-monthly deworming regime of Mebendazole or Albendazole per child to treat against roundworm, whipworm and hookworm infestations. The deworming programme will assist to improve the nutritional status of the children, reduce symptoms of general discomfort and acute symptoms such as abdominal pain, nausea and coughing. These symptoms are closely related to the intensity of intestinal parasitic infection. Studies have demonstrated remarkable growth spurts as a result of deworming, in addition to improved ability to learn. The deworming programme will involve a training component for teachers and the community on the benefit and modalities of the implementation. The training will include record keeping and accountability processes. MS and the Health Districts will also distribute iron/folic acid supplements to the school-going children and undertake regular health checkups, including weight and height measurement, inspection of basic sanitation, inspection of cooking facilities and eating areas, screening and referral for conditions such as sight, hearing, asthma and epilepsy. 34. The integrated primary school feeding and nutrition in 125 schools in 10-12 communes complements support to the integrated school feeding programme by other stakeholders, notably, the GoB, the World Food Program and Catholic Relief Services. The 10-12 communes will mainly be selected among the 48 project supported communes in the départements, where school dropout, particularly among girls, is the highest and where the lowest proportion of primary schools are served with school feeding interventions. Component 4: Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC) (US$0 million) 35. A CERC will be included under the project in accordance with World Bank IPF Policy, paragraphs 12 and 13 for projects in situations of urgent need of assistance or capacity constraints. This will allow for rapid reallocation of project proceeds in the event of a natural or man-made disaster or crisis that has caused, or is likely to imminently cause, a major adverse economic and/or social impact. 36. The design of the project is summarized in Table A.2. The components, subcomponents and activities are based on addressing key outcomes and underlying constraints in the early nutrition and child development context in Benin.


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Table A.2: Summary of activities by component

Components Subcomponents/ Activities Outputs/ Intermediate outcomes

PDO level outcomes

Longer-term contribution

1. Management and Coordination for the Early Years 1.1: Planning and Implementation Coordination

Multisectoral policy coordination (service development, supervision, financing, training)

Accompanying capacity building support to CCC Key challenges: *Fragmented sectoral approaches *Weak decision-making and management of services *Limited scale-up of services (due to cost, fragmentation, know-how, lack of coordination, etc.)

Harmonized package of interventions & services Early nutrition and child development

mainstreamed in commune strategy and budget Regional, district and sectoral supervision to

support implementation in communes Functional CCC to coordinate services (leader-

ship, mobilization, planning, decision-making) Commune level capacity building plans Results-based leadership coaching to build

collaborative capacity of decentralized services Performance-based contracts with NGOs

Improved delivery of early nutrition and childhood development interventions and services: Children in targeted communes benefit from an integrated package of services in the first 1,000 days; GrACE deliver services to households and reach vulnerable families; Parents receive continued support to stimulate children and promote early learning; Caregivers engage in food production, increasing food

Institutionalized delivery of early year service in communes across Benin; Widespread changes in knowledge, behaviors, values and practices to promote healthy child development; More families and young children in disadvantaged areas benefit from a continuous nutrition, stimulation and protection in their early years; More children with support from their family and community to complete school

1.2: M&E and Multi-Stakeholder Learning M&E systems building in communes Targeting of vulnerable groups Citizen engagement in services Knowledge management

Key challenges: *Weak decentralized and multisectoral M&E *Weak accountability of services to communities and voice of parents; *Exclusion of vulnerable groups to ECD opportunities

Adoption of an M&E system for the results-based management of the services in the communes

Utilization of citizen engagement mechanisms to improve accountability and responsiveness

Knowledge management of lessons and development of investment case to expand implementation of the program

Adoption of advanced strategies to reach vulnerable households

1.3. Project Management Overall management by SP-CAN

Management of project implementation teams National and regional review meetings to review

progress and make course corrections Technical assistance to address specific needs

2. Community-based Interventions for the Early Years 2.1: Early child nutrition and development

Capacity building to deliver an integrated package of community-based nutrition and ECD services

Competence of GrACE and decentralized services to deliver quality services


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Key challenges: *Fragmentation of sectoral services in communes and lack of a continuum of care to holistically support children, from birth to 1,000 days through school age *Lack of a platform to deliver services in rural communities far from facilities *Inadequate coverage of formal pre-school programs (cost, distance in rural areas, etc.) *Inadequate practices of child feeding, health and hygiene and stimulation and socioemotional development, especially among mothers in poverty and with limited education, and seasonal food insecurity *Inhibiting gender relations between mother and father and harmful traditions (around discipline, breastfeeding, feeding, etc.)

Children aged 0-24 receive growth monitoring and stimulation, and the community tracks the development of children aged 0-5

Door-to-door household visits by the GrACE integrating nutrition and ECD

Adoption of advanced outreach strategies to reach pregnant and post-partum women

Caregivers are trained in food production, storage and transformation to promote food security

Promotion of improved hygiene practices Certified facilitators provide parental education

and early learning activities Functional community learning and play spaces

established in villages Caregivers complete life skills and literacy training

to empower decision-making of mothers Community based registration of children for a

birth certificate

security in families; School age children receive nutritious food, promoting continued learning through school-age

and fulfilling their potential for social and economic contribution; Greater equality of opportunity in human capital accumulation, as more children from disadvantaged families develop their contribution

2.2: Communication SBCC strategy and plans nationally and in

communes; Multimedia campaigns National advocacy

Key challenges: *Weak community engagement around ECD *Weak knowledge, values and practices to promote nutrition and ECD practices in families

Adoption of an integrated SBCC strategy, with an action plan in each commune

Political and community leaders and media promote key messages reinforcing local ownership, countering harmful traditions and promoting co-relationship of mother and father in decision-making around children

Improved knowledge on nutrition, child development and protection to influence behaviors and practices in families

3. Integrated Primary School Feeding and Nutrition HGSF program in selected primary schools Gardens established for schools Deworming treatment of school children Local entrepreneurs involved in school feeding

4. Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC) Contingency for emergencies


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Project Beneficiaries

37. The primary project beneficiaries will be children under five years of age and primary school going children aged between five and 12 years as well as their mothers, fathers and caretakers (grandparents, adolescents) in the targeted communes. Of special priority are children in their first 1,000 days of life. The project will endeavor to target specific interventions to vulnerable households with children under five in villages across 48 communes using data from the national poverty registry (community-based monitoring system) managed by the social affairs sector. The project also expects to reach about 25,000 children aged five to 12 in 10-12 communes with integrated school feeding and nutrition interventions. 38. Other actors are being reinforced institutionally at national regional, commune and community level to provide supportive services to these beneficiaries. All 77 communes will receive support to mainstream strategies, budgets and plans for nutrition and child development. Direct implementation support to build capacity of the CCC to deliver early nutrition and child development services in communities will be targeted at the 48 communes identified on the basis of their food and nutrition insecurity. The identification of specific villages for the interventions will be based on nutrition, early learning, and poverty criteria, e.g., stunting in children 0-5 years, number of children 0-5 per existing community-based learning intervention, percent of post-partum care, poverty rate and density, and proportion of children without birth registration. Figure B.1 shows the beneficiaries by level.

Figure A.1: Beneficiaries targeted by the project at each level

Lessons Learned and Reflected in the Project Design 39. Key lessons learned from research, evaluation and other countries are reflected in the project design (Table A.3).

National sectors and agencies

CDC

CCC, decentralized

sectors

CSANE, GrACE

Children 0-5, their mothers

and fathers and

caretakers, especially from 0-24

months


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Table A.3: Lessons that are reflected in the design of the project

Lessons Source Multisectoral coordination around a holistic package of services across all levels of the administration.

ECD Commission (Colombia). To Government strengthened its ECD Commission and multi-sectoral Strategy through the establishment of multisector governance arrangements and the development of tools to guide local level implementation and M&E (World Bank 2013)

Senegal Nutrition Program (P070541, P097181). The program improved multisectoral convergence for nutrition. Lessons from IEG (2016) “An effective multisectoral approach is the result of a shared objective and the sense of mandate and accountability to contribute to that objective. At local and central levels, cross-sectoral coordination and teamwork coalesce around shared objectives.”

Integrating nutrition and child stimulation to boost positive child outcomes, especially in the first 1,000 days

Nutrition and early stimulation in the first 1,000 days, will ensure the child has a healthier and more prosperous future. Key ECD actions recommended with supporting evidence include: Nutritional support during pregnancy, and from 0-23 months: Healthy home care and nutritional support, with promotion of child feeding and early stimulation (Lancet Series 2018; 2016; 2013).

ECD Home-visiting Program (Jamaica). Children who benefitted from both nutrition and stimulation activities had the highest mean developmental quotient compared to those who benefited from either only one intervention. Children who received psychosocial stimulation benefitted from greater parental investment, psychosocial skills, and greater educational attainment.

Lady Health Workers Program (Pakistan). The Pakistan program demonstrated that nutrition and health interventions that integrate responsive stimulation activities are more cost effective and yield more positive results than stand-alone interventions (WHO 2008; Gowani et al. 2014).

Ensuring ECD services benefit vulnerable children to address inequalities

ECD Policy (Chile). Chile has a strong intersectoral policy called Chile Crece Contigo (“Chile Grows With You,”), introduced in 2005. The multidisciplinary approach begins before the child’s birth and is designed to achieve high-quality ECD by protecting children (particularly vulnerable children) with services for early stimulation and development (Neuman and Devercelli 2013).

Placement of parent education at the center of early stimulation and learning

Educate Your Child Program (Cuba). 70 percent of children under 6 participate in this program that places parents and caregivers at the center of its community-based ECD services. Cuban children have proven to have significantly higher human capital outcomes.

Parenting programs have been identified as an important interventions strategy to influence behavioral change for the longer-term promotion of child development (UNESCO, Evans 2006)

Standards for ECD Parenting Programs target strong parental engagement (UNICEF 2017) Linkages of public service providers to community-based services

Educate Your Child Program (Cuba). The Cuba program linked public services to community-based ECD services (in-home visits, demonstrations and activities to enhance child nutrition and stimulation). Programs in Colombia and Chile similarly bring together sectoral services.

Provision of life skills training and literacy

Investing in Communities and Societies – Skillful Parenting Program (Kenya). The program trains parents, particularly mothers on life skills related to family management. Key results include: parents feel more capable and self-confident and became more aware of the


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to mothers to reinforce family decision-making

supportive role they play in the social, emotional and mental development of their children. Communications between parenting partners and their children improved the interaction and cooperation among family members. Moreover, parents used less physical punishment and began positive discipline methods.

Literacy in Local Language, a Springboard for Gender Equality (Mozambique). The program promotes gender equality in community decisions through the opportunities provided by literacy classes (UNESCO).

Empowerment of Women Living in Extreme Poverty (Burkina Faso). The program promotes women’s empowerment using life skills and literacy training to support people in building capacities in health, education and finance to develop well-rounded individuals capable of improving their circumstances and those of their communities (UNESCO).

Development of M&E tools to promote accountability for ECD

ECD program (Colombia). Promotion of accountability through the development of quality standards for ECD Centers and the design of a municipal-level tracking tool for ECD services.

Childhood Development Milestones Checklist used by Center for Disease Control and other agencies to track early child development stages and guide parents.

Knowledge sharing to improve implementation

In ECD programs in Colombia, Chile and other countries, knowledge exchange across partners, administrative regions, and with other countries was important to learn how to implement effective ECD approaches.

Establishment of community-based child play and learning spaces

Play: the building blocks of lifelong learning for children. Associative, dramatic and constructive play have been associated with better language, cognitive, social and emotional skills – skills children need to succeed in school. A close examination of children’s early years reveals that play influences childhood development. Through play, children learn to think, interact and create (UNICEF 2015).

Effective learning through a play based learning approach (Rwanda). A program that strengthens the capacity of pre-primary school teachers with a major focus on play-based learning. Play-based learning includes singing, interactive storytelling, and simulations (UNICEF 2016).

BRAC Play Labs for early childhood stimulation and learning (Bangladesh, Tanzania and Uganda). The Play Lab Project provides a model for integrating learning through play into the lives of young children. A consortium of national and global experts is collating best practices on learning through play to establish an evidence-based proof of concept of a scalable Play Lab model based using low-cost and high impact interventions.

Early Childhood Stimulation (Tanzania). A study found that toys are an important tool in the development of children between the ages of zero and three years, but are present in very few families. Children in the study sample who had a role-playing toy such as a doll or a car had higher developmental outcomes than children who did not have access to these types of toys, or children who played less in general. Manipulating toys may help children in developing their gross and fine motor skills and imaginative play may aid children in honing their earliest cognitive and socio-emotional skills.

Rise of income and food diversification through homestead

The Economic Empowerment of the Poorest Project (Bangladesh). The project supported rural agricultural families to diversify their food production and intake, influencing positive behavior change in gender relations in families, greater food production and food security across seasons and reduce stunting within 3-4 years with the right approaches (UKAIDS and Shiree 2012).


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food production and non-conventional breeding

CHANGE projects (Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso). These projects promoted innovations in nutrition-sensitive agriculture projects to address food insecurity and address gender inequalities in households (Helen Keller International 2015).

Integrated school feeding and nutrition

The Essential Package (WFP and UNICEF). Poor nutrition and health among schoolchildren contributes to the inefficiency of the education system. The essential package of health and nutrition interventions for schoolchildren is built on: (i) a set of highly cost-effective interventions; (ii) complementarity to early child care and child development programs; and (iii) evidence that demonstrate better educational outcomes and improved social equity.

Integrated school feeding and nutrition (Brazil). Local food production, school meals and nutrition education can be linked through integrated programs and policies, improving access to healthier foods. Government leadership, civil society participation and intersectoral decision making are determinant

Community involvement in the management of school feeding programs is more cost efficient than public feeding programs run by the administration (Benin).

Social dialogue based on rights of children and mothers

SaluDerecho (Latin America). The project has used a human rights-based dialogue approach to promote behavioral changes and policy reforms.

A Rights-based Approach to Child Protection (Belize and Malawi). In Belize, UNICEF has used a rights-based dialogue approach to influence social norms, engage CSOs and address violence against children and women. In Malawi, a similar approach was used to improve community participation in the management of childhood illness.

Child Centered Community Development (Vietnam). A rights-based approaches is used to address inequalities of children, youth and families. The focus is in on the code of child rights, women’s rights and vulnerable groups including access to services, non-violence, participation and voice. It also provides for behavioral changes in communities, changes in relationships to strengthen rights of children. The approach mobilizes local leaders, CSOs, and children’s groups to promote rights and participate in social dialogue (Plan International)

Rights-based approach and children (South Africa). University of Capetown has studied the importance of children’s participation in social dialogue on rights with parents from an early age and monitoring rights in communities, in terms of access to basic services, adequate food, water, sanitation and housing.

Beneficiary feedback to improve services

Iterative beneficiary monitoring has been used by the World Bank in several countries to improve project benefits for communities, including to approach gender, school feeding and agricultural vouchers, by making corrective improvements to the project based on feedback from a small sample of beneficiaries around key implementation questions (Mali and Niger).

Community scorecards are a low-cost tool used by Care International in Benin, Malawi, Uganda, Egypt and other countries to improve participation and accountability to improve service delivery (Gullo et al. 2016). World Bank projects roughly estimate the cost at US$150 per village (Social Accountability E-Guide , World Bank)


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ANNEX B: IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS AND SUPPORT PLAN

COUNTRY: Benin Early Years Nutrtion and Child Development Project

Project Institutional and Implementation Arrangements

1. Improving early child nutrition and development outcomes is a multisectoral endeavor and requires participation of multiple stakeholders from the national level down to the household level. However, experience has shown that tasking multiple agencies with major implementation responsibilities may undermine coordination of integrated service delivery as well as increase challenges and delays in project implementation. Therefore, the institutional arrangement will be kept simple with one agency in charge of the overall management of the project. Formal coordination arrangements at every level will ensure all the relevant stakeholders play their role in the planning and monitoring of interventions. For this, the project will rely on the same arrangement structure that was developed under the Multisectoral Food Health Nutrition Project in line with the national decentralization policy. 2. The SP-CAN as the operational arm of the national structure (CAN) that ensures the multisectoral coordination of food and nutrition policies and programs, will have overall responsibility for the implementation of the EYNCDP. The SP-CAN already oversees the day-to-day management of the CAN, a multisectoral coordination platform for nutrition action, and has successfully been implementing the Multisectoral Food Health Nutrition Project (PMASN, 2013-2019, P143652). SP-CAN will leverage inputs from key sectoral ministries for supporting the implementation of project activities. Most of these line ministries are already involved in the PMASN. The MEMP is an important new Ministry that needs to be engaged in the development of the early learning activities under the new early years project.

3. In terms of capacity, SP-CAN is composed a Permanent Secretary, a team responsible for Procurement, a team responsible for FM, an Internal Auditor, a team responsible for M&E, a Project Officer in charge of Community Mobilization and Communication (consultant), a team of regional coordinators and accountants (consultants) to support decentralized implementation of the project. In addition, SP-CAN will need to hire additional staff to ensure efficient implementation of the project. These should be in place within four months after project effectiveness and include: (i) an Operations Officer who oversees the regional teams and provides overall support to the project; (ii) a Technical Officer for the Early Years who provides technical backstopping on the early years interventions, (iii) a qualified and experienced Accountant to strengthen the FM team; iv) a Communication Specialist to provide technical support on all communication matters and build capacity among stakeholders; and (v) a Project Officer on school feeding to assist with the integrated school feeding and nutrition component.

4. Two project structures are needed for the implementation of the new project. The first structure is a PSC made up of Ministers or their Chief of Staff of key ministries associated with the project (e.g., health, agriculture, social affairs, preschool education, decentralization, planning and development, and economy and finance) in addition to the Permanent Secretary of CAN and a representative of the ASCINB. The PSC will be created by the Minister in charge of Development or the General Secretary of the President. This PSC is needed because of additional stakeholders in the EYNCDP which are not part of the CAN which assumed the role of PSC under the PMASN. The PSC will be tasked with providing periodic oversight of


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project implementation through validation of the annual work plan and budget and six-monthly reviews on the state of progress. The PSC will have to be established within four months after project effectiveness. 5. The second structure to be created is a Technical Working Group made up of technical managers of line ministries and other government outfits involved in nutrition and ECD activities. The Technical Working Group together with the SP-CAN will define the project's work program and budget and provide technical support to all levels of implementation. The Technical Working Group will be chaired by the SP-CAN and address the need for diverse knowledge inputs from different sectors including education, social affairs, health, agriculture and local governance. Figure B.1 illustrates the implementation arrangements.

Figure B.1: Project implementation arrangements

6. The local government is organized along two levels: (i) the commune (i.e., “commune”) which is headed by an elected mayor; and (ii) the “département” which is headed by the administrative authority of the prefect. Benin counts a total of 77 communes and 12 départements. The commune will be the entry point for decentralized coordination of project implementation, while the département provides oversight and guidance. The coordination structures at the community and local government levels are the community Nutrition and Child Development Surveillance and Support Committee (CSANE), the Communal Consultative Committee (CCC) and the Departmental Consultative Committee (CDC). 7. In the administrative regions, the CDC will be responsible for strategic orientation, managing synergies and resource deployment across communes. The CDC is chaired by the prefect and composed of regional sector directors and other regional representatives with a role in the early years. The CDC


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meets quarterly, validates commune development plans, discusses implementation progress, addresses implementation bottlenecks, and conducts monitoring missions to the communes.

8. In the communes, the CCC will be responsible for the coordinated planning, monitoring and supervision of the early years nutrition and child development interventions. The CCC at commune level will mobilize public service providers, religious and traditional leaders, NGOs to reinforce community level interventions. The CCC is chaired by the Mayor and composed of the commune council members, public service providers, NGOs, and traditional and religious leaders. They meet at least monthly to plan activities to support the community interventions and monitor implementation progress. Under the leadership of the Commune Council, the CCC will develop a common results framework which will serve as the basis for annual work programs and budgets. The activities in the work program can be financially supported by the SP-CAN with the proceeds of the project on the basis of a partnership agreement between the SP-CAN and Communal Councils. The terms and conditions of these partnership agreements will be further described in the PIM.

9. Each commune will have a lead NGO that in concertation with the CCC members will assist with community mobilization and strengthen the capacity of the commune to plan for early years interventions, and of the community structures to engage in SBCC activities. The lead NGOs are hired by the project in collaboration with the mayor’s office through performance-based contracting to carry out communal subprojects to assist with the community mobilization and social behavior change communication on behalf of the Commune Council. The lead NGO will be asked to prepare, in collaboration with the CCC, a communal subproject proposal. Subject to the endorsement of the Commune authorities, a grant agreement will be signed between the SP-CAN and the NGO, co-signed by the Commune authority as a third party. The NGOs will be supervised and evaluated by the SP-CAN in collaboration with the line ministries and Commune Councils.

Figure B.2: Implementation arrangements at community level

10. Given the decentralized management structure and the community-based implementation approach, it will be advisable that the project recruit technical and fiduciary focal points to be based at regional level to facilitate the local planning and ensure proximity in the monitoring of implementation and


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FM, particularly of the community-based interventions. These regional focal points will work closely with stakeholders at the operational levels and build capacity in planning, monitoring and coordination of the activities. The SP-CAN may open local bank accounts for swift handling of payments of activities at the local level. A similar arrangement already exists for the PMASN.

11. At community level, the CSANE will be responsible for community planning and coordination (Figure B.2). The GrACE will be the main implementers of interventions and services to beneficiaries. GrACE is a group of approximately 20-25 community members. Each member follows no more than 10-15 households. In one community, multiple GrACE can be operational. Each GrACE has one group leader and together they form the technical entry point for SBCC activities. Table B.1 presents a summary of key functions for each of the main entities involved in the project.

Table B.1: Project implementation arrangements at national, regional, commune and community level

Name Mandate and function Membership

National level CAN

Overall coordination of food and nutrition policies Review of sectoral policies, strategies, protocols, guidelines and tools Advocacy and resource mobilization Ensuring accountability to communes and communities

Representatives from line ministries; national associations; academic and training institutions; and NGOs

MPD Orientation to develop coherent sectoral and multisectoral policies and strategies Resource mobilization for multisectoral actions

PSC

Validation of key documents, including annual plan, procurement, support to technical implementation partners, FM, and collaboration across sectors Monitoring of project progress

High level representatives from key stakeholders of project outcomes

SP-CAN Overall management of project implementation Planning, M&E and supervision, knowledge management, mobilization of actors

Technical Working Group

Integration of approaches in sector strategies, plans and guidelines, allocation of resources Guidance to identify key activities Technical support to plan and monitor activities Development and dissemination of knowledge and tools to support implementation Institutional support to decentralized sectors

Technical representatives from line ministries

Regional level (Département) CCD Regional coordination of actions, stakeholders and

synergies across communes Orientation, training and supervision of communes M&E and deployment of resources

Regional coordination of the project; Representatives from regional sector directorates and regional administration.

Regional Project

Project management at the decentralized level Regional coordinator, accountants


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Coordination Support planning, M&E, supervision, knowledge management and mobilization of actors in communes

Commune level CCC Coordination of commune level actions

Identification of needs through community dialogue Social mobilization of actors in the commune and villages Planning and harmonization of sectoral and community actions to integrate interventions and services M&E of interventions Approval of key documents, including work plans and projects reports

Mayor; Representatives from the Commune Council, public service providers, NGOs, traditional and religious leaders, and women associations.

Public service providers

Provide technical support to implement community actions

Social Protection; Education; Health; Agriculture; Revenue

NGO and other service providers

Assist with community mobilization Strengthen implementation capacity of community structures including CSANE and GrACE on planning, communication, monitoring and learning Qualitative and qualitative studies to inform project implementation and results

Local leaders Mobilization of social actors in the commune Media Communication of key messages on nutrition and ECD

nationally and in communities

Community level CSANE Coordination in the community, planning, mobilization

of beneficiaries, M&E, evaluation of progress by citizens

Local Elected Leaders, Community and Religious Leaders; Members of the GrACE; CSOs involved in the community services

GrACE Implementation of services in communities Identification of needs in communities Following parents and children Communication and modeling of key messages Formulation of relationships to influence community level changes

Community members, Child learning facilitators, CBOs

12. The implementation of the integrated primary school feeding and nutrition component will be contracted out to a qualified school feeding service provider on a competitive basis following World Bank procurement procedures. The ToR for this work will be developed ahead of time. Implementation will follow the same implementation modalities as the other components to ensure a coordinated approach with the interventions that are targeted to the early years in the project. This means that communes are the entry point for planning and monitoring of the school feeding and nutrition component and implementation follows a community-based approach that includes the CSANE and GrACE.


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13. Before the effectiveness date, the SP-CAN will prepare a project implementation manual containing detailed arrangements and procedures for institutional coordination and project implementation, the roles and responsibilities of all involved stakeholders, project budgeting, accounting, disbursement and FM, procurement, safeguards, M&E, reporting and communication, and other administrative, financial, technical and organizational arrangements and procedures.

14. The project will seek collaboration with other World Bank funded projects. Table B.2 shows areas of synergies.

Table B.2: Areas of synergies and collaboration with other World Bank projects

World Bank supported project Areas of synergy and collaboration

Benin Youth Employment Project (P132667; ending in 2019)

Strengthen the training of women’s groups in agricultural transformation, enterprise and life skills and literacy

The youth beneficiaries of entrepreneurship training in the communes will be mobilized as community mentors

Agricultural Productivity and Diversification Additional Financing (P115886; ending in 2021)

Partnership with MAEP (from the PMASN project) to promote local value chain of food production and diversification through the CCC

Community and Local Government Basic Social Services Project – ACCESS Project (P163560; pipeline)

Information sharing at central and commune level for decision making around the implementation of interventions;

Identification of community needs for infrastructural support to conduct early nutrition and learning activities;

Register on vulnerable households for targeting intense efforts to vulnerable households;

Cross learning to reinforce the FADeC mechanism. Sahel’s Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend Project (SWEDD) Additional Financing for Benin (P166813; pipeline)

Strengthening commune interventions for women’s empowerment, specifically for young mothers

Mobilization of religious and community leaders through SBCC

Benin Global Partnership for Education Project Phase 3 (P167432; pipeline)

Jointly develop parental learning and stimulation and early learning of children to improve readiness for primary school

Development of community level facilitators for early learning

Gender and Vulnerability

15. The project recognizes gender equality and women’s empowerment as key factors for the attainment of the PDO. Therefore, the project will be supporting measures that strengthen the capacity of women and enhance the role of men in child development activities. The SP-CAN conducted a comprehensive gender study on the role and norms of gender in household food security and health in 2016. Based on the findings of this study, a community dialogue approach including tools will be developed as part of the EYNCDP. This will be aligned with the parent education activities in which the role of all parents in promoting and protecting child development will be discussed.


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Citizen Engagement

16. The project will include principles of citizen engagement through the development and implementation of a communications strategy. A citizen engagement indicator (Number of communes that have put in place a feedback mechanism for citizen beneficiaries) has been included in the results matrix. 17. Citizen engagement is being facilitated by the clear identification of beneficiaries (children, men and women, communities, NGOs, local and central administration) during preparation, implementation, and evaluation. Throughout the project, citizens will be consulted, and opportunities will be provided to collaborate with the project and participate in the sustainability of the investments.

Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM)

18. The GRM is a critical part of the project’s citizen engagement efforts. During implementation, complaints may arise with respect to breach of laws, project-beneficiaries, landownership and land use issues, pollution nuisance and choice of beneficiaries among others. The grievance mechanism process should complement and facilitate access to independent judicial or administrative remedies outside the specific context and will resolve grievances immediately using traditional and administrative mechanisms or the law courts at national, regional and community levels. The SP-CAN will be notified of any disputes in the project zone. Project field staff should work closely with the communities and the community leaders to clarify and resolve any misunderstanding that could give rise to conflicts. Where the dispute cannot be resolved at the community level, the affected persons or party shall be advised to lodge a complaint with the GRM committee. The project will develop a clear plan and procedures for the GRM, including complaint collection and processing procedures, reporting formats, database/records specifications and committee membership as part of the CPR. Public participation and consultation will be a key part of the process at all times to promote understanding and prevent unnecessary complaints and disputes. 19. In addition, a combination of social consultations, public hearings, satisfaction surveys, community organization and empowerment and additional capacity building for citizen engagement for the client will be developed and delivered during the project to foster a participatory and inclusive national dialogue on nutrition, health, learning, protection and service delivery during the early years.

Financial Management 20. A FM assessment was undertaken to evaluate the adequacy of the FM arrangements for the EYNCDP. This project will be implemented by the SP-CAN under Benin President’s office. The FM arrangements for the EYNCDP will build on SP-CAN’s achievements under the ongoing Multisectoral Food Health Nutrition Project (PMASN; P143652) funded by the World Bank. The PMASN’s FM performance was rated Moderately Satisfactory following the last supervision mission of January 2018. The SP-CAN will be responsible for coordinating the day-to-day implementation of the EYNCDP, including FM, organizational aspects and M&E. Based on the assessment carried out in accordance with the FM Manual for World Bank IPF Operations that became effective on March 1, 2010 and re-issued on February 10, 2017, it was established that the SP-CAN has acceptable FM capacity to implement the project.


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21. Budgeting Arrangements: The procedures manual SP-CAN is using for the PMASN (P143652) already includes detailed budgeting procedures and the preparation of annual work plan. It will be revised to incorporate the new project specifics. Annual work plans and budgets will be submitted to the World Bank for no-objection not later than November 30 of each year preceding the year the work plan should be implemented. The budgeting system under the SP-CAN will build on lessons learned. The budgetary discussions will begin at least six months before the fiscal year of implementation and will consider the procurement plan as the starting point. Once the budget is approved, it will be integrated in the computerized accounting system to serve as a basis for a budget execution monthly follow-up, based on variance analysis. Accounting and Reporting Arrangements 22. Accounting policies and procedures: The procedures manual the SP-CAN is using for the ongoing PMASN (P143652) details the accounting systems, policies, and administrative and financial procedures which is acceptable to the World Bank. It will be updated to include specific procedures related to this operation. 23. Accounting staff: The SP-CAN should retain staffing resources that are adequate for the level of project operations and activities and are sufficient to maintain accounting records relating to project financed transactions, and to prepare the project’s financial reports. Currently, on the FM side the SP-CAN is staffed with: (i) one civil servant as FM Specialist in charge of the supervision of all FM activities of the project; (ii) one civil servant as Accountant; and (iii) six regional accountants competitively recruited. This staffing is acceptable but needs to be reinforced with one additional accountant to be recruited through a competitive process in compliance with the World Bank’s rules. This team will have the overall FM responsibility over budgeting, accounting, financial reporting, flow of funds, internal control, and auditing. The FM staff will have their capacity reinforced over the project implementation through the rolling out of a training plan that includes, among others, training on IDA disbursement procedures and financial reporting arrangements. 24. Accounting information systems software: The accounting software acquired under the ongoing PMASN (P143652) financing will be used for the new project. This accounting software has multi-project, multi-site and multi-donor features, and is customized to generate its financial reports. 25. Accounting standards: The prevailing accounting policies and procedures in line with the West African Francophone countries accounting standards – SYSCOHADA - currently in use in Benin’s on-going World Bank-financed operations will apply. Internal Control and Internal Audit Arrangements 26. Internal controls. The procedures manual used under the ongoing PMASN (P143652) will be updated to include the specificities of the new project with specific sections on anti-corruption aspects and the existing internal control arrangements will be applied. 27. Internal audit. Subject to its satisfactorily performance evaluation, the same Internal Audit arrangement designed for the ongoing PMASN (P143652) will be used for the new project. The project’s


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internal audit annual work-program should pay special attention to funds allocated to NGOs and operations costs, including per diems and other soft expenditures, to ensure they are used in an economical manner and for the purposes intended. This internal audit unit needs to ensure that the audits are done semi-annually using a risk-based approach. These semi-annual internal audit reports need to be submitted to the World Bank within 45 days after the end of the semi-annual period. In line with the Benin Use of Country System Report, the project's internal control system could be strengthened as needed by the General Inspectorate of Finance (Inspection Générale des Finances, IGF). There should be close collaboration between IGF and the project's internal audit unit for conducting periodical internal audit review on the project activities. 28. Governance and Anti-corruption arrangements. To enhance transparency and accountability, the SP-CAN will have to deal with fraud and anti–corruption in accordance with the World Bank Anti-Corruption Guidelines referred to in the Financing Agreement will apply. Flow of Funds Arrangements 29. Designated Account. The SP-CAN will open a Designated Account (DA) at the Central Bank of West African States (Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, BCEAO). The funds will be released to an Operational Account to be opened in a reputable commercial bank. The Operational Account will be managed by the SP-CAN (Figure B.3). Cash withdrawal transactions from the Operational Account will be authorized respectively by the Permanent Secretary and the FM Specialist of the SP-CAN. The account is set up to fund eligible expenditures based on the approved annual activity plans using report-based disbursement. The DA’s ceiling, for approximately four months of expenditures will be determined in the disbursement letter.

Figure B.3: Flow of funds

30. Disbursements will be made out in accordance with the Disbursement Guidelines for IPF dated February 2017. The Autonomous Amortization Fund (Caisse Autonome d'Amortissement, CAA) is the assigned representative of the Recipient for the mobilization of IDA funds. Withdrawal application (WA) requests will be prepared by the project’s FM Specialist signed by a designated signatory or signatories (the signature authorization letter is signed by the MEF) and sent to the World Bank for processing. This procedure applies to all World Bank-financed projects in Benin. The project will submit applications using


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the electronic delivery tool, “e-Disbursements”, available at the World Bank’s Client Connection website/web-based portal. The Authorized Signatory Letter signed by the GoB will include authorization for the designated signatories to receive Secure Identification Credentials (SIDC) from the World Bank for delivering such applications by electronic means. 31. Funds will flow from the Credit Account through the DA to be opened at the BCEAO. The funds would be released in a transactions account to be opened in a reputable commercial bank for the other activities of the project. 32. Disbursements under the project will be report-based. Upon effectiveness, a WA will be submitted to the World Bank supported by a six-month cash flow forecast. The World Bank following the approval of the WA will disburse funds to the DA. Thereafter, WAs together with Interim Financial Reports supported by a six-month cash flow forecast will have to be submitted to the World Bank within 45 days after the end of the calendar semi-annual period, for funds to be disbursed to the DA. Further instructions on the withdrawal of proceeds will be outlined in the disbursement letter and details on the operations of the DA will be provided in financial and accounting section of the PIM. 33. Table B.3 specifies the categories of eligible expenditures to be financed out of the proceeds of the Credit, the amounts under each category, and the percentage of expenditures to be financed for eligible expenditures in each category.

Table B.3: Categories of eligible expenditures

Category Amount (expressed

in EUR) Percentage to be financed

(inclusive of taxes) (1) Works, goods, non-consulting services, consulting services, training and operating costs for the project

13.7 100%

(2) NGO financings for communal subprojects under Part 2(a) of the project

21.0 100%

(3) Service provider payments under Part 3 of the project 8.2 100% (4) Emergency expenditures under Part 4 of the Project 0.0 100% (5) Refund of Project Preparation Advance 0.8 100% TOTAL AMOUNT 43.7 Financial Reporting Arrangements 34. The SP-CAN will be responsible for coordinating and submitting the quarterly Interim un-audited Financial Reports (IFRs) in form and content satisfactory to the World Bank, which will reflect operations of the DA and will be submitted to the World Bank within 45 days after the end of the reporting period. The formats and contents of the IFR was agreed during negotiations. External Audit Arrangements

35. An external independent and qualified private sector auditor will be recruited to carry out the audit of the project’s financial statements under the supervision of the supreme audit institution. Therefore, the annual audits will be conducted based on ToR agreed with the supreme audit institution


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and that are satisfactory to the World Bank. The Auditor will express an opinion on the Annual Financial Statements and perform his audit in compliance with International Standards on Auditing issued by International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). The auditor will be required to prepare a Management Letter detailing observations and comments and providing recommendations for improvements in the accounting system and the internal control environment, the audit report on the annual project financial statements and activities of the DA will be submitted to IDA within six months after the end of each project fiscal year. 36. Financial covenants. Financial covenants are the standard ones as stated in the Financing Agreement Schedule 2, Section II (B) on FM, Financial Reports and Audits and Section 4.09 of the General Conditions and the Disbursement and Financial Information Letter (DFIL). 37. Implementation Support Plan. FM implementation support missions will be carried out twice a year based on the Substantial FM residual risk rating. Implementation Support will also include desk reviews such as the review of the IFRs and audit reports. In-depth reviews and forensic reviews may be done when and where deemed necessary. The FM implementation support will be an integrated part of the project’s implementation reviews. Table B.4: Financial Management Action Plan

Issue Remedial action recommended Responsible

entity Completion Effectiveness

condition Staffing Recruit a qualified and experienced

Accountant under ToR acceptable to IDA.

SP-CAN Under PPA financing

N

Information system accounting software

Revisit PMASN’s software parameters to take into consideration the specificity of the new Project


N

Financial reporting: IFR

Format, content, and frequency of the IFR were discussed during project negotiation

SP-CAN Completed N

Administrative, Accounting and Financial Manual of procedures

Update the PMASN’s Administrative, Accounting and Financial Manual of procedures (as part of the PIM) that also includes detailed procedures describing the system to pay recurrent expenditure with specific sections on anti-corruption aspects.


N

Internal audit Conclude an agreement with the General Inspectorate of Finance to include the project in its annual work program and carry out semi-annual internal auditing.

SP-CAN Six months after effectiveness

N

External financial auditing

Recruit an external auditor acceptable to IDA

SP-CAN Six months after effectiveness

N


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38. Conclusion. Overall, the residual FM risk for the project is rated as Substantial. It is however considered World Bank Policy and Directive – IPF once the mitigation measures mentioned in the FM action plan above have been implemented.

Procurement 39. The Borrower will carry out procurement under the proposed project in accordance with the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” (Procurement Regulations) dated July 2016 and revised in November 2017 under the “New Procurement Framework (NPF), and the “Guidelines on Preventing and Combating Fraud and Corruption in Projects Financed by IBRD Loans and IDA Credits and Grants”, dated July 1, 2016, revised in November 2017 and August 2018 other provisions stipulated in the Financing Agreement. All procuring entities as well as bidders, and service providers, i.e. suppliers, contractors and consultants shall observe the highest standard of ethics during the procurement and execution of contracts financed under the project in accordance with paragraph 3.32 and Annex IV of the Procurement Regulations. 40. The Borrower shall prepare and submit to the World Bank a General Procurement Notice (GPN) and the World Bank will arrange for publication of GPN in United Nations Development Business (UNDB) online and on the World Bank’s external website. The Borrowers may also publish it in at least one national newspaper. The Borrower shall publish the Specific Procurement Notices (SPN) for all goods, works, non-consulting services, and the requests for expressions of interest on their free-access websites, if available, and in at least one newspaper of national circulation in the Borrower’s country, and in the official gazette. For open international procurement selection of consultants using an international shortlist, the Borrower shall also publish the SPN in UNDB online and, if possible, in an international newspaper of wide circulation; and the World Bank arranges for the simultaneous publication of the SPN on its external website. 41. The project design will provide a window to enable the Borrower to carry out advance contracting and retroactive financing in accordance with Section V (5.1 & 5.2) of the Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers. The retroactive financing will be allowed up to 20 percent of the credit covering the expenditures incurred by the project, not more than 12 months before the signing date of the Financing Agreement. Institutional Arrangements for Procurement 42. The SP-CAN is the operational arm of the national structure (CAN) that ensures the multisectoral coordination of the nutrition policy and programs and will be the implementing agency of the EYNCDP. The SP-CAN already oversees the day-to-day management of the CAN, a multisectoral coordination platform for nutrition action, and has successfully been implementing the PMASN (2013-2019, P143652). The SP-CAN should establish a Procurement Commission that will be chaired by the nominated person in charge of procurement (personne responsable des marchés publics, PRMP). The PRMP will also designate his secretary who will serve as a secretary to the Commission. The documents (bidding document (BD), request of proposal (RfP), Bid Evaluation Report (BER)) elaborated by the Procurement Commission and the SP-CAN will be submitted for decisions of the procurement control unit (Cellule de Contrôle des Marchés Publics – CCMP) of the SP-CAN or to the decisions of the National Procurement Control Directorate (Direction Nationale de Contrôle des Marchés Publics) under the MEF depending of the competency of the


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procurement control threshold. The PRMP, the procurement commission and the CCMP will be established in accordance with articles 10 to 17 of the new procurement code No 2017-04 dated October 19, 2017. 43. At the commune level, NGOs, that will be selected for the implementation of community activities, will be responsible for the implementation of the procurement activities related to their sub-project. The procurement audit of the NGOs selected by the PMASN revelated that there was a general non-compliance with the procurement procedures related to the almost universal existence of collusive practices at the level of bidders and cases of non-compliance with post-qualification criteria. For the implementation of school feeding activities, it is planned to sign an agreement with an integrated school feeding service provider. This service provider will be responsible for the procurement related to his activities. The MEMP is an important new Ministry that needs to be engaged in the development of the early learning activities under the new early years project. 44. Project Procurement Strategy for Development (PPSD): As part of project preparation, the Borrower (with assistance from the World Bank) has prepared the PPSD which describes how procurement activities will support project operations for the achievement of PDOs and deliver Value for Money. The procurement strategy is linked to the project implementation strategy ensuring proper sequencing of the activities. It considers institutional arrangements for procurement; roles and responsibilities; thresholds, procurement methods, and prior review, and the requirements for carrying out procurement. It also includes a detailed assessment and description of state government capacity for carrying out procurement and managing contract implementation, within an acceptable governance structure and accountability framework. Other issues considered includes the behaviors, trends and capabilities of the market (i.e. Market Analysis) to respond to the procurement plan. 45. The recruitment of civil servants as individual consultants or as part of the team of consulting firms will abide by the provisions of paragraph 3.23 (d) of the Procurement Regulations. 46. Procurement Plan: The Borrower prepared a detailed 18-month procurement plan which was agreed by the Government and the World Bank during negotiations. The Procurement Plan will be updated in agreement with the World Bank Team annually or as required to reflect the actual project implementation needs and improvements in institutional capacity. 47. The scope of procurement is described in the PPSD and the Procurement Plan agreed by the World Bank and summarized below. The procurement activities that are critical for the success of this operation will consist of contracts for the acquisition of anthropometric materials, multi-micronutrient powder, ready-to-use therapeutic foods and therapeutic milk, and pharmaceutical products such as iron and folic acid supplements and albendazole, vehicles, and equipment for the benefit of community spaces. Consulting services are related to the selection of new NGOs for new communes, contract renewal of existing NGOs, and the agreement with the integrated school feeding service provider. 48. Training, Workshops, Study Tours, and Conferences: Training activities would comprise workshops and training, based on individual needs, as well as group requirements, on-the-job training, and hiring consultants for developing training materials and conducting training. Selection of consultants for training services follows the requirements for selection of consultants above. All training and workshop activities (other than consulting services) would be carried out on the basis of approved Annual Work and


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Training Plans that would identify the general framework of training activities for the year, including: (i) the type of training or workshop; (ii) the personnel to be trained; (iii) the institutions which would conduct the training and reason for selection of this particular institution; (iv) the justification for the training, how it would lead to effective performance and implementation of the project and or sector; (v) the duration of the proposed training; and (vi) the cost estimate of the training. Report by the trainee(s), including completion certificate/diploma upon completion of training, shall be provided to the Project Coordinator and will be kept as parts of the records, and will be shared with the World Bank if required. 49. A detailed training and workshops’ plan giving nature of training/workshop, number of trainees/participants, duration, staff months, timing and estimated cost will be submitted to IDA for review and approval prior to initiating the process. The selection methods will derive from the activity requirement, schedule and circumstance. After the training, the beneficiaries will be requested to submit a brief report indicating what skill have been acquired and how these skills will contribute to enhance their performance and contribute to the attainment of the project objective. 50. Operating Costs: Operating costs financed by the project would be incremental expenses, including office supplies, vehicles operation and maintenance cost, maintenance of equipment, communication costs, rental expenses, utilities expenses, consumables, transport and accommodation, per diem, supervision costs, and salaries of locally contracted support staff. Such services’ needs will be procured using the procurement procedures specified in the PIM accepted and approved by the World Bank.

51. Procurement Implementation Manual: Procurement arrangements, roles and responsibilities, methods and requirements for carrying out procurement shall be elaborated in detail in the Procurement section of the PIM which shall be prepared by the Borrowers and agreed with the World Bank by effectiveness. 52. Procurement methods: The Borrower will use the procurement methods and market approach in accordance with the Procurement Regulations. Open National Market Approach is a competitive bidding procedure normally used for public procurement in the country of the Borrower and may be used to procure goods, works, or non-consultant services provided it meets the requirements of paragraphs 5.3 to 5.6 of the Procurement Regulations. The thresholds for particular market approaches, procurement methods and the World Bank’s prior review requirements are provided in Table B.5. 53. Procurement Risk Rating: The project procurement risk prior to the mitigation measures is “Substantial”. The risk can be reduced to a residual rating of “Moderate” upon consideration of successful implementation of the mitigation measures. The risks and mitigation measures are provided in Table B.6.


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Table B.5: Thresholds for procurement methods and prior review

No Expenditure category Contract (C) value threshold1 (US$) Procurement method

Contracts subject to prior review (US$)

1 Works

C ≥ 10,000,000 Open Competition International Market Approach and Direct Contracting

≥ 10,000,000

200,000 < C < 10,000,000

Open Competition National Market Approach None

C ≤ 200,000 RfQ None

2 Goods, IT and non-consulting services

C ≥ 1,000,000 Open Competition International Market Approach and Direct Contracting

≥ 2,000,000

100,000 < C < 1,000,000

Open Competition National Market Approach None

C ≤ 100,000 RfQ None

3 National shortlist for selection of consultant firms

C < 100,000 For Consulting Services None

C ≤ 300,000 For Engineering and Construction Supervision None

4 International shortlist for selection of consultant firms

C ≥ 100,000 For Consulting Services ≥ 1,000,000

C > 300,000 For Engineering and Construction Supervision ≥ 1,000,000

5 Selection of Individual consultants All Values All Approaches ≥ 300,000

6 Direct contracting All Values As agreed in the Procurement Plan

7

Training, Workshops, Study Tours All Values Based on approved Annual

Work Plan and Budgets (AWPB) AWPB

1 The thresholds are for the purposes of the initial procurement plan for the first 18 months. The thresholds will be revised periodically based on re-assessment of risks. All contracts not subject to prior review will be post-reviewed.


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Table B.6: Procurement risk assessment and mitigation action plan

Procurement Risk Mitigation measure Responsibility and Deadline

Risk level Initial/residual

Lack of capacity (non-compliance with procedures)

- Update the procurement manual to integrate the new project

SP-CAN At effectiveness

Substantial

- Reinforce the procurement capacity of the designated PRMP, CCMP and procurement specialist

- Reinforce the procurement capacity of the selected NGOs

- Reinforce the procurement capacity of the Integrated School Feeding Agency

SP-CAN No later than three months after effectiveness

- Conduct procurement audits of newly selected NGOs

During project implementation

Non-designation of the person in charge of procurement and non-establishment of the procurement commission and the procurement control commission

Nominate the person in charge of procurement and establish the procurement commission and the procurement control commission with accordance articles 10 to 17 of the new procurement code No 2017-04 dated of October 19, 2017

SP-CAN Dated covenant No later than three months after project effectiveness.

Substantial

Weak capacity of the procurement specialist, the procurement commission, the procurement control commission, the National Procurement Control Directorate in NPF procedures

Capacity building will be provided by the World Bank on NPF procedures.

SP-CAN and WB During project implementation

Moderate

Delay in developing (ToRs) - Invite beneficiaries to submit a draft ToR for the registration of the activity in the AWPB;

- Anticipate soliciting from the World Bank ToR templates upon approval of the AWPB;

- Use consultants to develop ToRs in case of lack of in-house expertise.

SP-CAN During project implementation

Substantial

Delayed Delivery for Supplies Markets

- Estimate satisfactory amounts for financial capacity and turnover in the files;

- Anticipate and apply late penalties; - Regularly monitor the level of

execution of contracts

Suppliers

During project implementation

Substantial

Long delay of the procurement process

- Put in place a mechanism for monitoring the execution of different phases of the procurement process

- To sensitize the actors, the organs and authorities involved in the

PRMP SP-CAN During project implementation

High


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procurement process to the respect of the regulatory deadlines of the Code of Markets in force

Poor quality of deliverables - Have samples approved for supplies - Be rigorous during receptions in case

of non-respect of the prescriptions of the markets

Providers During project implementation

Moderate

Collusive practices during procurement process conducted by NGO

- Consult as much as possible, providers with headquarters

- Publish notices where necessary - Apply sanctions to the companies

involved where appropriate

NGO, Providers PRMP During project implementation

High

Strategy and Approach for Implementation Support

54. The proposed project will require intensive support during implementation. The multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder nature of the project necessitate a consistent and relatively intensive engagement from World Bank staff in-country, as well as the international team. The institutional anchor for the project, the SP-CAN, is still a relatively new structure under the President’s office and faces significant capacity challenges. A broad range of skills is required for the World Bank to effectively support project implementation. Some skills will be needed on a regular basis while others will be required more intermittently or on an ad-hoc basis. 55. A core implementation support team will be established that will include financial, procurement, and operational review, complemented by sector-specific technical assistance, M&E, local governance, community mobilization and communication experience. The core supervision team will include the following members: (i) Task Team Leaders (from HNP and EDU) with experience in nutrition, monitoring and education; (ii) FM and procurement specialists who would review adherence to World Bank procedures with regard to fiduciary responsibilities; (iii) a part-time consultant based in Cotonou to coordinate with counterparts on a day-to-day basis; (iv) an IEY fellow with preschool education expertise; (v) a part-time communication consultant; (vi) an economist who will assist with specific monitoring needs; and (vii) a leadership coach who will assist with the coaching program of local leaders for the early years. As needed, the team will be expanded to include other specialists on community mobilization and organizational development. 56. This core team will meet bimonthly (virtually) to review project implementation progress and to adjust work plans accordingly. The core team will also participate in supervision missions, currently planned for three times per year in the project’s first two years and then two times per year thereafter. These formal missions will be complemented by regular visits by international and country-based team members to verify progress and provide ongoing assistance to the client. In addition, the project team seeks to employ a part-time local consultant to support day-to-day assistance of operational aspects, local coordination with the client and other stakeholders and engagement in policy dialogue. 57. During the first year, an intensive supervision program will be carried out to ensure interventions are initiated in a timely manner. The team will draw from the Project Operations Manuals (POM) covering FM, M&E and procurement matters. We expect that there will be a learning curve as the SP-CAN and


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implementing agencies develop processes and smooth working relationships. The emphasis of the supervision missions during the first year will be on getting the project up and running and strengthening the capacity of the SP-CAN.

Implementation Support Plan and Resource Requirements

Time Focus Skills Needed Resource Estimate Partner Role

First 12 months

Project management: recruitment of staff in SP-CAN; development of project implementation manual; development of annual work program and budget; sensitization of stakeholders at the decentralized levels

Project management 6 Staff weeks

Procurement: development and timely execution of procurement plan; development and review of ToRs, bidding documents, call for proposals and manifestation of interest

Procurement 6 Staff weeks

Disbursement and FM: Opening of accounts; client connection; withdrawal requests; timely and quality reporting

FM 3 Staff weeks

Monitoring and evaluation: Development of project monitoring framework (indicator framework, training manuals, tools); capacity building of local stakeholders on project monitoring

M&E; Coaching 4 Staff weeks; 6 consultant weeks

Technical assistance; joint supervision

Early nutrition, stimulation and learning: Development of harmonized modules and tools for community-based interventions; Curriculum revisions for teacher training

ECD; Nutrition; education

2 Staff weeks; 6 consultant weeks


Communication: development of communication strategy; development and testing of communication tools

Communication 4 consultant weeks Technical assistance


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12months – project completion

Procurement: Timely and correct implementation of procurement plan

Procurement Staff weeks

FM: Timely and quality reporting FM Staff weeks

Project management: decentralized coordination, mobilization, knowledge management plan; roll-out of interventions

Project management; implementation; nutrition; ECD; education

Staff weeks; consultant

Policy development: advocacy plan; institutional development; ownership; institutionalization; mainstreaming.

Organizational development Consultant

Technical assistance; Policy dialogue

Monitoring and evaluation: process evaluation, LQAS surveys; decentralized monitoring (dashboard; accountability, reporting, citizen feedback, qualitative supervision, learning and corrective action)

M&E; Coaching Staff weeks; consultant


Communication: capacity building for communication interventions and techniques

Communication Consultant Technical assistance

Skills Mix Required

Skills Needed Number of Staff Weeks Number of Trips Comments

Task Team Leaders 8 weeks each per year (16 weeks total per year) 3 per year

HQ based (2) and CO based (1). The project will continue to have two HNP TTLs and one EDU TTL

Day-to-day project management 22 weeks per year Based in Cotonou as

part-time consultant

Communication specialist 12 weeks per year 3 per year International

Leadership coach 12 weeks per year 3 per year International

Economist/ M&E support 12 weeks per year CO based


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Preschool training and curriculum expert 12 weeks total 3 total Abidjan based

Impact evaluation experts 12 weeks total 6 total International

FM specialist 4 weeks per year CO based

Procurement specialist 4 weeks per year CO based

Environmental safeguards 4 weeks per year Based in Abidjan

Social safeguards 4 weeks per year Based in Abidjan

Partners

Name Institution/Country Role

UNICEF UN Technical assistance; joint supervision

The World Bankdocuments.worldbank.org/curated/.../pdf/Benin-Early-Years-Nutrition-… · the world bank for official use only report no: pad2899 international development association

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