Japan PHRD Technical Assistance ProgramApplication for Project Preparation Technical Assistance Grant

FY Round 2

B.1 Project Development Objectives:The development objectives of the project are to: (1) improve the outcomes of basic socialwelfare and development services in reducing vulnerability of the poorest and marginalizedgroups; (2) improve the governance of basic social assistance and social protection ser\Iicedelivery through integrated reforms at national and local level; (3) build capacity of the DSWDand associated agencies in performance-oriented budgeting and management.

B.2

Amount of the Grant Allocated(expressed in U.S.dollars)

Category

US$ 450,000C.1 Consultants'Services:

US$ 50,000Co2 Goods, Training and Incremental OperatingCosts:(maximum 10% of total grant amount)

US$ 500,000C.3 Total Grant Amount:

Yes

US$ 50,000if allowed:

E.1 Are Interim Unaudited Financial Reports

required?

Yes

Semi-annualE.2 Frequency of Unaudited Financial Reports, if

required:Annual Audit

E.3 Audit Requirements:

06/16/2006F.1 Grant Approval Date:

F.2 Anticipated Grant Closing Date:

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Detailed Information

Trust Fund Number (Tor TFa Use) : APPROVEDProiect 10 number

VPU/Network I

Bank Financing (US$ Million) -IBRD :Loan

-IDA Credit

Expected Board Approval Date-Task Team Leader

03/31/2008

TTL's email Ihawkins@worldbank.orq63-2-637-585563-2-917-3050

Other staff who will need access to this

proposalAndrew N. Parker, Maria Loreto Padua, LourdesL. Anducta, Cesar Palma Banzon, LynnettE~ DelaCruz Perez, Preselyn Abella, Dominic ReYE~sAumentado, Yolanda J. Azarcon

2.1 The project is/will be included in one of the following:CAS -

CAS Board Presentation 05/17/2005Date:Report Number: 32141-PHTaskID#: 082144Page Reference: Project Name in CAS is "National Program Support for Social

Protection. See Annex B32.2 Country and Sector Context

Persistant high poverty headcount and high inequality have confronted the Philippines in thepast several decades. An increasing number among the poor have been excluded fromsharing the benefits of development and have become very vulnerable to social, economicand environmental risks and pressures. These vulnerable groups include the children iin needof special protection; women in especially difficult circumstances, disadvantaged youth,persons with disabilities; marginalized older persons; informal settlers in urban poorcommunities; indigenous peoples; landless farmers; disadvantaged fisherfolks; familie~;impoverished by catastrophic health care costs and victims of natural disasters. BeforE~ theissuance of the Local Government Code, the Department of Social Welfare and Development(DSWD) had full control over the delivery of basic social services that represent a significantcomponent of the country's social protection sector that focuses on addressing the neE~ds ofvulnerable groups. With the passage of the Code, the delivery of most basic services hasbeen devolved to the local government units (LGUs) with the intent of improving acces:; andensuring participation of the vulnerable groups in governance and decision-making. Althoughthe DSWD retains the national leadership or "steering" role in social assistance and sol:;ialprotection, its major functions is now focused on policy formulation; standard setting; programdevelopment, technical assistance and resource augmentation, although it has retaine(jselected special social services delivery responsibilities as mandated by other laws. Tooperationalize the shift in their functions following decentralization, the Department preparedits "Rationalization and Streamlining Plan" (RSP) as adopted through Executive Order l'Jo. 15(1998) and later enhanced through Executive Order No. 221 (2003). In the midst of shifing itsinstutional capacity to assume its new mandate, the DSWD was confronted with theheightened demand for delivery of basic social protection services given the increasingnumber and diversity of the needs of vulnerable groups especially during occurrence ofnatural disasters and fiscal crisis.. Thus, DSWD's efforts to undertake a comprehensive

reform program was constantly diverted by the need to address public demands for basicsocial servies and diffused the limited resources. Consequently, this also weakened DSWD'sinstitutional linkages with the LGUs, non-governmental organizations (NGOs)and othergovernment agencies which are now the primary service providers. DSWD now wishe~) toconsolidate their experiences during the more than 10 years of devolution in order to adopt asector reform program that will allow the Department to fully assume its "steering" role.

The sector reform program for SWD is in line with the national platform of the current (~ASthat supports government agencies's initiative to enhance delivery of services through

responsive prioritization, policy, planning, program development, monitoring and evaluationsystems. The pursuit of said reform will also contribute to the local platform as it willultimately re-establish/enhance DSWD's partnership with the LGUs, NGOs, communit),groups and the private sector. Along with the other social development reform programs onhealth and education the SWD reform program is expected trigger a more comprehen~;ivereform on social protection thus contribute to the achievement of the CAS goal on SOCi;31inclusion.

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2.3 Project DescriptionThe Project will support DSWD to lead the implementation of a social policy reform agenda,and a process of institutional reform to better fit the Department to lead and steerimplementation. Initially, it is envisioned that the Project will operationalize key reform agendain the areas of a) Evidence- based policy formulation and advocacy as well as standard

Isetting; b) Innovative resource mobilization strategies; c) Supporting results-based IOC.31social welfare and development strategies; d) Enhancing management of retained ser/ices;e) Sector performance tracking and Dissemination and f) Results-based monitoring amjevaluation system. Loan funds are envisaged to finance eligible expenditures in priori~/lineitems in the DSWD's regular budget, in manner of SEMP2, that supports the agreed reformagenda. The operation may have some cross-sectoral components, in the manner of ~)EMP2and ECD Project, given that effective action on some DSWD objectives requirescross-sectoral coordination of programs. The expected components of the project are: (1)Capacity building for social policy and standard-setting; (2) Enhancing management ofretained DSWD services; (3) Enhancing performance of local social welfare, protection anddevelopment services; (3) Support for cross-sectoral social protection functions ofgovernment.

2.4 Project Preparation Grants for Upper Middle Income Countries.Explain how the project will, in the priority areas, deliver services to the needy or to tarG,etedbeneficiaries.

Not applicable2.5 Implementation Experience

Please describe the implementation experience and outcomes of past and ongoing sectoroperations that are relevant to this project.The DSWD has recently completed the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Project. lrhisfinanced central technical assistance and Local Government Unit (LGU) delivery of enhancedearly childhood development services. As an inter-agency project, the ECD Project providedfor the DSWD to coordinate ECD basic services of the DOH and DepEd. An empiricalevaluation study demonstrated significant improvement in child cognitive scores and sclmeimprovement in nutrition indicators attributable to project interventions. On June 30, 2006,DSWD will complete the Second Social Expenditure Management Project (SEMP2), whichthe financed eligible expenditures from the regular DSWD budget, for the ClOSS (acommunity-based poverty alleviation program) and for residential care services, alongsidecomplementary reform of public financial management. Both Projects have been ratedsatisfactory and both provided various studies and experiences which would serve as basisfor enhancing management of centers and institutions as well as for upscaling of a targetedcommunity-based strategy for poverty reduction.

The Department is currently implementing the KALAHI-CIDSS Project which adopts acommunity-driven development approach for poverty reduction in the poorest municipalities inthe poorest provinces. This Project aims to empower disadvantaged communities toparticipate in identifying, developing and managing community sub-projects that respond totheir priority needs and enhances local governance for poverty reduction. AlthoUQh the Dace

of scale-up under the Project is partially constrained by a lack of budget space, substantialprogress has occurred and the Project has been rated satisfactory in terms of theempowerment indicators in the recently completed Mid-term Review. An implementationgrant has been requested to assist with the capacity building of the DSWD because ofmarginally satisfactory rating on implementation progress.However, the context for this rating is that of a highly ambitious and complex communil:ydriven development project which accounts for around 40% of the DSWD's budget andaround one third of its staff, and which faces the implementation challenge of achievin~1institutionalization of participatory governance in hundreds of municipalities across thecountry. The DSWD's project management of the recently-closed cross-sectoral ECD projectwas efficient and effective and resulted in timely completion of the Project. The DSWDI'scomponent of the SEMP 2 also demonstrated satisfactory implementation progress anljdevelopment impact. The DSWD is also one of the leading cohort of pilot agencies inimplementing public financial management and procurement reform. For these reasonls, theDSWD is assessed as having adequate capacity to manage the proposed preparation grantfunds. Furthermore, the proposed new project under preparation will adopt a similar design tothe successful SEMP 2 project, and so the DSWD is assessed as having adequate capacityto manage the proposed new project.

~~ 2.6 Safeguard Issues

If the Bank-funded project is classified as Category A, please explain the significant adl/erseimpact that may result during project implementation, and how they are expected to beaddressed.The proposed operation is likely to trigger Indigenous Peoples Safeguards. Environmentalcategory is expected to be B or C (depends on whether project will include civil works)

3.1 Describe the Components of the Grant(Text limited to 1/2 page)The PHRD grant will support the DSWD in formulating the National Sector Support for SocialWelfare and Development Reform Project. During the second quarter of CY2006, the DSWDwill conduct a series of learning forum and stakeholders' consultation to assess the emergingsocial assistance and protection issues as well as take stock of the various innovativeapproaches related to localized social welfare and development services; NGO-private-publicpartnership development; alternative resource mobilization, among others. Based on theseconsultations/learning fora, the Department will formulate a comprehensive social policyframework and implementation strategy for increasing progress in improving key socialwelfare and development outcomes in a decentralized environment. DSWD will subse,quentlyrevisit its organizational vision and strategic plan, and develop an institutional capacitybuilding plan to re-orient the organization to lead the sector reform agenda more effectively.The PHRD grant will be used to formulate the detailed design or implementation detail~; ofselected key social policy reform agenda strategies as well as provide core capacity buildingactivities to prepare DSWD to implement said reforms and ensure social acceptability of thesame.

1) Designing the Policy and Institutional Reform Agenda: This component will financeconsultants'services and consultation and validation workshops to prepare and design the keyreform agenda, and implementation strategies. The development of the agenda will e..olvefrom learning fora/ stakeholders'consultations to be conducted in the second quarter ofCY2006 and is envisaged to focus on the areas of concern as stated in Section 2.3, to wit: a)Evidence-based policy advocacy and standard-setting social welfare, social assistance andprotection; b) Medium term fiscal planning and projections for costing social welfare,assistance and protection mandates, and setting priorities based on MTEF fiscal planningscenarios; c) Identifying alternative mechanisms and innovative resource mobilizationstrategies to address unfunded and under-funded mandates; this could include cost-sharingand resources mobilization schemes among the LGUs, NGOs, private-public sectorpartnership, and volunteer development; d) Supporting results-based local social welfare anddevelopment strategies; e) Enhancing management of retained DSWD services -draINingon various studies conducted under SEMP 2; e) Sector performance tracking anddissemination and f) designing and developing a baseline of a result-based monitoring andevaluation system. For each pillar of the reform agenda, the consultants will prepare thedesign to include the key strategies; sub-components; costing, operational guidelines; 'Nork

system and institutional or organizational arrangements.

2) Enhancing Institutional Capacity for Implementation: This will involve the identification ofkey competency areas which are required to undertake the reform; determination of thf~ gapsof current staff and organizational set-up; designing the capacity building plan to addre:5s thegap and conduct of key capacity building activities that will prepare the DSWD (and relf~vantattached agencies and partners in cross-sectoral programs) for implementation of the reform.

3) Social Assessment/Social Marketing: This will involve the conduct of stakeholdersconsultation to draw their inputs about the reform package and define their respective roles inimplementing the same as well as formulating a social marketing plan and IPPF to ensure the

",., ~~~~~P:~i~~ of major stakeholders in pursuing the reform agenda. -3.2 Grant Cost

(Text limited to ~ page)Provide the total cost of each Component of the Grant.

4.1 Grant Execution: Recipient Executed4.2 Grant ImDlementation A~ency

Grant Implementing Agency: Department of Social Welfare andDevelopment

Agency Address: Batasan Complex, Capitol DistrictQuezon City, Philippines

Contact Name and Phone: Secretary Esperanza Cabral, (632) 931-81-01J --, , '---I --

Created By: Maria Loreto PaduaLast Update: 05/08/200609:13:26 PM