Japan Social Development Fund

1
Japan Social Development Fund

• Briefing Session FY09
• Yolaine Joseph, PTO
• January 22, 2009

2
JSDF Briefing Overview

• Introduction
• JSDF Regular Program
• Purposes
• Grant Types
• Country eligibility
• Changes in FY09
• GFR Application Form
• Selection Criteria
• Ineligible Activities/Expenditures
• Pointers what to remember when working on the
  proposal
• Japanese Visibility
• Common Reasons for Rejection of Proposals

3
JSDF Briefing Overview (contd)

• Concept Note
• JSDF Seed Fund
• Case Studies of Approved and Rejected Proposals
• Most Common Issues and Bottlenecks in Project
  Design and Implementation
• Example of Well-Designed Projects in Other
  Regions
• Reference and Contact Information

4
Introduction

• The Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) was
  established by the Government of Japan and the
  World Bank. It is an untied grant facility
  providing grants in support of innovative social
  programs to help alleviate poverty in eligible
  client countries of the World Bank Group.

5
JSDF Regular Program Purposes

• JSDF projects are expected to
• Encourage the testing of innovative methods that
  are new or alternative approaches at the project,
  country, or regional level, or that facilitate
  new partnerships or assist new target groups.
• Support initiatives that lead to developing
  sustainable outcomes through the adoption or
  scaling-up of the pilot project.
• Directly respond to the needs of marginalized,
  vulnerable or disadvantaged groups.
  Marginalization may be a function of location,
  gender, age, ethnicity, physical fitness.
• Build ownership, capacity, empowerment and
  participation of local communities,
  nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other
  civil society groups

6
JSDF Regular Program Grant Types

• Project Grants
• Small-scale projects, which may be scaled up to
  benefit the poorest
• Use of innovative and demand-driven methods to
  encourage participation.
• Capacity Building Grants
• Strengthen local communities, local governments,
  local institutions and/or NGOs
• Promote collaboration between local governments
  and communities
• Improve decision-making and accountability of
  local communities.

7
JSDF Regular Program Country Eligibility

• All low-income countries and lower middle-income
  countries, as defined in the 2008 World
  Development Report, are now eligible for both
  Project Grants and Capacity-Building Grants.
• Upper middle income countries are not eligible
  for JSDF grants.
• The list of countries eligible for JSDF grants
  appears on the JSDF website and in the JSDF
  database. It was also attached to the call for
  proposals.

8
JSDF Regular Program Changes in FY09

• Allocation increase of 60 from FY08, to US80
  million
• Maximum grant size increase from US2 million to
  US3 million.
• Introduction of three special allocations for
  Africa including North African countries
• Agricultural development
• Participatory school management, and
• Enhancement of health management and health
  services
• GFR Introduction
• Seed Funds
• JSDF regular program
• Mandatory use of the RE code

9
JSDF Regular Program GFR Application Form

• Grant Funding Request (GFR) proposal replaces the
  JSDF Lotus Notes database template
• GFR content is largely similar to the previous
  templates content, with some changes in the
  structure
• GFR can be accessed by typing GFR in the URL
  (GFR website)
• GFR windows
• 4907 Regular Program Recipient-executed grants
• 4908 Regular Program Bank-executed grants (for
  Incremental Bank Costs)
• GFR includes
• Basic data tab
• Description tab (Grant development objectives and
  grant-financed activities)
• Outcomes tab
• Components tab
• JSDF Specific tab
• Processing tab and
• Allowed Expenses
• Grant supplementary information includes
• Bank incremental costs
• Rationale and participatory approach
• Sustainability
• Safeguard issues

10
JSDF Regular Program GFR Application Form
(Contd)

• Linkage to Bank operation/strategy
• Linkage to RE product line should be used
• Grant implementation arrangements
• Consultation with Other Development Partners
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Risks affecting grant implementation
• Financial arrangements
• Disbursement arrangements
• Additional obligations
• Cost table includes procurement method
• Technical reviewers comments.

11
JSDF Regular Program Selection Criteria

• Direct benefits to the poor using innovative
  mechanisms
• Direct participation of community groups, local
  governments and/or NGOs in grant preparation and
  implementation to encourage long-term sustainable
  development
• Exit strategy and mechanism for long-term
  sustainability
• Outcome/impact indicators, including mechanisms
  to monitor progress and measure outcomes
• Programs which complement Bank-financed
  project(s), either under preparation or
  implementation and
• Commitment and ownership of the Recipient.

12
JSDF Regular Program Ineligible
Activities/Expenditures

• Scaling up of already piloted activities
• Activities which are being or can be funded under
  Bank Group loans/credits or from other sources
• Activities normally funded under Bank Group
  budgets or by other donors for preparation of
  Bank-financed projects, including technical
  assistance for these activities
• Preparation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
  or other technical assistance for poverty
  monitoring activities.

13
JSDF Regular Program Ineligible
Activities/Expenditures (contd)

• Academic research
• Land acquisition
• Purchase of motor vehicles
• Government salaries and
• Foreign training or study tours.
• Note UN agencies may not be direct recipients of
  JSDF grants

14
JSDF Regular Program - Pointers

• Make sure to discuss the proposal with the
  Japanese Embassy in the field.
• JSDF activities should help the poorest and most
  fragile groups in the eligible countries.
• JSDF activities should promote collaboration with
  civil society, local governments, NGOs, etc.,
  strengthen partnerships with these groups, and
  learn/share experiences.
• Steering Committee and GoJ pay particular
  attention to Participation, Innovation,
  Sustainability and Risks sections of proposal.

15
JSDF Regular Program Pointers (Contd)

• JSDF activities should be compatible with the
  development objectives set out in the CAS, PRSP,
  and/or poverty reduction elements of Sector
  Strategies.
• JSDF provides grant funds and, thus, should
  broaden the scope of Bank-financed projects (and
  not supplement Bank-financed projects or the
  Recipients budgets, including those provided by
  other donors for the preparation of
  loans/credits). Grants should pioneer new and
  innovative mechanisms which cannot be financed
  through loans or credits.
• Write enough, but not too much. Limit background
  general information.
• Always keep in mind the purposes of the JSDF
  while preparing the proposal participatory
  preparation, demand-driven, bottom-up approach,
  assisting the target population as directly as
  possible.

16
JSDF Regular Program Japanese Visibility

• Bank task teams are asked to help promote the
  visibility and local awareness of JSDF in
  recipient countries through the following types
  of activities
• The logo (usually the Japanese national flag)
  should be used
• Encourage recipient to invite Japanese embassy to
  grant signing ceremonies
• Recipients should be encouraged to ensure that
  JSDF-financed activities are well covered by
  local print and electronic media
• Press releases issued with respect to JSDF grants
  should refer to the financial contribution from
  the Government of Japan.

17
JSDF Regular Program Reasons for Rejection

• Some common reasons for rejection of JSDF
  proposals
• Proposal does not fit the JSDF criteria, e.g.,
  participatory preparation, innovation, direct
  assistance to marginal and most vulnerable
  populations
• Grant takes a top-down rather than a bottom-up,
  demand-driven approach
• Too much technical assistance (especially
  international) not related to training which
  assists beneficiaries directly
• Grant funds activities that can be funded from
  other sources, e.g., the associated Bank project,
  ongoing social fund or CDD operation in the
  country, other donors
• Grant-funded project would scale up activities
  already piloted elsewhere, rather than piloting
  them itself
• Funding requested for ineligible activities or
  items.

18
JSDF Concept Note

• Before starting the formal application, the TTL
  should seek preliminary feedback on proposals by
  submitting a Concept Note by email to the JSDF
  Unit, briefly describing the activities to be
  funded.
• The deadline for the Concept Note submission is
  February 6, 2009.
• The template for the Concept Note is available on
  the JSDF Website.
• Upon receiving the note, the JSDF Unit will
  provide guidance to the task team on the
  consistency of proposed activities with JSDF
  criteria and make suggestions for improvement
  before the team commits its time to preparing a
  full-scale application.

19
JSDF Seed Fund

• Objective To support the preparation costs of
  proposals specifically for participatory
  discussions with civil society groups so JSDF
  proposals are designed for maximum effectiveness
  and sustainability.
• Output Well-developed JSDF Grant proposal.
• Country Eligibility Same as JSDF Regular Program
  grant eligibility.
• Maximum Amount US50,000.
• Implementation Period Maximum 12 months from
  approval (status report is expected within six
  months of approval).
• Submission Effective June 1, 2008, the use of
  Lotus Notes Database for the submission of seed
  funds has been discontinued, and requests should
  be submitted through GFR. GFR window number for
  Seed Fund is 378.

20
Case Studies

• Four Case Studies
• Approved Proposals
• Case Study 1 Colombia - Institutional and
  Community Strengthening for Local Governance and
  Development
• Case Study 2 Egypt - Piloting Community
  Management and Accountability Systems in Rural
  Sanitation Service Delivery
• Rejected Proposals
• Case Study 3 Senegal - Effectiveness of
  distribution of micronutrient products to
  Senegalese young children
• Case Study 4 Uzbekistan Social Fund for
  Health-Related Services

21
Case Study 1 - Overview

• Case Study 1 Approved Proposal
• Colombia - Institutional and Community
  Strengthening for Local Governance and
  Development
• Amount 1.7 million
• Type Capacity Building

22
Case Study 1 - Grant Objectives

• The grant aims to increase the management and
  technical capacities of municipal governments and
  local communities in the poorest geographic areas
  in Colombia.

23
Case Study 1 Participatory Approach

• Seed funds used to develop proposal and fund
  workshops with participation of governors,
  mayors, municipal staff, and local community
  leaders from municipalities included in project.
• Questionnaire given to community leaders and
  local government representatives asking these to
  identify specific local development needs in
  their area.
• In workshops and subsequent meetings with various
  agencies, concept and specific implementation
  agreements were agreed upon.

24
Case Study 1 - Innovation

• Looks to simultaneously build capacities among
  municipal authorities and local communities
  combined with providing support to the
  identification and implementation of local
  sustainable development
• Brings together two key government agencies
  responsible for municipal development and
  community development, a much needed yet not a
  very common practice.

25
Case Study 1 - Sustainability

• Project activities support improvements in
  technical, administrative, and financial
  capacities of local governments and will lead to
  improvement in supply of public services and in
  ranking of several of the municipalities in
  project area.
• Other organizations have been approached by
  project team and have expressed interest in
  providing resources for an expansion of project
  activities.
• Grant can contribute to creation of a larger
  local development program in Pacific and Atlantic
  coasts and in the Andes region.

26
Case Study 2 - Overview

• Case Study 2 Approved Proposal
• Egypt - Piloting Community Management and
  Accountability Systems in Rural Sanitation
  Service Delivery
• Amount 2.99 million
• Type Capacity Building

27
Case Study 2 - Grant Objectives

• This project aims to enhance the institutional
  capacity and accountability mechanisms between
  local authorities and beneficiary communities for
  better service delivery in the rural sanitation
  sector. This will be achieved through piloting
  innovative mechanisms for community participation
  in planning, implementation, management and
  monitoring of small scale sanitation systems in
  rural Egypt. This grant aims to put a much
  stronger emphasis on community empowerment and
  voice, particularly of the small and hamlet
  villages in the Delta, characterized with high
  poverty incidence and poor environmental
  conditions.
• The proposal was approved by the SC with no
  comments.

28
Case Study 2 - Participatory Approach

• The development of this proposal has followed a
  long period of over two years of extensive social
  consultation in the project area, including
  target beneficiaries and local institutions,
  which allowed for the clear articulation of
  priority needs, geographic hot-spots and
  demonstrated tools for social mobilization and
  communication.
• Participatory strategic planning exercise to
  determine the key priority areas for
  infrastructure intervention at the village
  cluster (group of villages) level was held.

29
Case Study 2 - Innovation

• Innovative technical and institutional design
  features include
• (i) decentralizing the majority of implementation
  to the local water and sanitation companies,
  which was historically been undertaken centrally,
  
• (ii) working within an integrated water resources
  management framework that organizes village
  clusters along hydraulic basins and brings
  multi-sectoral stakeholders into the planning
  process,
• (iii) piloting performance based contracts for
  the operation of larger wastewater treatment
  plants with the local private sector, and
• (iv) incorporating the social and participatory
  dimension into the planning and implementation of
  the sanitation infrastructure by incorporating
  social staff within the water and sanitation
  companies.

30
Case Study 2 - Sustainability

• The emphasis of the proposal is in fact on
  building a scalable model, skills and capacities
  for long term financial and operational
  sustainability of the constructed sanitation
  systems.
• The grant will be implemented at the timely start
  up of sanitation system construction, to enable
  communities to maximize their benefit, enhance
  their capacity to assume ownership and monitor
  results on the ground.
• The delegated management contracts with CDAs will
  be based on full cost recovery principles to
  ensure long term financial viability of the OM
  costs. Upon completion of the grant
  implementation, it is envisaged that the model
  would have been implemented in a sufficient
  number of villages with different typographies
  and conditions to allow for lessons learned to be
  drawn and replication.

31
Case Study 3 - Overview

• Case Study 3 Rejected Proposal
• Senegal - Effectiveness of distribution of
  micronutrient products to Senegalese young
  children
• Amount 1.88 million
• Grant Type Project

32
Case Study 3 Grant Objectives

• To find more effective ways to respond directly
  to the health needs of the poorest and most
  vulnerable members in disadvantaged communities
  in Senegal in settings all too common throughout
  Africa. Specifically, it aims to test the
  feasibility and cost-effectiveness of home
  fortification (adding micronutrient (MN) powders
  to infants food) with different doses of MN
  through two distribution systems a) six-monthly
  Child Health Days (CHD) and b) community-based
  monthly growth monitoring and promotion program
  (CGP).

33
Case Study 3 Components Description

• Component A Situation Assessment and Monitoring
  Evaluation - A participatory rapid appraisal
  will inform project activities around feeding
  practices, caregiver profiles, knowledge and
  perceptions on micronutrients, and potential
  barriers for use of the MN product.
• Component B Phase I - Testing the Intervention
  and the Delivery Mechanism - Phase 1 will assess
  the feasibility, impact and cost-effectiveness of
  the intervention via two delivery mechanisms.
  The project will build on existing CHD training
  provision for community volunteers, supervisors
  and health workers in the CGP communities. The
  outcomes from Phase I will be used to inform
  adoption of the intervention through the CGP and
  CHD programs.
• Component C Phase 2- Implementing the most
  cost-effective delivery mechanism and promoting
  stakeholder ownership and adoption - Phase 2 will
  focus on implementing the most effective
  intervention identified from Phase 1 and
  promoting stakeholder ownership and adoption for
  future scale up.

34
Case Study 3 Reasons for Rejection

• SC has serious concerns about project.
• As TR2 notes, the risks associated (Section
  4.4.1) with the pilot in providing micronutrient
  (MN) supplements to non-iron deficient children
  seem higher than the "N" recorded.
• If the project led to "increased morbidity and
  mortality" (see component A), this could prove
  highly embarrassing, especially since a Bank
  director is on the Board of the implementing
  agency.
• JSDF is not the right vehicle for testing dosage
  of a product, thus carrying out health research.
  Further, there appears to be only one monopoly
  supplier (Section 4.4.2) of the MN.
• There is a risk that JSDF could be accused of
  directly benefiting a single company in the
  absence of a competitive market.
• It is suggested that task team work with UNICEF
  or a similarly qualified organization to test
  product dosage and children reaction, as Bank
  does not have the right competence. After
  completion of the test, JSDF could be used to
  pilot the delivery mechanisms.

35
Case Study 4 - Overview

• Case Study 4 Rejected Proposal
• Uzbekistan - Social Fund for Health-
• Related Services
• Amount 1.99 million
• Type Project

36
Case Study 4 - Grant Objectives

• To improve the quality and effectiveness of
  health and health related services for the poor
  and vulnerable in selected regions of Uzbekistan
  through (i) support to poor communities in the
  assessment of priority needs and the provision of
  small grants to improve services related to
  health (ii) capacity building to the
  communities and local NGOs and local government
  and (iii) project management, and monitoring and
  evaluation to ensure satisfactory implementation
  and measurement of overall impact.

37
Case Study 4 - Components Description

• Component A The Grant would provide support to
  the Ministry Economy, which through UNDP would
  implement a "social fund" type mechanism to work
  with communities using community driven
  development (CDD) methodologies.
• Component B The Grant would provide training
  for the staff of the implementing agency in
  procedures and guidelines developed and set forth
  in the Project Operations Manual.

38
Case Study 4 - Reasons for Rejection

• Request from the central Government
• Top down approach by the Ministry
• Concern that the communities would not take
  ownership of the program. Such statement as
  "communities would be required to participate in
  the implementation of the small grant...".

39
Most Common Issues Bottlenecks in Projects
Design Implementation

• Insufficient buy-ins at time of project design
  resulting in lack of consensus among stakeholders
• Important for objectives to focus on outcomes
• Miscalculations of project costs
• Avoiding elite capture
• Adequate formulation of KPIs measurement
• Designing an effective ME system

40
Most Common Issues Bottlenecks in Projects
Design Implementation

• Need to change legal base of organization or
  legislation (e.g. Tsunami project which never
  became effective).
• Highly complex institutional arrangements when
  projects are cross-sectoral.
• Coordination among ministries and agencies.

41
Example of Well Designed Projects in various
Regions

• Turkey Youth Development and Social Inclusion
• Indonesia Creative Communities Fund
• Indonesia - Poverty Reduction and Women's
  Leadership The "PRIME" Project
• Tanzania - Community-Based Conditional Cash
  Transfer Pilot

42
CFP Website and Contacts

• Bank Intranet Website Address
• www.worldbank.org/jsdf
• Annual Policy Document and Visibility Guidance
  Note
• JSDF Processing Procedures
• Eligible countries list
• Case Law
• Seed Fund Guidelines
• Seed Fund processing procedures
• JSDF Concept Note
• Technical review
• Frequently asked questions
• Processing and Implementation of Japanese Trust
  Fund Grants
• GFR Preparation Instructions
• Lotus Notes Database
• Same documents as above, except for the JSDF
  Concept Note, and Processing and Implementation
  of Japanese Trust Fund Grants

• CFP Contacts
• Yolaine Joseph (x32389)
• Bermet Sydygalieva (x89357)
• Augustina Nikolova (x30861)
• David Potten (x87873)