AIDE MEMOIRE Safe Migration for Bangladeshi Workers (TF098993) Implementation Support Mission: September 25 – 29, 2016 I. Introduction Public Disclosure Authorized A World Bank team1 conducted an implementation support mission for the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) Safe Migration for Bangladeshi Workers from September 25-29, 2016. The objectives of the mission were to review project progress since restructuring in the previous fiscal year with a view to assessing the likelihood of achieving development objectives by the closing date of June 21, 2017. The Bank team would like to express its appreciation to BRAC and the Government of Bangladesh for their excellent collaboration during the review. A list of officials met during the mission is provided in Annex 2. This Aide Memoire summarizes findings and agreements reached and has been discussed at a wrap up meeting with the Secretary, Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment on September 29, 2016.As per discussions with BRAC, this document will be classified “public” under the World Bank’s Access to Information policy. Public Disclosure Authorized II. Project Data Timeline Disbursement & Performance Board Approval: June 21, 2013 Grant Amount: US$ 2.58 million Effectiveness: June 21, 2013 Disbursed Amount: US$ 1.94 million (75%) Midterm Review: August 23-27, 2015 PDO Achievement: Satisfactory (previously Moderately Satisfactory) Restructuring: February 7, 2016 Implementation Progress: Satisfactory (previously Moderately Satisfactory) Closing: June 21, 2017 III. Achievement of Development Objectives Public Disclosure Authorized The revised Project Development Objective is to establish and strengthen Community Based Organizations (CBOs) for improved access and reliable information at the community level for migrants and their families in 80 Upazilas to make safe migration choices. The PDO was revised as part of project restructuring in February 2016 following the midterm review which identified several challenges in achieving the original PDO and targets. The restructuring also included a one year closing date extension of the grant to June 21, 2017. PDO Achievement is rated as satisfactory: With nine months remaining until project closing, the implementing agency, BRAC, is on track with achieving the PDO. Information and awareness of safe migration is readily available at the community level in all project locations and additional services are provided for those who have decided to migrate, including pre-departure and skills training. A number of intermediate targets have been met and exceeded, while the others remain on track to be achieved (Annex 1). Public Disclosure Authorized 1 The Bank team consisted of Aneeka Rahman (Senior Social Protection Economist & Task Team Leader); Munjir Ahmed (Research and Operations Analyst); Ishtiak Siddique (Senior Procurement Specialist); Mohammad Reaz Uddin Chowdhury (Financial Management Specialist) and Md. Mahtab Alam (Program Assistant). 1 IV. Current Implementation Status Overview Following a request from the implementing agency to extend the closing date and revise the project development objective, the project restructuring was successfully completed in February 2016. The project is now in its fourth year of implementation and BRAC has revised its work plan to ensure adequate funds are available to cover the necessary expenditure over the additional year. All agreed activities are now operational in the field and implementation progress has been upgraded to satisfactory. With nine months until project closing, the focus is on ensuring CBO sustainability and documenting experience and lessons from the field. Component-wise progress is highlighted below. Disbursement The cumulative disbursement under the project is now 75% and all funds are expected to be disbursed by project closing in June 2017. Component 1: Identification/establishment of community-based organizations (CBOs) to protect migrants’ rights and promote safe migration services CBOs across 80 Upazilas were identified on a competitive basis to work with the community to promote safe migration practices. Following renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between BRAC and the CBOs after one year of implementation, three CBOs withdrew from the program, although coverage of all 80 Upazilas remained on track, with two CBOs covering two Upazilas each and BRAC providing services directly through its Safe Migration Facilitation Centre (SMFC) in the third Upazila. During March- April 2016, BRAC conducted a review of the 77 working CBOs to assess their performance and select those organizations that would continue to be part of the program through the extended implementation period. Following the review, an extension plan was agreed upon with 65 CBOs covering 66 Upazilas. The remaining 14 Upazilas will continue to receive services from BRAC’s Safe Migration Facilitation Centres (the full list of locations is provided in Annex 3). In order to accommodate budget limitations over the final year of implementation, the number of volunteers has been reduced to the original 480 and refresher training has been provided to help them better understand the migration and remittance management issues and their roles and responsibilities to protect migrant workers. While courtyard sessions with potential migrants and family members will be completed within October 2016, other field-level awareness activities with those who have decided to migrate will be continued through March 2017. The CBOs have helped in bringing significant awareness of middlemen fraudulence and promotion of safe migration through grassroots interventions. Through engagement with local elites, migrants, their families and different stakeholders, a number of migration forums have been formed; some of these forum members play a significant role in providing direct services, particularly in arranging local arbitration and helping vulnerable migrants to get their money back from fraudulent middlemen. The project team have also organized roundtable discussions on preventing irregular and illegal migration. As part of support to CBO sustainability and the investments that the project has already made, the implementing agency has developed a revised work plan for the partnership with CBOs, which includes connecting CBOs to national networks on migration, including the National Alliance for Migrants’ Rights, Bangladesh (NAMR’B), and organizing Division-level dialogues to encourage and engage CBOs in 2 advocacy and higher-level sensitization of field realities. Project staff will also work with CBOs to build their capacity in preparing proposals and fund raising initiatives so that they would be capable of taking advantage of future opportunities for participating in similar projects. Following the recent opening of migration corridors to Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, which had been temporarily closed, the project is organizing a consultation workshop with key stakeholders, including Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) and middlemen involved at various stages of the migration process, to review the recruitment system for these two high-migration corridors and ascertain how the project and its CBO network can support a clean, safe and transparent system for migrants. Component 2: Pre-departure preparation to promote safe migration Under this component, as of June 2016, CBOs have arranged various information dissemination and awareness raising events, including 12,784 courtyard meetings; 1,200 video shows and 879 interactive popular theatre shows. In addition, migration forums at the community level, which comprise local elite, returnee migrants, migrants’ families and potential migrants, have organized over 3,000 meetings to discuss the various issues faced by aspiring and current migrants. While initially slow to take off, there has been good progress with providing pre-departure preparation training, with 115 sessions held between January-June 2016 with almost 2,000 participants. Areas of training include airport procedures and formalities; legal and cultural orientation in destination countries and remittance-sending processes. While the Government also conducts these training sessions, they are usually held centrally a few days before departure; by holding sessions at the local level, departing migrants have time to absorb the knowledge and gain greater confidence. This has also been recognized by the Government, whereby District Employment and Manpower Offices (DEMO) and Technical Training Centres (TTCs) are creating space to work jointly by providing training venues. Specific health and life skills training sessions have also been held for female migrants to educate and coach women on their rights; potential hazards and recourse measures, including returning to Bangladesh. Between April-June 2016, 100 women have received the training, of which almost 50 percent have migrated. There are also cases of women who, following participation at the health and life skills course, have decided not to pursue migration, in spite of having invested initial funds in securing a passport, completing medical checkups and other necessary procedures. This points to the importance of providing continuous counseling and support to potential migrants so as to reduce, as far as possible, the numbers of migration failures. BRAC is in the process of signing Memoranda of Understanding with two private technical training institutions2 to provide