Document of The World Bank FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Public Disclosure Authorized Report No: ICR00005416
IMPLEMENTATION COMPLETION AND RESULTS REPORT (IDA-52740)
ON A
Public Disclosure Authorized CREDIT
IN THE AMOUNT OF SDR 40.1 MILLION
(US$60 MILLION EQUIVALENT)
TO THE
REPUBLIC OF BENIN
FOR THE Public Disclosure Authorized BENIN CITIES SUPPORT PROJECT
June 16, 2021
Urban, Resilience And Land Global Practice Africa West Region
Public Disclosure Authorized
CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS
(Exchange Rate Effective {Dec 10, 2020})
Currency Unit = CFAF FCFA 585.95= US$1 US$ 0.7803 = SDR 1
FISCAL YEAR July 1 - June 30
Regional Vice President: Ousmane Diagana Country Director: Coralie Gevers Regional Director: Simeon Kacou Ehui Practice Manager: Sylvie Debomy Task Team Leader: Brahim Ould Abdelwedoud ICR Main Contributor: Nahida Sinno
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
AGETUR Executing Agency for Urban Works (Agence d'Exécution des Travaux Urbains) CONAFIL National Local Finances Commission (Commission Nationale des Finances Locales) COVID-19 Coronavirus Disease-2019 CPF Country Partnership Framework CPS Country partnership Strategy ESIA Environmental and Social Impact Assessment ESMF Environmental and Social Management Framework FADeC Municipal Development Fund (Fonds d'Appui au Développment des Municipalités) FM Financial Management GoB Government of Benin IDA International Development Association IGAA General Administrative Affairs Inspector (Inspection Générale des Affaires Administratives) IGF General Finance Inspector (Inspection Générale des Finances) IFTS Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer System IRR Internal Rate of Return ISC Inter-ministerial Steering Committee ISR Implementation Status and Results Report M&E Monitoring & Evaluation MEHU Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban Development MOD Delegated Contract Management (Maîtrise d'Ouvrage Déléguée) MTR Mid-Term Review NDC Neighborhood Development Committees NPV Net Present Value PAG Government Action Program (Programme d’Actions du Gouvernement) PAURAD Benin Cities Support Project (Projet d'Aménagement Urbain et d'Appui à la Décentralisation) PDO Project Development Objective PC2D National Program for Growth and Sustainable Development (Programme de Croissance pour le Développement Durable) PMU Project Management Unit PONADEC National Decentralization and Deconcentration Policy (Politique Nationale de Décentralisation et de Déconcentration) PVBCR Present Value Cost Benefit Ratio RAP Resettlement Action Plan RPF Resettlement Policy Framework ToC Theory of Change TS Technical Secretariat
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DATA SHEET ...... 1 I. PROJECT CONTEXT AND DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES ...... 5 A. CONTEXT AT APPRAISAL AND THEORY OF CHANGE ...... 5 B. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES DURING IMPLEMENTATION ...... 9 II. OUTCOME ...... 10 A. RELEVANCE OF PDOs ...... 10 B. ACHIEVEMENT OF PDOs (EFFICACY) ...... 11 C. EFFICIENCY ...... 19 D. JUSTIFICATION OF OVERALL OUTCOME RATING ...... 20 E. OTHER OUTCOMES AND IMPACTS ...... 20 III. KEY FACTORS THAT AFFECTED IMPLEMENTATION AND OUTCOME ...... 21 A. KEY FACTORS DURING PREPARATION ...... 21 B. KEY FACTORS DURING IMPLEMENTATION ...... 22 IV. BANK PERFORMANCE, COMPLIANCE ISSUES, AND RISK TO DEVELOPMENT OUTCOME .. 23 A. QUALITY OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION (M&E) ...... 23 B. ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND FIDUCIARY COMPLIANCE ...... 25 C. BANK PERFORMANCE ...... 26 D. RISK TO DEVELOPMENT OUTCOME ...... 27 V. LESSONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 28 ANNEX 1. RESULTS FRAMEWORK AND KEY OUTPUTS ...... 30 ANNEX 2. BANK LENDING AND IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT/SUPERVISION ...... 39 ANNEX 3. PROJECT COST BY COMPONENT ...... 41 ANNEX 4. EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS ...... 42 ANNEX 5. BORROWER, CO-FINANCIER AND OTHER PARTNER/STAKEHOLDER COMMENTS ... 51 ANNEX 6. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS ...... 52 The World Bank Benin Cities Support Project / PAURAD (P122950)
DATA SHEET
BASIC INFORMATION
Product Information Project ID Project Name
P122950 Benin Cities Support Project / PAURAD
Country Financing Instrument
Benin Investment Project Financing
Original EA Category Revised EA Category
Partial Assessment (B) Partial Assessment (B)
Organizations
Borrower Implementing Agency
Republic of Benin Ministry of Environment, Housing & Urban Dev.
Project Development Objective (PDO)
Original PDO The Project's development objective is to increase access to urban services and improve urban management in selected cities of Benin.
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FINANCING
Original Amount (US$) Revised Amount (US$) Actual Disbursed (US$) World Bank Financing
60,000,000 60,000,000 56,125,844 IDA-52740 Total 60,000,000 60,000,000 56,125,844
Non-World Bank Financing 0 0 0 Borrower/Recipient 0 0 0 Total 0 0 0 Total Project Cost 60,000,000 60,000,000 56,125,844
KEY DATES
Approval Effectiveness MTR Review Original Closing Actual Closing 21-Jun-2013 06-Jun-2014 19-Jan-2018 30-Jun-2020 31-Dec-2020
RESTRUCTURING AND/OR ADDITIONAL FINANCING
Date(s) Amount Disbursed (US$M) Key Revisions 29-Jun-2019 41.83 Change in Results Framework Change in Disbursements Arrangements Change in Institutional Arrangements Change in Financial Management 27-May-2020 51.04 Change in Loan Closing Date(s)
KEY RATINGS
Outcome Bank Performance M&E Quality Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory Substantial
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RATINGS OF PROJECT PERFORMANCE IN ISRs
Actual No. Date ISR Archived DO Rating IP Rating Disbursements (US$M) 01 21-Dec-2013 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0
02 09-Jun-2014 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 0
03 10-Jan-2015 Satisfactory Satisfactory 1.78
04 26-May-2015 Satisfactory Satisfactory 14.55
05 24-Dec-2015 Satisfactory Satisfactory 14.55
06 28-Jun-2016 Satisfactory Satisfactory 28.66
07 27-Dec-2016 Satisfactory Satisfactory 33.13
08 28-Jun-2017 Satisfactory Satisfactory 36.65
09 04-Dec-2017 Satisfactory Satisfactory 38.72
10 19-Jun-2018 Satisfactory Satisfactory 39.44
11 13-Dec-2018 Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 39.70
12 22-May-2019 Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 39.70
13 30-Dec-2019 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 45.09
14 29-Jun-2020 Satisfactory Satisfactory 51.04
15 17-Dec-2020 Satisfactory Satisfactory 56.13
SECTORS AND THEMES
Sectors Major Sector/Sector (%)
Public Administration 19 Central Government (Central Agencies) 14 Sub-National Government 5
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Social Protection 27 Social Protection 27
Transportation 27 Urban Transport 27
Water, Sanitation and Waste Management 27 Other Water Supply, Sanitation and Waste 27 Management
Themes Major Theme/ Theme (Level 2)/ Theme (Level 3) (%) Public Sector Management 18
Public Administration 18
Administrative and Civil Service Reform 4
Municipal Institution Building 14
Urban and Rural Development 82
Urban Development 82
Services and Housing for the Poor 82
ADM STAFF
Role At Approval At ICR
Regional Vice President: Makhtar Diop Ousmane Diagana
Country Director: Madani M. Tall Coralie Gevers
Director: Jamal Saghir Simeon Kacou Ehui
Practice Manager: Alexandre Edouard Bakalian Sylvie Debomy
Task Team Leader(s): Kwabena Amankwah-Ayeh Brahim Ould Abdelwedoud
ICR Contributing Author: Nahida Sinno sho
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I. PROJECT CONTEXT AND DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES
A. CONTEXT AT APPRAISAL AND THEORY OF CHANGE
Context
1. Urban population in Benin has been growing rapidly since the year 2000. Between 2000 and 2019, the total urban population increased from 2.6 to 5.6 million bringing the urbanization rate up from 38.3 to 47.9 percent. The continuous influx of rural migrants towards urban areas, starting the year 2000, has led to the emergence of small and medium-sized cities mostly located in the Southern part of the country as well as around Parakou, Abomey in the center and Bohicon in the North. At appraisal, the urban transition process was underway. The urban annual growth rate surpassed the overall national population growth rate (5 percent per annum vs. 3.5 percent respectively) and approximately 41 percent of the total population were urban dwellers with half of this population living in the three main cities of Cotonou, Porto Novo, and Parakou.
2. Rapid urbanization was not accompanied by a commensurate increase in urban infrastructure and service delivery. In 2010, 70 percent of urban population lived in slums. Most rural-urban migrants ended up in already densely populated and poorly serviced areas, further straining available infrastructure. Municipalities struggled to provide adequate services in sanitation, waste management, water supply, roads maintenance and curbing urban air pollution, especially for the urban poor (see figure 1). The lack of a sound urban development framework resulted in the proliferation of informal settlements in high risk areas, prone to seasonal flooding. In 2010, Benin was affected by the worst flooding in nearly half a century. The 2010 World Bank Post Disaster Needs Assessment for Benin reported that the 2010 flood seriously damaged 278 schools, destroyed more than 50,000 houses and left 150,000 people, most of which living in urban areas, without shelter.
Figure 1. Service levels in 2013 from household data
Source: The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme
3. Aside from the pressing need to manage rapid urbanization, the Government of Benin (GoB) was facing challenges related to its decentralization efforts. Benin embarked on its decentralization reforms in the 1990s with the wave of decentralization that started in Africa between the late 1980s and early 1990s. With the promulgation of Law No. 097-029 of 15 January 1999, a wide range of competencies were devolved to all 77 municipalities in the country,
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including elementary education, economic development, transport, drainage, environment, health and social goods, tourism, security and marketplace management. In this context, GoB launched the National Decentralization and Deconcentration Policy (Politique Nationale de Décentralisation et de Déconcentration - PONADEC) a 10-year strategy (2009-2019) aimed at creating the institutional conditions for broad and sustainable development based on coordinated local governance, transparency, and municipal empowerment. As part of this initiative, an intergovernmental fiscal transfer system (Fonds d'Appui au Développement des Municipalités - FADeC) was set up in 2008 to strengthen fiscal decentralization. At appraisal, at that stage of its early decentralization efforts, GoB had recognized the need to continue to : (a) build the capacity of municipalities to fulfill the responsibilities delegated to them and continue to increase the amounts of resources transferred to them; (b) strengthen the processes for citizen and community participation in the planning, management and monitoring of local service delivery; and (c) ensure that sectoral ministries devolve service responsibility to municipalities.
4. The Benin’s City Support Project (Projet d’Aménagement Urbain et d’Appui à la Décentralisation - PAURAD) came as part of an effort to reorient World Bank support towards improving urban management in alignment with GoB priorities including increasing access to urban services and strengthening the institutional capacity for urban management more broadly. The World Bank had supported GoB in the urban sector through three successive operations (1993-2012). These focused on much needed infrastructure and capacity building for a subset of municipalities in the initial step of administrative decentralization. PAURAD complemented these and existing World Bank support provided through the Decentralized Community-Driven Services Project (Projet de Services Décentralisés Conduits par les Communautés – PSDCC) that focused on promoting greater fiscal decentralization through more predictable FADeC transfers to municipalities.
5. With an IDA credit in the amount of US$60 million, PAURAD adopted a two-pronged phased approach. It entailed: (a) reducing urban service deficiencies in ten municipalities1— by delivering infrastructure with the support of a competitively selected delegated contract management (Maîtrise d’Ouvrage Déléguée – MOD)2, while (b) deepening decentralization reforms and building capacities of key stakeholders playing a central role in urban local governance. PAURAD provided beneficiary municipalities with a roadmap that helps them build capacities to implement investments directly by the project’s midterm review (MTR). In fact, following a joint review by the GoB and the World Bank, as well as a municipal capacity assessment, the MTR that took place in January 2018 confirmed the transfer of project implementation to eight out of ten municipalities3. This took effect after the first restructuring of the project in January 2019. The project was restructured a second time only to extend its closing date by 6 months to December 31, 2020 due to implementation challenges faced in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
6. The project was a steppingstone in moving toward more decentralized urban management. At appraisal, the project was an integral part of the FY13-17 Benin Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) (Report Number: 75774-BJ). It was also in full alignment with the 2011 World Bank Africa Regional Strategy (Report Number: 59761), which supported good governance and decentralized investments for improved service delivery.
1 The selected cities were ten municipalities out of the 77 municipalities of Benin—namely Abomey, Abomey-Calavi, Bohicon, Comè, Cotonou, Kandi, Lokossa, Parakou, Porto-Novo and Sèmè-Podji. At appraisal, the choice of the ten municipalities was made to ensure equitable distribution of urban development support across the territory. The ten municipalities were assessed as having location, historical and socio-cultural heritage, population concentration and infrastructural endowments that would contribute to better management of rapid urbanization in Benin. 2 That was awarded to the executing agency for urban works (Agence d’Exécution des Travaux Urbains - AGETUR). 3 The municipal capacity assessment carried out at MTR concluded that all ten municipalities were able to implement their investments directly. However, Cotonou and Porto-Novo did not benefit from the performance-based tranche as per project design, because these bigger municipalities were already directly implementing works and a learning need was not identified.
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Theory of Change (Results Chain)
7. The project adopted an incremental approach to strengthening municipal capacities while still delivering on the pressing need for urban service delivery amid an urban transition. A Theory of Change (ToC) was not a requirement during preparation but one was developed for the purpose of this report (see figure 2).
Figure 2. PAURAD Theory of Change, Components A, B and C
Project Development Objectives (PDO)
8. The PDO as defined in the financing agreement and Project Appraisal Document (PAD) was to: “increase access to urban services and improve urban management in selected cities in Benin”. The PDO remained the same throughout the project.
Key Expected Outcomes and Outcome Indicators
9. At appraisal, the key expected outcome indicators related to the first PDO sub-objective of increasing access to urban services were:
- “Direct project beneficiaries (number), of which female (percentage)” - “Number of additional people in participating cities' urban areas protected from seasonal flooding” - “Number of additional people in participating cities with improved access to all season-roads within 500-meter range under project”
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10. At appraisal, the key expected outcome indicators related to the second PDO sub-objective of improving urban management were:
- “Number of additional operational Neighborhood Development Committees (NDC) formed” - “Number of additional municipalities disclosing annual budgets” - “Percentage growth of FADeC funds transferred to communes”
11. Changes to outcome indicators were made as part of the first restructuring that emerged after the MTR, as described in Section I.B. In summary, five indicators were dropped including one at PDO level (see annex 6.1).
Components
12. The project comprised three components that remained the same throughout the project lifetime.
Component A: Service Delivery Improvement through infrastructure rehabilitation, maintenance, and expansion (Estimated adjusted for exchange rate changes: IDA US$ 47.2 million equivalent/ Actual adjusted for exchange rate: IDA US$ 48.7 million equivalent)4
13. This Component sought to support the improvement of infrastructure service delivery through rehabilitation and expansion of urban infrastructure in ten municipalities. The selection of subprojects was based on the development plans of beneficiary municipalities. Examples of these sub-projects were improving urban drainage systems, paving of some strategic urban roads, water supply, sanitation facilities, covered local markets, rehabilitation of some cultural assets among others. This component was structured around two tranches – a first tranche5 executed under the supervision of the MOD and a performance-based6 tranche implemented directly by the eight municipalities following the MTR.
Component B: Municipal Management and Deepening Decentralization (Estimated adjusted for exchange rate changes: IDA US$ 4.8 million equivalent / Actual adjusted for exchange rate: IDA US$ 4.6 million equivalent)
14. Component B sought to improve urban governance and municipal management at the municipal/city level while supporting central Government's decentralization efforts including building capacity for monitoring and evaluating the formula-based intergovernmental fiscal transfer system. This component financed: (a) training, and capacity building of municipalities (not limited to the ten beneficiary municipalities), in particular in procurement, project management, financial management (FM), social and environmental safeguards design and implementation, monitoring and evaluation and disaster management; (b) capacity building and technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of the National Local Finances Commission (Commission Nationale des Finances Locales – CONAFIL) to fulfill its core oversight function over FADeC; (c) studies, training and support for enhancing fiscal collection at the municipal level to strengthen the fiscal base of municipalities; and (d) purchase of equipment.
4 The loan was in SDR. The US$ 60 million included in the PAD were calculated using the exchange rate at appraisal. As presented in the datasheet, actual disbursements amounted to US$ 56.13 million using the historic exchange rate on the day of each disbursement. To allow for a sound comparison, estimated and actual amounts were recalculated using the exchange rate of June 10, 2021. For more details please refer to Annex 3, which reflects a disbursement rate of 99.85 percent as shown in Client Connection. 5 Referred to as firm tranche in project documentation. 6 Referred to as the optional tranche in project documentation.
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Component C: Institutional Strengthening, Capacity Building, Monitoring & Evaluation and Project Management (Estimated adjusted for exchange rate changes: IDA US$ 5.8 million equivalent / Actual adjusted for exchange rate: IDA US$ 4.5 million equivalent)
15. Component C sought to provide: (a) all the entities involved in the implementation of the PAURAD with better supervision and monitoring of municipal development with specialized training to the municipality and central government officials working on the Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer System (IFTS)7, and (b) support in the area of project management and monitoring and evaluation of results.
B. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES DURING IMPLEMENTATION
Revised PDOs and Outcome Targets
16. The PDO remained unchanged. After the first restructuring, three end targets at PDO level were revised: - “Direct project beneficiaries” end-target was increased from 95,000 to 900,000 - “Number of additional people in participating cities’ urban areas protected from seasonal flooding” end-target was increased from 40,000 to 151,000 - “Number of additional people with improved access to all-season roads within 500-meter range under project” end-target was increased from 60,000 to 315,000
Revised PDO Indicators
17. Following the restructuring, one PDO level indicator was dropped while another one was revised.
- “Number of additional Operational Neighborhood Development Committees (NDC) formed”. NDCs were ad-hoc structures created under previous donor-financed projects supporting the decentralization process that had no budget to operate. Although previously formed NDCs were helpful in getting communities engaged in the consultation processes at the onset of the project, project activities did not support the creation of such new committees and the indicator was dropped following the MTR. - “FADeC funds transferred to communes” was reformulated as “Percentage of resources from the optional tranche of PAURAD transferred to beneficiary communes through FADeC” to report specifically on PAURAD funds transferred through the FADeC earmarked window8 (see annex 6.8), as opposed to general FADeC funds transfer not directly supported by the project. At appraisal and MTR, limited resources were flowing through the FADeC window earmarked for investment in basic service delivery, primarily due to the reluctance of sectoral ministries to continue to transfer responsibility of decentralized services to municipalities. This indicator captured transfer of funds from the Ministry of Territorial Development and Sustainable Development to municipalities through the FADeC earmarked window (i.e. a step towards deeper fiscal decentralization).
Revised Components
18. The project components were not revised throughout the project duration.
7 The national IFTS in Benin is FADeC. The ICR uses these terms interchangeably. 8 FADeC is sub-divided into several windows one of which providing funds earmarked for investments by sectoral ministries.
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Other Changes
19. Other changes introduced by the first restructuring after the MTR were adjustment to: (a) FM, flow of funds, disbursement estimates, as well as disbursement and institutional arrangements to allow direct project implementation by municipalities—the project opened a transit account to make possible the transfer of allocations into the existing FADeC accounts of each of the eight beneficiary municipalities; and (b) the results framework was revised following the restructuring as the MTR identified some indicator repetition and inconsistencies with project activities, as well as the need to address intermediate indicator end-targets that were originally calculated using extrapolation.
Rationale for Changes and Their Implication on the Original Theory of Change
20. The changes introduced by the project restructuring after MTR improved linkages to the ToC by increasing targets associated with specific indicators and adjusting the disbursement scheme to allow for funds to be directly available to municipalities. Since the PDO itself was not changed, these changes to project design helped to strengthen the link between activities and the desired outcomes.
II. OUTCOME
Assessment of Relevance of PDOs and Rating
A. RELEVANCE OF PDOs
21. The relevance of the PDO is rated High, given that the project was and remained extremely relevant throughout its duration to both the GoB’s priorities and the two World Bank country partnership programs under implementation. The PDO remains highly relevant to a country context characterized by rapid urbanization and a need for improved governance. The project supported the country’s national decentralization policy – PONADEC (2009-2019)9, which sought to empower and define the roles and responsibilities of all the actors involved in decentralization. It also supported the operationalization of Pillar 7 of the 2018-2021 National Program for Growth and Sustainable Development (Programme de Croissance pour le Développement Durable - PC2D), which seeks to promote balanced and sustainable development across the national territory. Both strategies underscore the importance of building capacity at the municipal level. The project built on three previous World Bank operations in the urban sector in Benin, which gradually reinforced the capacities of a larger number of municipalities laying the ground for deeper decentralization reforms— starting by three municipalities in the first operation then six in the third operation and finally ten with PAURAD. The 2020 coronavirus pandemic brought to light the relevance of the PAURAD’s objective and revealed the pressing need to continue to increase access to urban basic services through the provision of adequate infrastructure that improve cities' livability. The pandemic highlighted the need to think about climate-related investments in essential amenities like transport, sanitation facilities, and public and green spaces, as part of a city system rather than on a stand-alone basis.
22. At the time of project approval, the project was an integral part of Pillar 2 of the Benin CPS FY13-17 (Report Number: 75774-BJ) related to “improving service delivery and social inclusion”. During implementation, the project continued to be extremely relevant to the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Benin FY18–FY23 (Report Number: 123031-BJ). Specifically, it is in alignment with its Focus Area 3 on ‘increasing resilience and reducing climate-related vulnerability’ under Objective 7 that seeks to strengthen the impetus for decentralization, enhance predictability of
9 http://conafil.org/attachments/article/10/PONADEC.pdf
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resource flows to municipalities and build resilience at the community level. The project was also fully in alignment with and contributed to the 2011 World Bank Africa Regional Strategy. Some of PAURAD longer-term outcomes such as more sustainable urban development as well as competitive and productive municipalities are recognized, under Pillar One of the World Bank Africa Regional Strategy, as key drivers of wealth and job creation for the region. By improving urban living conditions, the project continues to be relevant to the World Bank’s Western and Central Africa Region Priorities 2021-2025, specifically to goal number 2 “remove the bottlenecks that prevent firms from creating more and better jobs”, which supports accelerated productivity growth through stronger agglomeration economies and more liveable cities. The Project contributed to addressing urban vulnerabilities and better public service delivery, both of which align with the World Bank’s twin goals.
B. ACHIEVEMENT OF PDOs (EFFICACY)
Assessment of Achievement of Each Objective/Outcome
23. The evaluation of the objectives/outcomes relied on five sources of evidence: (a) project documentation and regular reporting (e.g., project appraisal document, project papers, aide-mémoires, Implementation Status Reports (ISRs)); (b) technical audit carried out by an independent consultant (annex 6.7); (c) GoB’s completion report which included the findings of a beneficiary assessment carried out by an independent consultant at project closure10; (d) two municipal capacity assessments carried out as part of the project (annex 6.3); (e) data on the 77 municipalities from the CONAFIL; and (f) interviews with previous task team leaders, the MOD, Project Management Unit (PMU) and other team members.
24. The project restructurings did not introduce major changes to the project scope, the ICR hence uses an integrated evaluation as opposed to a split evaluation. The first restructuring that followed the MTR dropped a main PDO indicator, increased numerical targets11, and to allow direct implementation of project activities by municipalities as per the project original design, made minor adjustments to FM, flow of funds, disbursement and institutional arrangements that were not foreseen in the original design. The drop of the PDO indicator is not considered substantive and thus does not trigger a split evaluation as explained in paragraph 17. The second restructuring was requested to change the closing date only, following the coronavirus pandemic that slowed down the pace of project implementation.
25. The project achieved all its five PDO targets. It met or exceeded all but one intermediate result indicators. The following table summarizes results and their achievement relative to their targets, with further detail provided in this section. A number of targets were revised upward following the first restructuring—as (a) conservative targets set at appraisal given that only part of the investments financed by the project were identified at the time; (b) change in data
10 GoB made several visits throughout Benin to sites with completed infrastructure. The World Bank team was not able to join these field visits given the COVID-19 pandemic but reviewed the studies of the works completed under the project, to ensure that the works were delivered to good standards. The works by the MOD were well advanced before the pandemic and the World Bank team was able to see results on the ground. The works implemented by municipalities directly were of good standards, based on pictures shared by the GoB. Further verification of the achieved results is beyond the scope this ICR and would require a full-scale evaluation. 11 During preparation, targets were estimated based on a first portfolio of municipal investments identified, which mostly came from the beneficiary municipalities of a previous World Bank operation Second Decentralized City Management Project (PGDU II - P082725). Investments in the first portfolio focused on continuing the drainage systems built under PGUD II that terminated at outskirts of municipalities, in areas abandoned after previous flooding and where few people lived. For the subsequent portfolio of investments identified with unallocated funds and exchange gains rate, municipalities prioritized streetlighting in heavily dense areas instead of flood control, which was not anticipated in the appraisal targets. This shift in investment type contributed to the significant increase in the numbers of beneficiary. Another element that contributed to setting conservative targets at appraisal was relying on PGUD II-unit cost, at a time building materials costs were much higher in Benin. The later changes to the regulatory framework in the country enabled lower priced materials (e.g., steel and cement) to flow in from Nigeria.
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collection methods (shift from extrapolation based on projections from the 2013 census to statistical surveys using empirical data collection for project beneficiaries); and (c) notable progress made by the time of MTR. The need for restructuring to reflect increased project achievements in the results framework was determined early on by the task team12 and it was agreed that it would be done as part of MTR. Restructuring end targets were still exceeded in part because of exogenous factors such as: (a) urban population growth (continued rural-urban migration) most of which located in districts/parts within the urban centers which had received improved urban and social services including from PAURAD (please see paragraph 1); and (b) foreign exchange rate gains that allowed to fund additional interventions in the last year of project implementation. Table 1: Project Results Achievements
PDO and intermediate indicators Original Restructuring Number % achieved end target end target achieved PDO INDICATORS TO INCREASE ACCESS TO URBAN SERVICES IN SELECTED CITIES IN BENIN Direct Project Beneficiaries (Number) 95,000 900,000 936,975 104 Female Beneficiaries (%) 51 51 51 100 Additional people participating in cities’ urban areas protected 40,000 151,000 369,477 245 from seasonal flooding (Number) Additional people with improved access to all-season roads 60,000 315,000 378,352 120 within 500-meter range under project (Number) TO IMPROVE URBAN MANAGEMENT IN SELECTED CITIES IN BENIN Municipalities disclosing annual budgets (Number) 10 10 10 100 Resources from the optional tranche of PAURAD transferred N/A 100 99.4 99.4 to beneficiary communes through FADeC (%) INTERMEDIATE INDICATORS BY COMPONENTS COMPONENT A: SERVICE DELIVERY IMPROVEMENT THROUGH INFRASTRUCTURE REHABILITATION MAINTENANCE & EXPANSION Roads rehabilitated Non-rural (km) 8 8* 33.82 423 Length of drainage and anti-erosion flood reduction works 4 4* 8.4 210 rehabilitated or constructed (km) Additional population with access to other basic services 25,000 246,000 250,939 102 (Number) Person-days of employment created (Number) 2.5 14,200 156,000 1,099 Of which female (%) 10 10 3.8 38 COMPONENT B: MUNICIPAL MANAGEMENT AND DEEPENING DECENTRALIZATION Cities generating, disclosing, and discussing quarterly progress N/A 10 10 100 reports on their annual budget (Number) Cities dedicating at least 15 percent of municipal revenue to N/A 8 10 125 infrastructure maintenance (Number) COMPONENT C: INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING, CAPACITY BUILDING, M&E PROJECT MANAGEMENT Municipality officials trained in fiduciary, safeguards, project 40 40 297 743 management and engineering services (Number) Central government officials trained in IFTS management and 12 12 58 483 financial auditing of municipalities (Number) Cities completing and updating assets inventory yearly 10 10 10 100 (Number)
12 As documented in the September/October 2017 mission aide-mémoire.
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Cities with a manual of administrative and financial 10 10 10 100 management procedures in use (Number) IFTS formula agreed between Central Government and Yes Yes Yes 100 Municipalities and put to use (Yes/No) Summary of Target Achievement Rating Rating PDO Indicators Intermediate Indicators Total Fully achieved (100%+) 5 11 16 Substantially achieved (85%+) 1 0 1 Partially achieved (65-84%) 0 0 0 Not achieved (less than 64%) 0 1 1 % Surpassed 83 92 89 % Surpassed and substantially achieved 100 92 94 * End targets for roads and drainage were not revised upward following the first restructuring although most investments were identified by MTR.
Outcome 1: “to increase access to urban services in selected cities
26. The efficacy of Outcome 1 is assessed Substantial as measured by project indicators and supporting evidence. PAURAD fully met all the main PDO targets related to the first sub-objective of increasing access to urban services, as set out in table 1. All ten municipalities were able to increase their infrastructure assets and to improve service delivery, as prioritized in their municipal development plans. To illustrate, on average, PAURAD-financed investments over the project duration were equivalent to 6 times the average annual municipal investment executed from 2013-2019 (see annex 6.6). The project tangibly increased access to urban services, including drainage, transport, education as well as generated jobs through labor intensive works. This was reinforced by positive feedback from beneficiaries. The closing beneficiary assessment carried out by an independent consultant on a sample of 2,500 households living within a radius of 500 meters of project interventions, indicated that 78 percent of interviewed beneficiaries were satisfied with the quality of improved services in the ten municipalities.
27. Some 936,975 residents benefited directly from the infrastructure investments. The target set at appraisal was revised upward during the restructuring following MTR, to reflect the change in data collection method, and increased project investments in roads and drainage infrastructure than originally planned - resulting in increased results. Despite the ten-fold increase in the original target following the first project restructuring, the revised target was still exceeded by 4 percent (see explanation paragraph 25). As a result of the project, 81 percent of them were satisfied or very satisfied with the usefulness of the works (see table 2 and annex 6.2 for more details). Table 2. Beneficiaries’ satisfaction with PAURAD investments Level of beneficiaries’ satisfaction Quality Choice of Functionality Accessibility Usefulness (%) of works investment site of works of works of works COTONOU 95.8 89.7 94.9 93.5 96.3 ABOMEY CALAVI 85.2 90.6 62.1 64.0 66.0 SEME PODJI 80.3 90.1 74.2 62.4 69.5 PORTO NOVO 65.1 70.6 35.8 68.2 68.6 COME 69.4 82.7 77.2 81.3 80.8 LOKOSSA 66.4 78.2 74.8 79.2 76.5 ABOMEY 94.5 96.0 90.8 93.0 92.6 BOHICON 93.3 98.4 76.3 85.5 89.5
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PARAKOU 69.9 74.3 69.4 73.2 75.4 KANDI 74.1 80.1 87.0 89.4 92.0 Mean (not exact because not all 77.8 84 73.6 79.2 80.5 variables are presented in this table) Source: Beneficiary assessment carried out by an independent consultant at project closure.
28. Going beyond the main outcome, the project successfully delivered wide-coverage access improvements in municipal services13 to address needs of urban communities through 135 works and equipment executed under the supervision of the MOD and 44 small-scale works implemented directly by municipalities (see annex 6.4). These were all under the management of the PMU, representing the GoB in the project.
• Roads improvements. Before the project, roads in the ten municipalities were disconnected/disjointed or needed rehabilitation, impeding people’s access to markets, schools and community facilities. The project helped provide improved mobility for citizens. It addressed major flooding issues in segments of roads that were resulting in substantial traffic disruption or detours in beneficiary municipalities. Some 33.82 kilometers of roads were rehabilitated providing 378,352 people with access to all-season roads. Evidence confirms that the drains constructed along some of these roads have helped to reduce localized flooding during the rainy season, in addition to positive effects of the removal of large quantity of debris, especially in markets. The target related to the road indicator was slightly exceeded given additional roads works carried out in 2020 with the foreign exchange gains14, which aimed to provide better access and an integrated service delivery of investments financed by PAURAD. • Solar streetlights. Before the project, few roads had streetlights, leading to road accidents, sense of insecurity, and lack of evening activities. A total of 1,117 solar street lighting poles (23 kilometers) were installed towards the end of project implementation and still operational. Installing these new poles was prioritized in areas to facilitate access to social infrastructure at night and in areas where street vendors, especially women were present. Introducing solar powered lighting constitutes an important opportunity to leapfrog carbon-intensive development and position the municipalities well in terms of sustainable goals. It allows to create safer streets and more jobs. More specifically, it will help municipalities to generate savings on future street lighting bills and allow shops and vendors to operate for longer hours. Benefits are even more pronounced in settlements not wired to conventional electricity and for women in particular – better-lit streets make it more possible for them to work and navigate neighborhoods at night.
• Drainage / flood control. Some 8.4 kilometers of primary drainage network and one water catchment basin were put in place benefiting 369,477 people in addition to those already within close proximity to rehabilitated all-season roads. The foreign exchange gains contributed to increasing the number of kilometers of primary network delivered, benefitting an increased number of beneficiaries than originally envisaged. Moreover, drainage works initially led to many people moving back to previously flooded neighborhoods to reclaim their lands and caused increased population settlements at such neighborhoods. These drainage investments constitute considerable improvements to the provision of critical infrastructure needed to help prevent recurring flooding in cities in Benin. In this regard, project design allowed flexibility and an ability to respond to unforeseen events (e.g., a public space/playground was created following a flood event in a flood prone area). This is reflected in a high level of satisfaction among
13 According to the beneficiary assessment carried out by an independent consultant at project closure. 14 Close to the initial project closure date, in December 2019, it was agreed to carried out additional works with the currency gains.
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beneficiaries –70 percent of whom agreed that there was no more flooding in their neighborhoods following the project interventions.
• Transport. One bus station (for local and regional traffic) was upgraded in Bohicon. These works along with the road investments were associated with improvement of traffic and easing home-to-work travel in the beneficiary municipality as reflected in the closing beneficiary assessment results.
• Education. Municipalities are mandated with the construction, equipment and maintenance of pre-schools and primary schools. Before the project, lessons were in some instances provided under the shade of trees. As part of the part of the project, 65 serviced classrooms (32 of which were implemented directly by municipalities), including toilets and ablution facilities were built. These improvements are believed to have had positive effects on school attendance (71 percent increase in beneficiary neighborhoods) as reflected in the closing beneficiary assessment results.
• Markets. Five local markets were rehabilitated including 38 hangars built. The respondents to the beneficiary assessment estimated that this contributed to an increase in: (a) market attendance by 56.6 percent, (b) sales volume by 73.3 percent, (c) number of clients by 70.5 percent, (d) the emergence of new sales outlets by 75.1 percent, and in (e) commercial exchanges between communities by 67.2 percent.
• Tourism. Three touristic sites (a temple, a palace, and three afro-Brazilian houses) were rehabilitated in two municipalities. Respondents to the beneficiary assessment estimated that this contributed to the increase in the number of tourists by 84 percent in one municipality and 40 percent in the other.
29. The project also contributed directly to increasing incomes and creating jobs, including those works that relied heavily on the use of manual labor. Over the seven-year period, a total of 156,000 person-days of employment were created under the project, nearly 11 times more what was foreseen by the revised target set following the first restructuring. The results recorded in the last ISR of December 2020 were far above the results recorded in the June 2020 ISR and far above the target of 14,200 person-days. The assessment carried out at closure revealed that the extrapolation projections: (a) led to underestimation of the number of jobs created by the works supervised by the MOD; and (b) could not have taken into account some works implemented directly by municipalities15 after MTR (such as high labor intensity solar street lighting works carried out towards the end of the project in all ten municipalities16). Of the total 156,000 person-days jobs created, only 3.8 percent were for women. This is well below the 10 percent original target and shows the shortcoming of the project to proactively attract women to carry out urban civil works. The low female participation in the implementation of the project’s high labor intensity works could be explained in part by the fact that women in urban areas, unlike women in rural areas, have access to year-long economic opportunities (such as small-scale retail or catering activities) that are more profitable alternatives of income generation and that are often perceived as less difficult and more attractive than labor-intensive public works programs.17
Outcome 2: “to improve urban management in selected cities”
30. The efficacy of Outcome 2 is assessed as Substantial, as overall, the project did improve urban management in the beneficiary municipalities. At project closure, all beneficiary municipalities were able to successfully deliver all
15 ISR archived in December 2020, page 8. 16 Borrower ICR, page 40. 17 Borrower ICR, page 7.
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investments directly implemented by them consistent with project design expectations with respect to the readiness of beneficiary municipalities at MTR. Overall, all technical and social and environmental safeguards requirements were met by the selected municipalities and works were completed in a timely fashion thanks to the capacity support provided by the PMU. The institutional outcomes could have been strengthened even more if: (a) consolidated further with national decentralization efforts using a unified single system (e.g., unified national audits/performance assessments); and (b) Components B and C further reinforced Component A (e.g., if learning-by-doing opportunities were offered to municipalities earlier on through small-scale works; performance-based allocation granted based on achieving a minimum score creating incentives for performance improvement for municipalities).
31. PAURAD met the two PDO indicators related to the second sub-objective of improving urban management, as set out in Table 1.
• All participating municipalities disclosed their budgets in the documentation room located within the municipalities. Before the project, none of the beneficiary municipalities disclosed their budgets. In 2021, not only the ten beneficiary municipalities continued to disclosed their budgets but all 77 municipalities in Benin now disclose their budgets and quarterly progress reports.18 Disclosing budgets and progress reports became a legal requirement to be fulfilled by all municipalities in 2015 following the project approval.
• Some 99.4 percent of the resources allocated to the performance-based tranche were disbursed through FADeC earmarked window in 2020. This target was not met at 100 percent because the final amount spent on public works contracts was lower than what was originally planned. Beyond the numbers, transiting PAURAD’s funds through the national fiscal transfer system in 2020 was a significant institutional change in terms of: (a) mainstreaming the IFTS; and (b) putting it to use by sectoral ministries to reinforce the trend toward fiscal decentralization. Following the first restructuring, boosted by capacity building activities delivered under the project, municipalities were able to: (a) budget accurately the needed infrastructure investments; and (b) oversee the procurement and implementation satisfactorily.
32. Two municipal capacity assessments carried by independent consultants showed significant improvements in the performance of municipalities in the areas of planning and budgeting, FM and revenue mobilization. The first assessment was conducted in 2017 in preparation for the MTR and the second at project closure in 2020. The scores measured achievement in the following areas: (a) Planning and budgeting; (b) Human resources and organization; (c) FM and revenue mobilization; (d) Procurement; (e) Infrastructure operations and maintenance (O&M); and (f) Transparency and Accountability. Municipalities saw their average performance scores increase from 58 to 69 percent in the span of three years with: (a) notable improvements in the area of planning and budgeting (12 percentage point increase from 2017 to 2020) and FM and revenue mobilization (27 percentage point increase); (b) acceptable performance levels in the areas of procurement and human resources and organization; (c) secondary cities outperforming the three largest cities (Parakou, Porto Novo and Cotonou); but (d) persistent difficulties in infrastructure operations and maintenance. The key achievements on the municipal capacity assessment are outlined in figure 3. Porto Novo and Sèmè Podji show lower scores in 2020 than in 2017, despite capacity building efforts provided, due to structural constraints.19
18 Interview with MOD staff and CONAFIL data. 19 Interview with MOD staff.
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Figure 3. Scores of Municipal Capacity Assessments
Scores of Municipal Capacity Assessments (per municipality)
100 83 85 78 76 66 74 70 69 73 66 65 64 63 55 53 52 47 44 50 45 50
0 ABOMEY ABOMEY BOHICON COME COTONOU KANDI LOKOSSA PARAKOU PORTO SEME PODJI CALAVI NOVO
Average Score 2017 Average Score 2020
Scores of Municipal Capacity Assessments (per performance area)
100 82 82 72 79 77 80 67 69 60 60 53 57 57 58 60 33 40 20 0 2017 2020 2017 2020 2017 2020 2017 2020 2017 2020 2017 2020 2017 2020 Planning and Human resources Public financial Procurement Infrastructure Transparency Average Budget and organization management and operations and and revenue maintenance Accountability mobilization
Source: Author based on results of the municipal capacity assessments carried out by an independent consultant.
33. A number of other activity results and intermediate indicators provide additional supporting evidence of the project’s contribution to improvements in urban management at the central and municipal levels. A number of tools were produced and put to use to deepen and operationalize decentralization reforms and improve local urban governance. In addition, central government officials and municipal staff were able to benefit from training and enhancement to the country’s decentralization framework.
• Use of an IFTS formula. Starting 2017, consistent with the results framework’s targets, GoB made the formula for the IFTS public on the website of the CONAFIL.20 The formula was applied to allocate to municipalities FADeC resources. To render the resource distribution process transparent and objective, the annual amounts allocated per municipality were adopted by ministerial orders (arrêtés) published on the website of the CONAFIL and Ministry of Economy and Finance.21
• Production of key urban management tools and studies used by municipalities and other stakeholders involved in local urban governance. PAURAD financed the development of: (a) ten training modules delivered by the Local Government Training Center (Centre de Formation pour l'Administration Locale – CeFAL); (b) a manual on local administrative and financial procedures; (c) two manuals on procurement procedures; (d)
20 http://conafil.org/index.php/2013-07-14-23-40-46/les-dotations 21 https://budgetbenin.bj/autres-documents-annexes/
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evaluations of the public FM system according to the PEFA framework (at the level of the ten municipalities); (e) two handbooks on decentralization; and (f) a guide on how to promote the local economy. The materials have been distributed to all 77 municipalities of Benin and served as a key reference in the training that is being provided by the CeFAL. New urban planning and management tools were also produced at the municipal level, namely: (a) stormwater management master plan studies for five municipalities; and (b) urban mobility plans for five other municipalities. These were produced in close collaboration with the municipalities and other stakeholders and were validated at the technical level. They are expected to guide future investments inscribed in the national and municipal development plans. Given that these documents were finalized just few months before project closure, it remains to be seen how they will be leveraged and what concrete contributions to local urban management they will have.
• Capacity building activities at the central and municipal levels. 68 central government staff were trained including officials of the public deconcentrated services and two national inspection institutions (Inspection Générale des Affaires Administratives – IGAA and Inspection Générale des Finances – IGF), on topics related to inter-communality, administrative and financial oversight. Several capacity building activities benefited all the municipalities in Benin. More specifically, municipal staff in charge of accounting and FM and tax collectors (Receveurs Percepteurs) in all 77 municipalities of Benin received training on maintaining satisfactory bookkeeping financed by the project. Around 297 of municipal staff trained in local taxation, FM, fiduciary issues, safeguards, project management, and engineering services by 2020. The ten participating municipalities received training in the maintenance of urban infrastructure and climate change and disaster risk management issues. The impact of these capacity building activities cannot yet be measured.
34. All ten municipalities adopted the practice of preparing and disclosing a quarterly budget execution progress reports starting in 2019. These were important results to help institute financial accountability that uses publicly accessible financial information as a mechanism beyond voting to hold the public services providers accountable. Not only the ten beneficiary municipalities continued this practice in 2021, but also the rest of the 67 municipalities in Benin adopted this good practice.22 There is room to improve financial accountability further if this key data is digitalized.
35. Appropriate operations and maintenance arrangement were put in place to ensure the sustainability of investments after project closure. As of project closure, all ten beneficiary municipalities had updated their asset inventory. Moreover, under Component B, municipalities were provided with the necessary equipment to maintain their assets acquired under Component A. All beneficiary municipalities allocated at least 15 percent of revenues for the maintenance of the infrastructure indicator in 2019 and 2020. By way of comparison, only five out of the 67 municipalities that did not benefit from PAURAD allocated 15 percent of their resources to O&M (7.5 percent vs. 100 percent for the PAURAD municipalities).23
Justification of Overall Efficacy Rating
36. Based on the evidence of project achievements in all results areas stated in this report and taking into account the findings, analysis by the PMU (including Government implementation report), and the conclusions of the beneficiary assessment the project has substantially achieved its PDO. As detailed above, it is clear there has been growth and enhancement in institutional capacity for planning, budgeting, FM, revenue mobilization, and improved infrastructure services in the cities participating in the PAURAD. Aside from direct beneficiaries, a wider group of city
22 CONAFIL data. 23 CONAFIL data.
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residents, including women, also benefited from the better circulation and economic opportunities enabled by these infrastructure investments. A few minor shortcomings included the need to: (a) take proactive measures to increase women participation in civil works implementation, (b) further align the project with the GoB’s national decentralization efforts; and (c) equipping municipalities with learning by doing opportunities early on this project. Thus, the overall efficacy is rated Substantial.
C. EFFICIENCY Assessment of Efficiency and Rating
37. A cost benefit analysis was prepared to estimate the economic rate of return of the Project, incorporating actual disbursement figures. Based on this ex-post analysis, the project is viable over 24 years, the project has a Net Present Value (NPV) of US$53.2 million discounted at 6 percent, an economic Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 20 percent and a Present Value Benefit-Cost ratio (PVBCR) of 2.1. The project has mainly funded public goods in terms of: (a) intangibles (capacity building, municipal budgeting, etc.); and (b) tangible investments –to protect flood-prone areas, increase all-weather access and improve the socioeconomic enabling environment in ten participating municipalities. An ex-ante financial analysis over 24 years was carried out for the institutional, urban management and capacity building although the latter are intangible public goods. The financial analysis produced a NPV of US$5 million, a positive economic IRR of 10 percent and a Present Value Benefit over Cost ratio of 1.5 while the ex-ante economic analysis yielded a NPV of US$84 million over 24 years, a positive economic IRR of 31 percent and a PVBCR of 11.24 Nonetheless, the detailed methodology was neither presented in the PAD nor recorded in other project documentations and filed in the system. Despite the COVID-19 constraints to carry out the needed onsite surveys for the ex-post economic analysis, the latter relied on alternative valuation methods such as the Hydro-meteorological Event-Effect function where the method is based on the Dose-Response approach as well as the measurement of socioeconomic benefits accruing from improved socioeconomic opportunities, as detailed in Annex 4. Calculated benefits on available data include: (a) prevented premature death, disease, and injuries; (b) avoided damages and averted lost opportunities associated with the reduction of city floods; (c) improved project management; and (d) socioeconomic value-added from the urban infrastructure and labor-intensive work. The ex-post results are therefore more reliable than the ones presented in the ex-ante analysis but are not quite as high as projected at appraisal.
38. The design and implementation of the project were mostly efficient, reflecting lessons learned from other World Bank projects; building on local experience and sector knowledge; leveraging ongoing GoB programs (PONADEC); and adjusting for exogenous (COVID-19) and endogenous factors (partial follow-up on social safeguard recommendations, delays). The project encountered an eight-month delay associated with the process of becoming effective— primarily due to the selection of the MOD that was subject to a procurement complaint.25 The phased approach adopted however helped achieve time gains — given that AGETUR as an experienced MOD, was able to bring strong support to the implementation of works that delivered substantial infrastructure outcomes while municipalities’ capacities were being bolstered to take over the second phase of the project. To illustrate, one year into implementation, 87 percent of the first round of works were completed and disbursement rate stood at 25 percent.26 The project continued to have a fast disbursement rate, reflecting high speed implementation (see paragraph 49), despite safeguards shortcomings. The project dealt with implementation slow down during 6 months because of a temporary hold on disbursement from late November 2017 to early May 2018, due to weak social safeguards due diligence. After the first restructuring, however, progress was made and implementation ratings for FM, safeguards,
24 This is most probably a typo in the PAD. 25 ISR archived in June 2014, page 2. 26 ISR archived in December 2015, page 3.
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procurement, and M&E were mostly satisfactory. In spite of a 12-month delay in the transfer of implementation arrangements following the MTR (please refer Section III.B for further information on delays), direct implementation by municipalities during the last 18 months of the project was successful and constituted an important step forward toward the process of transferring competencies from central government to municipalities in line with the existing legal decentralization framework. This was achieved without a perceived loss of power from central government27 and could not have been possible without the two phased approach adopted by the project. Other efficiency gains realized as a result of hiring the MOD, were that no additional local PMU antennas were created even if project activities were geographically dispersed across the country. The share of project management cost did not exceed 8 percent of the total envelop. MOD fees amounted to approximately 3.3 percent of the total envelop.
39. Considering the above, the overall efficiency of the project is rated Substantial.
D. JUSTIFICATION OF OVERALL OUTCOME RATING
40. Considering the rates assigned to the Relevance of the PDO (High), overall Efficacy (Substantial) and Efficiency (Substantial), the Overall Outcome is rated Satisfactory.
E. OTHER OUTCOMES AND IMPACTS Gender
41. The project benefited men and women equally. However, the project fell short on providing women with employment opportunities in carrying out works that are labor intensive on an equal basis. Women nonetheless were among the community members that participated and benefited from the urban services provision. They have seen improvements in terms of access to basic services, enhanced mobility and travel safety, as well as increased sales at markets, etc. The project results design could have been further strengthened by introducing a set of results indicators pertaining to women’s participation in the various capacity building activities for example. The project could have taken more proactive measures towards providing women with opportunities in carrying out the civil works with high labor intensity (see section V).
Institutional Strengthening
42. Institutional strengthening is an integral objective of the operation. Institutional efficiency was realized due to complementary relationship between the MOD and the PMU. Project direct implementation by municipalities that would not have been possible without the presence of the PMU. It allowed to save more than US$ 0.5 million in administrative cost over the project lifetime (saved fees from MOD hiring).
Poverty Reduction and Shared Prosperity
43. The project supported shared prosperity by enabling beneficiary municipalities to improve service delivery in situations where urban poverty was increasing. Urban poverty incidence was on the rise at appraisal—it had increased from 31.35 percent in 2011 to 35.83 percent in 2015.28 The project supported PONADEC, that set as one of its five key implementation priorities making the fight against poverty an integral part of decentralization policy. Furthermore, the formula for allocation of project funds considered the poverty index of the region in which the
27 Based on interview with previous TTL. 28 https://insae.bj/images/docs/insae-publications/annuelles/TBS/TBS%202016_final.pdf
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municipality resides (please see paragraph 51 on the formula application).29 As stated above, participants in the beneficiary assessment indicated increased business opportunities and jobs because of PAURAD investments. Some 87 percent respondents stated that road traffic improved thanks to the project. This is expected to have contributed to reduced business disruptions and motor vehicle repairs.
III. KEY FACTORS THAT AFFECTED IMPLEMENTATION AND OUTCOME
A. KEY FACTORS DURING PREPARATION
44. Project design was well informed, simple and included realistic objectives given the country context. PAURAD had an average performance overall, taking about 24.6 months from concept to first disbursement compared with Africa’s average (24 months), and World Bank average (24 months). Several factors of project preparation and design positively affected implementation. Studies were prepared to inform project design. These include studies related to the choice of the ten beneficiary municipalities that ensured spread of municipal service delivery and distribution of urban development support across the territory where the main urban population resides. At appraisal, baseline data on the beneficiary municipalities were presented including taxes collected, total revenues, lengths of paved roads and drainage etc. but an institutional baseline assessment was not undertaken. As described at MTR, the structure of Components B and C could have been further strengthened if their activities had been designed and implemented to reinforce Component A. In other words, capacity building efforts could have been more effective, if implementation of Component A investments and institutional strengthening activities of Component B and C were better integrated and not implemented in parallel at different speeds. The MTR brought a remedy to this issue, which is reflected in the results achieved under this subobjective. The results framework was also strengthened at MTR mainly due to the low targets set prior to final identification and analysis of investments.
45. Readiness for implementation. During project preparation, some of investments had technical studies already produced. This allowed to get started with civil works right after effectiveness for some of the investments, while studies were being conducted for the rest of the planned investments. Another factor that helped ensuring implementation readiness was the choice of hiring both a MOD and a PMU. Given that weak capacities at municipal level at the time, a decentralization framework and IFTS yet to be grounded in a sound institutional framework at appraisal, and availability of a strong private sector with good track record on implementation, it was deemed appropriate to have a competitively selected MOD until MTR. The PMU built on the experience of implementing capacity acquired through the World Bank-financed Second Decentralized City Management Project (P082725) and without it the transfer of project activities to municipalities to directly supervise and report to the GoB and World Bank could not have happened as planned under the two-phased approach.
46. Risk identification and mitigation measures. The overall project risk was rated substantial, primarily because of new municipalities who were not familiar with World Bank project implementation procedures were included in the project, which required close supervision to ensure timely and quality delivery of works. Mitigation measures (such as the hiring of the MOD) undertaken in this regard were useful during project implementation. The project overall safeguards risks were rated moderate, but then rated as substantial during implementation as some significant safeguards shortcomings caused some implementation slow-down (see section IV.B for further detail). Given that the risk of monitoring and sustainability was rated high, an appropriate plan for monitoring was put in
29 PAD, page 32.
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place with the recruitment of a M&E specialist as key team member of the PMU. The result was substantial for the project and the training delivered to the municipalities that benefitted from training under the project.
B. KEY FACTORS DURING IMPLEMENTATION
47. There were several positive and negative factors during project implementation.
48. Project activities led to substantial outputs and outcomes, as discussed in-depth in Section II.B. Successful implementation can be attributed to the combined efforts of World Bank team, PMU, the MOD and the ten municipalities. A high level of coordination between the PMU and the MOD along with both national and local governments was achieved. Overall, the PMU was able to assume this coordination role, although the MOD provided continued implementation support. The MOD was efficient except for the period between February 2018 and October 2018, where MOD activities slowed down substantially, after the GoB and World Bank decided to transfer the remaining infrastructure activities to municipalities following the MTR.
49. High disbursement of project funds. Project funds were disbursed ahead of schedule for the first tranche under Component A after effectiveness and until MTR. Specifically, at MTR, the project’s overall disbursement rate stood at 69 percent, while commitment stood at 78 percent; for Component A, 79 percent had been disbursed, and 84 percent committed (with 94 percent of the firm tranche, and 0 percent of the optional tranche); under Component B, 26 percent had been disbursed, and 42 percent committed; and Component C, 40 percent had been disbursed and 56 percent committed. This disbursement rate reflects the provision of infrastructure that was satisfactory in terms of both quality and timeliness, despite some issues with full social safeguard compliance.
50. Municipal capacity assessment was critical. It provided data on the ten municipalities and allowed to track progress on a rolling basis. It provided key lessons for the project during the implementation phase, which enabled changes to be made through an evidence-based lens. Its roll-out could have been further if: (a) aligned with the national performance evaluation / audits carried out by CONAFIL for example, and (b) a baseline assessment was carried out.
51. The review remained inconclusive as to how the formula to allocate funds to municipalities was applied under Component A. At appraisal, it was noted that a firm tranche which amounts to 75 percent of the proceeds of Component A (US$ 36.75 million) would be allocated for investments under the supervision of the MOD.30 The remainder 25 percent (US$ 12.25 million) would constitute the optional tranche reserved as a performance grant to well-performing municipalities as evaluated by the municipal capacity assessment at MTR. The project implementation manual adopted before project effectiveness indicated that investments identified by GoB based on the municipal development plans but did not refer to a formula (see annex 6.5 for final allocations per municipality). The actual allocation for the firm tranche was 93 percent (US$ 45.1 million) for the firm tranche and 7 percent (US$3.6 million) for the optional tranche. PAURAD’s capital investment per capita amounted to $30.2 versus an actual capital investment per capita by the municipalities amounting to $38.85 between 2013 and 2019. This speaks to the scale of PAURAD investments in comparison to municipal capital investment over the same period. It is worth noting that Bohicon received relatively higher allocation per capita, given that the collector and bus station investments required significant amount of resources. For Components B and C proceeds, the actual distribution of funds was
30 PAD, page 32 & October 2013 aide-mémoire p.20.
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done on a split basis of approximately 41 percent for municipalities (versus 60 percent in the PAD) and 59 percent for central government and implementation agencies (versus 40 percent in the PAD).
52. MTR was carried out late and restructuring was delayed. MTR was planned for April 201731 but was carried out in January/February 2018, primarily because of delays with client’s MTR preparation (including conducting the municipal capacity assessment) and TTL handover in July 2017. When the MTR was finally carried out, it was agreed on the technical level that the implementation would be transferred to municipalities. While this transfer was agreed in January/February 2018, it was only formally approved by the GoB with the first restructuring request, dated January 30, 2019 and formally adopted on June 29, 2019. This shortened the period of direct implementation by municipalities—the MOD supervised the works during the first 56 months of project implementation (vs. 34 months planned) while municipalities implemented the works in the remainder 18 months after project extension (vs. 26 months planned).
53. Compliance with social safeguards requirements. The MTR review revealed that, while the project was on track to achieve its PDO, it experienced a temporary disbursements’ hold due to a lack of due diligence and full compliance with respect to social safeguards (see details section IV.B). This went into effect in November 2017 and was lifted in May 2018 after the results of the required socials safeguards audit had been implemented; however, it was not until September 2018 that the project implementation was back in full swing. Until September 2017, the project experienced continuous change in social safeguards World Bank staff and consultants, and social safeguard missions had been frequently conducted outside of the formal project missions. This entailed a loss in institutional memory due to a high turnover, and lower attention to social safeguards issues. Following the World Bank’s assignment of a full-time social safeguard specialist to the project, social safeguards issues were more systematically monitored and included in World Bank supervision missions.
54. Fiduciary implementation arrangements were largely adequate, as described in section IV.B.
55. Factors outside GoB and/or implementation entities included: (a) the fluctuations of the foreign exchange rate that resulted in a net gain, (b) the May 2020 municipal elections that brought in a new dynamic with newly elected bodies towards the end of the project but did not affect implementation pace, and (c) the COVID-19 pandemic that slowed down of implementation towards the end of project.
IV. BANK PERFORMANCE, COMPLIANCE ISSUES, AND RISK TO DEVELOPMENT OUTCOME
A. QUALITY OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION (M&E)
M&E Design
56. The design of M&E during project preparation is rated Modest. The project’s results framework provided a description of the link between most of the PDO and intermediate indicators and their corresponding project components, baselines, end target, data sources and responsible agencies. The targets set at appraisal however were too modest. The M&E framework could have been strengthened if : (a) data sources included existing documentation produced as part of the national decentralization framework, such as ministerial orders to allocate funds to municipalities by applying IFTS formula; or (b) indicators were more specific (for example, no description
31 ISR archived in December 2016, page 3.
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was provided for the job indicator in the PAD, or deleting the PDO indicator on ‘additional operational neighborhood development committees formed’ as no project activity supported it); (c) baselines were defined based on an accurate assessment, especially for the institutional outcomes that were difficult to dissociate from other decentralization efforts carried out by GoB; and (d) a baseline beneficiary satisfaction survey was conducted. The results framework clearly was shown to have limitations in terms of tracking certain indicators from a gender perspective. Two municipal capacity assessments, however, were prepared to provide an evidence-based lens during project implementation and at closure.
M&E Implementation
57. The quality of M&E implementation is rated Substantial. During implementation, efforts were made to address the results framework issues at the design stage. The original results included indicators that were related to the general decentralization program were reformulated to project specific indicators. The restructuring therefore allowed for a better assessment of the project’s outcomes. Project outputs related to roads and drainage could have been revised to be more ambitious following the first restructuring. More generally, M&E was rated Satisfactory for most of the implementation period of the project except between December 2018 and December 2019 when it was rated moderately unsatisfactory32 due to a slowdown in project implementation, following the first restructuring. During this period, there was no progress in the launching of new activities nor amending of the results framework, mainly because of the failure of the PMU to quickly catch up with the changes in implementation arrangements to allow for direct implementation by municipalities.
58. The PMU and the World Bank team systematically reported on key indicators. The responsibility to carry out M&E activities was given to the Technical Secretariat (TS) located within the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban Development (MEHU). To strengthen the PMU team, a M&E Specialist was added to the staff of the TS. The M&E team relied on data from various sources namely: independent capacity assessment, works supervision reports as well as data communicated directly to the TS. These data were subsequently consolidated into the project monitoring report and reviewed by the Inter-ministerial Steering Committee (ISC).
M&E Utilization
59. The quality of M&E utilization is rated Substantial. Project indicators were monitored against their targets to measure the accomplishment of objectives and following the first restructuring targets for indicators were increased to account for more accurate data collection methods as opposed to estimation methods used during preparation. The M&E data on results progress was periodically reported, used and incorporated in the ISRs. Between May 2014 and May 2019, for the intermediate indicators related to roads and drainage, there were however some inconsistencies between end targets reported in the ISRs and the end targets agreed on at appraisal. M&E was used to inform project management and decision-making, especially at MTR. At MTR in particular, M&E led to restructuring to allocate resources for direct implementation by municipalities. Additionally, project achievements were disseminated through a 4-pager produced at project closure. Videos were also produced for results dissemination at MTR and project closure.
32 ISR archived in December 2018, page 2 (Other Project Rating table).
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Justification of Overall Rating of Quality of M&E
60. M&E is rated as Substantial because most shortcomings in the results framework were rectified with the first restructuring following the MTR but modest end targets for roads and drainage outputs were not adjusted although these appear to have been fully met by MTR.
B. ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND FIDUCIARY COMPLIANCE
61. Compliance with overall social and environmental safeguards is rated as Moderately Satisfactory. PAURAD was classified as an Environmental Category B and planned mitigation activities were completed. The project triggered three safeguard policies, namely: Environmental Assessment (OP/BP 4.01), Physical Cultures Resources (OP/BP 4.11) and Involuntary Resettlement (OP/BP4.12). Safeguards compliance for PAURAD was based on the Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) and the Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF) created at the onset of the Project in consultation with communities in the ten municipalities. These instruments were complemented by several other specific instruments such as Resettlement Action Plans (RAPs), Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs), actions noted in aide memoires, and resettlement plans specific to certain project infrastructure investment.
62. Significant implementation issues were identified regarding social safeguard compliance, but they were resolved before project closure. The December 2015 mission highlighted insufficient communication with the PAPs on RAPs implementation. The supervision mission conducted between September and October 2017 revealed that RAP implementation had not been fully completed and PAPs had not been fully compensated before the start of civil works. When the extent of the issues fully emerged, a hold on disbursement was initiated between December 2017 and May 2018, primarily to ensure the implementation of a social audit and of remedial actions. The project’s overall safeguard ratings for the months of December 2018 and December 2019 was Moderately Unsatisfactory due to the failure by the project to swiftly follow up on social safeguards recommendations made during previous supervising missions. As the PMU’s safeguards specialist left his position in October 2018, the World Bank’s team proactively suggested to replace this position with four social and environmental safeguards officers who supported the municipalities in developing, updating and completing their RAP implementation before the start of civil works. This action contributed to achieving full social safeguards compliance by June 2020.33
63. The main areas of non-compliance with environmental safeguards were: (a) failure to provide environmental control offices with an outline for the environmental monitoring report of the works to be completed; (b) environmental monitoring and social implementation of ESMPs by the National Environment Agency (Agence Béninoise de l’Environnement) as only two monitoring missions were organized over the entire duration (6 years) of the project; and (c) failure of the MOD to transmit a project’s ESMF- compliant environmental report on the completion of the implemented project’s physical works activities to the PMU.
64. Procurement. Compliance with World Bank’s Procurement and consultant’s guidelines is rated as Moderately Satisfactory. The Procurement Plan was submitted on time and was approved by the World Bank. The project to a large extent employed the Systematic Tracking of Exchanges in Procurement (STEP) in the implementation of the Procurement Plan. Procurement staff in the PMU and MOD attended an Africa Region World Bank procurement training in May 2018. All contracts were procured following World Bank’s Procurement and consultant’s guidelines and rated as satisfactory throughout the life of the project. However, project documents
33 ISR archived in June 2020, page 5.
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showed some shortcomings in compliance with some World Bank’s procurement rules between December 2017 and December 2020 leading to a downgrading of the project’s procurement rating from Satisfactory to Moderately Satisfactory. These issues, which were solved by enhancing close monitoring from the World Bank’s team— were related to: (a) similarities in some civil works tender offers; (b) bias in the evaluation procedure under the 'Consultant's Qualification' method; (c) contract signature by a single responsible instead of the required two signatures; (d) the frequent use of lump-sum contracts; and (e) delay and slowdown in the procurement of activities. Procurement was also affected by bulk submission of Terms of Reference and project documents for World Bank No Objection.
65. Financial Management. Adequate FM arrangements were in place during project implementation. FM performance was mostly rated satisfactory throughout the life of the project except in June 2014 where it was rated moderately satisfactory as the project was not yet effective. All the interim financial reports were submitted on time and were acceptable to the World Bank. The external auditors issued unqualified opinions on the annual financial statements and the audit recommendations were implemented. There were separate FM missions that took place on a regular basis to ensure that the FM risks remained low.
C. BANK PERFORMANCE
Quality at Entry
66. PAURAD was designed as the fourth urban sector project in Benin in line with GoB decentralization policy (PONADEC). The World Bank team ensured that the design was informed by analysis34 work and exchange with the local and national governments. The project built on previous World Bank operations by (a) simplifying project design to focus on operationalizing a smaller number of reforms in key urban centers; (b) scaling-up successful infrastructure services provision requiring more direct commitment at the local level; and (c) increasing the focus on implementation by ensuring that the majority the safeguards and technical studies are completed before effectiveness.
67. Project preparation and timetable. The project was prepared over a 12.3 months period. The project Concept Review was held on June 18, 2012 and the project was approved by the Board on June 21, 2013. Comments and suggestions were considered from peer reviewers during the concept review and appraisal stage. The team exercised due diligence in the project preparation by integrating into project design Benin’s development priorities in the areas of greater accessibility to urban infrastructures as well as the push toward a deeper and sustained decentralization process. The provisions for the fiduciary, policy and institutional, implementation arrangements, M&E arrangements, risk assessment, as well as World Bank inputs and processes aspects were evaluated before full implementation of the project. Given the capacity level of municipalities at the time of preparation and the institutional gains achieved, the MOD was appropriately identified as the main partner to work closely with the PMU. This partnership ensured implementation readiness after Board approval of the project. In terms of readiness, the availability of some technical studies before effectiveness and prior to the shift to direct implementation by municipalities was instrumental in completing in a timely manner the implementation of activities pertaining to roads and drainage systems. However, safeguards and accompanying arrangements fell behind. The targets set at appraisal could have been more ambitious if a baseline study complemented the PGUD II experience.
68. Based on this assessment, quality at entry is rated Moderately Satisfactory.
34 The Economic Analysis of the project was not annexed to the PAD and the ICR team was not able to find the detailed ex-ante analysis.
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Quality of Supervision
69. Collaboration between the World Bank team and the PMU / MOD functioned well on the technical side, providing the needed expertise on an ongoing basis. However, World Bank supervision missions were irregular, the MTR was delayed, and continued full supervision support during implementation was not always provided on the fiduciary and safeguards sides. There were some delays of World Bank clearances of the Procurement Plans.35 Due to the bulk submission of terms of reference and project documents for No Objection, the World Bank faced challenges with efficient clearances. The World Bank’s team however was committed to provide a strong commitment support to the project. This is particularly noted in the regularity of the supervision missions after September 2017 (13 missions in total between February 2013 and November 2020) implying regular updating on all the project related aspects. Furthermore, the World Bank’s team was proactive in taking swift action in situations threatening to impede the normal process toward the achievement of the PDO. An example of swift action is the decision to hold disbursement and downgrade the ratings as it was noticed that the RAP was not adequately implemented and when the PMU failed to follow recommendations pertaining to social safeguards made during supervision missions. Finally, project documents such as aide-memoires and ISRs were mostly adequately drafted and provided a good level of detail as to the ongoing activities. There were three task team leaders during preparation and implementation of the project with some transition overlap to ensure continuity of approach.
70. Based on this assessment, Quality of Supervision is rated Moderately Satisfactory.
Justification of Overall Rating of Bank Performance
71. Based on the assessment of Quality at Entry (Moderately Satisfactory) and Quality of Supervision (Moderately Satisfactory), the overall World Bank performance is rated Moderately Satisfactory.
D. RISK TO DEVELOPMENT OUTCOME
72. The development outcomes achieved by the project are likely to be sustained. The Government Action Plan 2016-2021 (Le Programme d’Actions du Gouvernement PAG 2016 – 2021) and the draft new PAG 2021-2026 are geared towards deepening decentralization. Fresh local elections took place in May 2020, despite the ongoing pandemic. There is therefore an opportunity to build on the momentum created by PAURAD’s activities, especially in terms of municipalities’ ability to fulfill the mandate assigned to them. The current potential of a relatively stable fiscal environment, a renewed legal framework for intergovernmental transfers and an active citizen engagement with fresh elections could help further strengthen Benin’s decentralization policies. The Benin Resilient and Inclusive Cities Program-for-Results (P176653) will build on the gains of PAURAD. The follow-on program will further support the improvement in urban governance and financing for municipal service delivery and critical public infrastructure in selected municipalities.
73. The COVID-19 pandemic is having detrimental impacts on the municipalities and PAURAD’s development outcome because of a sharp reduction in revenue mobilization. Durability of the positive outcomes of the PAURAD will also depend on healthy municipal finances that would allow for continued and adequate O&M, asset management and capital investment planning. There is indication that municipal revenues have been hit in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. To provide perspective, according to the International Monetary Fund, economic growth has
35 Based on interviews with task team leaders, fiduciary and safeguards teams were at times understaffed and overstretched.
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slowed down from 6.9 percent in 2019 to 2 percent in 2020, against an initial projection of 7 percent before the pandemic. This will without a doubt have a trickledown effect on municipal revenues.
V. LESSONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
74. Municipalities in Benin have shown readiness to undertake the next level of decentralization reforms, but still need significant, tailored capacity development support. At the early stages of decentralization, the two-staged implementation arrangement under PAURAD allowed: (a) during the first phase of the project, to build adequate capacities at the municipal and central level in preparation for a more decentralized service delivery; and (b) during the second phase of the project, to promote increased autonomy for municipalities to fulfil their legal mandate of directly executing investments that deliver services to their constituents. At project closure, beneficiary municipalities showed a good level of performance in most areas of urban management and delivered quality investment in a timely manner. However, the two municipal capacity assessments showed that further capacity development is still required in areas where longer-term reforms and support are needed, namely municipal asset management and local revenue mobilization. The assessments also revealed the uneven capacities of municipalities. Future municipal capacity development support thus should be: (a) appropriately designed based on PAURAD implementation experiences; (b) intertwined with the planning and implementation of civil works to allow municipalities to apply and thus reinforce their capacities; and (c) tailored to the changing needs and situation of the recipients, such as municipality size/tier of government/geographic situation etc.
75. Channeling PAURAD’s funds through the FADeC earmarked window was a step towards incentivizing a sectoral ministry to use the national intergovernmental fiscal transfer system (FADeC). For future operations, it would be important to continue to align with national systems and not create standalone mechanisms. FADeC represents a potentially important vehicle, for sectoral ministries to transfer earmarked funds to municipalities in accordance with sectoral priorities while maintaining an oversight role. Building on PAURAD experience, further incentives and support are needed to optimize the use of the FADeC by line ministries, to improve the predictability of transfers and the timing of notification from central government to municipalities on their allocations, and to create a more systematic transfer of responsibility of decentralized services to municipalities.
76. Public infrastructure provided under PAURAD was considered highly satisfactory by beneficiaries. However, a holistic and sustainable approach to urban resilience is needed. The type of investments in the project varied from single sectoral investments to more urban regeneration kind of investments with rehabilitation of markets and touristic sites. Given the high frequency of local flooding and other weather events and disasters, municipalities expressed particularly high satisfaction with mobility and drainage plans as well as flood-control infrastructure delivered under the project.36 Future engagement in the sector could capitalize on PAURAD achievements in terms of: (a) enabling municipalities to integrate further climate resilience into local investment planning; (b) financing new resilient infrastructure informed by improved climate risk knowledge and mapping and sustainable land use planning; and (c) supporting municipalities throughout the entire life cycle of infrastructure assets, including the maintenance of existing infrastructure with minimal environmental impact. More specifically on the maintenance of assets, the drainage infrastructure implemented under PAURAD will require dredging/cleaning activities to eliminate sediment accumulation at the bottom of waterways. However, such maintenance was not included in Project design and/or activities. Hence, future engagement would require (a) developing and implementing adequate maintenance plans,
36 Interviews with AGETUR, PAURAD PMU.
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including sustainable environmental treatment/disposal/reuse solutions; and (b) raising awareness of communities living along infrastructure and providing better solid waste services to them.
77. Women participation in public works that favor labor intensive techniques in urban areas requires a multi- dimensional approach. The project could have taken more proactive measures to encourage women participation in civil works that are labor intensive, e.g. local road construction/rehabilitation using interlock tiles and street cleaning. These measures include working with contractors to ensure: (i) favoring task-based payment which provides flexibility and may attract more women to worksites; (ii) reaching out to women’s groups, given that working in groups help women to feel safer and help them overcome real and perceived danger; (iii) providing childcare facilities and allowing flexible working hours; (iv) sensitizing employees and subcontractor on gender-based violence codes of conduct; (v) setting a quota, where possible, to ensure minimum participation of female workers.
78. A favorable authorizing environment and the strengthened capacity of municipalities indicate that a nation- wide approach supported by a Program-for-Results instrument could help transcend the trade-off between national equity and service delivery efficiency, in order to achieve results at scale in the municipal sector. PAURAD initiated a dialogue between various actors involved in urban management, including various ministries, municipalities, development partners and citizens. However, these combined and coordinated efforts need to be scaled-up on the various vertical and horizontal levels. Urban interventions should continue to include population needs, preferences, participation and ensure two-way feedback mechanisms. To ensure that future World Bank operations have an impact of decentralization reforms (which PAURAD, as an IPF tried to do in support of GoB’s early decentralization efforts), they could build on existing lessons learned from decentralization Program-for-Results in Africa (Tunisia, Senegal, Kenya, Mozambique). The Program-for-Results instrument proved effective in mobilizing various cross-sectoral stakeholders in central and local governments, including other development partners, supporting progress on a common urban agenda, strengthening government’s ownership and driving for institutional reforms through performance incentives.
.
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ANNEX 1. RESULTS FRAMEWORK AND KEY OUTPUTS
A. RESULTS INDICATORS
A.1 PDO Indicators
Objective/Outcome: To increase access to urban services Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Direct project beneficiaries Number 0.00 95000.00 900,000.00 936,975.00
22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 10-Jul-2019 11-Jun-2021
Female beneficiaries Percentage 51.00 51.00 51.00
Comments (achievements against targets):
Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Number of additional people Number 0.00 40000.00 151,000.00 369,477.00
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in participating cities' urban 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 10-Jul-2019 11-Jun-2021 areas protected from seasonal flooding
Comments (achievements against targets):
Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Number of additional people Number 0.00 60000.00 315,000.00 378,352.00 with improved access to all- season roads within 500 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 10-Jul-2019 11-Jun-2021 meter range under project
Comments (achievements against targets):
Objective/Outcome: To improve urban management in selected cities of Benin Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Municipalities disclosing Number 0.00 10.00 10.00 annual budgets 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 11-Jun-2021
Comments (achievements against targets):
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Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Percentage of resources from Percentage 0.00 100.00 100.00 99.40 the optional tranche of PAURAD transferred to 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 10-Jul-2019 11-Jun-2021 beneficiary communes through FADEC
Comments (achievements against targets):
A.2 Intermediate Results Indicators
Component: Service delivery improvement through infrastructure rehabilitation maintenance & expansion
Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Roads rehabilitated, Non- Kilometers 0.00 8.00 33.82 rural 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 11-Jun-2021
Comments (achievements against targets):
Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion
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Length of drainage and anti- Kilometers 0.00 4.00 8.40 erosion flood reduction works rehabilitated or 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 11-Jun-2021 constructed.
Comments (achievements against targets):
Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Number of additional Number 0.00 25000.00 246,000.00 250,939.00 population provided with access to other basic services 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 11-Jun-2021
Comments (achievements against targets):
Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Person-days of employment Number 0.00 2.50 14,200.00 156,000.00 created (number) 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 10-Jul-2019 11-Jun-2021
Of which Female Percentage 0.00 10.00 3.80
Comments (achievements against targets):
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Component: Municipal management and deepening decentralization
Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Number of cities generating, Number 0.00 10.00 10.00 10.00 disclosing, and discussing quarterly progress reports on 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 10-Jul-2019 11-Jun-2021 their annual budget
Comments (achievements against targets):
Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Number of cities dedicating Number 0.00 0.00 10.00 10.00 at least 15 percent of municipal revenue to 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 10-Jul-2019 11-Jun-2021 infrastructure maintenance
Comments (achievements against targets):
Component: Institutional strengthening, capacity building, M&E & project management Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Formally Revised Completion
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Target Number of municipality Number 0.00 40.00 297.00 officials trained in fiduciary, safeguards, project 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 11-Jun-2021 management and engineering services
Comments (achievements against targets):
Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Number of central Number 0.00 12.00 58.00 government officials trained in IFTS management and 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 11-Jun-2021 financial auditing of municipalities.
Comments (achievements against targets):
Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Number of cities completing Number 0.00 10.00 10.00 and updating asset inventory yearly. 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 11-Jun-2021
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Comments (achievements against targets):
Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion Number of cities with a Number 3.00 10.00 10.00 10.00 manual of administrative and financial management 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 10-Jul-2019 11-Jun-2021 procedures in use
Comments (achievements against targets):
Formally Revised Actual Achieved at Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Target Completion IFTS formula agreed between Yes/No No Y Yes Central Government and Municipalities and put to 22-Apr-2013 21-Jun-2013 11-Jun-2021 use.
Comments (achievements against targets):
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B. KEY OUTPUTS BY COMPONENT
Objective/Outcome 1: To increase access to urban services
1. Direct project beneficiaries 2. Female beneficiaries 3. Number of additional people in participating cities' urban areas protected from Outcome Indicators seasonal flooding 4. Number of additional people with improved access to all-season roads within 500 meter range under project
1. Roads rehabilitated, Non-rural 2. Length of drainage and anti-erosion flood reduction works rehabilitated or Intermediate Results Indicators constructed. 3. Number of additional population provided with access to other basic services 4. Person-days of employment created (number) of which female
1. 33.82 km of non-rural road rehabilitated Key Outputs by Component 2. 8.4 km of drainage and anti-erosion works rehabilitated or constructed (linked to the achievement of the Objective/Outcome 1) 3. 250,939 additional population provided with access to other services 4. 156,000 person-days of employment created (out of which 3.8% for women)
Objective/Outcome 2: To improve urban management
1. Municipalities disclosing annual budgets Outcome Indicators 2. Percentage of resources from the optional tranche of PAURAD transferred to beneficiary communes through FADEC.
1. Number of cities generating, disclosing, and discussing quarterly progress reports on their annual budget 2. Number of cities dedicating at least 15 percent of municipal revenue to infrastructure maintenance Intermediate Results Indicators 3. Number of municipality officials trained in fiduciary, safeguards, project management and engineering services 4. Number of central government officials trained in IFTS management and financial auditing of municipalities. 5. Number of cities completing and updating asset inventory yearly.
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6. Number of cities with a manual of administrative and financial management procedures in use 7. IFTS formula agreed between Central Government and Municipalities and put to use.
1. 10 municipalities generating disclosing, and discussing quarterly progress reports on their annual budget 2. 10 municipalities dedicating at least 15% of municipal revenue to infrastructure maintenance 3. 297 municipality officials trained in fiduciary, safeguards, project management and Key Outputs by Component engineering services 4. 10 municipalities completing and updating asset inventory yearly (linked to the achievement of the Objective/Outcome 2) 5. 58 government officials trained in IFTS management and financial auditing of municipalities 6. 10 municipalities with a manual of administrative and financial management procedures in use 7. IFTS formula agreed between Central Government and municipalities and put to use
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ANNEX 2. BANK LENDING AND IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT/SUPERVISION
A. TASK TEAM MEMBERS
Name Role Preparation Kwabena Amankwah-Ayeh Task Team Leader(s)
Mathias Gogohounga Procurement Specialist(s)
Alain Hinkati Financial Management Specialist
Lucienne M. M'Baipor Social Specialist
Maman-Sani Issa Social Specialist
Africa Eshogba Olojoba Environmental Specialist
Supervision/ICR Brahim Ould Abdelwedoud Task Team Leader(s) Harouna Djibrilla Djimba, Aissata Z. Zerbo, Rahmoune Procurement Specialist(s) Essalhi Angelo Donou Financial Management Specialist Sung Heng C. Kok Shun Team Member Barbry R. Keller Team Member Sabine W. Beddies Task Team Leader Sylvie Charlotte Ida do Rego Procurement Team Pepita Hortense C. Olympio Procurement Team Mathias Gogohounga Procurement Team Leissan Augustine Akpo Team Member Abdoul Ganyi Bachabi Alidou Environmental Specialist Haoua Diallo Procurement Team Colombe Blandine Yabo Allabi Procurement Team Gertrude Marie Mathilda Coulibaly Zombre Social Specialist
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Massanvi Benita Mahinou Team Member
Van Anh Vu Hong Team Member
Fadi M. Doumani ICR
Dede Raissa Adomayakpor ICR
Nahida Sinno ICR
B. STAFF TIME AND COST
Staff Time and Cost Stage of Project Cycle No. of staff weeks US$ (including travel and consultant costs) Preparation FY11 10.125 76,105.28 FY12 9.575 69,323.69 FY13 26.907 180,147.88 FY14 0 0.00
Total 46.61 325,576.85
Supervision/ICR FY14 21.937 118,540.69 FY15 5.534 58,705.42 FY16 11.315 60,855.04 FY17 13.355 102,857.04 FY18 6.125 74,756.51 FY19 18.141 131,692.38 FY20 17.309 117,783.84 Total 93.72 665,190.92
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ANNEX 3. PROJECT COST BY COMPONENT
Adjusted Amount at Actual at Project Adjusted amount actual at Percentage of Components Approval Closing (US$M) at Approval Project Approval (US$M) (US$M) Closing (US$M) Service Delivery Improvement through infrastructure rehab. 49.00 47.37 47.22 48.74 103.21 maintenance & expansion Municipal Management and Deepening 5.00 4.44 4.83 4.56 94.41 Decentralization Institutional Strengthening, Capacity 6.00 4.32 5.78 4.45 76.98 Building, M&E & Project Management Total 60 56.13 57.83 57.75 99.85
Note 1: The loan was in XDR, and due to the fluctuations of the exchange rate, the comparison between approval and actual is not 100% accurate. The conversion is based on exchange rate as of June 10, 2021. Note 2: The percentage of disbursement of 99.85 is as shown in Client Connection. An amount of XDR 60,613.49 (equivalent to approximately US$87 264) remained undisbursed at the closing of the project. Note 3: The US$ 60 million were calculated based on the exchange rate during negotiations. The actual disbursement of US$ 56.13 million are the sum of historic disbursements calculated using on the exchange rate on the day of each disbursement. Note 4: Adjusted approval estimates are calculated based on the PAD allocations for each of the components using the exchange rate of June 10, 2021 / Adjusted actuals are calculated based on the proportion of the cost per component incurred in FCFA (data received from borrower) using the exchange rate of June 10, 2021.
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ANNEX 4. EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS
Ex-Ante Economic Analysis
The ex-ante financial and economic analyses yielded: • a Net Present Value (NPV) of US$5 million over 24 years, a positive economic internal rate of return (IRR) of 10 percent discounted at 12 percent and a Present Value Benefit over Cost ratio of 1.5 for the financial analysis (Table 1). • a NPV of US$84 million over 24 years, a positive economic IRR of 31 percent discounted at 12 percent and a Present Value Benefit over Cost ratio of 1137 for the economic analysis (Table 1).
Table 4.1: PAURAD Ex-Ante Cost/Benefit Financial and Economic Analysis Results
Source: PAURAD PAD (2013).
Nonetheless, the detailed methodology was neither presented in the PAD (no Economic Analysis Annex) nor recorded in other project documentations filed in the system. Therefore, it was not possible to use the same methodology to carry out the ex-post economic analysis. It was also not necessary to carry out a financial analysis as all the intangible benefits are considered public goods and will improve municipal asset management in the future with increased socioeconomic opportunities in the 10 targeted municipalities.
The following six project achievements will have a positive impact that is not captured in the economic analysis: (i) number of municipalities generating, disclosing, and discussing quarterly progress reports on their annual budget; (ii) number of municipalities dedicating at least 15 percent of municipal revenue to infrastructure maintenance; (iii) number of municipal officials trained in fiduciary, safeguards, project management and engineering services; (iv) number of central government officials trained in intergovernmental fiscal transfer system management and financial auditing of municipalities; (v) number of municipalities completing and updating asset inventory yearly; and (vi) intergovernmental fiscal transfer system formula agreed between central government and municipalities and put to use.
37 There is a possibility of a typo regarding this figure.
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Ex-Post Economic Analysis
PAURAD produced tangible and intangible benefits although only the former is quantified and valued in this ex-post analysis. The intangible investments strengthen the enabling environment (capacity building, municipal budgeting, etc.) which are essential for the hard investments to generate economic benefits in terms of: (i) prevented mortality, morbidity (infectious disease transmission after a flood) and injuries, damages and lost opportunities associated with the floods; and (ii) socioeconomic opportunities due to market improvement, etc. At the same time and as mentioned above, the development of an enabling environment yields intangible assets, with benefits that are difficult to quantify. For that reason, the economic Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) (Box 1) considers only the more quantifiable benefits from the hard investments.
Box 1: The Purpose and Criteria of Financial and Economic Benefit-cost Analyses Commercial profitability analysis seeks to assess the net financial results of a project from the investor’s point of view, while a national viability analysis aims to identify and measure the net economic benefits of a project from a social perspective. The financial and economic analyses usually look at three main indicators to determine the profitability and viability of a project, respectively: • Net present value (NPV), which is the difference between the discounted total benefits and cost. • Internal rate of return (IRR), which is the discount rate that zeroes out the NPV (in other words, the interest rate that makes the NPV of all cash flows equal to zero). The IRR estimates the actual return on the project, expressed as a percentage interest rate. IRR can be used for a financial analysis when private goods and/or services are considered and for an economic analysis when public goods and/or services are considered. • Benefit-cost ratio, which is the ratio of the present value (PVBCR) of benefits over the present value of costs over the lifetime of the project. In other words, the ratio allows showing the benefits accruing from each currency unit spent.
An economic analysis does not include the adjustment of financial cost into economic cost as a breakdown between works, equipment and goods, services, and salaries, was neither reported in the PAD nor readily available by project closing. This would have helped derive the project investment costs net of taxes and distortions. Incidentally, using actual economic cost would have improved the overall results of the benefit-cost analysis in terms of yields and viability of the project. Also, only an ex-post economic analysis was carried out as the project mainly included public good investments.
Due to COVID-19 constraints, an onsite collection of needed data to carry out the benefit-cost analysis was not possible. Alternatively, a literature review on Benin and other West African countries was carried out to bridge the data gaps and derive benchmarks to be used in the analysis.
The ex-post economic analysis relies on different methods to value the quantifiable benefits of the project: 1. Based on past events over 35 years, the risk associated with the forgone activities of the affected population and burden of disease is calculated in terms of a hydro-meteorological event likelihood times the cost incurred by the economic activity of the affected population, premature deaths, diseases and injuries. 2. Based on the hydro-meteorological event likelihood (calculated under 1) and its effects in terms of damages and forgone opportunities, the dose-response method was adapted to derive the intensity and length of an event and its associated effects. The effects were derived for 31 categories of land use (urban, peri-urban, rural, road, ecosystems, etc.) in terms of GDP/ha usually
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generated and the effect of an event in terms of damages and lost opportunities for each category of land use. 3. The opportunity cost of funds as tendering through third parties for a fee was directly carried out by the project further to the effectiveness of municipal capacity building, hence avoiding a 15 percent top off for each major tendering. 4. The project labor-intensive employment generated additional income by calculating the multiplier effect in the 10 municipalities. 5. The project income-generating activities’ impact was calculated to derive the additional the disposable income of these families. 6. The future socioeconomic benefits associated with the construction and rehabilitation of school classrooms was calculated.
Benefit Valuation Methods
1. Hydro-meteorological Event Risk Affecting Human Health and Activity The weather hazards are the phenomenon while the valuation of the risk is the likelihood of that phenomenon affecting Benin times the impact costs. The likelihood refers to the percent chance of a hazard happening in a specific place over a certain amount of time. Hence, likelihood is an estimate based on past events over 35 years. The likelihood refers to the probability of a storm of flood hazard happening in Benin over a certain amount of time. Hence, the effects of a storm and flood in Benin was calculated based on past events from 1985 till 2020 or 35 years. The reduction of forgone post event immediate socioeconomic activity, deaths, diseases, and injuries are considered as benefits based on the data acquired through the University of Louvain database and value associated with these impacts: • The post event immediate socioeconomic activity will be calculated in terms of the average number of days per event (average length of storms and floods in Benin over the last 35 years) times the GDP per capita per day. • The value of statistical life (VSL) is used for premature death based on Lindhjem and Navrud (2010) and 10 percent of the VSL is used for disease or injury as per World Bank and IHME (2016). For premature death, a benefit transfer was applied to derive the VSL in Benin. The transfer of the unit to adjust for differences in income value is as follows: WPp = WPs x (Yp / Ys)ß Where: WPp = willingness to pay in policy country WPs = willingness to pay in study country Yp = income in the country policy denominated in purchasing power parity dollar (PPP$) Ys = income in the country of study denominated in purchasing power parity dollar (PPP$) ß = income elasticity for different environmental goods and services, which are considered normal goods, are typically greater than 0 (perfectly inelastic which would have meant that ß is set at 1.2.
In this particular case, the income elasticity is assumed to be conservatively more inelastic, which means that the percentage responsiveness of quantity demanded is significantly and slightly lower to the percentage change in income respectively. The VSL for Benin is US$ 71,450 in 2019 for each premature death and 10 percent of the VSL for each injured person (World Bank and IHME, 2016).
Damages are based on previously monetized damages recorded over the last 35 years in the University of Louvain disaster database. As for the socioeconomic losses accruing immediately after the event, the affected population forgo an average of 10.06 days for storms and floods per event of socioeconomic
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activities (professional activity, eating, schooling, health, etc.) after the occurrence of an event. Hence, the project intervention could avert or reduce these disruptions and the GDP per capita (US$ 1,219 in 2019) is used for the gained socioeconomic benefits per event.
The likelihood and risk of storms and floods are calculated for Benin over the last 35 years and are illustrated in Table 4.2. Over the last 35 years (1985-2020), all 19 storms and floods occurring in Benin are accounted for in the analysis. These reported events affected about 2.6 million people (the same population could be affected more than once) whereas 189 people died, and 1,000 people were injured. The return period or years between events amounts to 1.84 per year while the event probability stands at 54 percent. The risk valuation figures are adjusted per capita to be used in the targeted areas of the project.
Table 4.2: Storm and Flood Event Likelihood and Risk Calculation in Benin over the last 35 years Category Last 35 years: 1985-2020 Unit Event Affected Disease/Injury Death Damages Period Years 35 35 35 35 35 Period mid-population considered # 8,200,033 Storm and flood data over period # 19 2,614,347 1,000 189 (see below) Return period (years between events) Years 1.84 Event Likelihood per year over the period % 54% Average duration of event Days/event 16.05 Average people affected per event # 137,597 53 10 GDP and VSL per capita (10% of VSL 2019 2019 US$ 1,219 7,145 71,450 used for injured) Yearly Risk Value over Period US$ 4,005,958 204,144 385,832 869,719 Total Risk Value over 35-year Period US$ 140,208,528 7,145,036 13,504,118 30,440,163 Note: 1985 and 2019 mid-period is considered for the population. Damages are poorly reported in the database. Source: Author based on Louvain University Disaster database: www.emdat.be/database; Lindhjem and Navrud (2010); World Bank and IHME (2016); and WDI (2020).
2. Hydro-meteorological Event Producing Damages to Public and Private Assets For damages and forgone opportunities in terms of economic value added and damages to public and private assets including the transport infrastructure, the Dose-Response Methodology builds on IMDC et al. (2017). Flood-Effect functions used Dose-Response methods to link the intensity and length of an event with its effects per category of 31 categories of land use value added.
For direct tangible damages to assets (e.g., buildings, infrastructure), damages reflect restoration costs, and are mainly dependent on flood depth. In addition, indirect tangible damages include losses of stocks, and losses due to interruption of production of goods or services (e.g., transport).
Both direct and indirect tangible damages can be expressed in monetary terms and depend on the values at risk and their vulnerability. Damage functions specify the percentage loss of the total value of an asset at risk, in function of flood characteristics (the flood depth, the duration, the water speed). These characteristics are part of the hazard assessment. Damage functions for direct damages are more certain compared those for indirect losses, as the latter also depend on the duration of a flood event which was set at once per year.
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The generic method used builds on the results of the more detailed models and uses average damage functions that are applied to values at risk, expressed as US$/ha, sometimes different for the different land use categories (residential, industry, services, agriculture, etc.).
Tangible assets are identified by using the GDP per ha, which is both an indicator for the assets at risk (buildings) and the impact on economic activities. GDP/ha can be estimated based on data for local GDP/capita and population density.
Ecosystems. Compared to buildings, there is little info on damage functions for impacts of floods on ecosystems.
For freshwater wetlands, some info on damage functions is available, that can be used to estimate the impact on ecosystems goods and services. However, compared to impacts on the economy, this estimate is much more uncertain. Freshwater ecosystems are in any case not very likely to be affected by coastal flooding or erosion. In the coastal zone, freshwater and marine influences meet, resulting in a gradient from saline to brackish conditions. Purely freshwater conditions can occur only during periods of strong river floods, and even in that case only in the upper reaches of the coastal zone.
The first method is based on a dose response function that relies on damages and risk per grid cell (1 ha). For a single event (e.g., one type of flood), the damage per grid cell is calculated as follows:
Damage = (max value at risk) x (damage function) With: • Max value at risk, including the value of the assets (buildings, infrastructure, etc.) (US$/ha), production values (US$/ha per year), and ecosystem services (US$/ha per year) • Damage functions cover flooding.
Damage assessment methods per damage assessment cover the different damage categories (tangible, non-tangible, direct and indirect) and the indicators to be used to assess the damage. Damage functions and indicators for values at risk are estimated and damages are valued in monetary terms ($ per event). A first indicator is the area (ha) affected, differentiating between different land use categories, and the number of people affected.
Exposure assessments maps the people, assets, production and ecosystem service values at risk. The final indicator for the exposure assessment is the number of people (victims at risk of dying or being injured in a flood event is calculated below by using the risk premium to reduce premature deaths and injuries), the surface (ha) per type of land use and the values at risk.
Thirty-one land use categories and classes reflecting differences in the values at risk and vulnerabilities. Per grid cell of 1ha, a single land-use is define based on a combination of information on population density (based on world-pop land use maps) and land use characteristics (open street maps; land-use maps; observations).
Of interest for this analysis is the Urban fabric which reflects a combination of residential land use and economic activities (services, small factories, etc.), public functions (education, health care) and transport related infrastructure (roads, bus stations, etc.). The values at risk depend on the population density, and the economic productivity per capita. Urban land-use is defined as the land-uses with a population density of +5 inhabitants/ha, and there is a distinction between 2 suburban and 3 urban classes that were used
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for the 10 municipalities based on their densities as extracted from Benin official statistics (INSAE). Different sub classes are specified because it is important for the damage assessment, and it is possible with available data and methods to differentiate between classes (Table 3).
Table 4.3: Urban Land-Use Categories Land use Ind. Description Inhabitants / Economic activity category ha Urban U1 Sub Urban 1 5-25 services, small industry, transport U2 Sub Urban 2 25-50 As U1 U3 Urban 3 50-75 As U1, but more dense U4 Urban 4 75-125 As U1, but more dense U5 Urban 5 + 125 As U1, but more dense Urban + U6 Peri Urban 6 5-25 U1 + specific assets 1 U7 Peri Urban 7 25-50 U2 + specific assets 1 U8 Urban 8 50-75 U3 + specific assets 1 U9 Urban 9 75-125 U4 + specific assets 1 U10 Urban 10 + 125 U5 + specific assets 1 Transport E3 Transport 3 Transport 1er, 2nd, 3rd roads Adapted from IMDC- Tractebel-UNESCO/IHE-Vito (2017).
For tangible damages in urban land uses, the values at risk include estimates of the value of the assets (buildings, infrastructure) and the value of goods and services produced. The dose-response function is a mixture of defining values at risk, based on GDP/ha, while accounting for population density, specific land use areas and the presence in urban and rural areas of specific assets. The U10 and E3 were used as the density is higher than 125 inhabitants per ha in the all the municipalities (Table 4).
Table 4.4: Benin Urban and Transport Land-Use Category Valuation in 2013
Ind. Description Pers/ha GDP/capita GDP/ha VA Factor Total
$/ha $/ha/year $/ha/year $/ha $/ha U10 Urban 10 150 958 143,654 53,844 2.1 355,614 E3 Transport 3 289,991 1 289,991 Source: Adapted from IMDC- Tractebel-UNESCO/IHE-Vito (2017).
The damage functions for floods (tangible damages) are based on the review of worldwide literature on flood damage functions in (Huizinga et al., 2017). It has to be noted that the information for Africa is very limited, and that the selected damage functions build on information for other continents (Table 5). The dose retained for the Dose-Response function is a conservative midpoint for a short and long duration for an average water depth of up to 2 meters for each event.
Table 4.5: Damage functions for Floods, short to long midpoint duration (e.g., few hours to several days) Ind. Description GDP/ha Water depth $/ha 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 3 4 5 6 U10 Urban 10 355,614 0% 23% 40% 56% 67% 86% 95% 98% 100% E3 Transport 3 289,991 0% 30% 50% 66% 78% 95% 100% 100% 100% Source: Adapted from IMDC- Tractebel-UNESCO/IHE-Vito (2017).
3. Fee Payment Avoided to Third Party for Tendering
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The contracting capacity building at the city level avoided the fees paid to AGETUR (surcharge on all contracts of 15 percent). As municipalities prepared tenders and contracts and assumed direct project management, the avoided cost incurred of paying AGETUR is considered a benefit in terms of an opportunity cost that amounted to US$503,494 over the project lifetime.
4. Economic Multiplier Effect due to Labor-Income Activities With regards to the person-days of employment created of 133,994 persons/day, a multiplier effect, which is caused by additional funds from investments causing the proportional increase in the overall income of the economy, is used to have the net effect on the GDP. It is assumed that persons employed belong to low-income households and accumulate very little wealth. The aggregate marginal propensity to consume out of transitory income ranges between 0.2-0.4 and is consistent with most of the large estimates of the marginal propensity to consume (MPC) reported in empirical studies in low-income countries.38 Therefore a midpoint MPC is used to derive the net effect on GDP that is considered as a benefit to the economy and the person-day of employment is derived from the GDP per day as value added labor as actual salaries paid during project implementation were not readily available by project closing. The number of days is equally annualized over year 2 to year 7.
The calculation of the multiplier formula is follows: k = 1 / (1 – MPC) Where: k if the multiplier MPC is the marginal propensity to consume
The total net effect of the multiplier on GDP amounted to US$615,758 from 2015 to 2020.
5. Improved Livelihood Associated with Income-Generating Activities Profits from revenue-generating activities through the development of markets. There is no information regarding the level of expected profits from revenue-generating activities due to the construction or improvements of markets in the municipalities. However, the experience of other initiatives in Benin has shown an average increase in beneficiaries' incomes between 20 and 40 percent after the second year, depending on the mechanism put in place and the type of activity undertaken. A conservative estimate of a 30 percent income increase is used while it is estimated that 3,000 households (4.8 capita per household in urban areas)39 equivalent to 14,400 beneficiaries will benefit from income generating activities: The Gross National Income (US$ 1,166 per capita on average between 2015 and 2019) is considered for income per capita over 5 years and an increase accrues with a one-year lag and is considered over the lifetime of the project only.40
6. Improved Schooling According to a recent study,41 every dollar invested in schooling in low and middle- income countries would return between US$3.2-US$6.7 in discounted benefits in increased earnings and mortality reductions in the future. A conservative lower bound value is considered for the 71 classrooms built or rehabilitated by the project. It is assumed that the schooling in terms of school enrolment and curriculum achievement will be achieved by the beneficiaries in all municipalities. The total investment on school
38 Carrol et al. (2017). 39 INSAE and ICF (2019). 40 USAID (2014); Crépon et al. (2015); and Poncin (2006). 41 Pradhan and Jamison (2018).
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construction reached US$ 1.2 million and will derive a discounted benefit of US$ 3.4 million during project implementation.
Additional Assumption A number of additional key assumptions were also considered for the economic analysis: • The economic analysis assesses PAURAD on its own merits and will consider the benefits over 24 years, as considered in the ex-ante economic analysis. • An actual discount rate of 6 percent per annum recommended by the World Bank is used for the economic analysis whereas a 12 percent was used for the ex-ante analysis. The right-of-way including the price of land and any structures upon it is unaccounted in the analysis. • Beneficiaries who will benefit from flood-proofing activities are about 370,000 people for both urban and transport as both fall within the same geographic scope although the all-weather road access beneficiaries exceed urban beneficiaries by less than 10,000 people. A mid-point was considered for the beneficiaries. • The benefits appear as indicated in the target indicators of the project results framework. • Operation and maintenance of infrastructure is not considered in the analysis as municipalities will earmark and allocate funds in the future as per the reforms achieved during project implementation. • Conservative GDP growth rate of 4.2 percent per year until 2030 was used due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is lower than the 2016 and 2019 average real GDP growth of 5.1 percent. • Population is projected based on an annual population growth rate of 2.35 percent, starting 2020. • Benefits associated with sanitary conditions in constructed or rehabilitated markets and schools due to improved water supply and sanitation are acknowledged but not valued.
Results of the Benefit-Cost Analysis
The economic analysis is based on the only tangible quantifiable benefits of the 3 Components of the project. The project will also reap tangible and intangible benefits that are not quantified. The economic analysis was performed by using a 6 percent social discount rate (as suggested by the World Bank since 2016) starting from 2016 over 24 years based on the opportunity cost of capital and country risk over the project period.
Table 4.6: PAURAD Ex-Post Cost/Benefit Analysis Results Key economic Indicators Project 24 years discounted at: 4% 6% 12% Cost/Benefit Analysis NPV (US$ million) 75.1 53.2 18.0 ERR (%) 20% 20% 20% PV benefit/cost ratio 2.5 2.1 1.5 Viability Yes Yes Yes Source: Table 5.
Table 6 summarizes the results of the economic analysis that are detailed in Table 7. The project as a whole is viable. The project has a NPV of US$ 53.2 million as well as acceptable economic IRR of 20 percent and positive Present Value Benefit-Cost ratio of 2.1. The project remains viable under 4 percent and 12 percent discount rates, but the results are more reliable but not as high as the ones anticipated by the ex- ante analysis (Table 1).
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Table 7: Ex-Post Benefit Cost Analysis Flows and Results
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ANNEX 5. BORROWER, CO-FINANCIER AND OTHER PARTNER/STAKEHOLDER COMMENTS
Comments received from the PMU
Based on the executive summary in French, the World Bank ICR is generally satisfactory.
However, what did not appear in the report is that the project was restructured after the mid-term review to readjust the activities of Component B in order to achieve the development objective; and the successive changes of the TTL which occurred twice during the life of the project. Furthermore, the challenges in implementing the social safeguards component of the project, which resulted in a suspension of disbursement for 6 to 8 months were due to a failure to formally account for counterpart funding from the beneficiary municipalities at project design. To catch-up this 6 month-disbursement hold up, the first extension request could have been granted instead of waiting for the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused an implementation delay of activities before the approval of the extension of project closing date.
Moreover, several of the recommendations formulated as part of studies developed under the projects could not be implemented due to lack of resources. Those complementary studies are: (i) reports on the functioning of the Communes' Urban Land Registers; (ii) the assessment of public finance management system of the communes according to the PEFA framework; (iii) the training sessions organized at the end of the project, and (iv) the urban mobility plans of the five cities of Grand Nokoue; and (v) stormwater management masterplans of the following five municipalities of Lokossa, Parakou, Kandi, Djougou and Natitingou.
In the future, when designing projects, it would be desirable to plan ahead to provide additional resources or take into account in the design follow-up projects in order to remediate to the potential lack of resources and consequently maximizing the impacts of the project.
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ANNEX 6. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
Annex 6.1 – Detailed Results Framework (including indicators dropped/reformulated following restructuring)
PDO and intermediate indicators Original end Restructuring Number % Reason for change target end target achieved achieved PDO INDICATORS TO INCREASE URBAN SERVICES Direct Project Beneficiaries (number) 95,000 900,000 936,975 104 Changes in data collection methods Female Beneficiaries (%) 51 51 51 100 N/A Number of additional people participating in cities’ urban areas protected 40,000 151,000 369,477 245 Changes in data collection methods from seasonal flooding (number) Number of additional people with improved access to all-season roads 60,000 315,000 378,352 120 Changes in data collection methods within 500-meter range under project (number) TO IMPROVE URBAN MANAGEMENT IN SELECTED CITIES IN BENIN Number of additional operational NDC formed (number) 20 Dropped because there is no supporting activity for the creation of such committee Municipalities disclosing annual budgets (number) 10 10 10 100 N/A FADEC funds transferred to communes (percentage)= Reformulated as 25 100 99.4 99.4 Indicator revised and target readjusted [Percentage of resources from the optional tranche of PAURAD transferred to beneficiary communes through FADEC (percentage)] INTERMEDIATE INDICATORS BY COMPONENTS COMPONENT 1: SERVICE DELIVERY IMPROVEMENT THROUGH INFRASTRUCTURE REHABILITATION MAINTENANCE & EXPANSION Roads rehabilitated Non-rural (km) 8 8 33.82 423 N/A Number of additional operational community development associations 20 Dopped because no other association are being formed (number) formed under project Length of drainage and anti-erosion flood reduction works rehabilitated or 4 4 8.4 210 N/A constructed (km) Number of additional population provided with access to other services 25,000 246,000 250,939 102 Reformulated to add “basic” and target revised (number)= Reformulated as [Number of additional population with access to other basic services (number)] Person-days of employment created (number) 2.5 14,200 156,000 1,099 Changes in data collection methods Of which female (percentage) 10.00 10 3.8 38 N/A COMPONENT 2: MUNICIPAL MANAGEMENT AND DEEPENING DECENTRALIZATION City budget adopted (yearly) and narrative reports generated disclosed, 95 10 10 100 Indicator reformulated and target adjusted and debated timely each quarter (percentage)= Reformulated as [Number accordingly
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of cities generating, disclosing, and discussing quarterly progress reports on their annual budget (number)] Number of cities assuring key staff has followed basic package training 10 Indicator dropped because of no clear definition with (number) “basic package training” Number of cities meeting targets for maintenance or infrastructure 10 Indicator dropped because of no reference or (number) definition of “targets” Percentage of municipal revenue budgeted for maintenance of 15 8 10 125 Indicator reformulated and target revised infrastructure (percentage)=Reformulated as [ cities dedicating at least 15 percent of municipal revenue to infrastructure maintenance”] Number of markets managed according to clearly defined management 4 Indicator dropped because municipalities are in systems (number) charge of market management COMPONENT 3: INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING, CAPACITY BUILDING, M&E PROJECT MANAGEMENT Number of municipality official trained in fiduciary, safeguards, project 40 40 297 743 N/A management and engineering services (number) Number of central government officials trained in IFTS management and 12 12 58 483 N/A financial auditing of municipalities (number) Number of cities completing and updating assets inventory yearly (number) 10 10 10 100 N/A Technical and administrative management procedures manual developed 10 10 10 100 Indicator revised to remove the term “technical” and in use by the beneficiary municipalities (number)=Reformulated as [ because of lack of clear definition Number of cities with a manual of administrative and financial management procedures in use”] IFTS formula agreed between Central Government and Municipalities and Yes Yes Yes 100 N/A put to use (Yes/No)
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Annex 6.2 – Summary of Closing Beneficiary Assessment
A satisfaction survey was carried out by an independent consultant at project closure. The survey covered a representative sample of 2,500 households living within a radius of 500 meters from the infrastructure delivered by PAURAD in the ten beneficiary municipalities. Households’ level of satisfaction with key areas related to the project are summarized in the table below. It is worth noting that the mean is not always exact because the survey included more variables than presented in this table.
ABOMEY SEME PORTO Indicators/ Municipalities COTONOU COME LOKOSSA ABOMEY BOHICON PARAKOU KANDI Mean CALAVI PODJI NOVO Satisfaction with key project aspects (in %) Quality of the infrastructure 95.8 85.2 80.3 65.1 69.4 66.4 94.5 93.3 69.9 74.1 77.8 The choice of the area served 89.7 90.6 90.1 70.6 82.7 78.2 96 98.4 74.3 80.1 84 The functionality of the works 94.9 62.1 74.2 35.8 77.2 74.8 90.8 76.3 69.4 87 73.6 The accessibility of the infrastructure 93.5 64 62.4 68.2 81.3 79.2 93 85.5 73.2 89.4 79.2 Usefulness of infrastructure 96.3 66 69.5 68.6 80.8 76.5 92.6 89.5 75.4 92 80.5 Satisfaction with generated economic activities (%) Socio-economic development along 92.6 79.1 75.5 28.3 N/A 78.3 78.4 74.1 69.7 88.4 73.6 roads Increase in market attendance 91.7 36.8 6.5 10 50.9 94.7 12.5 47.4 72.5 N/A 56.6 Increase in the flux of tourists & visitors N/A N/A N/A 55.2 N/A N/A 89.4 N/A N/A 83.3 70 Increase in sales 84.2 74.7 43.2 52.3 N/A 84.3 86.6 74 79.9 78 73.4 Increased customer base 87 69.6 40.6 41 N/A 74.6 82 72 82.7 83.2 70.5 Installation of other points of sale 94.4 75.9 89 18.5 N/A 77.4 85.8 77.2 79.9 83.3 75 Increase of inter-municipality trade 85.6 74.4 58.1 21 N/A 70.6 79.1 52.7 84.3 84 67.2 Satisfaction with flood-control (%) Absence of flooding 69.9 56.5 90.9 48.2 N/A 77.1 56.7 78.8 52 89.4 69.8 No stormwater surge related accidents 73.6 59.3 94 45.5 N/A 84.6 56.7 77.2 62.6 89.9 72.6 Satisfaction with mobility (%) There are no more traffic problems 99.5 76.7 93.5 85.9 N/A 84.4 91 93.1 59.3 91.4 86.6 Reduction of traffic accidents 89.4 76.7 70.4 59.6 N/A 78.7 82.8 80.7 61.6 86.4 76.5 Easy mobility 94.9 84.9 95.5 53.5 N/A 83.5 85.8 91.7 60.9 90.4 81.9 No more collisions with construction 90.7 77.9 76.9 55.8 N/A 81.2 75.9 88.3 63.4 90.8 78.2 equipment or trucks Easy access to homes or workplaces 98.1 83.7 92.3 55.1 N/A 88.4 81.3 89 71 91.4 83.5 Satisfaction with road traffic (%)
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Increase in motorcycle traffic 95.8 82.6 96.1 33.8 N/A 81.9 75.4 91 70.3 90.9 79.3 Increase in light vehicle traffic 95.8 80.2 68.4 19.2 N/A 80.2 70.1 90.3 70.9 89.9 73.7 Increase in heavy vehicle traffic 88.4 43.5 46.1 13.6 N/A 65.3 63.9 66.7 70.3 81.3 61.4 Traffic improvement 94 76.8 95.5 41.6 N/A 89.5 82.1 82.7 86.8 92.8 82.6 Satisfaction with social infrastructure (%) Students attendance improvement 92.3 90.9 72.4 10 54.9 79.6 98.4 68.1 79.4 94 71.2 School enrollment improvement 91.7 93.9 62.1 5.3 44.3 77.6 98.4 59.6 82.4 92.7 65.3 Good attendance at markets N/A 33.3 N/A N/A 56.4 95.7 12.5 62.1 64.6 53.8 58.5 Increase in the number of customers 100 33.3 N/A 5.3 47.7 86.3 12.5 51.7 63.2 46.2 52.8 Installation of new stores 100 56.6 3.3 5.3 47.2 82.1 12.5 58.6 61.1 50 54.9 Development of new activities 100 34.7 3.3 10 49.1 86.3 12.5 60 62.5 45.5 54 Improved visitor attendance N/A N/A N/A 83.5 N/A N/A 87.4 N/A N/A N/A 85.1 Increased number of tourists N/A N/A N/A 6.8 N/A N/A 83.9 N/A N/A N/A 39.7
Source: Borrower ICR
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Annex 6.3 – Summary of Municipal Capacity Assessment results carried out by an independent consultant in 2017 (MTR) and in 2020 (Closure)
Two municipal capacity assessments carried out by independent consultants showed significant improvements in the performance of municipalities in the areas of planning and budgeting, FM and revenue mobilization. The first assessment was conducted in 2017 in preparation for the MTR and the second at project closure in 2020. The scores measured achievement in the following areas: (a) Planning and budgeting; (b) Human resources and organization; (c) FM and revenue mobilization; (d) Procurement; (e) Infrastructure operations and maintenance (O&M); and (f) Transparency and Accountability. The municipal capacity assessment carried out at MTR concluded that all ten municipalities were able to implement their investments directly. However, Cotonou and Porto-Novo did not benefit from the performance-based tranche as per project design, because these bigger municipalities were already directly implementing works and a learning need in this regard was not identified. Scores of municipalities on each of the performance areas is presented in the table below.
Public financial Human Infrastructure Transparency Planning and management resources and Procurement operations and and Average Budget and revenue organization maintenance Accountability mobilization
MTR Closure MTR Closure MTR Closure MTR Closure MTR Closure MTR Closure MTR Closure ABOMEY 68 78.1 70 92.5 60 66.7 75 98.8 25 77.5 50 91.3 60.35 82.44 ABOMEY CALAVI 69 88.8 95 82 15 60 88.75 100 75 10 90 85 66.11 73.81 BOHICON 85 85.4 75 90.7 35 82.2 86.25 94.4 90 88.3 75 73.3 70.19 85.22 COME 99 75.5 85 83.4 40 58.1 70 85.5 25 47.9 50 59.3 63.05 68.65 COTONOU 19 91.3 90 96 45 63.3 93.75 100 25 80 50 45 52.61 78.24 KANDI 70 78.9 75 81.7 15 63.6 85 79 25 52.1 50 77.1 51.75 72.56 LOKOSSA 85 82.2 65 78 45 65.8 85 80 75 80 50 76.3 65.75 76.04 PARAKOU 18 59.4 80 62.4 45 66.5 76.25 78.7 90 57.8 50 63.3 54.79 64.95 PORTO NOVO 19 47 80 46.8 15 36.7 85 47.3 75 39 50 47 47.30 43.64 SEME PODJI 70 35.6 75 55 15 41.3 70 52.5 25 37.5 50 47.5 49.50 44.45 Average 60.2 72.22 79 76.85 33 60.42 81.5 81.62 53 57.01 56.5 66.51 58.14 69.00
Source: Municipal Capacity Assessment MTR documentation and Borrower ICR
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Annex 6.4 – Details on contracts
Investments implemented directly by municipalities
Municipalities Investement title (*EPP=Ecole Primaire Publique=Public Primary Planned costs Actual cost (US$) Implementation time leads School] (US$) Abomey Construction of one module of three-classroom + office + store + fence Fence at EPP Sogon: 2 months at EPP Sogon 64,480 107,342 Construction of 1 module of Works control and supervision three classroom+office+store: 4 months Abomey- Construction of sheds + 1 toilet block + shower + fence at the Saint 4 months Calavi Benoit market in Womey 112,443 155,644 Construction of one module of 3 classrooms with a store office + sign + 4 months fence at EPP Centre Works control and supervision Bohicon Construction of one module of three classrooms + office + store + 4 months latrine block + equipment + water at EPP Kpocon, in Bohicon 467,469 467,469 Modernization work of the bus park of Bohicon (Main building) 3 months Selection of a firm for the control and supervision of the bus park modernization works Selection of an individual consultant for the control and supervision of the construction works of 3 classrooms + Office + Store + latrines + sign + water + electricity Comè Construction of a module of three classrooms + office + store + block of 4 months latrines with 4 cabins + sanitation of the courtyard, development of 857,072 1,030,273 playground, rehabilitation of a module of three rooms with supply of drinking water, electricity with comfort works at EPP NONGO (Lot 1) Control and supervision of the construction works of stores and sheds in the central market and of the construction and rehabilitation works of classroom modules with sanitation of the yard of the EPP NONGO in the district of Comé. Construction of sixty (60) stores in the central market of Comé (lot 2) 6 months Construction of sixty (60) stores in the central market of Comé (lot 1) 6 months Construction of sixteen (16) sheds in the central market of Comé (lot 1) 6 months
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Construction of sixteen (16) sheds in the central market of Comé (lot 2) 6 months Construction of a module of three classrooms + office + store + block of 4 months latrines with 4 cabins + fence, sanitation of the courtyard, development of playground, rehabilitation of three rooms with drinking water supply and electric with reinforcing works at EPP NONGO (LOT2) Construction work of two (02) sanitary blocks and a toilet management 3 months cabin in the central market of Comé Kandi Construction of one module of 3 classrooms + office + store + sign + 4 months electricity + water + fence + equipment at EPP Gansosso 123,055 123,055 Sanitation of the yard + traffic lanes at the Dodokpanin health center 3 months Recruitment of a Design Office for the control and supervision of the construction works of a module of classrooms+office+store+water+electricity+equipments (tables and benches) at the EPP Gansosso and sanitation works of the courtyard+traffic lane at the health center of Dodokpanin Lokossa Construction works of a module of three (03) classrooms plus office- 4 months store and rehabilitation of the fence of the EPP of AGONVE, lot 1 894,518 1,094,082 Construction of one (01) module of one (01) modern toilet plus 4 months sanitation and road in the NESTO d'ALMEIDA market of LOKOSSA Construction of twenty five (25) stores in the NESTO D'ALMEIDA 4 months market in Lokossa, lot 2 Construction of thirty (30) stores in the NESTO D'ALMEIDA market in 3.5 months Lokossa, lot 2 Rehabilitation works of three (03) modules of three (03) classrooms 4 months plus latrines at the EPP of AGONVE, lot 2 Construction of 11 modules of sheds of twenty four places in the 4 months NESTO d'ALMEIDA market of Lokossa. Control and supervision of the construction works of fifty five (55) stores, ten (10) sheds, one module of modern toilets, one module of three classrooms + office-store, plus latrines, sanitation and rehabilitation of three (03) modules of three (03) classrooms at the EPP AGONVE and sanitation of some traffic lanes in the NESTO d'ALMEIDA market of Lokossa, Commune of Lokossa Parakou Construction of three (03) H2 type sheds at the Banikanni Rose Cross 6 months Market in Parakou 200,761 254,764 Construction of a module of two classrooms + office store and 3 months
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equipment at the Bah Mora nursery school Construction supervision of 1 Module of 2 classrooms + Office + Store for the kindergarten, 1 block of latrines + sign and sheds, type H2 at Banikanni market Seme-Podji Construction of 2 modules of 3 classes + office + store + latrine + sign + 6 months water + electricity + equipment + at EPP OKOUN SEME 332,642 334,494 Construction of 2 modules of 3 classes + office + store + latrine + sign + 6 months water + electricity + equipment + sanitation at EPP DJEFFA D Control and supervision of the work Total 3,052,440 3,567,123
Source: Borrower data
Summary of investments implemented with the support of the MOD
Number of contracts Works Consultancies ABOMEY 12 4 ABOMEY CALAVI 8 4 BOHICON 8 5 COME 7 4 COTONOU 3 3 KANDI 10 5 LOKOSSA 10 5 PARAKOU 8 3 PORTO NOVO 10 5 SEME PODJI 10 4 All municipalities 2 5 Total 88 47
Source: Borrower data
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Figure 6.4.1 PAURAD’s infrastructure investment per municipality
The list of investments is not exhaustive but based on GIS data available. Source: The project’s Geo-Enabling Initiative for Monitoring and Supervision (GEMS) data.
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Annex 6.5 – Distribution of resources per municipality (firm vs. performance-based tranche)
Actual PAURAD % of total Allocation Population Actual firm % of performance- % of Municipalities investment per PAURAD per capita (2013) tranche (US$) total based tranche total municipality (US$) investments (US$) (US$) ABOMEY 92,266 4,222,187 9% 107,342 3% 4,329,529 9% 46.92 ABOMEY-CALAVI 656,358 5,121,859 11% 155,644 4% 5,277,503 11% 8.04 BOHICON 171,781 8,427,590 19% 467,469 13% 8,895,060 18% 51.78 COME 79,989 3,843,304 9% 1,030,273 29% 4,873,576 10% 60.93 COTONOU 679,012 1,422,332 3% - 0% 1,422,332 3% 2.09 KANDI 179,290 5,072,106 11% 123,055 3% 5,195,161 11% 28.98 LOKOSSA 104,961 3,858,420 9% 1,094,082 31% 4,952,501 10% 47.18 PARAKOU 255,478 3,186,534 7% 254,764 7% 3,441,298 7% 13.47 PORTO NOVO 264,320 4,504,480 10% - 0% 4,504,480 9% 17.04 SEME-PODJI 222,701 5,462,213 12% 334,494 9% 5,796,707 12% 26.03 Total 45,121,024 100% 3,567,123 100% 48,688,147 100% 30.25
[Exchange rate 1$=539.8 CFA] Source: Data received from Borrower
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Annex 6.6 – PAURAD’s investments versus average municipal investment budget
Average executed annual % of average executed Municipalities municipal investment budget Total PAURAD Investment US$ annual municipal investment (2013-2019) US$ budget ABOMEY 537,515 4,329,529 805% ABOMEY CALAVI 1,943,623 5,277,503 272% BOHICON 1,153,003 8,895,060 771% COME 479,468 4,873,576 1016% COTONOU 7,155,883 1,422,332 20% KANDI 1,174,588 5,195,161 442% LOKOSSA 665,517 4,952,501 744% PARAKOU 1,461,233 3,441,298 236% PORTO NOVO 544,213 4,504,480 828% SEME PODJI 623,803 5,796,707 929% [Exchange rate 1$=539.8 CFA] Source: Data received from Borrower
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Annex 6.7 – Summary of technical audit carried out by an independent consultant
Objective and methodology The objective of the technical audit was to assess the relevance, quality, durability, efficiency, efficacy and transparency of investments carried out under PAURAD. The technical audit was organized in four phases: - Meeting with stakeholders - Collection and analysis of the existing documentation - Site visits and visual inspection of completed works - Elaboration of the reports
The audit was carried out on three sets of investments covering the different investment types from roads to drainage to markets as follows:
1. Investments carried out under the MOD supervision that were concluded MUNICIPALITY NUMBER OF CONTRACTS AUDITED COTONOU 4 PORTO NOVO 10 PARAKOU 8 KANDI 9 LOKOSSA 8 ABOMEY-CALAVI 8 COME 6 SEME-PODJI 10 BOHICON 9 ABOMEY 12 Total 84
2. Investments launched in 2020 by the MOD and were still being implemented MUNICIPALITIES NUMBER OF CONTRACTS AUDITED PORTO - NOVO 5 PARAKOU 0 KANDI 2 LOKOSSA 2 ABOMEY-CALAVI 0 COME 0 SEME-PODJI 5 BOHICON 8 ABOMEY 5 Total 27
3. Investments directly implemented by municipalities CITY NUMBER OF CONTRACTS AUDITED COTONOU 0 PORTO NOVO 0 PARAKOU 3 KANDI 2 LOKOSSA 6 ABOMEY-CALAVI 3
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COME 8 SEME-PODJI 3 BOHICON 4 ABOMEY 2 Total 31
Main Conclusions
Technical studies and consultant services Overall, the studies were correctly developed, with the due diligence needed to ensure a smooth implementation of civil works. However, the lack of rigor of some consultants in charge of the studies resulted in price inconsistencies, especially for some procurement activities at the bidding stage. It is also essential to indicate that the geotechnical studies were not carried out during the phase of the studies.
Work implementation and deliverables The audit focused on three types of works— namely road works comprising sections of road with their drainage works; sanitation works of the reinforced concrete collector type; and finally community and commercial infrastructure, including classroom modules, market sheds, stores, bus stations, and buildings of a cultural nature (palaces, temples and Afro-Brazilian houses). The overall quality of the works is good, and all the infrastructure is functional leaving a remarkable imprint of the positive effects of the project. However, and depending on the nature and purpose of the works, the following areas of improvement for future project activities are worth mentioning: ✓ Difficulty in the implementation of compaction activities both on pavements for what concerns roadways and the protection of collector walls. ✓ The quality of the smoothness is unsatisfactory on the pavements of the road sections which is a consequence a low level of compaction. ✓ Lack of compaction of the embankments inside the buildings.
Some observations made regarding works that were being implemented include: in Porto-Novo, a collector, whose outlet is not yet functional has been built. In Bohicon, it was noted that an amendment to a contract has been elaborated but the new key elements are not yet available. Those missing elements concern in particular the definition of the new prices, the plans of the works related to the new prices etc. Moreover, in view of the nature of the new prices, the amendment is much more similar to a supplementary contract which should be treated according to the relevant procedure. Finally, the environmental aspects have been neglected to the point where in Lokossa, excavation materials are left along the houses and in Kandi none of the trees that have been cut have been replaced.
It is noted that all contracts were not completed on time. Failure to respect the established project work implementation schedule is mainly due to the failure to comply with the required conditions of the contract as well as delay from the MOD. The penalties linked to any work implementation delay were not systematically enforced as indicated in each contract. The goal of the measures, which were far from being punitive, was to play a dissuasive role and lead the contractor to take all necessary measures to respect the clauses. However, the delay on a building site must be analyzed within the context of the challenges linked to the mobilization of the human and material and financial means needed to implement the activities. Additionally, the bidding price issue deserves to be mentioned because the variability between the lowest and the highest bid was computed at an average of 33% for all bids. This showed that the
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calculation of the bidding prices was not an integral part of a structured evaluation for a responsible offer. In the end, the incumbents generally had difficulties in completing the work, even if the accounts were promptly paid. It is therefore recommended to redefine all the resources required (human and material) in the contracting process, starting with the bidding phase.
Civil works control and supervision Civil works control and supervision suffered from a lack of rigor. This was mainly due to the consultant’s low bidding offers. Consequently, the quality of the recruited personnel was not optimal compared to the experts who were previously evaluated. Additionally, the conditions for replacement did not follow the required conditions stipulated by the contract. Periodic reports were not provided on a regular basis. The majority of the reports did not include the required elements stipulated in the contract agreement. Nevertheless, the payment related documents (attachment and statement of account) were in general, adequately prepared. With respect to the environmental aspect, there was a lack of due diligence process in the subsequent follow-up of pre-established requirement. It was noted for example that on some project implementation sites, even if the environmental expert confirmed the security of the implementation work site, some local residents had difficulties accessing their dwelling even with serious risks of accident.
As a recommendation, separating environmental tasks and confer them to experts is not advisable. It is necessary to re-think the expertise that needs to be in charge civil works supervision i.e. requiring the permanent presence of a project manager/senior engineer who follows-up on environmental safeguards’ aspects in collaboration with the environmental expert. It is equally essential to ensure compliance with the conditions for the replacement of experts in the context of civil works supervision and control.
Works implemented by the municipalities themselves For the contracts concerned by this audit, the award to the contracting phase was carried out in compliance with the procedures. However, a few inconsistencies, easy to correct for future activities, were noted in some bidding documents. Additionally, the monitoring and implementation phases were well managed by the municipalities even if some shortcomings have been reported.
What is remarkable is the generally satisfactory quality of each of the contracts. Those contracts were almost all completed within the deadline, even though the price level was relatively similar to those known for the other contracts of the project. It can be concluded that each of the eight municipalities had demonstrated its ability to ensure an acceptable implementation of the works under acceptable conditions.
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Annex 6.8 – FADeC windows
Supported by PAURAD
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