The World Bank Higher Education for Economic Transformation Project (P166415) Public Disclosure Authorized For Official Use Only Public Disclosure Authorized Concept Environmental and Social Review Summary Concept Stage (ESRS Concept Stage) Date Prepared/Updated: 12/07/2020 | Report No: ESRSC01662 Public Disclosure Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Dec 07, 2020 Page 1 of 17 The World Bank Higher Education for Economic Transformation Project (P166415) BASIC INFORMATION A. Basic Project Data Country Region Project ID Parent Project ID (if any) Tanzania AFRICA EAST P166415 Project Name Higher Education for Economic Transformation Project Practice Area (Lead) Financing Instrument Estimated Appraisal Date Estimated Board Date Education Investment Project 1/4/2021 2/24/2021 Financing For Official Use Only Borrower(s) Implementing Agency(ies) Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Education, Planning Science and Technology Proposed Development Objective To strengthen the learning environments and labor market alignment of programs in priority areas and the management of the higher education system. Financing (in USD Million) Amount Public Disclosure Total Project Cost 300.00 B. Is the project being prepared in a Situation of Urgent Need of Assistance or Capacity Constraints, as per Bank IPF Policy, para. 12? No C. Summary Description of Proposed Project [including overview of Country, Sectoral & Institutional Contexts and Relationship to CPF] The project will help strengthen: (i) the capacity and quality of select universities to prepare faculty, researchers, graduates, and to build a strong and flexible, high skilled workforce that can address Tanzania’s development challenges; and (ii) the capacity of supervising agencies to oversee the entire higher education system (both, public and private) in a fiscally sustainable and quality-improving manner. Basic principles: Dec 07, 2020 Page 2 of 17 The World Bank Higher Education for Economic Transformation Project (P166415) • HEET will cover universities in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar, given that higher education is a union matter, and as per agreement with MoEST Mainland. • A large project focus will be universities in secondary cities, such as Dodoma, Mwanza, Morogoro, Zanzibar City, as businesses in secondary cities appear to have difficulties in getting the needed human resources, in particular higher skilled workers. • The universities hosting African Centers of Excellence (ACEs) are also eligible for funding under the project, as ACE II only supports post-graduate research centers within the universities, but not the universities themselves or their undergraduate programs. • Universities receiving funds will sign performance-based funding agreements, and funding will be linked to implementation performance and results. Special priority will be given to institutions developing partnerships, driving innovations, and addressing gender gaps. • The proposed instrument will combine Investment Project Financing (IPF) with Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLI). The hybrid IPF-DLI approach was considered the most appropriate approach, to enable close For Official Use Only monitoring and mitigate fiduciary risk for the significant amount of larger scale construction and specialized equipment, but also to keep with the existing, successful results-based approaches in basic education and skills, and applying it to higher education. The proposed Higher Education for Economic Transformation will include three components: (i) Component 1: Transforming Universities with a focus on Priority Disciplines for Industrialization; (ii) Component 2: Strategic Regional and International Partnerships for Effective Teaching, Research and Labor Market Relevance; (iii) Component 3: Strengthening Key Higher Education Institutions and Project Coordination. Component 1 will use Disbursement Linked Indicators. Component 1: Transforming Universities with a focus on Priority Disciplines for Industrialization (US$253m) Objective: (i) increase enrolment capacity in degree programs in priority disciplines, (ii) improve the quality and labor Public Disclosure market relevance of programs; and (iii) promote research capacity in select higher education institutions. Component 1 will fund Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) proposals from public universities in agreed priority disciplines, such as sciences (e.g. health, agriculture), engineering (e.g. construction, roads), technology (e.g. ICT, manufacturing), STEM and others, based on existing skills gaps analysis to be determined during preparation. A similar grant mechanism has been used by the previous higher education project successfully, as well as ACE II. HEET is taking the previous grant mechanism a step further by including performance agreements between universities and MoEST. Such a grant vehicle has shown to promote governance and management, as well as autonomy of the institutions, transforming the universities into higher quality institutions. In addition, the grant approach encourages greater institutional ownership and more buy-in for difficult reforms, such as changing teaching practices. Lastly, it is more effective for institutions themselves to oversee construction activities, which will represent a sizeable share of component 1, as they are the direct beneficiary have a greater stake in their completion, as well as have the engineering capacity in-house (engineering faculty and students). Key interventions in the University Strategic Investment Plans will include: (i) Introduction of new, effective teaching methodologies: SIPs will require inclusion of ways to improve teaching using modern/ effective methods such as project-based learning approach, online learning platforms, virtual labs. Faculty training to implement these innovative approaches and upgrade their technical and industry skills will be financed. Dec 07, 2020 Page 3 of 17 The World Bank Higher Education for Economic Transformation Project (P166415) (ii) Promotion of university-private sector partnerships, for relevant program development, internships for better employability of graduates and R&D. (iii) Revival of the bridge program for women to facilitate preparedness of secondary school graduates for university. Universities that include proposals to revive the program will be prioritized (with additional points) during the competitive selection process. (iv) Construction of critical university infrastructure, such as lecture halls, labs. Construction approaches will be based on lessons learned under the previous higher education project, STHEP-AF, and based on modular, standardized designs for faster implementation. (v) Teaching and Research equipment, such as lab furniture, equipment, electronic learning materials/academic journals could be financed to improve the teaching, learning, and research environment. In addition, component 1 will support the establishment of a new University of Applied Sciences in Butiama, focused on programs for the key agricultural value chains in the north-west region. The university has already been legally For Official Use Only established and has for almost 10 years been operating at a small scale due to lack of essential facilities. The university needs financing to assist with further start-up costs and be able to offer its full range of programs. The University will undertake investments like all other universities participating into the project. Investments will not require new land as the university sits on its legally owned land and major teaching and learning activities will be undertaken within its own land. Extension services, which will be offered to support communities will be serviced by the infrastructure at the university and will not require additional establishments in the communities. Component 2: Strategic Regional and International Partnerships for Effective Teaching, Research and Labor Market Relevance (US$22m) Objective: improve the quality, labor market relevance and internationalization of programs, and research through strategic partnerships. Public Disclosure Component 2 will provide a bucket of funding accessed by selected institutions. These institutions will prepare an annual plan to enhance partnerships in areas as noted below, for which funding could be made available by the MoEST. Key interventions: (i) Partnerships between Tanzanian universities, and regional and international universities (US$15 million), e.g., with other ACE I and II institutions in East, West and Central Africa, for learning, faculty and student exchanges, and research. This will be one element of improving the quality of teaching and learning, as well as research and expose Tanzanian academics and students to global (ii) Participation in South-South Knowledge Exchanges as part of the Partnership for skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering & Technology (PASET, US$0.5m): This activity will facilitate participation in critical knowledge sharing events, such as the Africa-China Study Visit on Higher Education and other PASET events. (iii) Participation in Regional University Benchmarking Initiative (US$1.5m): This intervention will support the participation of all public and private universities in Tanzania in the regional benchmarking initiative, launched by PASET. Benchmarking of universities serves to assess and continuously improve institutional health and performance in core areas, such as inclusion and equity, labor market outcomes, technology transfer, internationalization, governance and financing. It will help improve