The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
Public Disclosure Authorized
Public Disclosure Authorized
Project Information Document (PID)
Concept Stage | Date Prepared/Updated: 10-May-2021 | Report No: PIDC30863
Public Disclosure Authorized
Public Disclosure Authorized
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
BASIC INFORMATION
A. Basic Project Data OPS TABLE
Country Project ID Parent Project ID (if any) Project Name Cameroon P175846 Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846) Region Estimated Appraisal Date Estimated Board Date Practice Area (Lead) AFRICA WEST Nov 18, 2021 Feb 17, 2022 Social Sustainability and Inclusion Financing Instrument Borrower(s) Implementing Agency Investment Project Financing Government of Cameroon Ministry of Decentralization and the Local Development
Proposed Development Objective(s)
The project’s development objective is to enhance socioeconomic inclusion and resilience in fragile communities and strengthen local governance and beneficiaries’ s engagement for service delivery.
PROJECT FINANCING DATA (US$, Millions)
SUMMARY-NewFin1
Total Project Cost 300.00
Total Financing 300.00
of which IBRD/IDA 300.00
Financing Gap 0.00
DETAILS-NewFinEnh1 World Bank Group Financing
International Development Association (IDA) 300.00
IDA Grant 300.00
Environmental and Social Risk Classification Concept Review Decision Substantial Track II-The review did authorize the preparation to continue
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
Other Decision (as needed)
B. Introduction and Context
Country Context
1. Poverty in Cameroon remains significant, with widening rural-urban inequalities. The extreme poverty rate is expected to remain at 25.3 percent in 2021, as was estimated for 2020,1 driven by the widening inequality in rural areas. Between 2001 and 2014, urban communities witnessed a decline in poverty rate by 4 points, but rural communities experienced an increase of 6 points.2 Rural areas, especially in conflict-affected regions, continue to experience exclusion from having adequate access to basic infrastructure and essential social services. Amongst rural households, only 43 percent have access to drinking water, 27 percent have access to electricity and 32 percent have access to sanitation facilities, whereas the coverage of these services in urban areas is significantly higher at 96 percent, 90 percent and 85 percent respectively.3 Rural poverty is commonly linked to agriculture, low education, and land tenure system meanwhile urban poverty tends to be more heterogeneous due to modes of income generation. The widening inequality and poverty in rural areas also negatively affect the wellbeing of vulnerable groups particularly children. Child mortality rate is significantly higher in rural areas at 92 per 1,000 births compared to cities 65 per 1,000,4 and child stunting rate is at 36 percent, compared to 20 percent in cities.5
2. Poverty is increasingly becoming regionalized. On top of the rural-urban inequality, Cameroon is witnessing concentration of poverty in specific regions. The Recovery and Peace Consolidating Strategy for Northern and Eastern Cameron (2018-2022) reveals that while the national average poverty rate is at 37.5 percent, the poverty rate is 74.3 percent in the Far North region and 67.9 percent in the North region, followed by the North West region (55.3 percent) and the Adamaoua region (47.1 percent).6 Persistence as well as geographical concentration of poverty in some regions are likely to widen regional disparities and inequality in the country in the future, unless addressed.
3. Instability and violence in Cameroon are increasing and overlapping with regionalized and concentrated poverty. The causes and drivers of fragility, conflict and violence in Cameroon are multifaceted and have different regional characteristics. The conflict in the Far North region is against an external non-state armed group, Boko Haram, leading the forceful displacement of more than 322,000 individuals. The conflict in the North-West and South-West (NWSW) regions is internal, rooted in deep identity related grievances and perceptions of structural inequality. The conflict is now entering its fifth year, leading more than 1.1 million displacement, and affecting approximately three million people.7 Overall, there is a significant increase in the occurrence of violence against civilians and occurrence of battles in Cameroon between 2017 and 2020 alone (see Figure 1). Moreover, the country has close to one million conflict induced Internally Displaced
1 World Bank. Macro Poverty Outlook 2021 – Sub-Saharan Africa. 2021. 2 Tendances, profil et déterminants de la pauvreté au Cameroun entre 2001-2014 - Quatrième enquête Camerounaise auprès des ménages (ECAM 4). Institute Nationale de la Statistique. Décembre 2015. 3 Enquête Démographique et de Santé 2018. Institut National de la Statistique (INS). Février, 2020. 4 UNData. United Nations Statistical Office. December 2020. 5 Enquête Démographique et de Santé 2018. Institut National de la Statistique (INS). Février, 2020. 6 SND 30, Strategie Nationale De Developpement 2020-2030 : Por la transformation structurelle et le developpment inclusif 7 OCHA. 2021. Cameroon Situation Report.
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
Persons (IDPs),8 in addition to more than 420,000 refugees from Nigeria and the Central African Republic (CAR) as the cross-border areas continue to be impacted by violence perpetrated by violent extremist groups and armed militias. The various crises have resulted in Cameroon having approximately 6.2 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in 2020, representing approximately 25 percent of the overall population. This figure increased from 4.3 million in 2019, and the majority is concentrated in the Far North and NWSW.9 The protracted nature of the displacement is putting pressures on resources and services. The perception held amongst the hosting community that IDPs and refugees are receiving favored treatment, can undermine their peaceful coexistence if the crisis persists.10 Additionally, the ongoing crisis has increased poverty levels and destroyed livelihoods and human capital conditions in both conflict-affected and neighboring regions. The NSWS crisis alone is estimated to contribute to a decline in the national GDP by 9 percent, if not resolved by 2025. By 2030, the national household welfare is expected to drop by more than 5 percent.11
Figure 1: ACLED conflict events in Cameroon between 2017-2020 12
4. Fragility and poverty dynamics are further exacerbated by increasing challenges posed by natural hazards and climate change. Cameroon is experiencing irregular rainfall patterns, temperature changes, extreme environment events including increased frequency and duration of droughts, floods, erosion in the coastal areas, and soil degradation.13 These events cause damage to houses and infrastructure, and the increased occurrence of droughts is damaging the agriculture sector and the livelihoods of those who depend on it, especially in the northern regions. Furthermore, Cameroon has the highest annual deforestation rate in Africa at 0.9 percent, arable land is decreasing with 27.5 percent of its forest having been degraded.14 Population movements linked with climate change and intensifying natural disasters are on the rise. Between August and October 2020 alone, an estimated more than 160,000 people were impacted by flooding in the Far North region.15 Continuous sea level rise is furthermore threatening lives of those who live along the coast. The World Bank climate data suggests that at this rate, by 2100, 0.58 million people can become displaced due to the coastal erosion.16 Seasonal transhuman pastoralism has led to conflict over dwindling natural resources. Agricultural expansion onto seasonal grazing lands and the transhumance corridors connecting them has strained the relationships between pastoralists and farmers. 345 conflicts between pastoralists and farmers were reported only between November and December 2020 in the Adamaoua, East, and North regions.17 Food insecurity caused due to the changing climate and
8 Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC). Cameroon. Available at https://www.internal-displacement.org/countries/cameroon (accessed March 26 2021). 9 UN Humanitarian Response Plan. 2020. 10 UNHCR Multi-country Operation – Cameroon. November 2020. 11 World Bank. 2021. The socio-political crisis in the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon: Assessing the Economic and Social Impacts and Implications for the World Bank Group 12 https://acleddata.com/dashboard/#/dashboard 13 The National Adaptation Plan for Climate Change (PNACC) of June 2015. 14 Tchindjang Mesmiin et al, 18 February 2020, Land Use and Land Cover changes in the Centre Region of Cameroon. 15 UNICEF. 2020. Humanitarian Situation Report No. 9. 16 https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/country/cameroon/climate-data-projections 17 International Organization for Migration (IOM). 2021. Tableau De Bord Du Comptage Des Mouvements De Transhumance (Octobre — Décembre 2020).
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
natural disasters furthermore add pressure onto communities already suffering from high levels of poverty. The 2020 Government of Cameroon Food Security and Nutrition Analysis projects that in 2021, 2.8 million people are expected to face acute level of food insecurity.18
5. The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Cameroon’s economy has been significant, further adding stress onto the country’s socioeconomic fabrics. Cameroon’s economy was heavily reliant on the informal economy prior to the COVID- 19 global pandemic with the informal employment sharing 90.2% of the labor market, accounting for more than 50% of the country’s GDP.19 The pandemic hit those in the informal sector particularly hard, and income loss and consumption decline is widely visible across the country. Containment measures, including the closure of the air and land borders implemented between April and June 2020 led to the reduction of the volume of labor, production, and turnover of enterprises as well as the remuneration and jobs, both in the formal and informal sectors. For example, informal sector workers (mainly women), who account for more than 90 percent of those employed, have been most directly affected.20 Economic activity contracted as expected in the second quarter of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact adversely final consumption and public investment. Income losses, social distancing, and uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 outbreak caused consumption to fall. Public and private consumption contributions to real GDP growth declined by 1.3 point and 1.9 points, respectively, in the second quarter of 2020.21
Sectoral and Institutional Context
6. The multifaceted socioeconomic and fragility contexts in Cameroon call for an integrated and holistic response to address drivers of fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) in the country – while building social resilience to prevent conflict and promote the active participation of the poor and inclusion of marginalized groups in defining their development prospects. The Cameroon Risk and Resilience Assessment Update (2021) identified five broad categories of drivers of FCV: 1) political (e.g. weakening social contract particularly in NWSW, distrust in public institutions, rise in hate speech challenging social cohesion), 2) governance (e.g. slow decentralization process, governance’s inability to deliver basic social services, corruption), 3) economic (e.g. impacts of COVID-19, unequal allocation of national resources to regions), 4) social (e.g. marginalization and exclusion of specific groups based on ethno-linguistic and regional belongings, youth unemployment and underemployment including perception of exclusion, growing tensions between displaced persons and the host communities), and 5) environmental (e.g. increased vulnerability of population to climate shocks, natural disaster, seasonal livestock transhumance contributing to conflicts over natural resources). In order to address these drivers, the 2021 RRA Update identified four factors of resilience: (i) political; (ii) economic; (iii) social; and (iv) environmental (see Figure 1). The project will work across these four identified sources of resilience to strengthen social inclusion to address the marginalization of some groups, especially youth, women, IDPs, and refugees. It will also build the resilience capacities of the vulnerable populations and communities nationwide, through an integrated approach that supports local governance and community-based resilience platforms to prevent violence. The project will engage local government structures, community-based organizations, and civil society to strengthen resilience at the local level and facilitate the emergence of a more inclusive social contract. Additionally, the project will establish a robust and regular coordination with development partners such as UN and humanitarian organizations to contribute to the humanitarian- development-peace nexus endeavor as well as to ensure complementarity of projects by other actors with WB-financed activities. 22
18 Cameroon. 2020. Resultats du Cadre Harmonise 19 Cameroon’s informal sector put to test by Coronavirus. Ulrich D’Pola Kamdem and Dr. Louis-Marie Kakdeu. The Nkafu Policy Institute. June 2020. 20 ILO Policy Brief. 2020. Cameroon - Rapid evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 on employment and the labor market in Cameroon1 21 World Bank. 2021. Cameroon Quarterly Economic Update, January 2021. 22 Community based organizations and religions organizations in Cameroon have been playing a critical role in supporting social cohesion on the ground.
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
Figure 2: RRA 2021 key elements that the project aims to strengthen Economic Political Support employement opportunity for Effective decentralization and strengthen youth, promote livelihoods for local authorities to improve efficiencies in marginalized and conflict-affected groups, service provision and accountability especially IDPs and refugees
Sources of Resilience
Social Environmental Utilize traditional leaders and community based groups/actors to sovlve communal build community resilience to climate disputes, strengthen the social contract change, strengthen the State's capacity to between state and its citizens particularly mitigate the impacts of climate change those vulnerable
7. The approach of the project aligns with increasing efforts by the GoC to strengthen the socioeconomic resilience of vulnerable population. The Government of Cameroon has undertaken initiatives by establishing strategies and programs that combine both priority interventions and critical reforms such as the National Development Strategy 2020- 2030; the Recovery and Peace Consolidation Strategy for Northern and East Cameroon (2018–2022); Cameroon Vision 2035, the Growth and Employment Strategy Document (GESD), the National Decentralization Strategy (2017–2021), as well as various sector strategies and their corresponding action plans.23 These programs and strategies are aimed at addressing poverty while building the resilience of the most vulnerable people, enhancing food security, preventing conflict and disasters, reducing poverty, promoting shared prosperity, and sustaining peace in crisis affected regions. The project will therefore build on these strategies to address structural factors and chronic vulnerabilities that hinder the long-term resilience of crisis affected people. Furthermore, the Government’s commitment to the agenda of social inclusion will underpin this project, which are not limited to the following: equitable distribution of resources; strengthen resilience to climate change; effective implementation of decentralization process; strengthen social cohesion; equitable distribution of national resources; and improved access to social services.
8. The project will support the GoC’s prolonged effort to implement effective decentralization. The slow decentralization process in Cameroon has been identified as a significant factor of fragility.24 The country has been engaged in a process of decentralization for several years aimed at establishing two levels of devolution respectively with i) municipalities (14 urban communities and 360 urban and rural communes and district communes) helmed by municipal councils and ii) regions headed by regional councils. While progressive municipalization has continued for several decades, the regions were only created in 1996 as Decentralized Territorial Collectivities (CTD). The 2004 decentralization laws set out the guidelines for the process, the competencies to be transferred, and the rules applicable to the CTD. The regions and municipalities have been notably assigned competences in education, health and economic development (including environmental and natural resources management, public works, urban planning and housing). The 2009 decentralization
23 RRA 2021. 24 Government Strategy for PRA Eligibility, March 2021.
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
legislation defined a financing framework for the CTD including the distribution of the General Decentralization Allocation and local taxation modalities. In practice however, the central government has remained responsible for the delivery of most services notably through deconcentrated entities at the subnational levels and with the regions not formally set-up until recently. The existing decentralized entities lack the resources and capacity to prepare and implement projects and exercise their assigned competencies. The municipalities main sources of funding are currently by order of importance: 1) shared central taxes and other taxes transferred by the government; 2) the decentralized Public Investment Budget ( allocated through the sectoral ministries in the form of funds earmarked to the CTD that they are fully in charge of managing to implement projects under their competences); and iii) the General Decentralization Allocation.25 Since 2019, the CTD have been institutionally tasked with preparing Medium-Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEFs) as a basis for the preparation of their annual budgets but do not have the capacity to do so. In addition, reviews of current processes have shown that major obstacles the CTD face in the process of acquiring and using financial resources are the lack of predictability and reliability of the budget allocations and transfers they receive and lack of transparency and disparities in the amounts effectively transferred among decentralized entities.
9. There has however been renewed momentum to deepen the decentralization process and make it more effective, notably as a path towards helping solve the crisis in the anglophone regions. Decentralization emerged as a central theme in the major national dialogue (Grand Dialogue National – GDN) held by the Government in 2019 that aimed at proposing solutions to this crisis. The dialogue was followed by the adoption of a new General Code of Decentralized Territorial Collectivities (CGCTD), which, among other things, set for the first time a minimum amount of the national budget revenue to be transferred to the CTD (15 percent). The Law extends additional competences to the municipalities (seven) and regions (four) and also grants “special status” to the anglophone regions through differentiated provisions in the areas of justice, education, regional development, the make-up of regional assemblies, and the establishment of an independent public conciliator. In December 2020, the long-awaited regional elections were held with 897 regional council members elected throughout the ten regions.26 The Project will build on the current momentum to support the building of government institutional capacity in areas that are essential to making decentralization operational and more effective and to build the capacity of the CTD, including the newly created regional councils, to use resources effectively and to engage with the communities they serve for improved service delivery.
10. In addition, ongoing partners and World Bank operations in Cameroon provide opportunities to draw synergies in the project areas. WBG has currently a diverse portfolio of activities in the country. In accordance with Government priorities, some of its projects emphasize activities in marginalized and poor regions such as the northern regions through the participatory community development program, health sector investment, and social safety nets projects. Infrastructure remains an important priority of the Government and WBG is supporting projects with direct impact on the people, such as activities focusing on road rehabilitation and construction, support to the agriculture sector and rural electrification targeting underserved regions. WBG is also supporting activities in response to forced displacement such as projects funded through the IDA-18 Refugee Sub-Window as well as programs aiming at strengthening public sector effectiveness. In particular, the project will complement the Community Development Program Support Project-Phase III (PNDP) which applies community driven development approaches and aims at strengthening local public financial management and participatory development processes in local councils for the delivery of quality and sustainable social and economic infrastructure and services. The project will use a two-pronged approach to support the decentralization process and address drivers of FCV by building on local authority engagement expertise established under PNDP, and ii) strengthening support for Natural Resource Management (NRM) and socioeconomic inclusion to improve beneficiary communities’ self-sustainability. Furthermore, the project will complement existing projects delivered by humanitarian
25 In 2019, they constituted respectively 54%, 35% and 10% of the municipalities’ financial resources. 26 The regional Councils are composed of i) delegates of the region’s departments indirectly elected by universal suffrage and ii) traditional leaders elected by their peers.
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
and development partners (see Annex 1 for key development partners and their thematic areas of coverage). The project will furthermore coordinate with humanitarian and development partners to synergize interventions, and on a sequential approach considering the ability and potential to achieve collective results. The project will conduct assessments during the appraisal stage to identify development partners. Such assessment will also identify the capacities of Regional and Municipal authorities on planning, implementation, and operational matters. This will also assist in defining the actual roles to be played by the three levels of government in project implementation.
Relationship to CPF
11. The project’s objectives align with the Cameroon CPF FY17-FY21 particularly on the below objectives; • Objective 5. Improved access to local infrastructure • Objective 9. Increasing supply of skills demand by the labour market • Objective 10. improved efficiency of public expenditure and service delivery • Objective 12. increased citizen engagement at local level
12. The project is well aligned with the World Bank’s strategy and analysis on Cameron. The project is built on the 2016 Fragility Assessment which emphasized the importance of strengthening citizens’ engagement and the need to address challenges of underemployment of youths, and tensions between displaced and the host populations, amongst others. The 2021 RRA Update added intensification of forced displacement as one of the new key drivers, and added four new dimensions to be considered, including (i) socio-political crisis in the NWSW regions; (ii) a looming humanitarian catastrophe nationwide; (iii) intensification of forced displacement of the Adamaoua, East, North and Far North regions, and (iv) recurrence of natural disasters. Furthermore, the project is built on findings from the WBG study entitled The socio-political crisis in the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon: Assessing the Economic and Social Impacts and Implications for the World Bank Group. The study identified three categories of issues, namely, (i) rethinking delivery assistance in response to conflict dynamic, (ii) invest in data collection to inform policy dialogue, and (iii) move beyond development finance to address underlying grievances and support peace. The project particularly focuses on the first strategy of (i) rethinking delivery assistance in response to conflict dynamics, and will follow its recommendations, including utilization of the Conflict Engagement Platform (CEP) established by the CMU, provision of support to affected populations outside NWSW, and designing interventions to support conflict de-escalation and community resilience.
Figure 3: The Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon: Assessing the Economic and Social Impacts and Implications for the WBG recommendations
Rethinking delivery Move beyond development Invest in data collection to finance to address assistance in response to inform policy dialogue underlying grievances and conflict dynamic support peace •Establish multi-sector task •Household surveys and polls •Encourage dialogue on need force on the Anglophone •Conflict tracking for solutions and peace crisis •Understanding physical commitments •Develop a conflict filter to impact and damage •Support facts-based guide WBG operations dialogue to implement •Interventions should recommendations of “Grand support de-escalation and Dialogue Nationale” resilience •Support improved partner •Support the affected coordination population outside NWSW •Support recovery planning
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
C. Proposed Development Objective(s)
13. The project’s development objective is to enhance socioeconomic inclusion and resilience in fragile communities and strengthen local governance and beneficiaries’ s engagement for service delivery.
Key Results (From PCN)
14. The project intends to achieve the development objective by (i) strengthening communities’ access to basic infrastructures and services; (ii) economic inclusion and livelihood support; and (iii) strengthening decentralization and capacity of local authorities.
15. The PDO level results will be measured by following outcome and intermediate indicators. The indicators including the intermediate indicators may undergo revisions at the project appraisal stage to further sharpen measurement of the development objective. The following PDO indicators and intermediate indicators will be considered and refined during the project preparation.
Proposed PDO indicators
a. Execution rate of decentralized public investment budget in targeted sectors (percentage); b. Percentage of beneficiaries (male/female) who participate in planning, decision making or monitoring subprojects (percentage); c. Percentage of beneficiaries (male/female) reporting understanding on linkages between improved natural resource management practice and sustainable livelihoods (percentage); and d. Number of beneficiaries (male/female) with increased access to livelihood opportunities (number).
Proposed intermediate results indicators
Component 1: a. Number of Local Development Committees established (number); b. Number of Environmental Management Action Plans prepared with community participation (number); c. Number of small works successfully implemented and managed by beneficiary communities (number); d. Number of municipal staff trained on NRM practices in targeted districts (number); Component 2: e. Number of community members receiving financial literacy and livelihood training (number); f. Number of saving groups established (number); g. Number of livelihood restoration grants provided to community members (number); Component 3: h. CTD (regions and municipalities) that have prepared their Medium-Term Expenditure Frameworks (number); i. Local Public officials trained in core identified functions (number for all regions and NWSW); j. Beneficiaries in targeted fragile communities/regions that say approved public investments reflect their needs (percentage);
Component 4: k. Beneficiaries satisfied with the quality of services provided under the project (percentage); and l. Registered grievance addressed (percentage)
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
16. The preliminary Theory of Change (TOC) is outlined in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Preliminary Theory of Change
D. Concept Description
17. The project applies an integrated approach based on recent studies conducted by the World Bank as mentioned previously. The approach grouped in three related domains to collectively address underlying drivers of fragility and violence that strengthen socioeconomic resilience, and to improve local governance and service provision. The three related domains are: i) economic inclusion and livelihoods support, ii) socioeconomic infrastructure and services; and iii) decentralization, which are organized into the project components. Cross-cutting approaches include gender mainstreaming and disability inclusion to ensure adequate inclusion of women, female youth and persons with disabilities. This includes gender sensitive and disability inclusive community outreach, specific interventions outlined to provide a friendly environment for the participation of women, female youth and persons with disabilities’, and establishing a M&E mechanism to track their meaningful inclusion in the project activities. A gender assessment as well as GBV assessment will be conducted at the appraisal stage to further refine project activities by identifying existing gender gaps to inform the project design accordingly to narrow or eliminate the gaps identified. The GBV assessment will identify existing support services available for women and girls on GBV that the project can utilize (e.g. referral service) as well as help seeking
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
behaviors of survivors.27 Climate change adaptation is another cross-cutting dimension, and the project will support improved natural resource management practices and knowledge amongst the beneficiary communities to strengthen their capacity to adapt to the climate change. The project will ensure synergy with other World Bank projects (see B. Sectoral and Institutional Context) and utilize the CEP established at the CMU level that provides guidance on engaging in conflict-affected areas to ensure conflict-sensitivity of the project intervention model and to assess and adjust planned activities and implementation modalities. Furthermore, given the difficulties in accessing some communities, the project will coordinate with humanitarian and development partners on the ground to utilize their operating platforms to effectively deliver services, while connecting dots of services provided by other partners to jointly upscale the development impact.
18. Selection criteria for the targeted community. The project will have a national coverage. Given the multi-faceted nature of factors of fragility, conflict and violence in Cameroon, the project will cover 1) regions currently experiencing conflicts (Far North, North West and South West), 2) areas that are considered fragile due to high rate of socioeconomic exclusion and impacts of ongoing conflicts, and 3) areas experiencing spillovers effects of conflicts and violence (e.g. hosting refugees and IDPs, impact on social services, jobs, and social relations). The detailed geographical coverage will be refined during the appraisal stage, and the selection of target communities will be informed by background data on factors of fragility, conflict, and violence in the regions and municipalities covered by the project, the existence and scale of forcibly displaced persons (both refugees and IDPs), as well as by emerging Government priorities and current and pipeline World Bank operations. Furthermore, the existing presence of humanitarian and development agencies’ projects will be evaluated to avoid duplications in efforts while strengthening the complementarity of the project to ongoing initiatives.
Figure 5: Selection of participating communes
Project components Component 1: Community rehabilitation and construction of small infrastructures and services
27 The latest Norwegian Refugee Council reporting from December 2020 indicates that 56.4 percentage of women in Cameroon have suffered from emotional and sexual violence. Therefore, the team will utilize the one stop shop service offered by the AWCCI Platform: Gender, GBV and Social Inclusion (P175208) to draw regional good lessons learned to craft the project’s approach on mitigating GBV risks and to synergize its approach on the subject.
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
19. This component will support community outreach and mobilization to identify community-wide interventions for the provision of services and infrastructure, and to improve communities’ inclusive access to essential social services and basic infrastructure.
20. Community mobilization, engagement and skills development. The objective of this activity is to mobilize communities to establish Local Development Committees (LDC), a community-based platform to encourage community involvement in designing and implementing project activities. Each LDCs will include youth and women representatives and where applicable, participation of persons with disabilities and other vulnerabilities will be encouraged. To an extent possible, the project will utilize and build on pre-existing community structure and build on it.28 Through these platforms, a series of sensitization activities and communications will be delivered regarding the project’s objectives, importance of natural resource management (NRM), and social inclusion issues including gender.
21. Community infrastructure rehabilitation and small works support. Beneficiaries mobilized into LDCs will first develop the Environmental Management Action Plans under the technical oversight of the project staff to identify the environmental protection and small-scale civil works priorities for respective communities to improve the overall community infrastructures while mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change and natural disasters. The plans and selection of small civil works will be identified and implemented through participatory process with the guidance of the project staff, technical experts, and local government officials. The engagement of local government staff including coordination between the decentralized actors and local development staff at the regional, district and municipalities levels29 is crucial to ensure the sustainability and maintenance of the community infrastructures constructed/rehabilitated, and the commitment by the local authorities or by community itself to cover recurrent costs of the operation of completed facilities. In order to reflect different characteristics and needs of communities, an adaptive management and implementation approach will be incorporated into the project design, which includes the range of small works that can be implemented. Examples of these works may include; construction and/or rehabilitation of social service facilities (e.g. schools, health facilities, water and sanitation facilities), basic infrastructures (e.g. roads and ancillary structures, small irrigation and drainage work), market facilities, animal production management infrastructure (e.g. animal waste management, demarcation of livestock routes, establishment of nurseries for improved pastures), infrastructure for climate adaptation (e.g. protection of soil cover through vegetation/forestation, flood management, structures to prevent soil erosion).
22. Sustainable management of infrastructure and services. This activity will provide tailored capacity building and technical support for local authorities and beneficiary communities to ensure that capacity will be build and sustain to maintain community infrastructures and services established under the component. The training will include climate adaption practices.
Component 2: Economic inclusion and community-based recovery through livelihood provision
23. Economic recovery interventions at households and community levels will be delivered to help selected beneficiaries to restore and/or improve their livelihoods to reduce the economic and social impact of disasters and conflicts. It will support community members to strengthen self-reliance and economic inclusion of vulnerable population particularly women and youth.
24. Group savings and livelihood skills training. A self-managed group saving model will be established for interested beneficiary community members. Through participatory consultations, members are expected to agree on the amount
28 Further assessments of existing community mechanisms and platforms will be conducted during the appraisal stage. 29 For example, the “Services de développement de la préfecture. »
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
and frequency of deposits as well as terms of loans (e.g. interest rates, repayment rate) and bookkeeping modalities. The group saving model will play a critical role in sustaining the project’s impact after its closing, by building skills in basic financial literacy and encourage self-reliance. Participating members will receive both soft skills and basic financial literacy training, which includes management of group dynamics and decision making, negotiation skills, resolving conflicts, bookkeeping, accounting training and management of household finances. The training will furthermore include optimizing NRM and improved understanding between livelihoods and NRM. Separate training will be provided for youth to support youth development, which includes life skills and psychosocial support and leadership training.
25. Livelihoods restoration grant. Beneficiary community members above the age of 18, will be provided with opportunities to apply for livelihood restoration grants. The objective of the grant is to prevent the erosion of household assets and livelihoods, and to accelerate recovery, and each applicant will be requested to submit livelihood restoration plans outlining details of activities with requested amount. The project then will conduct a rapid feasibility assessment of the proposed activities and, will provide the volume of resources required for the procurement of start up production inputs as well as the need for technical support. Applicants of livelihoods restoration grants will furthermore be requested to submit NRM plans attached to the livelihood restoration plans. There will be special allocation of resources targeting women, youth and persons with disabilities. Participatory assessments of market demands will be conducted to ensure synergies between market demands and livelihoods restoration grants provided.
Component 3: Strengthened decentralized local authorities
26. This component will: i) provide technical assistance to central and local actors to further operationalize the decentralization agenda at the institutional and policy level ; ii) build and strengthen the capacity of the decentralized local authorities to manage and implement resources more effectively and in a participatory manner and to exercise the competences transferred to them. This component will also have a specific focus on CTD in the NWSW and other regions most affected by fragility and violence.
27. Building institutional capacity for decentralization. Proposed activities will target both central and local institutions and actors with the aim to: i) promote and sensitize about decentralization and its modalities notably to reduce overlaps in roles and functions 30; ii) establish the initial capacity of the regional councils to exercise the devolved competencies with a focus on the NWSW regions (including with regard to the special status where relevant) and strengthen core capacity of municipal councils; and iii) provide technical assistance to guide and inform specific government reforms that are essential to the decentralization process. Capacity-building activities will be provided for the performance of core public sector and governance functions (Planning and Budgeting, FM, Procurement, HRM, M&E, public accountability and grievance redress, etc...) and to also fill in gaps as identified by a skills needs assessment (also through sub-components 2 and 3). Technical assistance will be provided (including through a just-in-time on-demand basis/arrangement) notably on fiscal decentralization and to support the effective transfer of resources to the CTD. The latter includes the ongoing work to determine sources of financing for the CTD and regions especially, including to provide them with viable sources of own revenue in line with sub-functions, the allocation of resources between regions and municipalities and among CTD, and improving transfer modalities to decentralized entities for a more transparent and equitable distribution of resources based on needs. Technical Assistance would be also provided on the complex but consequential issue of the management of human resources which have not been transferred in practice as the decentralization Law stipulates, including on the modalities of establishing a local public administration and its implications for the education and health sectors especially.
28. Preparation of the decentralized Public Investment Budget. The capacity of the regional and municipal councils’
30 Between deconcentrated and decentralized actors and among actors at the local level such as for example, between the newly elected regional councils and the governors and prefects.
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
capacity will be respectively built and strengthened through the various phases of the local budgetary process including: i) the preparation of the annual performance review of existing projects to inform new priorities and budgets; ii) the selection of mature and inclusive projects for inclusion in the CTD Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF); iii) the strengthening of the results orientation of the investment programs; and iv) the alignment and incorporation of Municipal Development/Investment Plans with regional development plans and sectoral strategies. Activities will be aligned to the annual budget preparation calendar when possible and include the conduct of participatory performance reviews; the development of criteria for the selection of inclusive, mature and impactful projects for the councils to include in the local MTEFs and the strengthening of programming and coordination mechanisms to support inclusion in the sectoral MTEFs; and capacity building for the relevant local staff to make medium-term budgetary projections.
29. Strengthening local capacity for service delivery and performance monitoring . Activities under this sub-component will be based on a detailed assessment of the specific challenges faced by decentralized local authorities and bodies that intervene in the service delivery process especially in the fragile and conflict-affected areas. Capacity building will be specifically provided for the sustainable management of the community infrastructure rehabilitation and small works to be undertaken under this project; and to implement projects aimed at addressing the impact of Covid-19 on their communities and building longer-term resilience. Practical tools for the monitoring of community projects will be developed with the integration of performance management tools including the strengthening and integration of the municipalities budget information management system (SIMBA). Performance improvement grants will be provided to the CTD on the basis of carefully designed criteria to address specific bottlenecks and incentivize implementation and results. For institutionalization, the possibility of matching grants by the government (central) will also be pursued. In a first phase, the focus will be on the entities at the municipal level while the regional bodies build their initial capacity (see sub-component 1).
30. Mainstreaming Transparency and Citizen engagement. Citizen engagement will be cross-cutting and integrated systematically. They will entail mechanisms to collect citizen inputs throughout the public investment project and budget preparation and execution processes and building the capacity of the communities to participate meaningfully notably through public access to and dissemination of relevant information. While mechanisms exist for citizen participation in the preparation of communal development plans and the monitoring of the public investment budget, the evidence shows that participation is limited. The communities lack opportunities to be involved beyond the planning in the programming and budgeting phases. Proposed activities will strengthen and utilize existing mechanisms such as the Local monitoring committees at the regional, district, municipal and village levels. That will include identifying information gaps, collecting and publishing information through various channels, and the strengthening and expanding of spaces to allow communities to provide feedback at low cost, supported by data that is public and in formats that are easy to access and understand. The proposed activities will be anchored in public outreach activities about decentralization and its main elements including what competences and functions have been devolved, clarifying what services to expect from deconcentrated vs decentralized entities and how to contact local officials for various needs. Pilot participatory budgeting initiatives will be built on for adaptation and expanding notably to the CTD in disadvantaged regions with a view towards institutionalizing a participatory budgeting process for the CTD of Cameroon.
Component 4: Project management, monitoring and evaluation.
31. This component will support project management and administration, M&E and knowledge sharing.
32. Project management and administration. A central project implementation unit (PIU) will be established at the Ministry of Decentralization and the Local Development (MINDDEVEL) to coordinate implementation activities, and this activity will support operation of the PIU and finance overall project management, as well as procurement and financial
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
management. Regional PIUs will be responsible for the day to day execution of the project. This component will finance goods, technical assistance, consulting services, training and operating costs for regional PIUs and other relevant agencies as appropriate to facilitate implementation of the Project (for proposed implementing arrangement, see C: Implementing Agency Assessment).
33. Monitoring and Evaluation. The project will adopt a participatory and robust M&E that focuses on proactive monitoring and adaptive learning. A range of instruments will be deployed to collect both quantitative and qualitative information with a strong focus on tracking outcome level indicators, synthesizing emerging lessons and communication of results to key stakeholders. A robust performance-based Management Information System (MIS) and development of relevant ICT applications will be established to collect and analyze the M&E data at the central level. The project will set up a dedicated M&E unit within the PIU, led by a full time M&E consultant to conduct data drive review and implementation. The project will explore the use of a t Third Party Monitoring to increase the frequency of data collected to facilitate adaptive learning as well as to strengthen the supervision.
34. Knowledge management. The project will support the periodic assessment of lessons learned during project implementation: achievement of objectives; suitability of implementing modalities; adequacy and impact of the project interventions; data collection and utilization status; operation of implementing partners; coordination among stakeholders; implementation obstacles; emerging conflicts; etc. Lessons learned will be documented and applied to introduce improvements to project implementation. Strongly performed members of LDCs and recipients of the livelihood restoration grants will be selected to participate in “Community Champions” program where they will be provided with additional leadership training and will take a part in cross-regional knowledge exchange. Furthermore, the project ensures close coordination with line ministries to sustain synergies with the GoC’s national strategy while project information is effectively shared with relevant national actors.
Legal Operational Policies Triggered? Projects on International Waterways OP 7.50 No Projects in Disputed Areas OP 7.60 No
Summary of Screening of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts .
. CONTACT POINT
World Bank Abderrahim Fraiji, Marieta Fall Senior Social Development Specialist
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The World Bank Local Governance and Resilient Communities Project (P175846)
Borrower/Client/Recipient
Government of Cameroon
Implementing Agencies
Ministry of Decentralization and the Local Development Ella Meye Lydie Chantal Epse Essissima Chief of the Studies, Statistics, Planning and Cooperation D [email protected]
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 473-1000 Web: http://www.worldbank.org/projects
APPROVAL
Task Team Leader(s): Abderrahim Fraiji, Marieta Fall
Approved By APPROVALTBL Practice Manager/Manager:
Country Director: Abdoulaye Seck 10-Jun-2021
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