Completion Report Project Number: 49311-001 Technical Assistance Number: 9114 March 2021 People's Republic of China: Jiaozuo National Pilot Project for the Standardization of Public Employment Services This document is being disclosed to the public in accordance with ADB's Access to Information Policy. In preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE COMPLETION REPORT TA Number, Country, and Name: Amount Approved: $400,000.00 TA 9114-PRC: Jiaozuo National Pilot Project for the Revised Amount: $600,000.00 Standardization of Public Employment Services Executing Agency: Source of Funding: Amount Undisbursed: Amount Used: Henan Provincial Department of Technical Assistance $246,388.13 $353,611.87 Finance 1 Special Fund-other sources ($400,000) Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund ($200,000) TA Approval Date: TA Signing Date: TA Completion Date 13 May 2016 8 June 2016 Original Date: Latest Revised Date: 31 December 2017 31 March 2020 Financial Closing Number of Date: 1 June 2020 Extensions: 4 TA Type: Capacity development TA Description As the economy in the People's Republic of China (PRC) underwent transformation and its growth slowed, the establishment and improvement of the urban and rural public employment service (PES) system became a priority. PES in the PRC, by statute, assumes a comprehensive set of functions, such as job brokerage, labor market information, active labor market programs, administration and management of unemployment benefits and other benefits, and labor migration. Yet the availability, quality, and effectiveness of PES has been uneven across the country, particularly between urban and rural areas. Against this backdrop, the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan, 2016–2020 emphasized the importance of a coordinated urban–rural PES to promote stable employment, especially for those who face difficulties in labor market transitions, including college graduates, rural migrant workers, laid-off workers, the unemployed, and graduates from universities abroad. Jiaozuo is a resource-exhausted municipality of Henan Province which has been undergoing industrialization, urbanization, agricultural modernization, and digitization as a provincial-level economic transformation demonstration city. In 2014, the Labor Exchange Center (LEC) of the Jiaozuo Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security started a national pilot project for the standardization of PES to enhance the availability, quality, and effectiveness of PES at LEC and 11 district and county centers, 102 township stations, and 1,826 village stations. Although the national pilot project was to be closed in April 2017, it became clear by the midterm stage that the project was facing many challenges. Substantial work remained yet to develop a set of standards for PES, train PES staff at the municipal, district, county, township, and village levels to apply the standards to day-to-day PES operations, get the standards adopted at the national level, and draw and disseminate lessons and recommendations from the project nationwide. The technical assistance (TA) was requested to support those remaining tasks. Expected Impact, Outcome, and Outputs The expected impact of the TA was the equalization of PES between urban and rural areas. The intended outcome was the enhancement of the quality and effectiveness of PES. The TA had three outputs: (i) a complete set of standards for PES developed; (ii) standards application and quality control systems for PES established; and (iii) knowledge about the standardization of PES strengthened. Implementation Arrangements Henan Provincial Department of Finance was the TA executing agency which oversaw coordination of different departments and agencies involved in the standardization of PES. Jiaozuo Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security was the TA implementing agency which assumed overall responsibility for TA activities through LEC. LEC provided in-kind contributions in the form of counterpart staff, office space, data and information, and logistical support, and mobilized PES at the district and county levels and below to carry out TA activities. 1 Henan Finance Bureau in the TA report. Henan Provincial Department of Finance is the official name of the executing agency. 2 The Asian Development Bank (ADB) selected and engaged two consulting firms using the quality- and cost-based selection method (90:10 quality–cost ratio) and simplified technical proposal. In accordance with the output-based partial lumpsum contract, the first consulting firm provided 2 person-months of international inputs and 11 person- months of national inputs to support the development and updating of standards for PES and training of PES staff on the application of the standards by introducing good practices in PES in the PRC and abroad, particularly in the profiling of job seekers and the targeting of different types of PES, internal quality control systems, and records and document management. The second consulting firm, in accordance with the output-based full lumpsum contract, provided 46 person-months of national inputs to develop an information technology (IT) platform which supports the application of the standards to the day-to-day operations of PES. In addition, ADB engaged one international individual consultant (1.5 person-months) to review international experiences and lessons from high-income countries and prepare recommendations for developing, implementing, evaluating, and updating public service standards. Although the procurement of laptops was envisaged, it proved unnecessary during the TA implementation. Upon the request of Henan Provincial Department of Finance in August 2017, an additional funding of $200,000 was obtained from the Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund (EAKPF) in July 2018 to expand the original scope of the IT platform under development with enhanced business processes and to assess the need for IT infrastructure and the capacity of PES at the municipal, district, county, township, and village levels for the deployment of the IT platform at PES beyond LEC. It was planned to (i) increase national inputs of the second consulting firm for the development of the IT platform by 22 person-months; and (ii) engage international and national individual consultants, including 1.5 person-months of international inputs for big data analytics for PES, 1.5 person-months of international inputs for IT system and infrastructure, and 4.0 person-months of national inputs for IT system and big data analytics. However, prolonged contract negotiations failed between ADB and the joint venture IT firm of the second consulting firm which was to be engaged using the single-source selection method, because the firm did not agree to sign the standard contract with ADB. It was eventually agreed between ADB, Henan Provincial Department of Finance, and Jiaozuo Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security that the additional TA activities to be funded by EAKPF should be cancelled. Conduct of Activities The TA activities began with the mobilization of the first consulting firm in November 2016. Between November 2016 and January 2017, the consulting firm conducted (i) desk review of the PRC's national PES standard system established in 2010, PES records and document management policies and systems, and experiences with the standardization of PES in Beijing and Jinan, Shandong Province; (ii) literature review of PES in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development countries regarding institutional arrangements, functions, services, target groups, techniques used for jobseeker profiling and PES targeting, and internal quality control systems; (iii) key informant interviews with government bureaus and agencies involved in PES at the municipal level; (iv) field visits to PES at the county, township, and village levels in two counties of Jiaozuo to investigate institutional arrangements for, and organizational structures, functions, target groups, and infrastructures of PES at different levels; and (v) assessments of the PES standard system and the standards already developed, resources and procedures for developing standards, internal quality control systems, and records and document management systems at LEC. The firm developed lists of standards to be developed and upgraded and the methodology for developing and upgrading standards which were presented and discussed at the TA inception workshop organized in February 2017 with the participation of Henan Provincial Department of Finance, Henan Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, Jiaozuo Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, and LEC. In February 2017, the consulting firm visited PES at the municipal, district, county, township, and village levels and conducted interviews with employers and jobseekers about their expectations from PES. In March 2017, the firm organized a study visit for core members of the PES standardization team at LEC to Xicheng District Human Resources and Public Service Center in Beijing which implemented the national pilot project for the standardization of PES. Based on discussions with the PES standardization team at LEC and the experience of the other national pilot projects, a framework