Tanzania - Human Resource Development Pilot Project I

Report No. PIC3429 Project Name Tanzania-Human Resource Development Pilot... Project I Region Africa Sector Human Resources Project ID number TZPA2789 Borrower Government of Tanzania Implementing Agency Prime Minister's Office / Local Government P. 0. Box 3021, Dar es Salaam Date This PID Prepared February 5, 1996 Project Appraisal Date March 1996 Projected Board Date August 1996 1. Country and sector background. Although Tanzania remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with estimated per capita GDP in 1993 of only $90, there has been steady growth in the economy since adjustment began in 1984. Even with population growth of about 2.8 percent per year, there was a substantial increase in per capita income in the last half of the 1980s, with continued but slower growth in the 1990s. The resumption of economic growth over the past decade has substantially improved living conditions for the majority of the poor in Tanzania, resulting in fewer people living in poverty in the 1990s relative to the 1980s. 2. Growth has been accompanied by greater inequality. The very poor appear to have fallen behind. What little evidence we have on how this could have happened points to the maldistribution of human capital and rural infrastructure as the main culprits. Moreover, despite steady income growth and substantial investments to improve the supply of social services, indicators of basic human welfare have been stagnant or worsening compared to levels in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The Tanzania Social Sector Review concluded that improving on low enrolents and poor quality of both primary and secondary schooling, coupled with improved performance of girls in school, are the highest priority areas for intervention to reverse the apparent stagnation in human capital investment. 3. Enrolent in primary schools has dropped from 100 percent in 1980 to less than 70 percent in the early 1990s. Tanzania's secondary enrolent rate 5 percent as recently as 1990 is one of the two lowest in the world. How to get more children, especially girls, into school earlier is the first problem (quantity). How to make sure schools are effective in keeping them there and providing a good education is the second problem (quality). This project takes aim at these problems. 4. Project objectives. This is a three-year pilot project to assist the government to implement elements of its social sector strategy and education policy, with a substantial evaluation component informing decisions following this pilot stage about proceeding with the reforms  nationally. The project should increase high pay-off human capital investments by raising enrolents in primary school; improving the quality of primary schooling; and increasing enrolents in secondary schools (particularly for girls). These objectives will be accomplished by supporting the government's strategy: increasing available resources; tilting the balance of inputs towards materials and supplies; supporting decentralization of authority to schools, communities, and districts; encouraging private sector participation in the provision of education services (particularly at the secondary level); promoting higher quality standards; and moving resources closer to the household to promote greater accountability to and participation by households. The project is also intended to lay some of the groundwork for a broader sector lending approach in subsequent operations. 5. Project description. The project will have the following components: a) The Community Education Fund Pilot component is a matching grant program for primary schools designed to increase enrolent, improve the quality of schooling, and increase parental and community involvement in monitoring school performance. During the pilot phase financed under this project, the government's contribution to the primary school will remain unchanged to avoid disruption. The pilot will only add funds at the margin in the following manner: (a) district authorities and school personnel will open school bank accounts if necessary; (b) schools will prepare annual plans, which will be approved by the appropriate body; (c) the school will raise as much money as it can from parents based on this plan; (d) the pilot project will match these contributions using a formula based on the average income of the community; (e) the project will audit school performance; and (f) participation in subsequent years will be partially dependent on achieving planned goals. b) The Girls' Secondary Education Support Pilot is a school-based scholarship (or bursary) program for girls, with funds channeled through schools. The project may also support counseling, gender training for teachers, other gender-related software, and incentives for schools to improve the environment and the academic performance of female students. c) An implicit part of the Government's Social Sector Strategy is to reorient the central ministries to an output and policy orientation rather than providing inputs and otherwise managing all aspects the school system. In addition, the pilot nature of this project requires considerable investment in policy analysis, operations research, information gathering and dissemination to consumers, and repeated beneficiary assessments. The Policy, Operations Research, and Beneficiary Assessment component of the project will assist in creating and/or expanding the institutional capacity inside and outside government to carry out these functions. It will fund evaluation and monitoring of the pilots. 6. Project financing. The project is being built upon an existing system, so the costs are calculated as marginal additions to the current educational system. Total pilot program costs are estimated to be $22.5 million equivalent. IDA will finance 71 percent of direct program costs; additional governmental contributions will finance 4 percent of costs; and additional parental cash contributions will finance percent - 2 -  of costs. 7. Project implementation. The project will be implemented over a three-year period (1997-2000). The government has proposed that an inter-agency pilot implementation unit (PIU) be established that will coordinate activities across ministries and either survive or perish with the pilots. The Ministry of Education and Culture (MOEC) will provide technical and administrative support. Primary and secondary schools (public and nongovernment), school committees/boards, the District Education Office, and parents will be fully engaged in this project with clearly defined roles. A Project Steering Committee, including various agencies and stakeholders, will provide policy guidance on implementation and review the management and implementation of the project. 8. Project sustainability. The focus of this project is investments in human capital. Parents and government will provide a larger share of the incremental funds than is typically the case in a social sector project. The IDA-financed injection of funds is designed to increase sustainability by providing an incentive for parents to mobilize additional resources and, through the school plan and parental participation in funding decisions, to increase parents' ability to influence school decisions. We expect that continuing IDA support on a declining basis, coupled with sustained economic growth, will help to institutionalize this mechanism, which will allow parents and the government to replace IDA funds. 9. At the secondary level, the scholarship program will create a mechanism through which schools, communities, the central government, and donors can target cash subsidies to specific students. Most importantly, sustainability of these investments in human capital will be seen in future generations, as (a) prospects for growth are improved, (b) equity in the distribution of the stock of human capital improves, and (c) parents commit themselves to secure even more education for their children than they themselves received. 10. The design of this project was developed through a participatory process involving stakeholders at all levels, including households that will be the main beneficiaries of the project. The design of the project also will stimulate stakeholder participation during implementation. The sense of ownership created is expected to contribute to the sustainability of the project. 11. Lessons learned from past operations in the country/sector. The Bank Group has financed seven projects in the education sector in Tanzania, beginning in the 1960s. A portfolio review provided several lessons for the current project design and implementation. First, disbursements have been low. This project is designed to make it feasible to reach a higher level of disbursements by unbundling bulky central disbursements for works and equipment, and moving smaller decisions down through the chain to the school level. Second, prior projects have been administratively complex. In this project, administrative complexity has been reduced by focusing on just three carefully identified high-impact investment activities, one at the primary level and one at the secondary level, with an investment in - 3 -  monitoring and evaluation to support these two interventions. Third, project design and implementation was centralized, with little opportunity for the ultimate beneficiaries to influence the way the funds were spent. Implementation of this pilot project is at the school level. The project will assure that beneficiaries have clear channels to place demands effectively on managers and school authorities to follow through on their commitments made in the school plan. 12. Poverty Category. The project meets both criteria for the Program of Targeted Interventions. First, the project has specific mechanisms for targeting the poor; and second, the population of project beneficiaries has a significant larger proportion of poor people than the country's population as a whole. 13. Environmental Aspects. No significant negative environmental impact is envisaged in the project. While some of the matching grant funds will be used for construction of classrooms or latrines, none of the activity is foreseen to have a negative impact on the environment. During construction, schools will be monitored by the district authorities. District authorities will ensure that building guidelines are being followed and that they do not entail any environmental risks. 14. In the long run, the project is expected to have a positive impact on the environment. Increased education levels will, among others: (i) lower fertility rates and thus reduce environmental pressures associated with rapid population growth; (ii) increase economic capacity of households to produce more educated farmers; and (iii) produce better- off farmers, which will be more receptive to learn and undertake land conservation techniques. The environmental rating of C is proposed. 15. Program Objective Category. The program objective category is primary and secondary education. Contact Point: Public Information Center The World Bank 1818 H Street N.W. Washington D.C. 20433 Telephone No.: (202)458-5454 Fax No.: (202)522-1500 Note: This is information on an evolving project. Certain components may not necessarily be included in the final project. - 4 -