Ghana - Education Sector Development Project

Updated Project Information Document (PID) Report No: AB583 Project Name GHANA - Education Sector Project Region Africa Regional Office Sector General education sector (50%); Tertiary education (50%) Theme Education for all (P) Project P050620 Borrower(s) Implementing Agency(ies) MIN. OF EDUCATION Address: Contact Person: Mr. Ato Essuman Tel: (233) 21 247 605 Fax: Email: Environment Category B (Partial Assessment) Date PID Prepared December 31, 2003 Auth Appr/Negs Date January 9, 2004 Bank Approval Date March 4, 2004 1. Country and Sector Background The performance of the Ghanaian education sector is still above the average of the continent in many respects. Yet, significant improvements are necessary at three levels, for it to become again a model for Africa: (i) pre-tertiary education, (ii) tertiary education, and (iii) sector-wide. 2.1 Pre-tertiarv education a) Background In 2001/02, there were 4.5 million students enrolled in education institutions in Ghana; they were distributed as follows (in '000): Pre-school 702 Primary 2586 JSS 865 SSS 220 Technical, Teacher Training 55 Universities and Polytechnics 59 b) Access at primary level has increased slowly from a historically high base, while completion remained satisfactory Enrollments: In static terms, with a GER of about 80% at the primary education level in 2001, Ghana stands slightly above the Sub-Saharan average (78%). In dynamic terms, that figure is at the same level as where it was during the early 80's, and has increased only moderately since the lowest point (70%) in 1987. Retention: The primary completion rate (CR) gives a better idea of the level of resilience in the system: with a rate of 66%, Ghana remains clearly above the African average (45%). The retention rate from the last grade of primary education to the first grade of JSS is high (96%), and so is the JSS GER (61%). c) Low quality ofpublic schools at primary level lure away students who prefer more successful private schools d) Significant disparities lie behind average access and retention figures, especially in terms of gender, location, income, and more broadly, poverty e) Physical and human resources are unevenly and inefficiently distributed f) Even though Ghana is devoting a high share of expenditures on education, salaries absorb most  2 PID of these expenditures, and non-salary items are often not receiving their initial allocation, norfully reaching their final destination g) The sector still lacks the data base and the capacity to analyze them in order to develop prioritized and costed strategies h) Official development assistance in education is substantial, but its transaction costs are high, it is poorly coordinated, rarely leads to genuinely stakeholder owned interventions, and impacts only marginally on the sector 2.2 Tertiary Education (a) The quality and relevance of tertiary education is considered inadequate by public and private employers of tertiary graduates (b) The tertiary system faces a severe shortage of qualified staff particularly at the more senior levels (c) The tertiary system has not had thefinancial resources necessary to maintain educational quality in the midst of enrollment expansion (d) Capacities for managing the tertiary system and individual institutions have not kept pace with their respective growth in size and complexity (e) Current enrollment ratio for tertiary education is low 2.3 Institutional Capacity The Government's increasing financial, material and human inputs into the system have not resulted in a commensurate increase in outputs. While internal and external financing has increased significantly (at least at the pre-tertiary level), quantitative and qualitative outputs were growing at a lesser pace. This strongly suggests a lack of capacity to manage and use available resources in an effective way. Several factors may explain this situation, including the following: (a) The Inter-organizational division of labor in the system is unclear, and leads to conflicts, delays and neglect (b) The Intra-organizational division of labor in key organizations is unclear, and leads to widespread unaccountability (c) The capacity of the MEYS, the GES and other education organizations to formulate plans and strategies, to lead their implementation, and to coordinate the efforts of the donor community is weak (d) Key resources are not adequately managed  3 PID 2. Objectives The development objectives of the Education Sector Project (EdSeP) are rooted in a sectoral and macroeconomic context. In 1986, the Government kicked off a series of reforms, in reaction to the degradation of a sector, once one of the most respected in Africa. The Free, Compulsory, Universal, Basic Education (FCUBE), launched in 1995, was implemented with mixed success. In 2002, conscious of the necessity to overhaul the whole education system in order to be in a position to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Government launched the Education Sector Review (ESR) and the Report of the President's Committee on Review of Education Reforms. In 2003, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports (MEYS) developed an Education Strategic Plan (ESP), which lays out clear sectoral priorities and objectives, and builds on a positive dialogue with its development partners (DPs). The same year, Ghana became eligible to apply to the Education For All / Fast Track Initiative (EFA/FTI), and recently submitted a FTI plan. The EdSeP is at the point of convergence of these strategic streams, and, in particular, is directly affiliated with the ESP, and is complementary to the Poverty Reduction Support Credits (PRSCs), meant to support the GPRS. Within this context, the objectives of the EdSeP are to: (i) promote equitable access to, and efficient delivery of quality services in pre-tertiary education, and (ii) foster innovation, relevance and efficiency in tertiary education. 3. Rationale for Bank's Involvement The Bank's intervention would bring specific positive value in several respects: (a) By progressively introducing programmatic support in education, the Bank would contribute to streamline the sector. It would help to make the transition from project-oriented to sector-wide assistance, to reduce transaction costs, to ease donor coordination, and to transfer more responsibility and initiative in the Government's camp. By spearheading prograimmatic approach in the sector, the Bank is facilitating the constitution of a pool of donors, and speeding up the process by which other donors will join. DflD's recent intention to join the PPS is a case in point; given the technical and financial influence of this agency, its materialization would significantly boost this process. (b) Bank's involvement in, and support of, the education sector through the EdSeP provides a unique opportunity for mutual reinforcement and cross-fertilization amongst sectors. This is the case of projects in the public sector management area (e.g. the future ACBP project), which would facilitate a long-term and in-depth, overhaul of the management structure and culture of education institutions; it is also true of the PRSC, which features several strategic elements complementing EdSeP activities and measures, and buttresses efforts made to rationalize public spending and to reach MDG objectives. (c) Within the education sector itself, the involvement of the Bank in the EFA/FTI initiative, its commitment to make it successful, the technical support it gives to candidate countries, and the role it plays through the FfI Secretariat, take a special importance with the Government's decision to embark in the initiative. As the EdSeP would be supporting the Government's strategy (ESP) in which the EFA/FTI plan is nested, the synergy between the EdSeP and the EFA/FrI makes the Bank's involvement through the proposed project particularly relevant. The emphasis of the EdSeP on strengthening education institutions and management would be instrumental to help the MEYS and GES implementing the Fr1 plan. And the resources that the EdSeP would allocate to specially deprived regions (through the PPS component) would contribute to prime the flow of funds towards achieving EFA goals. (d) Technically, the Bank is in a particularly good situation to address the issues facing the post-secondary education sub-sector. The Bank has developed strategic directions relevant to take up the challenges posed by TE in countries like Ghana. With an average annual $480 million level of lending in tertiary education during the 1992 - 1998 period, the Bank has accumulated a rich and diversified experience, and is in a good position to act as a knowledge broker in this sub-sector. Bank's experience in  4 PID competitive funds to support innovation in teaching, learning and management, is unique and can be exploited to help make the country's rigid tertiary education system more effective and more relevant. (e) Financially, the Bank comes as a last-resort financier for the Tertiary Education sub-sector which has remained almost unnoticed by most donors, and which has seen its resources dwindling for the last decade. With JICA conmmitted to support technical training at both secondary and tertiary levels, there is a new opportunity for the Bank to play a complementary role in the sub-sector, and to support its renovation. Bank's support to basic education in the most deprived districts through the PPS would boost efforts to achieve EFA at a faster pace, and would act as a catalyst for additional external sources. 4. Description Component A - Sector Capacity Building (US$13.9 million, 15.7% of total project costs) "Capacity building" in this project is defined as a product of several factors including: (i) the division of labor among organizations in the sector, and within each organization, (ii) the leadership and direction in the sector and its organizations, (iii) general management procedures and practices, and (iv) management of key specific resources. The focus is on human, financial, information, and physical resources. Component activities aim to address weaknesses related to each of these factors. Activities are organized in two sub-components: Sector-Based Restructuring and Agency-Based Capacity Building and Modernization. The first sub-component consists of operations that cut across, and improve the workings of the entire education sector, while the second sub-component consists of operations that are carried out by individual organizations in the sector and are aimed at improving their capacity to play their distinct roles in it. The two sub-components would be carried out sequentially in three phases. Phase I - This phase has started during preparation (with a PPF) and is expected to be completed by the time the project becomes effective, or immediately thereafter. It is devoted to clarifying and improving the division of labor in the education sector as a whole. Two operations are being undertaken during this phase: a horizontal functional analysis and a vertical functional analysis. The first focuses on the mandates, roles and functions of the key organizations in the system, to which all other organizations report - mainly the MEYS, and GES. Its objective is to help develop an optimal division of labor, free of gaps and overlaps, among them. The second operation focuses on decentralization - the division of labor among the headquarters of GES, the Regional Offices of Education (REOs) and the District Offices of Education (DEOs). The analysis focuses also on the division of labor between them and the District Assemblies' education units. Progress towards decentralization will soon lead to the assignment of new mandates, roles and functions to each of these levels. The objective of this analysis would be to help translate the broader language of decentralization into clear, practical and optimal division of labor. Operations included in Phases II and m are dependent on the completion of the two functional analyses which have already started during the preparation phase. Phase II - Once the division of labor in the sector is clarified, each organization will know the functions for which it is responsible and for which it, therefore, requires capacity. With this knowledge, it would then proceed to assess its actual capacity, determine the capacity gaps, and take action to address the gaps. Phase II would be devoted to the first two of these three sequential activities. It would consist of a series of analytic operations, each culminating in a capacity building action plan aimed at addressing the gaps identified. The operations, to be carried out by each organization individually, would focus on the following: Review, and re-formulation of organizational vision and strategies in view of the clarified division  5 PID of labor in the sector; * Review of organization structure, based on the current and re-formulated vision and strategies and development of reorganization plans; * Job analysis and job descriptions for all jobs in the current, or new structure; * Work-load analysis and staffing analysis to determine the optimal number of staff in each job category, and development of right-sizing plans; * Analysis of the skills held by staff against the skills identified in the job descriptions, identification of gaps and development of multi-year training programs, including for head teachers and head masters; * Analysis of human resources policies, procedures and practices and design of a human resources management system; * Development of minimum standards and norms for material resources in key offices; Review and harmonization of the financial management systems in MEYS and all sub-vented agencies in the sector; * Review, expansion and upgrading of EMIS; * Analysis of management information and reporting needs and initial design of agency-based asset management systems. Phase III - The action plans emanating from the operations listed above will form together the capacity building program of each organization. The scope and magnitude of the program will depend on what transpires during the analytic stage. Nevertheless, it is possible to describe now the types of activities that will be included in each organization's program. These include redeployment of staff, training, systems development, and the provision of physical resources. These activities would be financed by the project. However, additional funds would need to be available from the Governnent's public sector reforn program. The entire set of activities related to right-sizing and staff redeployment would draw from the fund to be created under the auspices of the new ACBP being prepared by the Government as a follow-up to the two current projects that are closing down (PSMRP and PUFMARP). The new project is expected to be effective in spring 2004. The availability of the Fund was documented in a letter of the MEYS dated June 10, 2003. It remains subject to (i) credible proposals, and (ii) competition from other sectors. Under the EdSeP, education agencies would prepare Capacity Building and Modernization programs, which would be partially implemented and financed under the ACBP. Component B - Pilot Programmatic Scheme (US$ 40.4 million, 45.9% of total project costs) The Pilot Programmatic Scheme (PPS) is an innovative mechanism to support to the education sector. It offers an opportunity to pilot, on a relatively limited scale, the programmatic approach that the whole sector is poised to adopt in the longer run. During the first phase, it would be targeted on basic education until the Project Mid-term-Review, with a possible extension to other pre-tertiary education institutions thereafter (depending on successes). The PPS would also be targeted on the 40 most deprived districts. The PPS is a tool to pool donor resources, as encouraged in the context of the EFA/FTI partnership. The scheme would channel funds from the MEYS to district offices, in support of non-salary recurrent expenditures, instead of identifying ex ante the inputs to be financed during the project. Funds are to be released on a quarterly basis, against the performance of the sector in achieving the objectives of its previous year Program of Work (PoW), and on an agreement on the next annual PoW. A five-year PoW constitutes the framework within which annual PoWs will be prepared. The 5-year PoW directly derives from the ESP. Therefore, the PoW would become the main reference document for the PPS, and, more broadly, for any support program to the sector. The PoW focuses on the following themes: (i) gender, (ii) decentralization, (iii) improved quality of education outcomes, (iv) increased participation of non-state actors, (v) HIV/AIDS awareness, and (vi) early childhood development and care.  6 PID The scheme is conceived to allow flexibility and to enable DPs' adherence to the programmatic support. The PPS would also lay the ground for the MEYS and DPs to move to a full-scale sector-wide approach, leading in the long run to full-fledged budgetary support. The 5-year PoW, and the 1st annual PoW have been reviewed by the Bank team, and deemed acceptable. The list of the 40 most deprived districts (along with the criteria and methodology of selection) has been forwarded to the Bank prior to Negotiations. Component C - Tertiary Education Innovation (US$ 33.3 million, 37.8% of total project costs) All component activities would be funded through a demand-driven Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund (TALIF). The Fund's overall objectives are: (i) to raise the quality of teaching and learning performance; (ii) to sharpen the relevance, competences and skill content of tertiary education; (iii) to improve the efficiency by which institutions operate their academic programs; and (iv) through the combined efforts of these, augmented by the development of distance education capabilities and earmarked assistance to the UDS in the disadvantaged northern region, to open up greater access to tertiary level academic programs. TALIF would have seven separate funding "windows" to which proposals from tertiary institutions may be submitted: These are: (a) Polytechnic curricula quality and relevance; (b) Strengthening post-graduate programs; (c) Leadership and management development; (d) Capacity-building for tertiary distance education; (e) The UDS; (f) HIV/AIDS prevention and management; and (g) Technical strengthening of tertiary oversight bodies. Financing would be provided through performance-based agreements awarded to academic faculties, departments, centers, units, libraries and other organized groups for sub-projects based on finding proposals from them that are selected by panels of national and international experts on the basis of quality, imagination, and relevance to national development needs. An operational manual for the Fund has been prepared. The manual includes clear selection criteria and transparent rules of the game for the eligibility, submission, review, selection, processing, implementation and monitoring of the proposals. It also includes Performance Agreements (PA) between the TALIF and institutions granted an allowance. Draft PAs were submitted to the Bank. Maximum grants would depend on the size of the institution submitting a proposal, and will be in the range of [$10,000 to $200,000] per year. The Fund would be open to private institutions (within the limit of 2% of the total Fund allocation in any year). 1. Sector Management Capacity Building 2. Pilot Programmatic Scheme 3. Tertiary Education Innovation (TALIF) 4. PPF Refinancing 5. Financing Source (Total ( US$m)) BORROWER ($10.00) IDA ($78.00) Total Project Cost: $88.00 6. Implementation 4.1 Implementation Arrangements Project implementation would span a five-year period with planned effectiveness, completion, and closing  7 PID dates of May 1st, 2004; April 30, 2009; and October 31, 2009, respectively. A Mid-term review (MTR) is scheduled in November 2006. No separate administrative entity is considered to implement the EdSeP. The project is to be implemented and monitored through existing Government structures, using regular units and channels. The MEYS is to remain responsible for policy setting, overall monitoring, and DP's coordination. GES, NCTE and other Budget Management Centers are to be responsible for the execution of the project. This organization would depart from the arrangements made for earlier projects. For almost 20 years, projects were relying on Project Management Units (PMU) to manage financial and disbursement arrangements. Then, since 1999, the many PMUs of the MEYS were consolidated within the Funds and Procurement Management Unit (FPMU), which successfully assumed its functions. However, following the last Country Portfolio Perforrnance Review (CPPR), it has been agreed that the FPMU should be progressively phased out in order to enable the MEYS to acquire the experience of fully managing donor funded projects, and to bring project management into the main organizational set up of the Ministry. The EdSeP would provide an opportunity to manage this new transition in a smooth manner. The overall responsibility for the execution of the project would be that of the Minister of Education, and, by delegation, the Chief Director. In order to obtain full organizational commitment to the project's objectives and to ensure the timely release of resources, the Chief Director would be directly responsible for the MEYS head office while the Director General for the GES would be directly responsible for project activities and issues of the GES organization, and the Executive Secretary of the NCTE would be directly responsible for intervention in the TE sub-sector. A Steering and Oversight Committee (SOC) would ensure a regular, high-level follow-up of the project, and would guide the process of change. The SOC would be convened every two months to monitor progress and problems in execution of the project. The SOC would be chaired by the MEYS Chief Director, and would include the heads of the three agencies directly involved in project execution (MEYS, GES, and NCTE). The SOC is already constituted. There are specific implementation mechanisms and arrangements for each component: Component A Since the PPS cuts across the whole sector and several agencies, this component would be managed on behalf of the Minister of Education by the Chief Director of the MEYS. The head of each individual agency would guide and monitor the process of change inside the agency. Component B Responsibility for the execution of this component would lie with the GES Director General. As the implementing agency of the MEYS for pre-tertiary institutions, the GES would, in particular be also responsible for preparing annual PoWs, which would be subsequently endorsed by the MEYS. Implementation of specific interventions would be overseen by DEOs. The latter would sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the GES Headquarters. Draft MOUs were completed and reviewed by the Bank. In addition, a Consultative Panel Meeting (CPM), an event which is already institutionalized, would be organized twice a year, and would be used as a forum to assess past achievements and discuss future plans and programs with the MEYS and other DPs, thus greatly reducing assistance transaction costs. Component C All activities under this component would be managed on behalf of the MEYS by the Executive Secretary of the NCTE, with oversight by the TALIF Executive Conrmittee (TEC), which consists of a sub-set of the NCTE Council itself. The TEC's responsibility would be to ensure consistency between the destination of aggregated funds release and the strategic orientations of the TALIF and those of the Government for the sub-sector. NCTE Board members selected for the TEC would be so informed in writing within one month after effectiveness. The NCTE will be accountable directly to the Minister  8 PID and will report to the SOC. A light Coordination Unit would be created within the NCTE to manage the TALIF. The Unit would be led by a Coordinator, and would include one innovation officer (in addition to an accountant). Additional innovation officer(s) would be recruited if needed. Short lists for the Coordinator and the first innovation officer were constituted prior to Negotiations. Selection of proposals (review, vetting, prioritization) would be processed by specialized committees, after a first screening by campus-based Project Review Committees (which will also evaluate proposals less than $20,000). TALIF campus coordinators will also be nominated in each campus, and serve as the secretary of the Project Review Committees. Campus Coordinators shall be in place within one month after effectiveness. In addition, core members of the specialized vetting committees shall be in place within one month after effectiveness. A Project Operation Manual (POM) has been prepared to help project implementation. The POM is a bulky document; to make it more handy, it is structured in a modular way: each component is dealt with in a self-standing chapter. The POM starts with a chapter giving the overall view of the project. The Capacity building chapter explains the various activities to be completed under this component. The PPS chapter spells out the institutional, procurement, and financial implementation modalities of the component, and constitutes a fundamental instrument to implement the PPS; this chapter has a "counterpart" version specifically meant to be used by officials in charge of implementation at the district level. The TALIF chapter describes the selection process, including the various comrnittees involved in the vetting of proposals and management of the fund. The POM was prepared in close consultation with the Bank team. The last version of the POM was reviewed and deemed acceptable. 4.2 Financial Management, Flow of Funds and Disbursements The MEYS would be made responsible for managing the financial and disbursement requirements of the project, and would in particular be responsible for (i) preparing financial statements, and (ii) reporting on expenditure returns from the agencies. The head of accounts units of the entities will be responsible for the day-to-day financial management of their components, including maintenance of adequate accounting records, compliance with DCA, and monitoring of the project activities under their component. The accounts units will be headed by a professionally qualified Project Accountant (preferably from the Controller and Accountant General's Department) and supported by appropriately qualified staff. The Accounting units will ensure preparation of the project accounts within the overall accounting systems of MEYS The Finance and Administration Division of the MEYS would manage the project bank accounts for the Sector Capacity Building component. The Finance and Administration Division would submit requests for funds or withdrawal applications to the World Bank, and prepare the Ministry's consolidated financial statements. Disbursement would be supervised by the agencies and accounted for to the Finance and Administration Division. Since this unit is currently not involved in the management of donor-funded projects, it will be supported with personnel with experience in managing World Bank financed projects. The Pilot Programmatic Component will be managed and implemented by the GES. The finance and accounts unit within the GES has over the years received capacity building and program support, which has led to improvement in their overall financial management systems. The implementation of this component will therefore be channeled through the GES systems on a pilot basis. Additional resources will also be provided to further strengthen the systems, with a future aim of scaling up the channeling of more resources through the GES systems.  9 PID The NCTE would manage the project accounts for the Tertiary Education Component. Funds for proposal submitted by individual institutions would be paid to NCTE, which subsequently would make payments to the institutions. The financial system of NCTE would be strengthened to be able to perform these functions satisfactorily. 4.3 Procurement The procurement procedures to be followed are described in the Procurement Procedures Manual prepared under a previous Education project. The manual has been reviewed and found acceptable without further revisions. Registration/Classification of contractors may be used for establishing bidder qualification or for preparing a list for use under quotation procedure but not as criteria for bidding or for award of contract. A Minister's circular was issued to make the use of the Procurement Procedures Manual by MEYS agencies mandatory. A new procurement law is being prepared. Once enacted, it would prevail, and the MEYS' manual would no longer be used. During preparation, it was agreed that a procurement unit was established within the MEYS's Finance and Administration Department by Negotiations. Two staff from FPMU are to be transferred to the MEYS. The Unit would be the focal point for all procurement matters in the MEYS as well as advising the Tender Committee on matters of procurement. Supervision of consultant contracts and civil works contracts will be the responsibility of the appropriate Units in the MEYS. Procurement of works and goods and the selection of consultants, including procurement planning, would be the responsibility of the implementing agencies under the project. The MEYS would be responsible for coordinating the project implementation, including ensuring procurement planning and preparation of progress reports. Each Agency would track and prepare reports on the implementation of contracts, and MEYS would consolidate the information on a quarterly basis so as to ensure that the contract administration is sound and appropriate measures taken in case of poor performance and to ensure ICB thresholds are not exceeded. Under the TALIF, the project would finance sub-projects. Funding of these sub-projects would be demand-driven and provided on the basis of a review and approval of written proposals submitted to the relevant panel of experts. Arrangements for selecting and funding proposals, including procurement would be carried out in accordance with the procedures detailed in the TALIF Operations Manual and in the Project Implementation Plan. 4.4 Accounting and Auditing Procedures Independent and qualified auditors acceptable to the Bank would carry out the audit of the project. The selection of auditors shall be on competitive basis in consultation with the Auditor General, and in accordance with the Bank's guidelines. The auditor was selected prior to Negotiations, and will be appointed prior to Effectiveness. It is recognized that although it is the responsibility of the Auditor General of Ghana to audit these government entities, agreement would be obtained to recruit a qualified private sector auditor to carry out this audit. A management letter would be required to be submitted after the audit of the financial statements. 4.5 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)  10 PID The MIEYS is mandated to be responsible for policy formulation and monitoring. Therefore, the MEYS would be responsible for overall project M&E. The Ministry would be responsible for the development of a M&E plan for the overall irnplementation of EdSeP. The M&E plan will be ready and submitted to the Bank within 3 months following project effectiveness. In addition, the MEYS would ensure the establishment of M&E units in agencies which are participating in the EdSeP, and it would coordinate the activities of the various M&E units. In the case of the PPS, a set of indicators has already been prepared, on the basis of the indicators developed for the ESP. 7. Sustainability Sustainability is assessed in specific terms for each of the project's components. Sector Capacity Building The capacity building component is not supposed to be rolled over indefinitely, and it should be phased out progressively as a consequence of its success. However, regular assessments and adjustments and continuous in-service training will always be necessary. Once the needs for more efficient management is perceived, and provided the main activities under the project demonstrate their usefulness, sustaining adjustments, monitoring and training activities should become routine business, whether at the technical, institutional or financial level. This indeed, depends on the depth of the ownership of the concept by the MEYS. The team's assessment is that capacity building has become a real concem for the Government as a whole. The section of the PRSC matrix on "Improving Governance and Public Sector Management" makes this wider commitment conspicuous, especially in three areas which have a critical importance for the education sector, and are central to the EdSeP: (i) decentralization, (ii) public sector pay, and (iii) budget formulation, execution and reporting. Pilot Programmatic Scheme Technically, program support is well established, and the MEYS and the DEOs should progressively master its mechanisms and procedures. Institutionally, it is expected that the program approach would rapidly show its advantages over a project approach, and in particular, that it would appear to both the Government and its partners as a better instrument, providing the latter with the opportunity to really lead the dialogue, while reducing transaction costs associated with external financing. Therefore, sustainability of the approach is highly likely. Financially, EFA/FTI projections suggest that the need for budget support will still be around by 2015 - though on a declining basis--. The current level of commitment by the international community to support EFA/FTI and MDGs for countries with a sound strategy make financial sustainability quite likely, provided no major derailment happens, and that implementation follows the scheduled course. Tertiary Education Innovation Technically, this component seeks to change the behavior, attitudes and institutional culture that surround teaching, learning and management within the tertiary education system. These changes will be adopted and sustained if they prove to be more effective ways of working, and if they demonstrate their benefits. The fund mechanism is not conceived as the only way to bring about these changes, and its survival to the project, although desirable to ensure continuity, is not absolutely critical, as long as alternative mechanisms to promote innovation are developed. Institutionally, the issue is the possibility of sustaining the changes with traditional institutions. To encourage this, participatory strategic planning is made a condition for access to funding by the TALIF. The direct involvement of polytechnic, university and agency staff in carrying out the institutional reforms proposed in their strategic plans is expected to generate sufficient ownership of the change agenda so that demonstrably effective reforms will become permanent.  11 PID Financially, efforts to encourage partnerships with the private sector, to facilitate income generation, and to lay the groundwork for improved academic management are expected to generate the additional resources needed to sustain innovations in teaching and learning. If incentive-based formula funding is later introduced in the tertiary system by Govemment as indicated in the ESP, the likelihood of sustaining positive changes in institutional behavior initiated by this project will be greatly increased. 8. Lessons learned from past operations in the country/sector (a) The three recent IDA-financed projects in the education sector (VSP, and BESIP --both closed-- and NFLP still ongoing) provide valuable lessons. * These projects clearly show that the efficient use of funds is conditioned by institutional capacity; when the latter is inadequate, major delays in implementation are likely, and the project objectives are compromised. The challenge is that project implementation is threatened by the very same ills as those that the project is addressing. The EdSeP is tackling management issues up-front through: (i) the sector capacity building component, and (ii) the PPS, which offers an opportunity to experience a new way to manage funds. * Complex project designs are risky. Sophisticated architecture with multiple components and activities, while conceptually gratifying, have few chances of succeeding. BESIP is a case in point, with about 100 distinct activities, of which some never took off, and had to be abandoned. The EdSeP design has fully integrated this lesson: the capacity building component has been carefully mapped out, and responsibilities for each of its activities have been spelled out in detail in order to avoid the problems encountered in previous attempts to strengthen capacity. The PPS does not add supplementary activities to those included in the MEYS's ESP. Finally, by grouping all TE activities under a competitive fund, the third component also aims at simplicity. * Too ambitious sectoral reforms are also likely to be deceptive; the education sector is not agile; reforms take time to prepare, own, and implement. Likewise, time for outcomes to emerge is often longer than the project span, and therefore, DO must be realistic, and amenable to variations within the project period. The EdSeP, while covering a wide spectrum of issues, acknowledges it cannot solve all the problems of the sector; in particular, the project recognizes the critical importance of factors which are not under the control of education authorities, such as those related to civil service, budget preparation and execution, and relies on the PRSC and public sector projects to address those. * Both the BESIP and the first Health Sector Program Support Project show that it is risky to launch full scale sector-wide operations without prior testing. This is why the EdSeP takes a careful approach, and proposes to experiment programmatic mechanisms with the pilot PPS, while working on building management capacities in the MEYS. * Strong and sustained political leadership, championship and ownership are critical ingredients for the success of a project, especially an innovative one. Without them, momentum often dwindles, and coordination loosens. Preparation of the EdSeP has spread over an unusual long period, mostly devoted to building dialogue, consultation and political commitment to the project concept and design. (b) The experience of the Tertiary Education Project provides further instructive guidance: * TE projects are unusual in that some of their beneficiary institutions--the universities--are generally stronger, better endowed, and more capable than other public institutions. In addition, they possess an  12 PID organized and influential constituency of staff, students, and alumni who can act as powerful interest groups, especially when their interests are threatened. For these reasons, broad consultation and institutional participation is essential not only in project design, but also continuously throughout the implementation of the project: the TALIF was extensively discussed with the academic community, and would function on a purely demand-driven basis. * Managed expansion of tertiary enrollments is critical for maintaining educational quality, yet political demands make it very difficult for governments to exercise this control. Similarly, the reforms necessary to make the TE sub-sector financially sustainable run the risk of being unpopular and may trigger student and faculty resistance. Hence key sector parameters (such as expenditure per student, share of expenditures allocated to non academic services, etc.) should be a permanent part of the dialogue with Government, rather being treated in the context of conditionality. In addition, it is important to phase reforms and to take into account the level of public sensitivity about them. To illustrate, the concept of free and high quality university is progressively giving way in Ghana, it becomes possible to introduce the notion of cost-sharing as an unavoidable (though not unique) mechanism to ensure the sustainability of TE. On this grounds, the EdSeP calls for development and the implementation of a financing strategy, rather than making them prerequisites. (c) The Bank's recently updated policy paper on tertiary education, Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges for Tertiary Education (November 2002), offers two additional major recommendations that have been incorporated into this project's design: * Take the local political economy into account and develop appropriate social communication activities to build consensus around project goals. * Encourage change through the use of positive incentives rather than by mandatory edicts. (d) A recent OED report confirms the above lessons; it also suggests that taking a comprehensive approach to tertiary education does not necessary lead to higher project outcomes. 9. Environment Aspects (including any public consultation) Issues : The PPS raison d'etre is to support the Government's strategy, as spelled out in the ESP (and in the EFA/FTI Plan); this strategy calls for an increase in primary education enrollments, and therefore includes primary school construction. Although IDA resources under the PPS are not directly earmarked to specific activities such as school construction, the fact that IDA is contributing to a pool of resources, a fraction of which is to be devoted to school building and rehabilitation led to request the Government to prepare (i) a principle-oriented Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF), and (ii) an Environment and Social Management Framework (ESMF). These two documents were completed, reviewed, approved, and disclosed both by the Government and the Bank. 10. List of factual technical documents:  13 PID 11. Contact Point: Task Manager Benoit Millot The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 473 2616 Fax: (202) 473 8216 12. For information on other project related documents contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 458-5454 Fax: (202) 522-1500 Web: http:/l www.worldbank.org/infoshop Note: This is information on an evolving project. Certain components may not be necessarily included in the final project.