Enhancing Community Resilience and Local Governance Project Phase II Additional Financing

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South Sudan is in urgent need of support following another year of devastating floods which affected more than one million people. Since 2019, South Sudan has suffered four consecutive years of severe flooding. The latest seasonal floods (May-November 2022) are considered one of the worst in the last 30 years. As of December 2022, 1.09 million people (8.6 percent of the population) have been verified as affected across 9 states and 39 counties. While these areas are historically prone to flooding, the extent and duration of the latest sequence of flooding is unprecedented and many communities are finding themselves in a state of protracted climate-related crisis which is compounding their lives and livelihoods. This proposal is an Additional Financing (AF) to the Parent Project titled “Enhancing Community Resilience and Local Governance Project Phase II (ECRP-II)- P177093” which is being prepared in response to the Government of South Sudan’s (GoSS) urgent need of support following another year of devastating floods which affected more than one million people in the country. Since 2019, South Sudan has suffered four consecutive years of severe flooding. The Parent Project/ECRP-II is in its early stages of implementation. It is just nine months into implementation and underwent its second implementation support mission in February 2023. The ECRP-II AF is consistent with the Country Engagement Note (CEN) for South Sudan FY21–FY23 (158008) which focuses on (a) continuing support for basic public service delivery; and (b) promoting resilience and livelihood opportunities, with a cross-cutting principle of social inclusion, particularly youth and gender. It is also well aligned with the CEN as it proposes to shift closer to a full government-led implementation approach by allowing the GoSS to select and engage implementing partners other than the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Overall, it will support the higher-level objectives of making communities more resilient and improving local governance by (a) improving access to infrastructure for basic services; (b) providing infrastructure that reduces flood risks; (c) strengthening local institutions by training and supporting them in collective; and (d) strengthening the national government’s capacity to oversee local institutions and their development initiatives. It also contributes to advancing the humanitarian-development-peace nexus by filling a critical gap between emergency response and resilient recovery. It does so by addressing immediate service needs in flood-affected areas while strengthening institutions to help make communities more resilient To this effect, it has the following integrated components.Component 1: Infrastructure and Services for Community Resilience (US$113 million equivalent from IDA). Budget allocation for Component 1 will be increased from the existing US$100 million to US$113 million to scale up the investments in community-level infrastructure and services in the more flood-affected counties among the twelve ECRP-II target counties. The AF proposes to prioritize counties that have over 10 percent of the county population that is exposed to floods. Eligible investments will continue to be limited to construction or rehabilitation of public goods such as water supply and sanitation facilities, footpaths and community roads, dykes for flood protection, and health and education facilities, among others, to ensure maximum community benefit. This component will continue to be implemented by IOM. Component 2: Institution Strengthening (US$10 million equivalent from IDA). Budget allocation for Component 2 will be increased from the existing US$9.4 million to US$10 million to provide capacity building on emergency preparedness and response (EP&R) to the communities in flood-affected counties among the twelve ECRP-II counties. The training will help communities better prepare for, manage and respond to recurrent flooding. Activities under this component will continue to be implemented by IOM. This component contributes to GCRF Pillar 3 and 4. Component 3: Emergency Flood Response (US$14 million equivalent from IDA). A new component will be added to provide emergency flood response activities in the most heavily affected counties in Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal (NBeG) and Warrap states. The two states have the highest number of flood-affected people (251,763 and 208,133, respectively), accounting for over 42 percent of the total affected population in South Sudan. Activities under the new component, Component 3, are relatively similar to those under Components 1 and 2; thus, new activities are not anticipated under the new component (Component 3) compared to the original project, ECRP-II. The component will support rehabilitation of damaged community infrastructure and services or construction of new infrastructure to reduce flood risks. These are likely to include water supply and sanitation facilities, footpaths and community roads, dykes for flood protection, and health and education facilities, among others. The same “negative list” as the one used for Component 1 will apply. To inject much-needed cash into the flood-affected communities, the community infrastructure will be built to the extent possible in a labor-intensive manner. The physical investments will be coupled with a quick consultative process to identify and validate community priorities, as well as the EP&R training. Component 4: Project Management and Learning (US$13 million equivalent from IDA). To cover the Government’s increased project management costs due to emergency flood response, the budget allocation will be increased from the current US$10.6 million to US13 million. This component also contributes to GCRF Pillar 4. Component 5: Contingent Emergency Response (US$0). The Contingent Emergency Response Component CERC) will now be Component 5. The allocation for the CERC will remain US$0. This will allow for the rapid reallocation of project funds in the event of natural or man-made crisis and major disease outbreaks of public health importance during the implementation of the project, in accordance with the World Bank Investment Project Financing (IPF) Policy, paragraphs 12 (Projects in Situations of Urgent Need of Assistance or Capacity Constraints). Activation of the CERC is triggered by (a) a declaration of a state of emergency by the Government and (b) Government request to the World Bank for activation of the CERC