Morocco COVID-19 Social Protection Emergency Response Project AF

active

Prospective

The proposed Additional Financing (AF) would extend the support already provided under the parent project to the Government of Morocco (GoM) to build the foundations for a seamless transition towards the Family Allowance (FA) program and the non-contributive health insurance.The parent project component 1 – Emergency Cash Transfers (ECT) in response to COVID-19 (US$165 million) has supported the ECT made through the “Tadamon” program in March, April, and July 2020 to mitigate the impact of the strict confinement policy on informal workers and their families. This component will remain unchanged. Furthermore, the ongoing activity will contribute to the preparation and publication of a process evaluation of the ECT through a Performance-Based Condition (PBC), including results from a social impact assessment, audit recommendations, and an action plan to improve cash transfer programs.The parent project component 2 - Cash Transfer Program for Recovery and Protecting Human Capital (US$309.25) will be revised and renamed as “Improve and modernize cash transfer and social support programs to protect human capital,” and its initial allocation will be increased to US$289 million. This component will continue supporting and financing cash transfer programs to preserve household welfare levels impacted by consecutive chocs, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine war, and the drought. The cash transfer programs linked to education are an effective tool to improve school retention and reinforce children's human capital in poor and vulnerable households. In addition, the component finances PBCs to assess and monitor key results of cash transfer programs to women-headed households and simply the application and eligibility process for women-headed households to benefit from cash transfer programs. These activities will build the relevant elements and recommendations to design an inclusive and adaptive FA program to be supported by component 3.The initial allocation of the parent project component 3 - Strengthening the social protection system of US$68.125 million will be increased to US$54.50 million. This component supports the design of the FA program, which will strengthen the coverage and efficiency of cash transfers in Morocco. It will also support the digital transformation of social programs and services to prepare for the implementation of the FA program with accompanying measures for human capital development and productive inclusion. In addition to the national population registry and the social registry (supported by the Identity and Targeting for Social Protection Project (P155198)), the activities of this component will contribute to the implementation of social assistance programs management information systems that will complement the target architecture to (i) ensure better identification of the beneficiaries of the various social assistance programs; (ii) facilitate the automatic data exchange to serve the beneficiaries more efficiently; and (iii) guarantee delivery of social services in a coherent manner that is adapted to the needs of the beneficiaries in particular people with disabilities and those living in remote rural areas.The new component 4 - Protect the poorest and vulnerable against health risks (US$206 million) will support the enrollment of beneficiaries, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, in the non-contributory health insurance (AMO TADAMON), which is part of the overall social protection reform project in Morocco and already supported by the Strengthening Human Capital for a Resilient Morocco Development Policy Financing series (P176937). This component will include four PBCs to improve program implementation, including (i) the deployment of a multi-channel process for enrollment; (ii) the monitoring of enrollment and coverage of the poor and vulnerable, including women and children; (iii) designing and deploying a beneficiary recertification strategy based on analyses and evaluations of program coverage; (iv) ensuring the inclusion of certain groups of people in vulnerable situations such as people with disabilities and the elderly.Component 5: Contingent Emergency Response (CERC) (US$ 0.00) will allow the GoM to request a rapid reallocation of the project funds from the World Bank to respond promptly and effectively to an eligible emergency or crisis.

FY17 - Education,FY17 - Health,FY17 - Social Protection

World Bank

Project

Government, Education