Support for Resilient Livelihoods in the South of Madagascar AF

active

Prospective

Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world and the COVID-19 crisis is expected to hit hard the regions of extreme poverty. Southern Madagascar—comprised of the three administrative regions Anosy, Androy, and Atsimo-Andrefana—has long remained at the margins of the state development initiatives and supportive governance structures. Southern Madagascar is the poorest part of the country with an estimated 91% of the population below the poverty line, and sources of livelihoods limited primarily to subsistence farming and fishing. Ongoing social monitoring in southern Madagascar shows that there is a broadly held perception of a rise in insecurity to mitigate the concomitant impacts of COVID-19. The current 'Madagascar Emergence Initiative' (Plan D’Emergence de Madagascar, PEM) and the Integrated Development Strategy of the Great South (Strategie Integree Du Grand Sud-SIDGS, supported by the UNDP) provide an opportunity to support an enhanced approach to sustainable and inclusive local development in southern Madagascar. Furthermore, to help support local accountability, the Ministry of Interior and Decentralization MID enacted decree 2015-957 to create local consultation structures (Structures Locales de Concertation, SLC). Through a consultative process, the SLCs are responsible, with the mayor, to develop Integrated and Inclusive Local Development Plans (PDLII) in coordination with regional priorities. Results of the recent study on “mapping of informal networks in southern Madagascar” show that supporting saving groups, community-based organizations, and local cooperatives feature prominently in the design of donors projects and are essential for re-engaging local communities in their development. At the outset of the COVID-19 crisis, and as part of the budget restructuring, the Government of Madagascar in order to mitigate the impacts of the pandemics, the project support for resilient livelihoods for southern Madagascar (referred to as MIONJO in Malagasy), in line with Madagascar CPF, was enlisted as one of the recovery projects. The project builds on insights gained, and outcomes achieved, by the WBG through engagement in the governance sector (Public Sector Performance Project I and II), social protection (FIAVOTA), and the private sector (PIC I and II). The proposed project is structured around five components: Component 1: Strengthening decentralized local governments, participatory planning and social resilience ($13.5m)Sub-Component 1A: Strengthening the Decentralized Territorial Collectivities (Collectivites Territoriales Decentralisees-CTD) on Community-based Planning, and the Delivery of Services ($5M). This sub-component seeks to improve the organizational capacity of SLCs and Local Development Agents to serve as platforms of concertation and coordination and source of proposals in the decision-making process at the local level for an inclusive and integrated development. Areas of capacity building include: (i) socio-organizational capacity building including techniques of facilitation and leadership; (ii) participatory planning and participatory budgeting, (iii) project implementation, including aspects of procurement and financial management, (iv) operating procedures on the integration of sensitive climate change planning into community development priorities, (v) change management, and (vi) monitoring and evaluation including techniques of data collection and knowledge management. This sub-component also seeks to improve local governance performance by strengthening the institutional capacity of local communes and rehabilitating of key municipal infrastructure (e.g., municipal offices) to improve service delivery. Areas of capacity building include: (i) financial management and procurement, (ii) participatory planning and budgeting, (iii) transparency and accountability, (iv) revenue and tax management, (v) support for the preparation of documents for grants, (vi) support for coordination with different platforms (such as Health Committees, Vigilance Committees) for the pooling of resources, and (vii) strengthening of capacity for municipal leaders as well as SLCs and ADLs to monitor the performance of the Communes through the annual exercises of the self-assessment of the Local Governance Index (IGL) and to built municipal offices), t o ensure qualitative services delivery and proper functioning of SLCs. Finally, this sub-component aims to promote and strengthen collaboration between CTD and STD (Structures Territoriales Deconcentres) to support service delivery and implementation of local development plans. This will be a key ingredient to ensure successful implementation of components 2 on resilient infrastructure, and component 3 on resilient livelihood.Sub-Component 1B: Strengthening social resilience, citizen engagement, and conflict prevention ($5M)Under this sub-component, the SLCs will work with a Facilitating Partner (FP), a local or international non-governmental organization, to mobilize communities and have them participate in various activities which will cover: (i) developing a participatory mapping of vulnerabilities of inhabitants of the communes to support implementation component 2 and 3 of the project-this mapping will also include a mapping of donor financing in the communes and the household recipients of social protection schemes; (ii) identifying a series of social activities that target entire communes or community based groups (CBG) formed around similar trait (youth, women, survivors of GBV, etc.), which will provide mentor-ship and social empowerment, particularly for those traditionally disenfranchised; and (iii) early response activities (a community-based Early Warning and Response System (EWRS)) to address traditional conflicts (community related) with an early response mechanism (mediation, fact-finding, sensitization), where collaboration with local gendarmerie for response will be key and promote medium- to long-term response for issues related to natural disasters and food insecurity to be taken into account in local development processes. The communication campaign will be designed on the regional level and implemented in each of the districts targeted in SOP Phase 1 to create an enabling environment to disseminate information about the activities of the Project, but also to address social issues that activities will address including focusing on social norms.Component 2: Resiliency infrastructure ($41.5M)Sub-Component 2A: Commune Resiliency Grants ($28.5). This component provides grants (‘Commune Resiliency Grants’) to improve access to basic services and infrastructure in the communes of the selected districts (with the exception of the urban center of Fort Dauphin). All basic services and small infrastructure financed will need to follow the national standards for climate screening adopted by the Government of Madagascar. The transfer of funds will happen through the Local Development Fund (FDL) an established institutional structure within the Ministry of Interior and Decentralization (MID), and which has a well-established system for fiscal transfers from the central level to communes. Potential investments (sub-projects) include the construction, upgrading or rehabilitation of small scale community infrastructure, including water supplies (boreholes, pipeline connections), school buildings, health centers, electrification, access roads or similar infrastructure based on a positive list. Sub-Component 2B: Regional water resiliency infrastructure ($14M)The region of Androy in particular suffers from water scarcity, characterized by the absence of water sources of drinking quality at the local level and repeated droughts. This sub-component will finance rehabilitation of an existing pipeline (pipeline of Ampotaka and Sampona) for drinking water and water extensions to communities, replacement of water pipes, rehabilitation/constructions of water tanks, new pumping stations, and ch

FY17 - Public Administration,FY17 - Social Protection

World Bank

Project

Road, Water Supply and Storage, Seaport, Commercial, Raw Materials, Government