Urban Productive Safety Net and Jobs Project Second Additional Financing

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The proposed Urban Productive Safety Net and Jobs Project (UPSNJP) contributes directly to the economic recovery phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, hence contributing to the implementation of the World Bank’s Covid-19 response. The objective of the second pillar of the World Bank Group response to Covid19 is to help Governments respond rapidly to protect the poor and vulnerable from economic and social shocks of the crisis, restore human capital and promote job creation in the recovery. Given Ethiopia’s projected fall in growth , increase in unemployment and overall expected increase in poverty, the USNJP will be an important element of the recovery phase by expanding the urban productive safety net including livelihood recovery support to more households and cities, providing young people with avenues for entering the labor market and strengthen job search services, and by providing urban destitute with essential services. The project therefore provides essential support for Covid-19 affected population during the recovery phase. The Project contributes to the Country Partnership Framework's (CPF) goal of forging a growth path that is more inclusive. It focuses on the poor urban population, on unemployed youth, as well as urban destitute, including children in street situations. It also supports the CPF’s objective of making greater investments in secondary cities to create employment opportunities. The CPF also emphasizes activities that boost productivity, increase private sector-led growth and job creation (especially for youth); promote gender inclusion (including economic and social gaps between men and women), and strengthen citizen engagement, all of which the proposed Urban Productive Safety Net and Jobs Project will contribute to. More specifically, the Project will directly implement the CPF’s Focus Area 2 for Building Resilience and Inclusiveness, and more specifically to the Objective 2.1 Improved sustainability and effectiveness of safety nets. Within this focus area, the Project will support (i) efforts to build a sustainable and harmonized nationwide social protection system for poor and vulnerable groups by extending current safety nets; (ii) improving effectiveness of the Government’s safety net programs in rural and urban areas; and (iii) implementation of the urban productive safety net program, given the high rates of youth and female unemployment and poverty in urban areas. To address the challenges of urban poverty and unemployment, particularly during Ethiopia’s Covid-19 recovery phase, the proposed UPSNJP will expand the urban safety net to more cities, focusing on livelihoods and labor market integration particularly of youth, as well as protecting the most vulnerable populations such as elderly and disabled, homeless as well as refugees and host communities. The GoE has decided to expand the urban safety net to 83 cities in the next five years. To this end, the proposed Project would have five components: • Component 1 would expand the Urban Productive Safety Net by providing public works and livelihood support to selected urban poor households, including refugees, in up to 83 cities, taking into consideration city-level poverty and unemployment rates, administrative capacity and regional equity. • Component 2 would provide a first work experience for disadvantaged urban youth and support reforms in job search services, in up to 11 cities. • Component 3 would strengthen urban social assistance by expanding direct income support to up 83 cities and by providing reintegration services for homeless. • Component 4 would support institutional strengthening of the JOBFSA, MoLSA, JCC and ARRA to further build safety net systems and foster public private partnerships for livelihood development and jobs. • Component 5 is a Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC), a zero-dollar component that will be activated and funded in case of a declared emergency that affects urban populations.