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Japan Social Development Fund

Briefing to South Asia Region

Yolaine Joseph, TFO

March 19, 2008

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JSDF Briefing Overview

Introduction JSDF Regular Program:

Application Form Selection Criteria Ineligible Activities/Expenditures Pointers – what to remember when working on the proposal Japanese Visibility Common Reasons for Rejection of Proposals

Concept Note JSDF Seed Fund Case Studies of Approved and Rejected Proposals Most Common Issues and Bottlenecks in Projects Design and

Implementation Example of Well Designed Projects in Other Regions Reference and Contact Information

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JSDF Regular Program – Application Form One-page funding proposal includes:

basic data; grant development objectives; eligible expenditure categories.

Grant supplementary information includes: component details; Bank incremental costs; Rationale and participatory approach; Sustainability; Safeguard issues; Country/sector background.

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JSDF Regular Program – Application Form (Cont’d) Linkage to Bank operation/strategy; Grant implementation arrangements; Consultation with Other Development Partners; Monitoring and Evaluation; Risks affecting grant implementation; Retroactive financing; Financial arrangements; Disbursement arrangements; Additional obligations; Financing plan; Cost table includes procurement method; Technical reviewers’ comments.

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JSDF Regular Program – Selection Criteria Direct benefits to the poor using innovative mechanisms; Direct participation of community groups, local

governments and/or NGOs in grant preparation and implementation to encourage long-term sustainable development;

Exit strategy and mechanism for long-term sustainability; Outcome/impact indicators, including mechanisms to

monitor progress and measure outcomes; Programs which complement Bank-financed project(s),

either under preparation or implementation; and Commitment and ownership of the Recipient.

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JSDF Regular Program – Ineligible Activities Scaling up of already piloted activities; Activities which are being or can be funded under

Bank Group loans/credits or from other sources; Activities normally funded under Bank Group budgets

or by other donors for preparation of Bank-financed projects, including technical assistance for these activities;

Preparation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers or other technical assistance for poverty monitoring

activities.

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JSDF Regular Program – Ineligible Expenditures Academic research; Land acquisition; Purchase of motor vehicles; Government salaries; and Foreign training or study tours.

Note: UN agencies may not be direct recipients of JSDF grants

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JSDF Regular Program - Pointers

Make sure to discuss the proposal with the Japanese Embassy in the field.

JSDF activities should help the poorest and most fragile groups in the eligible countries.

JSDF activities should promote collaboration with civil society, local governments, NGOs, etc., strengthen partnerships with these groups, and learn/share experiences.

Steering Committee and GOJ pay particular attention to Participation, Innovation, Sustainability and Risks sections of proposal.

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JSDF Regular Program – Pointers (Cont’d)

JSDF activities should be compatible with the development objectives set out in the CAS, PRSP, and/or poverty reduction elements of Sector Strategies.

JSDF provides grant funds and thus, should broaden the scope of Bank-financed projects (and not supplement Bank-financed projects or the Recipients’ budgets, including those provided by other donors for the preparation of loans/credits). Grants should pioneer new and innovative mechanisms which cannot be financed through loans or credits.

Write enough, but not too much. Limit background general information.

Always keep in mind the purposes of the JSDF while preparing the proposal: participatory preparation, demand-driven, bottom-up approach, assisting the target population as directly as possible.

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JSDF Regular Program – Japanese Visibility

Bank task teams are asked to help promote the visibility and local awareness of JSDF in recipient countries through the following types of activities: The logo (usually the Japanese national flag)

should be used; Encourage recipient to invite Japanese

embassy to grant signing ceremonies; Recipients should be encouraged to ensure that

JSDF-financed activities are well covered by local print and electronic media;

press releases issued with respect to JSDF grants should refer to the financial contribution from the Government of Japan.

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JSDF Regular Program – Reasons for Rejection

Some common reasons for rejection of JSDF proposals: Proposal does not fit the JSDF criteria, e.g., participatory

preparation, innovation, direct assistance to marginal and most vulnerable populations;

Grant takes a top-down rather than a bottom-up, demand-driven approach;

Too much technical assistance (especially international) not related to training which assists beneficiaries directly;

Grant funds activities that can be funded from other sources, e.g., the associated Bank project, ongoing social fund or CDD operation in the country, other donors;

Grant-funded project would scale up activities already piloted elsewhere, rather than piloting them itself;

Funding requested for ineligible activities or items.

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Concept Note

Before starting the formal application, the TTL may seek preliminary feedback on proposals by submitting a Concept Note by email to the JSDF Unit, briefly describing the activities to be funded.

The template for the Concept Note is available on the JSDF Website.

Upon receiving the note, the JSDF Unit will provide guidance to the task team on the consistency of the proposed activities with JSDF criteria and make suggestions for improvement before the team commits its time to preparing the full-scale application for submission to the JSDF Steering Committee.

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JSDF Seed Fund

Objective: To support the preparation costs of proposals – specifically for participatory discussions with civil society groups so JSDF proposals are designed for maximum effectiveness and sustainability.

Output: Well developed JSDF Grant proposal. Country Eligibility: Same as JSDF Regular Program

grant eligibility. Maximum Amount: US$50,000. Implementation Period: Maximum 12 months from

approval (status report is expected within six months of approval)

Submission: Requests accepted through Lotus Notes database anytime.

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Case Studies

Four Case Studies: Approved Proposals:

Case Study 1: Making Globalization Work for the Rural Poor in India

Case Study 2: Sri Lanka - Empowering the Rural Poor through Community Information and Learning Center

Rejected Proposals Case Study 3: India - Community Forestry

International Case Study 4: Pakistan - Institutional Capacity

Building for Participatory Development

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Case Study 1 - Overview

Case Study 1: Approved ProposalMaking Globalization Work for the

Rural Poor in India

Amount: $1.78 million

Type: Project

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Case Study 1: Grant Objectives

This project aims to enhance the livelihood opportunities and share of rural artisans in the market for cultural industries and related sectors in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

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Case Study 1: Participatory Approach

pilot project designed in response to direct demand from community members whose livelihoods depend on the sector

small event to gauge the response from the community organizations assisted by the Livelihood projects and also from the markets.

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Case Study 1: Innovation

test a new and alternative approach to improving livelihoods of community members whose livelihoods depend on this sector.

emphasis on a community based approach and income generation for the poor provides the best vehicle for improving livelihoods of poor artisans through strengthening the entire craft value chains.

Tapping into the potential of ‘cultural’ industries of the poor.

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Case Study 1: Sustainability

through the Community Artisan Investment Fund a corpus would be made available to the artisans, which would include innovative artisan specific credit products for the communities. This mechanism would ensure that the project would continuously meet the financial needs of the artisans and would be used to expand the activity and increase outreach.

some of the master crafts persons would become designers and product developers/innovators in their own right and provide guidance and training to other community members.

through this project it is expected that commercial banks and other private sector organizations will step up their investments after the project is phased out.

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Case Study 2 - Overview

Case Study 2: Approved ProposalSri Lanka - Empowering the Rural Poor

through Community Information and Learning Center

Amount: $0.96 million

Type: Capacity Building

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Case Study 2: Grant Objectives

The JSDF grant supports capacity building programs for community leaders and prospective Community Information Centers (CIC) and CIC support institutions to enable them to implement participatory methodologies in the poorest regions in Sri Lanka. The capacity building program uses the “training the trainers approach” in collaboration with NGOs, community-based organizations and universities who will train village leaders and prospective CIC managers.

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Case Study 2 – Participatory Approach

Design and implementation process conducted by the community leaders with participation of all stakeholders, with particular emphasis on the poor and underserved groups.

Each community was mobilized to participate in monitoring and evaluating CIC activities.

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Case Study 2 - Innovation

The grant supports the first program sponsored by the Bank to support the Community Information Centers.

Grant activities also provide the first comprehensive capacity building program to support the extensive use of the participatory stakeholder meetings and demand surveys to identify the needs of the poor and marginalized groups.

The grant design incorporates the evaluation of empowerment measurement -- the first attempt by the Bank to measure empowerment impact in a substantive way.

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Case Study 2 - Sustainability

Government subsidized the costs of establishing CICs including development of e-government software.

Developed e- government software applications continue to serve as an asset with minimum recurrent cost.

Capacity building activities represent human knowledge assets of the participating institutions.

With the selection of a good business model with the participation of private sector CIC models, capital costs for later period recovered from the fee income ensuring long-term sustainability of the CICs.

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Case Study 3 - Overview

Case Study 3: Rejected Proposal

India - Community Forestry International

Grant Amount: $1.48 million

Grant Type: Capacity Building

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Case Study 3 – Grant Objectives

to enhance the organizational, technical, and livelihood capacity of the community Forest Protection Committees (VSS), formed with support of other World Bank lending projects (second project likely to end 2009), in order to accelerate learning and scaling up of best practices. The JSDF grant will also establish a new state-level consultative body that will benefit all VSS groups in the state. The grant will also pilot primary innovations such as district level working groups to exchange learning, the clustering of individual VSS into registered VSS federations, monitoring institutional models and learning from experiences, establishment of non-timber forest product (NTFP) sales centers, and the development of localized technical extension workers to staff the new institutions. The JSDF project will work to empower women as key members of local institutions.

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Case Study 3 – Components Description

Component A: learning workshops to improve VSS performance; small grants to VSS and their federations; environmental service contracts with VSS for carbon finance and biodiversity conservation; publications and dissemination of pilot activities;

Component B: VSS networking and partnership creation;

Component C: VSS Federation development to backstop individual VSS after the closure of the Bank project to enhance their sustainability;

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Case Study 3 – Reasons for Rejection

The grant will enhance the organizational, technical, and livelihood capacity of the community Forest Protection Committees (VSS), formed with support of other World Bank lending projects to ensure that these entities remain viable after the closure of the World Bank project. Can’t use JSDF to ensure the sustainability of a Bank project.

Project appeared overly complex

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Case Study 4 - Overview

Case Study 4: Rejected ProposalPakistan - Institutional Capacity

Building for Participatory Development

Amount: $1.99 million

Grant Type: Capacity Building

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Case Study 4 – Grant Objectives

To support the community empowerment element of the Local Government Ordinance 2001 through; (1) developing and promoting capacity of citizens to participate in the development process; (2) developing and promoting the institutional capacity of local government elected representatives and officials to promote citizen involvement and execution of development activities.

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Case Study 4 – Components Description Component A: facilitate the creation of

citizens community boards through a mobilization campaign.

Component B: Training and capacity building aimed at institutional and behavioral reform at the local government level

Component C: Implementation of 840 community-based development projects.

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Case Study 4 – Reasons for Rejection

JSDF project should have been part of Bank-financed project;

Proposal seeks to extend/replicate Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment model oe encouraging community participation in development initiatives;

Appears centrally rather than “bottom-up” driven.

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Most Common Issues & Bottlenecks in Projects Design & Implementation

Insufficient buy-ins at time of project design resulting in lack of consensus among stakeholders

Important for objectives to focus on outcomes Miscalculations of project costs Avoiding elite capture Adequate formulation of KPIs measurement Designing an effective M&E system

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Most Common Issues & Bottlenecks in Projects Design & Implementation

Need to change legal base of organization or legislation (e.g. Tsunami project which never became effective)

Highly complex institutional arrangements when projects are cross sectoral. Coordination among ministries and agencies

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Example of Well Designed Projects in Other Regions

Colombia - Introducing Innovative Arts-Based Education to Displaced and Violence-Affected Communities

Colombia - Institutional and Community Strengthening for Local Governance and Development

Indonesia Creative Communities Fund Indonesia - Poverty Reduction and Women's

Leadership: The "PRIME" Project Tanzania - Community-Based Conditional

Cash Transfer Pilot

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CFP Website and Contacts

Bank Intranet Website Address:www.worldbank.org/jsdf

Annual Policy Document JSDF Processing procedures Eligible countries list Frequently asked questionsLotus Notes Database: All of the above documents,

plus Case law Technical review Seed Fund Guidelines Seed Fund processing

procedures

CFP Contacts: Yolaine Joseph (x32389) Bermet Sydygalieva (89357) Augustina Nikolova (30861) David Potten (x87873)