The project aims to improve the quality and financial sustainability of solid waste management (SWM) services in three cities in Yemen – Aden, Mukalla and Sanaa – using a results-based financing (RBF) solution. The World Bank has done considerable work to restore critical urban services in Yemen following the almost decade-long conflict that devastated the country. However, several barriers have continued to hinder progress in Yemen’s SWM sector, including fiscal constraints, a low willingness of beneficiaries to pay due to low quality services, and technical and institutional inadequacies that drove up costs. YIUSEP II will work to overcome these challenges by utilizing an RBF mechanism to support services for participating municipalities, thereby improving institutional capacity, service quality, and user participation.

GPRBA's $2 million subsidy is designed to incentivize the recipient service provider—the Joint Services Council for Khan Younis, Rafah and Middle area (JSC-KRM)—to improve its solid waste collection and treatment procedures. It will also incentivize them to improve cost recovery through improved fee collection from users. The subsidy consists of additional funds to be applied via a results-based financing approach, building on the success of the existing project and providing a subsidy for operating the newly built waste management infrastructure. 

In addition to bridging finance shortfalls, these additional funds will be used to equip medical waste producers with training and resources to properly dispose of hazardous waste, and to establish operational standards for landfills to address environmental issues. These standards could later be applied across the Palestinian Territories, multiplying the project’s impact and providing the residents of Gaza with a needed but often neglected municipal service for a healthier and more sustainable community. 

The project achieved the overall pre-agreed results-based target indicators by the closing date. The independent verification (IVA) assessed progress semiannually and evaluated the achievements against the agreed target for the indicators identified for each outcome and its associated targets . The IVA was an integral part of the Project and the feedback helped the JSC-KRM in making improvements during implementation. The project achieved the key targets of improving Landfill Services, improved Transfer Station Service, improved Container upkeep and Truck Maintenance Service (Secondary collection services), improvement in Medical Waste Services: Proper medical waste collection and treatment was an integral service to be provided by the JSC-KRM under the upgraded system. In addition the project helped to improve cost recovery and reducing costs and increased fee collection to support cost recovery. 

The objective of the Electricity Service Access Project is to increase electricity access in Zambia's targeted rural areas. There are three components to the project, the first component being on-grid electricity access expansion. This component will provide financing for on-grid connections in rural areas using the approaches under the OBA/connection fee subsidy program. To support the ‘last mile’ connections, the project will also finance critical distribution network reinforcements and extensions through applying low-cost technologies where appropriate that will enable ZESCO to add new connections to the grid, complementing ongoing access expansion efforts by CPs in other parts of the country. The second component is the off-grid electricity access expansion.

This component will initially fund required upstream activities to enable the private sector participation in rural off-grid electrification, including identifying and scoping off-grid sites, helping the Government of Zambia address the existing regulatory impediments, building the needed capacity at key institutions, and designing financial mechanisms. Finally, the third component is the capacity building and project implementation support. This component will finance technical assistance (TA) to the Gpvernment of Zambia to ensure that the project reaches its objective of enhancing and improving the enabling environment needed for a substantially scaled-up electrification effort.

This project's objective is to improve the quality of education in low performing basic education schools and strengthen education sector equity and accountability in Ghana. The project is funded by FCDO ($25.5 million) and the Government of Ghana ($4.5 million) and is processed as additional financing to the $150 million IDA Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP).

This additional  financing aims to support out-of-school children (OOSC) to reintegrate into Ghana’s formal education system and improve learning outcomes.  The operation will target approximately 75,000 OOSC in areas with the highest absentee and dropout rates, in districts historically deprived of a strong educational infrastructure, and in the Greater Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan district. In addition, approximately 120,000 students already enrolled in selected GALOP-beneficiary schools will benefit from strengthened interventions supported by service providers.

The AF will maintain a strong equity focus by setting a higher price for outcomes under the Education Outcomes Fund specifically for out-of-school girls. Further, service providers that can demonstrate strong capacity to provide interventions for children with disabilities will receive preferential weighting in the procurement process. 

The objective of the project is to help increase electricity access in Myanmar by supporting the IFC-led Lighting Program, which aims to promote market development for Lighting Global-certified solar products. The activity is co-financed by GPRBA ($3 million) and ESMAP ($450,000) and is expected to provide access to clean energy products for 450,000 beneficiaries located in off-grid areas.

The Grant Agreement was signed and declared effective on June 15, 2020. 

The activity is co-financed by GPRBA (US$ 3 million) and ESMAP (US$ 450,000) and is expected to provide access to clean energy products for 450,000 beneficiaries located in off-grid areas. The RBF for Off-grid Solar will be implemented by the Department of Rural Development (DRD) in partnership with selected companies and NGOs that distribute Lighting Global certified products on Myanmar’s market.

The GPRBA subsidy is expected to leverage US$ 9.3 million private sector investment. The implementing agency DRD is working on i) opening of Designated Accounts, ii) finalization of the subsidy agreement between DRD and the selected companies, iii) amendment of the existing Inspection and Verification Agent contract to include the verification scope of work under this grant, and iv) the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to facilitate a virtual meeting of DRD with the selected companies to take stock of current market development of Lighting Global-certified products and prepare the implementation plan. 

GPRBA's $3.3 million subsidy is supplementing the Liberia Reconstruction Trust Fund's $ 6 million to the ongoing Cheesemanburg Landfill and Urban Sanitation (CLUS) project in Monrovia, Liberia.

This additional financing is recognized as a critical intervention to enhance the resilience of the residents of Monrovia to the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Improved solid waste management can also create skilled and unskilled jobs in the areas of waste collection/processing and recycling, and has the potential to achieve increased levels of social cohesion through engagement and behavior change.

By working toward improved quality waste-related services, a local economy has a greater chance of thriving and enhancing public spaces to be enjoyed by all.

Such public services must be a part of a community’s efforts to protect public health and the environment, as outlined in UN Sustainable Development Goal 11.

This project is designed to help about 165 villages in rural Tanzania to gain access to a sustainable water supply through improved solar pumping systems. The project supports the Government of Tanzania in moving from dated and inefficient diesel-powered pumps to clean and climate-friendly solar pumping systems. These new systems will help decarbonize off-grid water pumping and significantly reduce the cost of water extraction for at least 500,000 beneficiaries.

Despite the challenges due to COVID-19, all of the 110 targeted sites have completed the solar installation, including all civil and electrical works. During FY21, the project experienced extensive delays due to COVID-19, prolonged tax exemption processes, port clearing delays, technical challenges and most recently, impeding rains -- causing the project to receive a six-month extension.

Since then, however, implementation has been on track to fully achieve its development objectives. To overcome the pandemic-induced challenges, the World Bank introduced remote monitoring enabled provisional verification of project sites (Output Verification 2) made possible by detailed picture collection of each site coupled with remote monitoring dashboards confirming site data.

The success of the GPRBA-funded pilot has led to other donors' support of this innovative RBF scheme. Example: a $6 million grant from the Danish Government through the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) will scale up the next phase of this long-term endeavor, which is currently being designed.

The objective of the project is to facilitate the integration of deaf children into the mainstream and special education through the engagement of parents, caregivers, teachers, and deaf mentors, as well as the community at large.  The program’s goals are to increase the proportion of deaf students with access to primary education through Vietnamese sign language (VSL) and to train 500 primary school teachers and teaching assistants to use VSL to teach the subjects of mathematics and Vietnamese.

The project has been progressing well  and the key results include the following:

• All planned training and learning materials were produced and put into use;

• 4,000 new VSL signs were developed and taught in project schools;

• 384 teachers, 100 teaching assistants, 401 deaf adults, and 1,518/1,681 parents/caregivers were trained; and

• 1,694 deaf students in 183 selected schools in 20 provinces and 2 special education centers participated in the project during the 2020-2021 school year; of which 1,650 (97.4%) deaf students passed the first semester learning exam with satisfactory results.

The project has also contributed to the sensitization and prevention of Gender-Based Violence for female deaf students. Trained teachers, assistants, and parents have helped deaf students improve their learning results through sign language. School subsidies have provided more resources for project schools to implement various activities, including teachers' professional exchanges, awards for good performing teachers and students, and procurement of equipment required for better teaching and learning. In addition, the participation of deaf adults has increased, which has contributed to the overall project results. In June 2021, the project was extended by 14 months and will now close on August 30, 2022. Given the current state of implementation, it is expected the project will conclude all activities successfully by the closing date.

Access to land and real estate in the Palestinian territories remains one of the largest impediments to economic growth. In addition, women remain marginalized in terms of property ownership and land rights. This project seeks to expand access to higher quality land administration services through results-based approaches by advancing and accelerating the registration of properties in Areas A and B of the West Bank. The project seeks to increase the percentage of beneficiaries with final ownership rights registered including women and to reduce the time it takes to register property rights. 

The first verification report by the IVA cleared 35,016 parcels and housing units eligible for reimbursement of $700,320. Of this amount, $430,346 will be paid from GPRBA funding that is currently going through the World Bank reimbursement process. The development of the Gender Action Plan (GAP) was delayed but the fieldwork is finally being completed; the team is working on the preparation of the final GAP, which will be incorporated into the disbursement-linked indicators.

During the last mission, which took place in March 2022, the Palestinian Land Authority and the Land and Water Settlement Commission, the implementing partners, agreed to restructure the project to address key challenges hindering satisfactory performance and to improve the results framework. The project restructuring would include (i) lowering the threshold for the disbursement linked indicator payments for parcels registration; (ii) revising the project implementation arrangements, including the composition of the Steering Committee and responsibility of project management and coordination; and (iii) revising targets and indicators, including some of the baselines.

The project aims to increase access to quality early childhood education services to children ages 3-7 enrolled in preschools across Uzbekistan. The funding uses social impact bonds to incentivize private-sector service provision in urban areas of Uzbekistan. The $4.85 million grant provided by the GPRBA is complemented by and is a component of the World Bank’s Promoting Early Childhood Development Project financed through a $59.5 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA), with an additional grant of $9.5 million from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). The project aims to increase enrollment to at least 40 percent of children aged 3-7 in local preschools. Currently, only 29% of pre-school age children attend education centers.  

The Social Impact Bond (SIB) was to be launched in September 2020. After a delay in launching the procurement process to select an investor, the World Bank and Government of Uzbekistan tentatively agreed in October 2021 to restructure the project. The restructuring process is anticipated to be completed by the World Bank task team, at which time the GPRBA grant will be re-allocated and SIB component cancelled.