document of the world...

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Document of The World Bank

Report No: ICR0000546

IMPLEMENTATION COMPLETION AND RESULTS REPORT (IDA-30960 IDA-3096A SIDA-21434 SIDA-24243)

ON A

CREDIT

IN THE AMOUNT OF SDR 55.7 MILLION (US$ 75 MILLION EQUIVALENT)

TO

THE REPUBLIC OF BOLIVIA

FOR AN

EDUCATION QUALITY AND EQUITY STRENGTHENING PROJECT

August 13, 2007

Human Development Sector Management Unit (LCSHD) Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela Country Management Unit (LC6) Latin American and the Caribbean Regional Office

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CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS

(Exchange Rate Effective- 4 June 2006)

Currency Unit = Bolivianos 100 Bs = US$ 12.54 US$ 1.00 = 7.97 Bs

FISCAL YEAR

January 1 to December 31

CAS Country Assistance Strategy FIS Social Investment Fund

(Fondo de Inversión Social) FOMCALIDAD Fund for Improvement of Quality of Higher Education

(Fondo de Mejoramiento de la Calidad Educativa Universitaria) HIPC Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative IDA International Development Association ISR Implementation Status Report LCR Latin American and the Caribbean Region MOE Ministry of Education and Culture NGO Non-Governmental Organization PAD Project Appraisal Document PDEM Municipal Educational Development Program (Programa Municipal de Desarrollo Educativo) PEI Indigenous Education Projects (Proyectos Educativos Indígenas) PEN Nucleus Educational Projects

(Proyectos Educativos de Núcleo) PFCEE Education Quality and Equity Strengthening Project

(Proyecto de Fortalecimiento de la Calidad y Equidad de la Educación) PDO Project Development Objective PRE Education Reform Project (Proyecto de Reforma Educativa) PROMES Municipal Education Plans QAG Quality Assurance Group SDR Special Drawing Right SIE Education Information System

(Sistema de Información Educativa) SIMECAL System to Measure the Quality of Education (Sistema de Medición de la Calidad Educativa) SPF National Investment and Productive Social Fund (SPF) (Fondo Nacional de Inversión Productivo y Social) UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

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Vice President: Pamela Cox Country Director: Carlos Felipe Jaramillo

Sector Manager: Eduardo Velez Bustillo Project Team Leader: Patricia Alvarez

ICR Team Leader: Patricia Alvarez

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Bolivia Education Quality and Equity Strengthening Project

CONTENTS

A. Basic Information………………………………………………………………… 5B. Key Dates ................................................................................................................... 5C. Ratings Summary ....................................................................................................... 5D. Sector and Theme Codes ........................................................................................... 6E. Bank Staff................................................................................................................... 6F. Results Framework Analysis ...................................................................................... 7G. Ratings of Project Performance in ISRs .................................................................. 12H. Restructuring (if any)............................................................................................... 12I. Disbursement Profile ................................................................................................ 131. Project Context, Development Objectives and Design............................................. 142. Key Factors Affecting Implementation and Outcomes ............................................ 183. Assessment of Outcomes .......................................................................................... 234. Assessment of Risk to Development Outcome......................................................... 305. Assessment of Bank and Borrower Performance ..................................................... 316. Lessons Learned ....................................................................................................... 347. Comments on Issues Raised by Borrower/Implementing Agencies/Partners .......... 36Annex 1. Project Costs and Financing.......................................................................... 38Annex 2. Outputs by Component ................................................................................. 39Annex 3. Economic and Financial Analysis ................................................................ 42Annex 4. Bank Lending and Implementation Support/Supervision Processes ............ 43Annex 5. Beneficiary Survey Results ........................................................................... 45Annex 6. Stakeholder Workshop Report and Results................................................... 46Annex 7. Summary of Borrower's ICR and/or Comments on Draft ICR..................... 47The Government was in agreement with the ratings and comments included in the draft ICR. ...................................................................................................................... 47Annex 8. Comments of Cofinanciers and Other Partners/Stakeholders....................... 50Annex 9. List of Supporting Documents ...................................................................... 52

MAP

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A. Basic Information Country: Bolivia Project Name:

BO- EDUCATION QUALITY

Project ID: P006204 L/C/TF Number(s): IDA-30960,IDA-3096A,SIDA-21434,SIDA-24243

ICR Date: 06/26/2007 ICR Type: Core ICR Lending Instrument: SIL Borrower: GOV OF BOLIVIA Original Total Commitment:

XDR 55.7M Disbursed Amount: XDR 55.6M

Environmental Category: C Implementing Agencies: Ministry of Education Social Investment Productive Fund Cofinanciers and Other External Partners: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and Kredinstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) B. Key Dates

Process Date Process Original Date Revised / Actual Date(s)

Concept Review: 11/01/1995 Effectiveness: 12/10/1998 12/10/1998 Appraisal: 04/13/1998 Restructuring(s): Approval: 06/16/1998 Mid-term Review: 11/04/2001 Closing: 12/31/2003 12/31/2006 C. Ratings Summary C.1 Performance Rating by ICR Outcomes: Satisfactory Risk to Development Outcome: Moderate Bank Performance: Satisfactory Borrower Performance: Satisfactory

C.2 Detailed Ratings of Bank and Borrower Performance (by ICR) Bank Ratings Borrower Ratings

Quality at Entry: Satisfactory Government: Satisfactory

Quality of Supervision: Satisfactory Implementing Agency/Agencies: Satisfactory

Overall Bank Satisfactory Overall Borrower Satisfactory

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Performance: Performance: C.3 Quality at Entry and Implementation Performance Indicators

Implementation Performance Indicators QAG Assessments

(if any) Rating

Potential Problem Project at any time (Yes/No):

No Quality at Entry (QEA):

None

Problem Project at any time (Yes/No):

No Quality of Supervision (QSA):

Satisfactory

DO rating before Closing/Inactive status:

Satisfactory

D. Sector and Theme Codes

Original Actual Sector Code (as % of total Bank financing) Central government administration 1 Primary education 40 50 Secondary education 39 25 Sub-national government administration 20 25

Theme Code (Primary/Secondary) Administrative and civil service reform Secondary Secondary Education for all Primary Primary Gender Secondary Secondary Municipal governance and institution building Primary Primary Participation and civic engagement Secondary Secondary E. Bank Staff

Positions At ICR At Approval Vice President: Pamela Cox Shahid Javed Burki Country Director: Marcelo Giugale Isabel M. Guerrero Sector Manager: Eduardo Velez Bustillo Jamil Salmi Project Team Leader: Patricia Alvarez John Lincoln Newman ICR Team Leader: Patricia Alvarez ICR Primary Author: Patricia Alvarez Consultant Maria R. Puech Fernandez Consultant Maria Alejandra Velasco Consultant Cristina Pareja

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F. Results Framework Analysis Project Development Objectives (from Project Appraisal Document) The Education Quality and Equity Strengthening Project (PFCEE) had the same ultimate objectives as the Education Reform Project (1): to increase the number of years of schooling completed (particularly at the primary level) and to improve the quality of that schooling. To achieve these objectives, the Project aimed to complement the Education Reform by adding and strengthening activities that – in the course of implementation – appeared weak. Thus, its intermediate objectives were to: (i) provide integrated infrastructure and educational process improvements (through the implementation of school improvement projects, called nucleus educational projects-PEN) to approximately 500 school nucleus – or groups of approximately nine schools-and educational process improvements to another 900 school nucleus; (ii) increase the participation of parents and teachers in the educational reform through their involvement in the preparation of educational projects, prepared at the nucleus level and through more active participation of the formal entities established under the Popular Participation Law (the Comités de Vigilancia, citizens who review policy and investments at the municipal level, and Juntas Escolares, groups of parents and teachers who review policy and investment at school level, in the planning and review of educational investments; (iii) strengthen the ability of the municipalities to plan and carry out integrated investments in infrastructure and educational processes; and (iv) develop new administrative mechanisms that lead to an effective and efficient relation among the Ministry of Education, municipalities and the National Investment and Productive Social Fund (SPF). (1) The Education Reform Project (IDA-2650/BO) was approved in August 1994 to support the first phase of an Education Reform Program designed to improve the quality and equity of primary education, strengthen the ability of the National Education System (SNE) to set policies and guidelines for the education sector and strengthen the capacity of the public education system to deliver education services effectively and efficiently. The Project was completed in July 2003. Revised Project Development Objectives (as approved by original approving authority) The Project development objective was not revised during the life of the Project. (a) PDO Indicator(s)

Indicator Baseline Value

Original Target Values (from

approval documents)

Formally Revised Target Values

Actual Value Achieved at

Completion or Target Years

Indicator 1 : Average years of schooling for those leaving the system in areas supported by the Project.

Value quantitative or Qualitative)

6.1 years Not Defined N/A 7.4 years of schooling

Date achieved 06/03/1992 09/05/2001 Comments (incl. % achievement)

Baseline and actual values are based on the national population census information 1992 and 2001, respectively. The data is based on population of 19-year-old and older.

Indicator 2 : Percentage of students with satisfactory academic achievement (3 grade) Value Not defined Not defined N/A 2000=89.9%

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quantitative or Qualitative)

2005=91.2%

Date achieved 12/31/1998 10/15/2003 10/15/2005

Comments (incl. % achievement)

Academic achievement measured by the learning assessment system. Despite its technical quality testing was conducted sporadically each time in different grade levels. Evaluations were discontinued after 2002. Data is based on the number of students promoted.

Indicator 3 : Gender differences in average years of schooling for those leaving the system Value quantitative or Qualitative)

Female 5.2 Male 7.0 Not defined Female: 6.7 years

Males: 8.2 years

Date achieved 06/03/1992 09/05/2001


The PAD set this indicator originally for 50 municipalities. This number and the Project activities were revised during implementation. Data reflects information on the education system as a whole. The PAD did not define specific baseline data.

(b) Intermediate Outcome Indicator(s)

Indicator Baseline Value

Original Target Values (from

approval documents)

Formally Revised

Target Values

Actual Value Achieved at

Completion or Target Years

Indicator 1 : Number of Nucleus Educational Projects (PENs) financed under the Project (integrated infrastructure and pedagogical process and pedagogical process only)

Value (quantitative or Qualitative)

0 1,500 1,800


Demand for the PENs was substantial during implementation. Donors and NGOs provided financial support to meet it. The 2005 data includes PENs financed by municipalities, the Bank, the Swedish Trust fund and other donors.

Indicator 2 : Percent of Nucleus Educational Projects judged of acceptable quality in field visits.


0 85% 90%


Indicator 3 : Percent of Juntas Escolares who consider the preparation of Nucleus Educational Projects (PENs) to be a success and who are satisfied with the process leading to the selection of the Nucleus Educational Projects.


0 85% 95%

Date achieved 02/15/2003 02/15/2005

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Indicator 4 : Percent of Comités de Vigilancia who consider their Municipal Educational Development Program (PDEM) to be successfully prepared and implemented.


0 70% 95%


Indicator 5 : Percent of Comités de Vigilancia satisfied with the process used to support PDEM.


0 80% 49%


During Project implementation, these committees were transformed from operational actors, to consultative groups.

Indicator 6 : School nucleus receiving training for parents, teachers and nucleus directors. Value (quantitative or Qualitative)

0 1,400 1,500


The active participation of educational actors in project implementation contributed their capacity building on planning and implementation of educational projects.

Indicator 7 : Percent of Juntas Escolares satisfied with training and assistance received in the preparation of their nucleus educational projects


0 80% 80%


The Juntas Escolares renew their composition every two years, according to local arrangements.

Indicator 8 : Number of municipalities receiving training and technical assistance in the preparation and implementation of their PDEMs.


0 311 314

Date achieved 02/15/2003 02/15/2005


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Indicator 9 : Percent of Comités de Vigilancia satisfied with the training and technical assistance received in the preparation and implementation or their PDMEs.


0% 80% 49%


During project implementation, these committees were transformed from operational actors, to consultative groups. The Municipal Educational Committee replaced the Comités de Vigilancia.

Indicator 10 : Number of municipalities with adequate information on the state of their educational infrastructure.


0 311 308


Some municipalities without electricity experienced difficulties with the installation of the information system.

Indicator 11 : Number of district directors of education provided transport and communications equipment.


0 245 180


A review of the educational districts was carried out to provide the municipalities with adequate transportation means according to their needs and geographical distribution.

Indicator 12 : Percent of FIS subprojects fully operational and judged of acceptable quality Value (quantitative or Qualitative)

0 100% 100%


Indicator 13 : Percent of FIS subprojects fully operational and judged of acceptable quality Value (quantitative or Qualitative)

95% 100%


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Indicator 14 : Percent of studies for the diagnosis of factors affecting rural girls’ school participation completed


0 100% 100%


25 studies

Indicator 15 : Quantitative and qualitative information from the 50 municipalities that were prioritized, systematized and collected


0 50 municipalities

The analysis was carried out in the 50 municipalities as set in the PAD


The studies and the qualitative analysis were completed in the targeted municipalities (50). However, Project interventions were targeted to 15 municipalities.

Indicator 16 : Awareness raising and training materials distributed to target populations. Value (quantitative or Qualitative)

0 15 municipalities


The material distribution was carried out in the 15 prioritized municipalities where the targeted interventions were implemented.

Indicator 17 : 2,500 mothers and fathers participating in the awareness-raising effort during the first two years of the Project.


0 2,500 500


With the reduction of the number of rural municipalities targeted by the Project, the number of parents participating in these activities financed by the Project was reduced as well.

Indicator 18 : Four-hundred faculty members participating in training sessions during the first two years of the Project.


0 400 200


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Indicator 19 : Percent of secondary studies completed. Value (quantitative or Qualitative)

0 100% 100%


25 studies

G. Ratings of Project Performance in ISRs

No. Date ISR Archived DO IP

Actual Disbursements (USD millions)

1 07/06/1998 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.00 2 04/08/1999 Satisfactory Satisfactory 3.31 3 06/23/1999 Satisfactory Satisfactory 6.12 4 12/28/1999 Satisfactory Satisfactory 10.64 5 06/27/2000 Satisfactory Satisfactory 15.17 6 11/30/2000 Satisfactory Satisfactory 18.25 7 06/28/2001 Satisfactory Satisfactory 22.28 8 12/17/2001 Satisfactory Satisfactory 32.15 9 06/07/2002 Satisfactory Satisfactory 43.80

10 12/11/2002 Satisfactory Satisfactory 59.44 11 06/04/2003 Satisfactory Satisfactory 63.62 12 12/23/2003 Satisfactory Satisfactory 66.09 13 03/20/2004 Satisfactory Satisfactory 66.92 14 06/29/2004 Satisfactory Satisfactory 68.84 15 11/29/2004 Satisfactory Satisfactory 70.17 16 04/29/2005 Satisfactory Satisfactory 70.96 17 12/22/2005 Satisfactory Satisfactory 71.65 18 12/27/2006 Satisfactory Satisfactory 73.91

H. Restructuring (if any) Not Applicable

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I. Disbursement Profile

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1. Project Context, Development Objectives and Design (this section is descriptive, taken from other documents, e.g., PAD/ISR, not evaluative)

1.1 Context at Appraisal (brief summary of country and sector background, rationale for Bank assistance) Political and Sector Context: Bolivia approved two key pieces of legislation in 1994 and 1995: the Administrative Decentralization and Popular Participation Laws. These laws provided a new framework for policy and decision making in the country, marked by efforts to deepen decentralization and enhance national dialogue. The laws transferred resources and decision-making power to the municipalities and prefectures. The Popular Participation Law gave the indigenous groups and local communities the right to identify and formulate investments and to participate in budget formulation and control implementation. Against this background, the Education Reform Law (Law Nº 1565) was approved in 1994 to establish a new regulatory framework for the education sector in Bolivia. The law was aimed to address structural problems identified in the education system. Basic education in Bolivia was characterized by a low quality of teaching and learning, an outdated curriculum with an excessive number of subjects, obsolete teachers’ guides and traditional teaching methodologies with little or null student participation in the classroom or at school level. Teaching took place only in Spanish, without inclusion of any local languages. Pre-service training for teachers was inadequate, and in-service training was practically inexistent. The education system suffered from lack of planning, poor management of human and financial resources and deficient and inadequate infrastructure and educational equipment. The following education data -- prior to 1994 -- reflect these problems:

Indicator 1992

Average years of schooling (1) 6.1

Illiteracy (2) 20%

Gross Coverage (Primary) 99.8%

Gross Coverage (All levels) 75.5%

Education expenditure/PIB (3) 2.8% Notes:

(1) Population 19 year-old or older. (2) Population 15 year-old or older. (3) Does not include tertiary education expenditures.

In 1995, based on the legal framework provided by the Education Reform Law, the Government initiated the implementation of an Education Reform Program (Programa de Reforma Educativa - PRE) which contributed to increase access to primary education (net enrollment in primary education reached 97 percent in 2005) and to reduce drop out rates, which went from 10 percent to 7 percent in rural areas and from 10 percent to 6 percent in urban areas in the 1997-2005 period. Completion rates in primary went from 56 percent in 1996 to 72 percent in 2001 and are estimated to reach 85 percent in 2010. The Education Reform Project (Cr. 2650-BO), approved by IDA in 1994, provided support to the first phase of the Education Reform Program. This Project completed its implementation in July 2003. In 1999, the Government launched a series of actions to improve the quality of education, through the implementation of the Education Quality and Equity Strengthening Project (Proyecto de Fortalecimiento de la Calidad y Equidad de la Educación -PFCEE), with IDA support. Its main

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objectives were to: (i) develop and implement integral interventions in the area of education, linking school infrastructure and pedagogical processes; (ii) foster greater participation of parents, teachers and stakeholders in the municipalities of in education management; and (iii) strengthen the municipalities’ planning and budgetary capacities in the education area. The PFCEE was considered the fundamental piece to complement the ongoing efforts in the country to transform the education sector and modernize education management at the national level, including pedagogical, curricular, institutional and administrative areas.

1.2 Original Project Development Objectives (PDO) and Key Indicators (as approved)

The Education Quality and Equity Strengthening Project (Cr. 30960-BO), for which an SDR 55.7 million (US$75 million equivalent) credit was approved in September 1998 had the same ultimate objectives as the Education Reform Project (Cr.2650-BO): to increase the number of years of schooling completed (particularly at the primary level) and to improve the quality of that schooling. The Project aimed to develop approaches to reduce gender disparities in educational outcomes in selected municipalities with the greatest differences.

Its intermediate objectives were to: (i) provide integral infrastructure and educational process improvements (through Nucleus Educational Projects –PENs) to approximately 500 school nucleus (groups of nine or more primary schools) and educational process improvements through PENs to another 900 school nucleus; (ii) increase the participation of parents and teachers in the educational reform through their involvement in the preparation of educational projects prepared at the nucleus level, and through more active participation of the formal entities established under the Popular Participation Law, the Comités de Vigilancia - citizens who review policy and investments at the municipal level, and Juntas Escolares, groups of parents and teachers who review policy and investment at school level in the planning and review of educational investments; (iii) strengthen the ability of the municipalities to plan and carry out integrated investments in infrastructure and educational processes; and (iv) develop new administrative mechanisms that lead to an effective and efficient relation among the Ministry of Education (MOE), municipalities and the Social Productive Fund (SPF).

1.3 Revised PDO (as approved by original approving authority) and Key Indicators, and reasons/justification The PDOs and the key indicators were not revised during the life of the Project.

1.4 Main Beneficiaries, (original and revised, briefly describe the "primary target group" identified in the PAD and as captured in the PDO, as well as any other individuals and organizations expected to benefit from the Project). The PAD targeted as the main beneficiaries of project interventions:

• Boys and girls from impoverished and deprived rural and marginal urban areas. The Project expected to finance about 500 Nucleus Educational Projects (PEN) that would involve integrated infrastructure and pedagogical process inputs and 900 PENs that would involve only pedagogical process inputs. The Project expected to provide the two types of PENs to 30 percent (450,000) and 50 percent (750,000) of the primary school age population;

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• The beneficiaries were expected to be 70-75 percent indigenous; • The rural component was expected to benefit approximately 16,000 girls in the 50 high

priority municipalities. It was expected that 80-90 percent of the girls would be indigenous;

• Teachers, Directors of Nucleus and District Directors within the educational system in 311 municipalities in the country, with priority given to the poorest municipalities.

1.5 Original Components (as approved) The Project total cost was estimated at US$116 million. IDA Credit 30960 was to finance US$75 million equivalent. The remaining US$41 million were to be financed by KfW (US$13 millions) and the Government (US$28 million). The five Project components were: Component A – Municipal Educational Development (US$78.6 million or 69.3 percent of original Project cost): This component would finance Municipal Educational Development Programs (PDEMs). The PDEMs were developed as a planning tool that incorporates the Nucleus Educational Projects (PENs) based on the educational community demand. These were proposals for school improvement prepared by parents, teachers and directors of the school nucleus. The PENs were to pass through a competitive selection process at the municipal level and through a quality review at departmental level and national levels. Component B – Institutional Strengthening (US$16.5 million or 14.5 percent of original Project cost): This component was to finance training, technical assistance and equipment for the municipalities, the nucleus, and the district head offices. The component also was to finance an inventory of educational existing infrastructure, information subsystem, monitoring and evaluation and administrative costs. Component C – FIS investments (US$15 million or 13.2 percent of original Project cost): This component aimed at complying with all the commitments made to the Municipalities regarding the improvement of school infrastructure. It would finance some educational infrastructure projects that had been identified by the FIS prior to the approval of this Project but had not been carried out due to lack of financing. Component D – Rural Girls’ Schooling (US$1 million or 0.9 per cent of original total Project costs): This component was to finance research and activities aimed at establishing a strategy based on several alternatives to support a sustained increase of female enrolment and retention within the educational system in rural areas. Component E – Studies on Secondary and Tertiary Education (US$0.5 million or 0.4 percent of original Project costs): This component was to carry out studies to evaluate and make recommendations on the expansion of the Education Reform Program to secondary and tertiary education.

Finally, the Project included US$1.72 million (1.5 percent of original Project cost) to pre-finance the Project Preparation Facility. A total of US$2.71 million was unallocated at the time of approval.

1.6 Revised Components The implementation strategy for Component D - Rural Girls Schooling was revised in 2001. Its main objectives were not changed but the expected outputs financed by the Credit were adjusted. The main reasons for the revision were: (i) the challenges encountered in gathering information in

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the targeted municipalities and in analyzing it in a timely manner, which had been underestimated at project design; and (ii) the cost of implementing the strategies as identified in the resulting studies. These aspects were more challenging than anticipated at the Project design stage. As a result, this component financed a set of studies to prepare a diagnostic of the main reasons preventing greater enrolment and retention of rural girls in primary education in 15 municipalities (not in 50 as planned in the PAD). Based on these studies, the strategy to implement this component and achieve the project development objectives was reformulated. The Credit financed a smaller pilot experience to support rural girls’ enrolment. UNICEF partnered with the Government and the IDA, supporting the implementation of the activities originally planned. Based on available analysis on the priority municipalities, UNICEF financed targeted programs to create incentives to foster girls’ access to and retention in schools in the rural areas (student and teacher lodging, transportation, bonuses, etc.). Hence, the activities were completed but with an alternative source of financing. The sensitization campaign for the communities and teacher training did not take place as originally planned (see Annex 4 for more information).

1.7 Other significant changes (in design, scope and scale, implementation arrangements and schedule, and funding allocations) The Credit’s original closing date was extended four times from December 31, 2003 to December 31, 2006. In a context of high political and social volatility, additional time for project implementation was needed in order to achieve the Project Development Objectives (PDOs). The main reasons for these extensions were: (i) the choice of maintaining continued involvement and dialogue with the education sector authorities, in a context of deep changes in the Ministry of Education staff at Ministerial and technical levels; (ii) the length of the implementation period for the Rural Girls’ Schooling Component, which took longer than anticipated, due to the time needed to carry out the studies to define the nature and scope of the interventions at the municipal level, adjusting to their different realities; (iii) the expansion in scope introduced to the tertiary education activities supported by the Project, which brought the implementation of a new modality of allocating resources to tertiary institutions, with the aim of increasing efficiency and efficacy in public universities. This activity required additional implementation time, mainly for the Borrower to justify the use of funds for FOMCALIDAD subprojects and also for Pedagogical Processes Subcomponent; and (iv) the significant amount of undisbursed funds that the different Government administrations required for completing the programmed and committed activities. Credit resources were reallocated to the Component for Tertiary Education (Component E), to support the implementation of a competitive fund (Fondo de Mejoramiento de la Calidad – FOMCALIDAD) that supported initiatives to improve the quality of teaching and learning in public universities. Public universities prepared proposals and competed for the funds to finance them. The Government received in 2002 additional resources through a trust fund from Sweden (TF 24243) to finance the PENs in Component A, which allowed the reallocation of Credit funds to finance FOMCALIDAD subprojects. The table below shows that the most important changes in the use of IDA Credit were an increase in civil works, consultant, training, incremental costs and the changes in exchange rate between the SDR and Dollars.

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Categories Original Programming

US$ (equivalent) Reprogramming US$ (equivalent)

Civil Works 43.30 52.51 Goods 6.60 5.85 Consultancy and Training 14.60 17.95 Incremental Costs 0.70 1.68 Incremental Salaries 3.50 0.72 Operating Expenses for FIS personnel

2.00 2.22

PPF 1.50 0.53 Unallocated 2.80 0.00 FOMCALIDAD 3.24

Total 75.00 84.70 Source: IDA

2. Key Factors Affecting Implementation and Outcomes

2.1 Project Preparation, Design and Quality at Entry (including whether lessons of earlier operations were taken into account, risks and their mitigations identified, and adequacy of participatory processes, as applicable) • The Project’s design was based on a sound background analysis of the country’s education

sector and project design took into account the lessons from other operations (municipalities were consulted in order to ensure their ownership of the Project, etc).

• The Project Development Objectives were consistent with the Government’s development strategy of expanding access to basic education and improving the quality of education. The PDO were in line with the CAS objectives (CAS Nº 17890-BO discussed by the Board on May 21, 1998) of improving the efficiency and quality of basic social services, improving access to social services, and deepening decentralization.

• The Government was committed during preparation and involved consistently the municipalities and key stakeholders (parents, teachers, students) in project definition and design. As a complement, most of the team executing the Education Reform Project (former project) also was involved in the design and implementation of this Project and was quite familiar with the main issues affecting the system.

• Project design took into account the political and institutional context in which the Project would be implemented: with the approval and implementation of the Popular Participation Law and the Municipal Law, the Project’s design incorporated mechanisms to strengthen local management and foster popular participation.

• The Project’s components were adequate to contribute to the achievement of the PDO. They also were consistent and complementary with the objectives and actions of the Education Reform Project.

• The Project’s components were adequate to achieve results to foster and strengthen the implementation of educational changes at the local level, although the Rural Girls component was ambitious in its design, expecting to accomplish more than it was possible during the life of the Project.

• The Project’s risk assessment focused on the risks at local institutional levels, which turned out to be lower. The municipalities rose to the challenge and were motivated when they perceived the Project’s benefits. At the same time the main risks arose in the area of political and country stability that were not emphasized in the PAD.

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• Over the last years, the lack of continuity of sector strategies and permanent turn-over of authorities and technical staff of the MoE has adversely affected the pace at which the indicators are expected to improve.

2.2 Implementation (including any Project changes/restructuring, mid-term review, Project at-risk status, and actions taken, as applicable) There were several factors that influenced the Project’s implementation and outcome: • Strong Government commitment that resulted in good implementation of Project activities

between 1999 and 2002. Project implementation took place in a context of strong support for both the Education Reform Project and the Education Quality Project, which was defined as a national policy, and counted on Government efforts to institutionalize its key elements.

• An economic crisis in 2002 resulted in budget constraints that affected Project implementation. Budget constraints were more severe at the municipal level.

• During the last years of Project implementation and specifically since 2003, the country went through a period of great political and economic instability. Frequent changes in the sector authorities had a somewhat negative effect on the Project and also in the sector. Four presidents, seven ministers and constant changes in the technical teams increased political parties’ involvement in the MOE’s and FIS work, and caused delays in implementation and excessive rotation of trained personnel.

• Significant support from other international donors for Bolivia’s education agenda. It resulted in significant support for the implementation of a number of activities included in the Education Reform Project and the Education Quality Project. The MOE defined an interlocutor to coordinate the work with international donor agencies, which contributed to an effective coordination of donors’ efforts to support the country’s education agenda.

• Implementation was influenced positively by coordination among the MOE, FIS, the municipalities and key actors in the education community. While the Departmental Services of Education (SEDUCAS) and the District Offices participated in Project implementation, these arrangements were thought to contribute to strengthening local capacity and institutionalize Project’s activities.

2.3 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Design, Implementation and Utilization Monitoring and Evaluation Design: Project’s design of the monitoring and evaluation arrangements took into consideration the support of the information systems and technical teams developed under the Education Reform Project. Thus, although the Education Quality and Equity Strengthening Project did not include a specific monitoring and evaluation component, it helped to further strengthen the capacities for monitoring at the Ministry of Education through the information system (SIE) and the Quality Measurement System (SIMECAL), which produced high quality statistics. The SIE was designed and implemented with the support of technical assistance provided by the previous Education Reform Project. It provided timely and accurate information at more disaggregated levels of different aspects of the education system. The PAD did include arrangements for monitoring and evaluation under the Project. The Monitoring and Evaluation unit of the MOE and Vice Ministry for Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education (VEIPS) were responsible for monitoring and evaluation, assisted when necessary by consultants on specific assessments and surveys. SIMECAL was a semi-autonomous institution, not fully integrated in the MOE, this allowed the system to be perceived as an independent evaluation tool.

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The indicators proposed to measure the Project’s main outcomes were adequate for quantifying progress in terms of quality and equity in the education system: (i) average years of schooling for those leaving the education system; (ii) the percentage of students with satisfactory academic performance; and (iii) gender differences in educational outcomes. The MOE was to elaborate annual reviews of statistics to update the outcome indicators. The Project proposed to follow up on physical inputs and on client satisfaction with the processes of delivering those inputs to monitor progress. The PAD also clearly defined outputs to better assess progress in the Project activities. The results framework resulted somewhat heavy but it followed the common practice at that time. The baseline values for most of the indicators are zero, since this activities did not exist before the Project. This is the case of indicators related to the development and implementation of the educational projects at the school, nucleus, network and municipal levels. Monitoring and Evaluation Implementation: Monitoring of Project activities were carried out through the Education Information System (SIE) and the Quality Measurement System (SIMECAL), which allowed for quantitative and qualitative assessments of the education system. Statistics developed by the Ministry on coverage, internal efficiency of the education system and financial resources were of good quality and timely, disaggregated by gender, grade and geographic area, among others. Therefore, the SIE turned into one of the main tools for monitoring and evaluating Project’s outcome indicators and making decisions in the Ministry of Education. Processed information can be found on-line at the Ministry of Education website (www.minedu.gov.bo) allowing for a wide dissemination of quantitative indicators of the status and advances of the education system. Data collection and dissemination included information on infrastructure and human resources. Project activities supported the development and dissemination of relevant descriptive statistics related to indicators and outcomes in the education sector at the national, departmental and municipal levels. Two books were produced and broadly distributed by the Ministry: La educación en Bolivia: indicadores, cifras y resultados and La educación en Bolivia: estadísticas municipales. On infrastructure, a special infrastructure sub-system allowed the Ministry of Education to monitor improvements resulted from civil works interventions. In addition, the Ministry took the first steps to introduce a geographic information system. Regarding the Municipal Educational Plans, annual reviews of these plans were carried out systematically by the Ministry of Education in coordination with the municipalities. These events served as an opportunity for knowledge sharing among different municipalities and central Government. The education plans helped in customizing the Education Reform to local conditions and thus responded to the specific necessities of each municipality. Unfortunately, the Ministry missed the opportunity of systematizing the information contained in these plans and, therefore, of adjust or modify the national plan accordingly. In terms of quality measurement, results of interventions related to learning assessments carried out by SIMECAL were also of high-quality, tests were designed in Spanish and two native languages (Aymara and Quechua) so as to assess progress of different indigenous groups. However, interventions in primary level were not carried out systematically due to the fact that SIMECAL received additional responsibilities related to the assessment of teachers, principals and senior students. At the first stage of the Education Reform, there had been political support

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for the insertion of SIMECAL into the structure of the Ministry; however, support from the technical team for it to take place diluted when the results of the educational achievement tests applied by SIMECAL showed deficiencies in learning accomplishments. The additional responsibilities that SIMECAL assumed, compounded by the lack of support from the technical team of the Ministry, led to a gradual abandonment of the quality measurement system. In addition, the National Institute of Statistics (INE), through household surveys and census, also collected and processed relevant information on education outcomes, such as literacy levels, average years of schooling and school infrastructure, though census are carried out just about every ten years. These records were frequently consulted to validate and complement the information produced by the Ministry. It is worth mentioning that over the last years of implementation of the Project, changes in authorities, vision and high turn-over of personnel led to some extent to the neglecting of information and quality systems. While the SIMECAL stopped interventions in primary level and was subsequently abandoned, the SIE was maintained but with a lower profile and less timely information deliver. Monitoring and Evaluation utilization: IDA and the Government utilized the information available to follow up the progress of the Project. SIE generated good quality statistics on the education system and progress toward the achievement of the main objectives of the education reform program and the Project were monitored. The usefulness of SIMECAL results was limited due to the above-mentioned reasons. After 2003, project monitoring permitted a better use of donors’ support and helped the Government to decide on reallocations of Credit resources to support its educational priorities within the Education Program.

2.4 Safeguard and Fiduciary Compliance (focusing on issues and their resolution, as applicable) As stated in the Quality of Supervision Assessment (September 2006), project design incorporated a highly progressive social approach to empower municipalities and districts in educational planning, execution and monitoring to focus on inclusion of the remote areas and of indigenous communities and promoting the access and permanence of girls’ rural education. The decentralized, participatory approach allowed for the development of situation-specific educational responses based on local needs, which was considered an important transformation approach in a country of such high diversity, political volatility and sociopolitical differences. The strong focus on social outcomes produced impressive transformation results. It succeeded in generating real local empowerment and commitment, particularly through establishing and strengthening links between the municipalities and the FIS that was responsible for physical investments. Also highly commendable was the emphasis on geographical inclusion, especially ensuring the physical access of educational administrators to more remote communities.

The two safeguard policies that applied to the Project were the indigenous and the environmental safeguards. Compliance with the policies was rated always as satisfactory/highly satisfactory during of the life of the Project.

The gender component financed studies to give a diagnosis of the rural girls’ schooling in the 50 municipalities with the greatest gender differences. Budget cuts resulted in scaling down to three pilot operations financed with Credit resources to provide learning for a future strategy. At the

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same time, Credit re-allocations directed resources to secondary and tertiary education, which did not have clear gender objectives. UNICEF teamed with IDA and the Government to carry out activities to support access and retention of girls in rural areas, on the basis of these pilots.

Traditionally, the financial management area has been one of the weakest within the Ministry of Education. The efforts made by the Bank and other donors to strengthen such capacity, were not sustainable either in the medium or long term, given the high staff turn over, lack of qualified staff and lack of institutional capacity affected by political interference. Those issues adversely affected the control environment to properly oversee the implementation of somewhat complex components such as FOMCALIDAD, ending up with some ineligible expenditure. The implementation of the Project within MOE required almost continuing technical assistance from Bank’s fiduciary staff to make minimum requirements are in place or that at least corrective actions are implemented. Financial management performance within the MOE was uneven through out the Project. The SPF, as a decentralized institution which plays a relevant role in the implementation of social development projects in Bolivia, has constituted as a main instrument for channeling funds to the municipalities. Under that role, during Project implementation the SPF has revealed certain significant weaknesses related to internal control and lack of mitigation measures that would allow it to respond adequately to both internal and external risks within the complex context in which the Project was developed. As a result of this weaknesses, in 2004 there were allegations of collusive bidding scheme that affected contracts for school rehabilitation and equipment financed under Swedish and Bank funds. The Department of Institutional Integrity (INT) of the Bank undertook the investigation as well as the Bolivian Government. Once the findings of the investigations concluded, those were presented to the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), with the corresponding remedial measures proposed by the Bank. In January 2007, a misprocurement letter previously agreed with SIDA was sent by the Bank to the Government requesting a partial repayment of the total amount affected. Recently, the Government informed to the Bank that the mentioned amount will be repaid in the upcoming months. In regard to SPF Project’s financial management, although corrective actions were taken during the last years, not all the issues were adequately solved, having led the entity to the reimbursement of ineligible expenditures. Although the FM function under FPS was originally strengthened, the implementation of those arrangements did not work well in practice, and also required corrective actions.

Given the issues explained above, the overall performance of the Project in relation to FM, can be considered moderately unsatisfactory.

2.5 Post-completion Operation/Next Phase (including transition arrangement to post-completion operation of investments financed by present operation, Operation & Maintenance arrangements, sustaining reforms and institutional capacity, and next phase/follow-up operation, if applicable) It is likely that the Project’s achievements will be sustained after Project completion. The main reasons are the following: • The planning practices of the municipalities through the Municipal Education Plans

(PROMES) have been integrated in the Municipal Development Plans (PDM) and the PEs

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have been institutionalized. These elements have served to establish decentralized and participatory education management;

• There is strong ownership of the processes to elaborate and implement the above-mentioned instruments;

• The municipalities have substantially increased their investments in education during the last five years. These investments have focused not only in infrastructure, but on pedagogy as well;

• Participation of parents and community organizations in the identification of education needs and in the establishment of priorities among these needs has become common and expected practice;

• There is greater social control of the implementation of the activities as planned in the PE and the PROMEs;

• Municipal capacity has been strengthened through technical assistance. Human resources working in the municipalities have improved their skills, and additional human resources have been assigned to the municipal teams that influence and guide municipal investments. It is expected that the elements of the participatory planning culture, supported by the Project, will continue;

• The PROMEs continue to be the most important sector planning instrument at municipal level and they are well articulated with the central level;

• The studies on education for rural girls have helped elaborate strategies that the municipalities could use to reduce the gender inequities in their areas of responsibility; and

• The studies on secondary education have helped produce the “Project to Transform Secondary Education”, included in the Government’s long-term education program.

3. Assessment of Outcomes

3.1 Relevance of Objectives, Design and Implementation (to current country and global priorities, and Bank assistance strategy) The overall relevance of Project objectives, components and its implementation is considered high at the time of Project preparation and continues to be high at Project completion. The main reasons for this are the following: (i) improving access to and quality of education services continues to be a country development priority; (ii) deepening the decentralization process was a priority at the time of design and continues to be a key feature in Bolivia’s institutional structure given the larger amount of tax resources managed by the Departments and municipalities; (iii) increasing participation of stakeholders and civil society in the definition of educational priorities and the implementation of agreed actions continues to be a defining feature of Bolivian institutional framework; (iv) increasing equitable access for vulnerable students and for girls while retaining them in school is a priority of the country’s education agenda; (v) the Government considers today that improvements in education infrastructure are not enough to improve the quality of teaching and learning and must be complemented by pedagogical interventions; and (vi) transforming secondary education and identifying priorities in a framework for action is central to improve human capital in the country. The Project’s development objectives were clearly defined. They were realistic and adequate in their extent and ambitions. Implementation was designed proposing a rhythm of gradualism, that could support adjusting the Project’s activities to the reality as implementation was to progress. In order to include all the municipalities (in terms of population and cultural differences) in the country, the Project’s design foresaw implementation in several stages. This was a key factor to adequately address the demands of the different types of municipalities, which was especially

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relevant in the case of adapting the educational projects (PENs) to the indigenous population (Proyectos Educativos Indígenas - PEIs). The Project was focused on creating the institutional capacity at Department and municipal levels to bring about the changes in pedagogy at school level and to sustain these achievements over time. Project design intended to make the education management process more participatory and democratic and achieve more impact by integrating pedagogy and infrastructure. It sought to include social control from the community in planning activities and management of resources for the educational projects, with the creation of management teams (Equipos de Gestión) and municipal education committees. The quality of the Project design at entry was good, building on recent decentralization and community participation legislation, working with municipalities and positioning itself well in relation to issues of poverty, gender and the mainstreaming of multicultural and bilingual education for indigenous people. The new approach of an integrated modality of intervention (infrastructure and pedagogical processes) adapted through the FIS was an innovative challenge. The Project was in line with IDA’s assistance strategy for Bolivia. The Project focused on reaching the most vulnerable population living in rural areas and dispersed communities, on enabling greater access to school for children in these communities. It focused on increasing investment in municipalities and on fostering community participation in planning educational activities and allowing social control of their implementation. The Project was easily adaptable to changing circumstances in the country and sector, which affected most of the components, especially the Rural Girls’ Education Component and the Secondary and Tertiary Education Component which were adapted to capitalize on opportunities.

3.2 Achievement of Project Development Objectives (including brief discussion of causal linkages between outputs and outcomes, with details on outputs in Annex 2) The achievement of the Project’s objectives is rated as satisfactory, based on the following outcomes, as defined in the PAD:

• Increased average years of schooling for students leaving the education system in the areas supported by the Project;

• Increased percentage of students with satisfactory academic achievement at 3rd grade; • Reduction of gender differences in average years of schooling for those leaving the

system in 50 highest priority municipalities. The Bank, through this Project and the previous Education Reform Project, has played an important role in supporting the education sector. Success in any particular area cannot be attributed to one project, donor or another —thus, data on results presented in the ICR correspond to the entire education system. However, the activities carried out under this operation have significantly contributed to attain important results in different areas, many of which reflected in the behavior of education indicators. Some of these achievements are presented below. Increased Access and Completion One of the indicators defined to measure achievement of Project outcomes was the average years of schooling for students leaving the education system. Data for calculating this indicator was collected by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) in the 1992 and 2001 census. The average

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years of schooling has increased from 6.1 in 1992 to 7.4 in 2001. Although being an overall indicator for the entire population, improvements in average years of schooling actually reflects progress in the youngest cohorts of the population, which was the Project’s target group. Proven evidence on this are the remarkable results achieved in access and completion in the primary school level. Gross enrolment in primary school increased from 99.8 percent in 1992 to 104.2 percent in 2005, while gross coverage for initial, primary and secondary levels rose from 75.5 percent to 88.4 percent over the same period. Furthermore, more children finish primary school as the completion rate and the promotion rate improved while drop-out rates decreased. The primary completion rate increased in 7 percentage points between 2001 and 2005, from 61.8 percent to 68.8 percent. Over the 1998-2005 period, the promotion rate increased in 6.5 percentage points, from 86.1 to 92.6 percent; the drop-out rate decreased in 2.7 percentage points, from 7.9 to 5.2 percent; and the repetition rate dropped from 6.1 to 2.1, a 4 percentage points decrease. As for gender equity, education indicators (see section on Reducing Gender Disparities below) suggest that Bolivia is close to achieving equal educational opportunities for boys and girls. The pending challenge is to narrow differences between urban and rural areas and between indigenous and non-indigenous groups. An important step in the Education Reform efforts aimed at incorporating Nucleus Educational Projects (PENs) and Municipal Educational Development Programs (PROMEs) which were designed to enhance community participation in the educational process (through the participation of parents, teachers, nucleus and district principals) and strengthening management capacities at the local level. The institutional strengthening of district management at the municipal level as the local operators of the education sector, increased access to schooling and decreased attrition rates of students in rural areas. In 1999, the government provided technical assistance financed by Project resources at the municipal level in order to identify what would constitute an educational project as a mechanism to better involve municipalities and local communities in the education process. In this way, community demands have integrated infrastructural improvements with pedagogical processes required for quality improvements. To avoid having one standardized educational project from being implemented around the country, the Bank financed the provision of technical assistance to develop and follow-up educational projects at the nucleus level.1 Rural educational projects were also elaborated. These nucleus educational projects, in turn, constituted the main input to carry out Municipal Educational Development Programs (PROMEs). This organizational framework placed the sector in a better position in the contest for additional resources. As a result, Educational Improvement Projects were implemented in all of the 314 country’s municipalities, customizing the Reform process according to the particular education-related needs of each community and municipality. A total of 832 Nucleus Educational Projects (PENs) in 6,151 rural schools were developed. Technical assistance was also provided to indigenous communities in order for them to design their own educational projects in accordance with the unique social organization of each particular community, thus 31 Indigenous Educational Projects were implemented targeting indigenous vulnerable populations. This was the first time that many of these communities had participated in an educational project as real stakeholders.

1 An educational nucleus is a group of eight to nine schools that share resources.

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Improve the Quality of Schooling The PAD expected to count on data from the learning assessment system SIMECAL (Sistema de Medición de la Calidad Educativa – System to Measure Quality of Education) to assess improvements in the quality of schooling. Though SIMECAL carried out several evaluations in 1997, 1999 and 2000, these evaluations were not done for the same grade, consequently there was not possible to measure the improvements on the 3rd grade. Additionally, since 2001 and due to the lack of vision of one of the newly appointed high level official, the SIMECAL structure was dismantled, losing valuable technical expertise that have developed high technical capacity. This affected the assessment system designed as part of the Reform. Thus, available results are partially helpful to measure achievements in terms of quality. The Project financed the implementation of activities related to the teaching learning modules of the new curriculum, developed and implemented under the Education Reform Project. It is expected that these actions enabled 3rd grade students to complete 3rd grade with the basic competencies for that grade in Mathematics and Language as that was a priority in the educational projects. The Project succeeded in providing integrated infrastructure and improvements in the educational process to improve quality, working with the municipalities and departments and involving civil society. It fostered increased participation of parents and teachers in the education reform, through greater involvement in the preparation of PENs and through a more active participation in civic organizations created by the 1994 Laws. During the life of the Project, the National Education Council (Consejo National de Educación) and a total of nine Departmental Education Councils (Consejos Departamentales de Educación) were created; School Boards (Juntas Escolares) were created all over the country; district boards (Juntas Distritales) were created in 274 districts and 1,790 educational nucleus boards (Juntas de Núcleos Educacionales). These boards have elaborated and implemented the integrated infrastructure and pedagogy projects (Proyectos Educativos Integrales), participating in the municipal education committees. The 274 districts boards have elaborated 313 Municipal Education Programs (PROMES – Programas Municipales de Educación) and 1,500 PENs under differentiated strategies (for the nucleus, the indigenous and in a network of medium size municipalities). The capacity of the districts has been strengthened with the transfer to them of statistical information and the reinforcement of their transportation and communication system that will better enable them to carry out their functions. Reducing Gender Disparities The Project aimed to reduce gender disparities in average years of schooling in the 50 municipalities with the greatest gaps where the Project would intervene. Although the diagnosis of the obstacles facing rural girls to improve their access and retention was carried out in the 50 municipalities, the Project intervened in 15 of them, and other international agencies took over from the diagnosis carried out under the Project. According to census data, average years of schooling for female increased in 1.5 years, from 5.2 in 1992 to 6.7 years in 2001 (while male increased in 1.2 years, from 7 to 8.2 years over the same period), though it is difficult to attribute this achievement to this Project alone (see Results Framework).

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In terms of enrolment and completion rates, the primary level net coverage ratio stood at 85 percent in 2005 for both girls and boys, suggesting that Bolivia is very close to achieving equal educational opportunities. The primary completion rate for girls increased from 60 in 2001 to 68.8 percent in 2005, while for boys it increased from 63.6 to 68.8 percent over the same period, once more suggesting that gaps between boys and girls are virtually disappearing. Greater transparency as a result of the participation. The Project contributed to consolidate educational policies (elaborated at central level) at the district, municipal and local levels. It strengthened the ability of the municipalities to plan, formulate and execute integrated investments in infrastructure and educational processes. It contributed to consolidate the elaboration and use of the Municipal Educational Development Plans. These were aligned and coordinated with the national planning system. The Project supported the development of new administrative mechanisms that have led to better working relationships between the MOE, the municipalities and the FIS. The information system was strengthened. It incorporated a module for school infrastructure and for the PENs. These two modules helped focus actions financed by the Project and contributed to better decision making both at national and local level. Investment in education increased between 1999 and 2005. Municipalities had increased their investments for education as a result of the Municipalities Law, passed in 1994, which gave municipalities the responsibility for school infrastructure. Municipalities assumed the responsibility for improving the quality of education (and thus of pedagogical processes), having to administer resources received from HIPC, donors and national taxes. In 2003, municipal investments in education reached US$43 million, which represented 19 percent of the total municipal investment. The MOE has seen its institutional capacity strengthened. This has materialized in an increased capacity to implement activities and effectively use public resources (level of investment 14.9 percent in 1995 to 59.3 in 2001).

3.3 Efficiency (Net Present Value/Economic Rate of Return, cost effectiveness, e.g., unit rate norms, least cost, and comparisons; and Financial Rate of Return) The cost-benefit analysis study carried out at appraisal established that the Project interventions would bring direct benefits to the country through the improvements in internal efficiency by reductions in repetition and drop out rates and by a reduction of the numbers of years to complete primary education. Indicators for repetition and drop-out rates reveal that results were better than expected at appraisal, showing that the Project generated relevant benefits. This is observed looking at data before and during Project implementation (for years 1996-2004) and using projections of official data from the MOE’s Education Information System of the MOE (2004 was the last year for official data available). At the time of the ICR, there was no further official data available. The team consulted with several official sources within the MOE to gather estimated data and make projections. The information shows the Project contributed to the generation of savings that resulted from improvements in internal efficiency, achieved with Project interventions. The following table summarizes the above-mentioned indicators:

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Year Without Project

With Project

Repetition rate 1996 9.8% 9.8% 1997 7.1% 2005 2.1% 2013 7.0% 5.0% Drop-out rate 1996 10.4% 10.4% 1997 9.4% 2004 5.2% 2013 8.0% 5.0%

3.4 Justification of Overall Outcome Rating (combining relevance, achievement of PDOs, and efficiency) Rating: Satisfactory The overall outcome of the Project is rated as satisfactory. The reasons are:

• The relevance of objectives was and continues to be high; • The relevance of the components was and continues to be high for all of the components; • The Project contributed to consolidate and articulate sector policies at a sub-national

level; • The Project contributed to promote greater inclusion and access to education for the most

vulnerable population groups; • The Project contributed to strengthen the technical capacity of the Borrower at national

and municipal levels; • The implementation of Project activities was positive, with continuous Government

support, though affected at times by the social, political and economic context between 2002 and 2005;

• The Project promoted an intense community participation in sectoral decision making; • By Project completion, there had been substantial achievements of the Project’s main

outcomes, proposed in the PAD.

3.5 Overarching Themes, Other Outcomes and Impacts (if any, where not previously covered or to amplify discussion above) (a) Poverty Impacts, Gender Aspects, and Social Development The Project had positive impact on rural children, since its activities were concentrated in rural areas. It focused in particular on indigenous populations. The Project’s interventions took place in rural areas, reaching schools in poor municipalities which scattered around a geographical area. These interventions entail the development of education infrastructure, integrated with equipment and learning materials; and the support to organize parents’ participation. Additional positive impact came from the adequacy of the PENs to the characteristics and the socio-cultural needs of the different districts and communities with indigenous population. Since

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February 1999, a total of 1,500 PENs and 313 municipal programs were elaborated, which have been updated by the Education Directors of the Districts. At the national level, the Project covered 63 percent of primary education enrollment, 65 percent of the primary education teachers, and 65 percent of the educational units, surpassing Project expectations. Effects on rural girls were incipient, due to the scope of the activities actually carried out under the Project. Because of the delay in carrying out the diagnostic studies, the strategies proposed could not be implemented in their entirety with Project financing as originally planned. As a result, the amount of the Project’s resources allocated for this component were smaller than originally planned and the Project itself did not cover the extent of municipalities proposed originally. Nevertheless, the Project’s activities contributed to promote the inclusion of the gender issue in the Government’s education agenda and had a catalyzing effect with donors, who have supported actions in municipalities originally identified in the Project as having problems with girls attending and remaining in school. As a result, outcomes have been achieved, albeit with alternative sources of financing. (b) Institutional Change / Strengthening (particularly with reference to impacts on longer-term capacity and institutional development) The institutional impact has been substantial. The main achievements have been to:

• Enhance the role of the MOE as the central authority, to foster coordination between the different levels of government and other actors to achieve the education goals;

• Strengthen the planning capacity at district and municipal level; • Increase participation by key stakeholders in elaborating the PEN and the PROMES,

which contributed to consolidate the policies of local participatory planning in national sectoral policies;

• Develop the technical capacity of the human resources in the municipalities regarding education matters, which had been weak before the Project’s implementation;

• Improve the skills of technical personnel in the MOE, the municipalities and among parents as well, to better plan and manage educational processes;

• Consolidate and continue with the transformation of the curriculum process and the institutional and administrative changes in the education sector, initiated by the Education Reform Program;

• Develop and consolidate the key planning instruments, such as the PROMEs and PENs, to continue the participatory processes that were used during the last five years, which already has contributed to the increase of municipal investment in education; and,

• Encourage the completion of research activities and studies that contributed to define unmet demands in the education sector and define the adequate action plans to address them, in particular regarding the transformation and improvement of the quality of secondary education in the country.

(c) Other Unintended Outcomes and Impacts (positive or negative)

• PROMEs and PENs became the educational planning instrument for the municipalities, framing and guiding municipal investment in the education sector;

• Gender equity has been included and pursued as an integral part in the education agenda and part of the sectoral policies;

• The studies on innovative experiences in secondary education, linking those to the economic and productive activities in the regions, have provided relevant results in the ongoing design of a strategy for this education level;

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• There has been greater dialogue between the Government and public universities, and strengthening of the capacity of the universities as well; and

• The public universities seized the opportunity to receive additional funds to finance activities to improve quality and developed good quality proposals to access these funds.

3.6 Summary of Findings of Beneficiary Survey and/or Stakeholder Workshops (optional for Core ICR, required for ILI, details in annexes) During the Project’s life several evaluations, audits of technical processes and community surveys took place, as agreed in the Credit Agreement. These contributed to capture and systematize beneficiaries’ experiences, while implementing Project’s activities, and reflect the degree of satisfaction among the different stakeholders. The external evaluation report (Berthin Amengual &Asociados Ltda, Miembro de BDO Internacional) highlighted the Project’s success in including relevant social actors in education processes. It observed that the work of the various municipal entities (Comités Municipal de Educación, Comité de Vigilancia, Autoridades Educativas y de Control Social) fostered individual and collective commitment to the education sector and to activities carried out at municipal and school level. The surveys (carried out by institutions or firms independent from the MOE) showed widespread knowledge of the Project’s objectives and its main activities among municipal authorities and actors. They also revealed generalized satisfaction with the implementation of the Project and of the educational projects at municipal level. The surveys provided recommendations on the processes for all Project components. They also highlighted the pertinence of the design, the value of innovative procedures that involved the community and the need to provide continuity of these activities and to continue to link them with sectoral policies.

4. Assessment of Risk to Development Outcome Rating: Moderate During the Project’s early implementation years (1999-2004), the risks identified in the PAD arose in a less intense manner than envisaged and they could be mitigated. Other risks – not explicitly contemplated in the PAD- had an impact on the timely implementation of the Project. These risks included the time to learn and manage the rendering of the municipal expenses related to the PENs and the universities in their subprojects in the context of the FOMCALIDAD sub-component. The main risk to the continuation and expansion of the outcomes achieved with the Project’s support came from the uncertainty brought by the social and political context. However IDA’s policy dialogue with the Government provides every indication that the Project’s objectives are consistent with their sectoral plans. Despite the political changes and the decision of the new government administration to review the main principles of the Education Reform Program under the future Education Law Elizardo Perez, the authorities have decided to provide continuity to the majority of the activities supported by the Education Quality Project. In terms of outcomes, among the main factors that support the continuity of the Project’s achievements are:

• The Project focused well at the municipal level where it was outstanding in promoting Borrower ownership and capacity;

• The capacity built at local level and the institutionalization of a democratic and participatory educational process;

• The substantial increase in investments by municipal governments in the last five years. During Project implementation, the average co-financing of municipalities increased

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from 10 to 18 percent. The focus of those investments has been not only on infrastructure but also in pedagogical processes, bringing an improvement in the quality of education at school level;

• Ownership of the processes to create and implement the planning instruments (PROMES and PEs) and their incorporation to the municipal development plans and to the MOE POAS, which contributes to their sustainability;

• The participation of parents and the education community in identifying needs and priorities and the social control and enhanced accountability, all of which guarantees the continuity of these kind of processes;

• The studies on secondary education have permitted the formulation of a plan to transform the secondary level. The studies deepened MOE knowledge over areas previously not well analyzed, related to skills demanded by the labor market, options to the elaboration of the curriculum and its articulation with the economic and productive activities of the country’s regions;

• The inclusion of gender issues in the education agenda has catalyzed and fostered participation of other donors (such as UNICEF and Danish) and the Bolivian Government.

5. Assessment of Bank and Borrower Performance (relating to design, implementation and outcome issues)

5.1 Bank Performance (a) Bank Performance in Ensuring Quality at Entry (i.e., performance through lending phase) Rating: Satisfactory IDA’s performance during preparation is rated satisfactory. IDA’s identification, preparation and appraisal of the Project relied upon the participation of an adequate team of staff and consultants who provided technical assistance to the Borrower. The IDA team had the experience of having supported the Government in the preparation and implementation of the Education Reform Project (Cr.2650-B0) and other education and social sector projects (Integrated Child Development Project (Cr.2531-BO; FIS projects (Cr.2127-BO and Cr.2352-BO). The IDA team provided adequate advice during the preparation phase, based on lessons learned from the implementation of other projects and available sector work. The IDA team backed the Government’s long term sector development plans during Project preparation. Project design and objectives were in line with the education reform priorities defined in the CAS. The IDA team considered the definition of adequate monitoring and evaluation arrangements at the time of Project preparation. In light of the work that the Education Reform Project was carrying out to strengthen the MOE evaluation and information systems, the IDA team decided -- together with the Borrower -- not to include a specific component or subcomponent to strengthen monitoring and evaluation activities.

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(b) Quality of Supervision (including of fiduciary and safeguards policies) Rating: Satisfactory The IDA team performed in a satisfactory manner during Project supervision. The Task Team Leaders were based in the Country Office; hence they were available to provide just-in–time advice to the Borrower. The team carried out an adequate number of supervision missions and the supervision team was integrated by a diversity of professionals with an outstanding skill mix, who provided key technical assistance to the Borrower and Project beneficiaries. The continuity of the supervision team was notable, with good transition between Task Team Leaders and consistent mutual support within the team. In a context of challenging discontinuity (seven ministers in three years), of a reluctant ministry, and a large development assistance community, the team was effective in maintaining good relationships, building stakeholder support at the municipal level, and establishing leadership by example and technical excellence among the development assistance group which was originally skeptical. The team was also effective in working with the Borrower to advance the sectoral agenda, and leverage additional financial support for the Project. The IDA team provided guidance to the Borrower to better focus the Project’s interventions and it successfully identified and proposed to the Borrower activities to strengthen the institutional capacity at local level. It contributed significantly to develop and institutionalize a participatory educational management process at local and school level. The IDA team made emphasis on extracting lessons from the Project during supervision and disseminating those lessons and advice during implementation. The IDA team successfully encouraged the MOE to disseminate the progress and results achieved by the Project with the technical units, to provide feedback on the sector strategies and follow up on the achievement of Project objectives and targets. The IDA team put special emphasis in promoting coordination between the Borrower’s two key implementing agencies (MOE and FIS) with positive results, strengthening the role of the central authority while improving the working relationship with the municipalities. This helped enhance the decision-making power of the central policy authorities and the respect for their decisions by municipal authorities, contributing to improve the Project cycle in FIS. The IDA team had a positive influence in fostering dialogue between the Ministry of Finance and the municipalities to allow those municipalities with fiscal constraints to participate in Project activities as well. In general, the IDA team promoted inter-ministerial coordination and the participation of those ministries or units in charge of relevant areas (such as the Ministry for Gender and Generational Issues). The team was good in leveraging resources from other donors and the sharing of tasks among them, thereby creating synergy with other activities supported by IDA which led to efficient use of resources. Supervision of the Project’s social aspects was also satisfactory. The strongest part of social supervision was the outstanding support to participatory and stakeholder aspects at local level in planning and monitoring, and also the work in conjunction with other international development assistance agencies to support the Ministry of Education in its efforts to progress down the difficult road to effective decentralization. Though the quality of the supervision was satisfactory, the Quality of Supervision Assessment report observed the IDA team could have reflected better the intensity of supervision activities and interventions between formal missions. It also noted that the team could have done greater justice to the technical quality and quantity of its supervision work done by reflecting it in more

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detailed written reports. The report observed that this was a path-breaking Project, that was engaging in a major transformation in the way education was managed across the country, and its aims and achievements, as well as lessons learned, deserved fuller documentation. (c) Justification of Rating for Overall Bank Performance Rating: Satisfactory The Bank’s overall performance is considered satisfactory, based on the following factors:

• Good teamwork with the Borrower, among IDA team members and with other donors; • Excellent skill mix; • Adequate assessment of risks and benefits; • Good just-in-time technical assistance to the various implementation agencies during

implementation; • Good supervision, with active feedback of findings and recommendations to the

Borrower; • Flexibility to adapt the dialogue and the Project’s activities to the evolving social and

political realities and implementation experience to achieve the PDOs.

5.2 Borrower Performance (a) Government Performance Rating: Satisfactory The Government’s performance is rated as satisfactory. During the 1998-2004 period, the Government showed strong commitment to the Project’s objectives and activities throughout the preparation and implementation phases. The Government provided support to the Education Reform Program through different administrations and maintained stable core technical teams. The Government managed efficiently the political, economic and social context in which it had to implement the Project. During the implementation period, the Government fulfilled its financial, technical, institutional and economic obligations. From 2004 until Credit closing, Government performance was moderately satisfactory with some qualifications. The Credit’s closing date had to be extended three times in the last three years due to the lack of continuity of the Government team (there were seven Ministers of Education during that period) and the institutional weaknesses that were caused by these changes. Project implementation was led by the MOE in coordination with the FIS with constant coordination with the municipalities. Despite the difficulties, the Government maintained an open dialogue with IDA, working closely with the team based in the country. The Government and IDA collaborated to focus better the Project’s activities to support the Government’s priorities in the education agenda, in particular in secondary and higher education. (b) Implementing Agency or Agencies Performance: Rating: Satisfactory The MOE closely worked with the IDA team during the preparation and implementation phases with great enthusiasm and motivation (1999-2003). The MOE gathered a multidisciplinary team that was highly committed to the goals of the Project and worked to implement the Project successfully. The MOE prepared timely annual implementation reports, detailing progress and difficulties faced by the Project. The reports included an assessment of the actions carried by MOE, outputs and financial indicators as well. Audits of the Project were regularly and timely

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carried out. The audit reports were generally favourable with minor observations that were addressed by the MOE. Procurement reviews were favourable as well, and minor observations were addressed in a timely manner. During Project implementation, the SPF had managed to adapt its procedures to the methodology proposed and used by the Project to upgrade educational infrastructure, working with the municipalities and stakeholders’ representatives. The SPF acted as co-executor of the Project and complied with the norms and regulations established by the Government for the education sector. It provided effective support to the MOE in achieving good implementation of the Project. During implementation, the SPF improved its project cycle, shortening the time period to comply with each of its steps and it contributed to improve the management capacity of the municipalities by transferring responsibilities in the project cycle to them. SPF proactively developed new modalities to implement the PENs (such as modalidad llave en mano), which contributed to a timelier execution of subprojects and to meet Project targets. However, the SPF had revealed certain weaknesses related to internal control, which did not allow them to respond timely and adequately to both internal and external risks. (c) Justification of Rating for Overall Borrower Performance Rating: Satisfactory The overall Borrower’s performance is rated satisfactory based on the following:

• Strong commitment to the Project objectives and activities; • Good dialogue with the IDA team; • Fulfilment of its financial and economic commitments; • Compliance by the MOE with the original Project Implementation Plan to provide technical

assistance to the municipalities; • Good institutional coordination among the MOE and FIS to achieve the Project’s goals; and, • Timely elaboration of the Project progress reports and compliance with the covenants agreed

with IDA until 2003.

6. Lessons Learned (both Project-specific and of wide general application) The Project has been key in supporting the process of transformation to improve the quality and equity of education in Bolivia. The Quality of Supervision Assessment characterized it as a path-breaking project that engaged in a major transformation in the way education is managed across the country. The main lessons learned with implementation of the Project are the following: Bottom-up participatory approaches can yield very positive results for education. The Project

supported the establishment of a participatory planning process, which worked as a bottom-up approach. It invited stakeholders and community members to be involved directly and actively in the identification of education needs and the definition of sector priorities. This new planning process gave civil society responsibility and control over decision making and fostered strong ownership of the processes.

Revenue Sharing among levels of Government can foster higher municipal investment for

education. The revenue sharing policy adopted by the Government has fostered investment by municipalities in education. The use of a participatory planning methodology has helped

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the municipalities perceive themselves as being in the driver’s seat, earn the support of their communities, and agree on consensus-defined priorities for education in their jurisdiction.

Interagency coordination can strengthen the implementation of sector policies. In the case of

the Project, the coordination between the FIS and the MOE fostered a stronger implementation of the education sector policies, and it has enhanced the role of the central MOE as the policy maker. Since this arrangement was innovative, it brought some delays in implementation (to monitor the transfer and use of funds to and by the municipalities).

Institutional strengthening is undermined by frequent changes in human resources. The lack

of continuity of personnel in their jobs both at municipal and district level undermines the strengthening process of the institutions and prevents better management of the processes (education planning and implementation of those plans).

Creating organizations to channel participation helps consolidate community and

stakeholder participation. The creation of the “Equipos de Gestión” and the “Comité Municipal de Educación” were key in catalyzing the participation of stakeholders (teachers, principals, pedagogical advisors) and community members. This has been crucial to establish a priority of needs and to articulate social control and greater accountability. Institutionalization and formal recognition of these types of associations would be beneficial for the education sector.

The Educational Projects (PENs) can be an effective tool to address diverse educational

needs. Under the Project different types of PENs were elaborated to accommodate the socio-cultural and economic diversity of the different nucleus of groups of schools. The different educational projects (indigenous, rural areas and for a network of municipalities) allowed project activities to be adapted to the different pedagogical needs, according to the reality of each community.

A good Project framework helps catalyze international resources. The set of activities and

goals proposed by the Project successfully captured additional support from other international resources. A sound project design and the fact that the project activities and objectives were part of a broader government program, supported at the national level, helped in finding and sustaining that additional international support, which was one of the most important features of this Project.

Proposing to public universities the possibility of accessing funds to improve the quality of

education fosters initiatives within the universities and competition, and generates motivation and good quality work to achieve this goal: This initiative, supported by the Project, helped generate great interest among the universities and it allowed the IDA to engage in further dialogue between the Government and the public universities, which does not happened before Project implementation.

• Community involvement in the definition of educational needs and priorities and in the

control of their achievement guarantees greater sustainability of investments: In the framework of the Project, the educational authorities, stakeholders and the municipalities developed criteria of responsibility and of active participation in the maintenance of infrastructure and educational furniture and materials as part of their sustainability plan for the investments done in education.

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• In a situation of political instability, developing strong partnerships with local authorities at the sub-national level can be effective in maintaining stakeholder support.

• In a challenging environment, constant field presence and close functional cooperation between sector and country management can bring good results.

• An adequate monitoring and evaluation system is important to assess the Project’s progress and to encourage informed decisions during implementation. The Project relied on the existing education information systems at the time of approval to define its monitoring and evaluation system. While these worked adequately during the first years of Project implementation, they failed to continue to produce data during the last few years of Project implementation with the difficulties this brought to assess the impact on the achievement of the PDOs of the Project’s interventions.

7. Comments on Issues Raised by Borrower/Implementing Agencies/Partners (a) Borrower/implementing agencies Since the largest part of the Project was completed before the new Government administration took office, the current authorities decided to send only comments to the Bank through a letter dated March 3, 2007 (summarized in Annex 7), instead of preparing a formal contribution. (b) Cofinanciers Building upon the great experience of wide coordination with the donors developed under the previous Education Reform Project, this complementary operation has strengthen the donor coordination efforts through the development of joint supervision missions, the provision of one progress report for all donors and unique financial audit reports. In addition, the Project was implemented through the MOE’s own team and structure, which promoted the sustainability of sector strategies and activities. As a result, this Project, under the leadership of SIDA and the World Bank had initiated and strongly promoted and supported the harmonization and aid effectiveness efforts since there were Government ownership and a results-based strategy. It is worth to stand out that the practices mentioned above that were followed by the donor aid agencies that supported the education sector in Bolivia back in 1998 are currently part of the good principles of the Paris Declaration on Harmonization, Alignment and Results that resulted from the recent 2005 High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. The country, under successive governments, had a good and comprehensive national education strategy, started developing reliable systems, developed and used a results framework and mutual assessment progress. At the same time, donor agencies were committed with and thus supported the country’s education priorities, carried out joint supervision missions, used common arrangements, strengthened the Ministry’s systems and supported capacity building. SIDA has been one of the most important partners that provided relevant technical and financial support for a successful Project development, trusting the management of their funds to the Bank. During Project implementation, there was substantial cooperation and a regular exchange of views and information between IDA and the donors supporting the Project. IDA held regular meetings with SIDA to review the Project's progress and achievements until project completion. Starting in 2004, once the sector strategy concluded, IDA participated in annual joint supervision missions with all other donors. During these missions, IDA and the donors reviewed the progress of the Multi Annual Operational Plan (POMA) which included all activities supported by

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investment projects and budget support. Donors (Sweden, The Netherlands and Denmark) have been providing broad and important support to the Government's education policies since 2004 through a basket fund, avoiding a detailed follow up of specific projects' interventions. In addition, KfW provided financing specifically for educational subprojects in the area of Potosi, which has been supervised on a bilateral basis due to its rapid execution scheme. The Swedish Cooperation had received the Implementation and Completion report for the Education Quality and Equity Strengthening Project. They were pleased to know that the presentation of this final report showed a satisfactory solution to an important and delicate issue related to a procurement observed processes in a specific municipality, expressed in the solution commitment assumed by the Bolivian Government authorities. Regarding Section 7 of the ICR, related to the co-financers, SIDA considered relevant to emphasize that in the Paris Declaration framework, the World Bank with SIDA lead the creation of joint evaluation missions with other donors, from which harmonization reports and coordinated evaluations were held and promoted in the education sector. Likewise, they mentioned that the established indicators for the Project were the follow-up baseline for results and advances in the Ministry of Education. (c) Other partners and stakeholders (e.g. NGOs/private sector/civil society) N/A

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Annex 1. Project Costs and Financing

(a) Project Cost by Component (in USD Million equivalent)

Components Appraisal Estimate (USD millions)

Actual/Latest Estimate (USD

millions)

Percentage of Appraisal

MUNICIPAL EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM 78.57 86.80 110.4

INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING 16.50 17.20 104.2

FIS INVESTMENTS 15.00 15.40 102.6 RURAL GIRLS’ SCHOOLING 1.00 0.80 80.0 STUDIES ON SECONDARY AND TERTIARY EDUCATION 0.50 4.60 920.0

PPF Financing 1.72 0.50 30.0 Total Baseline Cost 113.29 125.30 110.8

Unallocated 2.71

0.00

0.00

0.00

Total Project Costs 116.00 125.30 108.0

(b) Financing

Source of Funds Type of Cofinancing

Appraisal Estimate

(USD millions)

Actual/Latest Estimate

(USD millions)

Percentage of Appraisal

International Development Association (IDA) 75.00 81.52 108.70

Borrower 28.00 22.70 81.07 SWEDEN: Swedish Intl. Dev. Cooperation Agency (SIDA) 0.00 9.75 --

KFW 13.00 11.33 87.15 Total Project Cost 116.00 125.30 108.00

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Annex 2. Outputs by Component Component 1- Municipal Educational Development Program (Programas de Desarrollo Educativo Municipal - PDEM): This component was successful in meeting its objective of creating the elements to implement a new model of education management, based on greater participation from the key educational actors and though a bottom-up approach. It successfully supported the creation and implementation of two key planning instruments: the Municipal Education Programs (PROMEs) and the Educational Projects (PEs). The PROME was the strategy planning framework for the municipalities. It became a useful instrument to structure education policies and programs at the departmental and national levels. The PROME has become the tool around which each municipality plans, implements and evaluates its actions in the education sector. The municipalities are assisted by and coordinated with the educational district department and the education district board. The PROME uses as a reference the directives for the elaboration of municipal development plans set by the Vice-Ministry for Popular Participation and Municipal Strengthening. The PROME organizes municipal investment for a five year period and it is the base for the elaboration of the annual operational plans by each municipality. The PROME includes the educational projects elaborated by each educational nucleus (see paragraph below). It is a planning instrument that integrates planning at different levels and is aligned with the National Planning System. The PEs is a management and planning tool used by key education actors (teachers, principals, parents) to address their challenges in terms of improvements on infrastructure, equipment and pedagogical resources. It fosters coordination, team work and a better use of available resources. The PE involved a group of schools (or educational networks) generally referred to as “educational nucleus” that provide a network of complementary educational services. In the case of rural schools they are known as “nucleus”, in the case of urban schools they are called “network”, and in indigenous areas they are called “socio-cultural unit”. The PEs have used different methodologies to better adapt to the realities of the actors involved. Thus there were three types of PEs: (i) nucleus educational projects, for municipalities with large numbers of dispersed populations; (ii) network educational projects, for municipalities with medium-sized cities and head of departments; and (iii) indigenous educational projects, for indigenous population, well dispersed in a geographical area, with underserved educational needs. The PE was prepared by the management teams (Equipos de Gestión). The team included principals, teachers, and a pedagogical advisor from the district board. It had a leadership role and aimed to integrate the nucleus or network into a working group with common interests and goals. It included curriculum development, the use of pedagogical resources, and a relationship with the education community, among other topics. These efforts were supported by the MOE in the framework of its technical assistance to all municipalities in the country. Between 1999 and 2005, on-site technical assistance was provided under this component to gradually implement this strategy and its tools in all the municipalities across the country. The FPS was responsible for the implementation of administrative and financial aspects of the PEs. The PEs could contain infrastructure and pedagogical elements or pedagogical alone. There were not PEs supporting infrastructure activities without a pedagogical element. The PE was co-financed by the Project and the municipalities, and the percentage depended upon the type of PE.

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The Project financed between 50 to 88 percent of the cost of the PEs depending upon the income and resources of each municipality. The remaining cost was provided by the municipalities. By Project closing, this component financed (IDA and Swedish) a total of 1,500 PEs, and 313 Municipal Education Programs (PROMEs). This component involved 100 percent of the municipalities and it intervened in at least 50 percent of the educational nucleus in each municipality. These have benefited around 1,214,000 students (63 percent of total primary enrolment), 56,844 primary education teachers (69 percent of the total) and 7,736 education units (65 percent of the total), surpassing the PAD targets. Component 2. Strengthening of Municipal and School Education Management: This component succeeded in strengthening the institutional capacity of the key educational actors to formulate, implement and evaluate the Educational Projects (PEs). Based on a diagnosis (completed in 1998), the MOE gradually provided technical assistance at nucleus and network levels, to principals, teachers and parents and at municipal level to their technical personnel, district personnel as well as Directors to improve coordination and performance. In many cases, the institutional capacity in the municipalities was improved and the technical assistance provided through the Project was incorporated to the municipal teams, institutionalizing these improvements on most of the municipalities of the country. This technical assistance did not always translate into permanent improvements, when there were frequent changes in personnel or political interference. To implement the mentioned technical assistance, two different instances were created: the management teams (“Equipos de Gestión”) to formulate the PEs and the Municipal Development Teams (“Comités Municipales de Educación”) to formulate the Municipal Education Programs (PROMEs), to evaluate the PEs and to follow up their implementation. As part of the diagnostic, this component financed the elaboration by FSP of a national inventory of school infrastructure and equipment, which was used as a reference to assess the demand from educational units throughout the Project. This information was incorporated into the MOE education information system, and all education districts have access to it through the SIESTA (the National Education Statistics System). Technical personnel received training on its content and use during Project implementation. This component financed transportation equipment (motorcycles and four wheel vehicles) for 180 education districts to help reach remote rural communities, previously underserved due to lack of transportation and difficult accessibility. This equipment contributed to strengthen supervision activities by the Educational Districts. Finally, this component supported the creation of 1,030 Learning Resource Centres (LRC), as part of the organizational strengthening among educational nucleus, mainly financed under the Swedish Trust Fund. The central government, through the Swedish Grant, provided the basic equipment (televisions, videos, educational DVDs, school and classroom libraries, educational materials and furniture) and the municipalities, with community support, provided the infrastructure and its maintenance. Though an evaluation of the LRCs has not been carried out, during the ICR preparation it was observed that the LCRs were highly valued by teachers and students and that they have contributed to a better use of the educational resources made available to the schools. Their educational resources were used to complement the regular teaching activities. Some LCRs have been adequately maintained, though it would be advisable in the future to follow up on their maintenance through the municipalities to ensure continuity.

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Component 3. FIS Investments: During the Project’s design, SIF requested the Bank’s financial support for investments in education infrastructure subprojects, which were demanded by the municipalities. Therefore, the investments under this component were different to the one established for the Component 1 -- Municipal Educational Development Program (PDEM) -- which was focused on an integral way including infrastructure, equipment and pedagogical inputs for the schools. The amount allocated to this Component was US$ 11,573,207. Component 4. School Enrolment and Permanence of Rural Girls: This component financed carrying out an in-depth diagnosis in 50 municipalities to determine issues regarding girls’ access to education, permanence, attendance and drop-out rates. After the analysis was carried out, the IDA and the Government decided to introduce changes to the scope of the original design of the component. It was agreed to reduce to 15 the number of municipalities to carry out interventions. The component concentrated on a review of existing research documents on the topic, statistical analysis and an exploratory qualitative research whose results were disseminated among stakeholders in the municipalities to identify the strategy to follow depending upon each municipality’s context and needs (transportation, boarding schools, bonuses, etc.). The main studies carried out concentrated their research on the main factors influencing access and permanence of rural girls in schools in La Paz, Oruro, Chuquisaca and Potosi; and on the statistical and economic analysis of the main characteristics of the permanence and access to schools by gender. These three quantitative and qualitative studies were carried out during the 2001-2003 period in three regions of the country (altiplano, valles y oriente). Implementation of this component was affected by the MOE’s budget constraints, which delayed its implementation and ultimately prevented the achievement of the targets set in the PAD. The component achieved its objective of elaborating adequate strategies to support girls’ access and permanence in schools, though at a smaller scope than originally anticipated. The scope was reduced because of higher than expected costs to implement and delays during information analysis and community awareness. Component 5. Secondary and Tertiary Education Studies: This component financed a total of 25 studies to produce a diagnosis of secondary education in Bolivia and to define the main criteria to transform secondary education. Studies focused on the areas of curriculum, institutional and technical education at the secondary level; formulation of curriculum and institutional guidelines and technical education policies. Regarding curricular and pedagogical matters, the relevant conclusions and recommendations of these studies crystallized in a document “Lineamientos Curriculares e Institucionales para la Transformación de la Educación Secundaria”. This document defines the main strategic guidelines to introduce changes at secondary level, and has taken into consideration socio-economic, geographic, cultural, administrative and organizational aspects as well as the coordination and articulation of the institutions with the community, civic society organizations and private sector. The Project supported several actions for dialogue and exchange and discussion to gather the proposals and points of view of key stakeholders. During the last period of implementation, the MOE elaborated a document on the innovative experiences on secondary education and its articulation with the regional labor markets. This was considered a positive step to build on a new strategy for secondary education at the national level. The studies conducted have been of great value as background information for the design of the new secondary education project currently being discussed with the La Paz Municipality.

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Regarding higher education, this component financed activities to strengthen the management capacity of MOE, identified as a priority by the Government. It financed activities focused on improving the quality of teaching and learning in public universities. The Project contributed to the creation of an accreditation system for public universities. A framework for the creation and, functioning of the National Council for Higher Education (Consejo Nacional de Educación Superior – CONAES) was elaborated and approved with support from the Project. The Project contributed to the establishment of FOMCALIDAD - a fund whose main goal was to improve the quality of education at university level, financing proposals to develop training programs and activities for teachers and students. FOMCALIDAD provided funds on a competitive basis to universities who would comply with the eligibility criteria. Financing for these proposals reached US$2.5 million. FOMCALIDAD fostered a greater link between the government and the public universities while respecting their autonomy. It contributed to (i) the creation and functioning of new mechanisms to foster a more efficient and effective allocation of resources in public universities; (ii) updating of the curriculum content of some careers in a participatory manner; (iii) improving the level quality of the degrees at the universities and fostering the development and establishment of post-graduate degrees in the country; and (v) the modernization of the administrative and financial management systems at the public universities.

Annex 3. Economic and Financial Analysis (including assumptions in the analysis) N/A

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Annex 4. Bank Lending and Implementation Support/Supervision Processes

(a) Task Team members (Unit: Information to be provided by the system)

Names Title Unit Responsibility/ Specialty

Lending John Newman Task Manager LCSHD Luis Pisani Former Manager SSU LCSHD Lourdes Linares Financial Management Specialist LCSFM Patricia Alvarez Economist LCSHE Miriam Cespedes Procurement Specialist LCSPT Maria Lucy Giraldo Procurement Specialist LCSPT Aracelly Woodall Administrative Support LCSHE Harry Patrinos Human Resource Economist HDNED Marines Zambrana Assistant LCSHD Monica Claros Team Assistant LCSHE Patricia Bernedo Senior Program Assistant LCSHD

Supervision/ICR John Newman Task Manager CMU Patricia Alvarez Task Team Leader LCSHE Carlos Rojas Senior Education Specialist LCSHE Keisgner Alfaro Senior Procurement Specialist LCSPT Maria Lucy Giraldo Procurement Specialist LCSPT Miriam Cespedes Procurement Assistant LCSPT Lourdes Consuelo Linares Financial Management Specialist LCSFM Alvaro Larrea Procurement Specialist LCSPT Xiomara Morel Disbursement Officer LOAFC Maria Alejandra Velasco Consultant – Research Analyst LCCBO Vladimir Pary ET Consultant LCSAR Carmen Brinckhaus Consultant LOAFC Patricia Bernedo Senior Program Assistant LCSHD Monica Claros Team Assistant LCSHE Mary Dowling Team Assistant LCSHD

(b) Staff Time and Cost Staff Time and Cost (Bank Budget Only)

Stage of Project Cycle No. of staff weeks USD Thousands (including

travel and consultant costs)Lending

FY98 N/A 95.91 FY99 N/A 40.36 FY00 22.63 50.32 FY01 41.69 71.63 FY02 31.16 43.82 FY03 25.09 42.36 FY04 22.84 30.01 FY05 20.35 37.07

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FY06 29.14 41.60 FY07 16.95 27.24

Total: 209.85 480.32 Supervision/ICR

FY98 N/A 0.00 FY99 N/A 48.23 FY00 23 37.12 FY01 41 49.22 FY02 31 45.94 FY03 25 46.04 FY04 23 35.86 FY05 20 50.31 FY06 29 65.35 FY07 15 29.26

Total: 207 407.33

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Annex 5. Beneficiary Survey Results (if any) N/A

46

Annex 6. Stakeholder Workshop Report and Results (if any) N/A

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Annex 7. Summary of Borrower's ICR and/or Comments on Draft ICR Since most of the key staff involved in Project implementation had been separated from the Ministry of Education, the current authorities -- unfamiliar with the Project itself and the formats of the ICR -- have decided to send their comments to the draft ICR through a letter which is available in the Project’s files. The following is a summary of the letter’s comments.

1. The Project was consistent with the CAS and the development plan for Bolivia. The Project adequately focused on improving the quality and equity of primary education and on strengthening the managerial capacity of at municipal level to take responsibility for education matters.

2. The main Government contributions focused on: (i) contributing to increase access, improve completion rate and improve the quality of primary education; (ii) establishing participatory planning processes that enabled good collaboration and articulation between the State and the civil society to improve the quality of education in Bolivia; (iii) developing a policy for co-financing educational projects (integrating infrastructure and pedagogical elements) which allowed an increasing municipal participation and an increase of municipal investment in education; (iv) developing methodologies to carry out interventions in the education sector that adapted to the different characteristics and socio-cultural needs of each group of communities; (v) identifying activities targeted to those municipalities with greater problems of girls’ access and permanence in school in rural areas; (vi) developing a wide array of studies on secondary education on curricular, institutional and technical aspects as well as elaborating a strategy to transform secondary education through a consultative process to capture the needs and expectations of key stakeholders; (vii) carrying out studies to elaborate a strategy to improve the quality of higher education.

3. The MOE considered that the intermediate objectives of the Project were achieved while complementing the main actions carried out under the PRE.

The Government was in agreement with the ratings and comments included in the draft ICR. (See below letter from the Borrower, including the Ministry of Education comments).

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Annex 8. Comments of Cofinanciers and Other Partners/Stakeholders

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Annex 9. List of Supporting Documents Bank preparation documents

- Pre-appraisal mission terms of reference, Aide Memoire and Back to Office Report. IDA 1997/98

- Appraisal mission terms of reference, Aide-Memoire and Back to Office Report - 1998 - Project Appraisal Document - IDA 1998 - Project Implementation Document 1998 (PID) - Legal Agreement Document (negotiations) - Procurement Plan – Social Investment Fund (FIS) – First Semester 2004 - Procurement Plan – Social Investment Fund (FIS) – Second Semester 2004

Bank Project Implementation Documents

- Project and Implementation Status Reports (PSRs and ISRs) 1999 – 2006 - Aide Memoires of Supervision missions. IDA. 1999 – 2006 - Amendment – Cero Counterpart - Extension of closing Date - December 2004 - Reallocation of Funds – 2006 - Extension of Closing Date - June 2006 - CPPR 2004 Aide Memoire - CPPR 2005 Aide Memoire

Supervision Documents

- Aide Memoire 2004 – Donors Jointly Supervision Mission - Education Quality Project - BTO Donors Jointly Supervision Mission – April, 2004 - Memoria Ejecutiva Reunión de Evaluación Conjunta – November 2005 - Aide Memoire – Closing Mission – November, 2005

Main documents prepared by the borrower during implementation Semi – Annual Progress Reports 2000-2005