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Lao PDR

Second Global Partnership for Education (GPE II) Project (P149130)

Early Childhood Education (ECE) Project (P145544)

Implementation Support Mission Aide-Memoire (September 12-21, 2016)

Contents

Key Project Data: ECE Project (P145544) ............................................................................................................ 2

Key Project Data: GPE II Project (P149130) ........................................................................................................ 2

I. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 2

II. Summary of Project Status ................................................................................................................................ 3

III. Status of Implementation Progress by Components ........................................................................................ 4

GPE II .................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Component 1: Strengthening School-Based Management .................................................................................... 4

Component 2: Improving Learning Outcomes and Assessment Capacity ............................................................. 7

Component 3: Project Management and Monitoring and Evaluation .................................................................. 9

ECE ......................................................................................................................................................................10

Component 1: Increasing Coverage of Early Childhood Education in Target Districts ....................................10

Sub-component 1.1: Community-Based Contracting for Pre-Primary Classroom Construction .......................10

Component 2: Improving Quality of Early Childhood Education Services.........................................................11

Sub-component 2.1: Supporting Services Package .............................................................................................11

Sub-component 2.2: Teacher and Education Officer Training ...........................................................................13

Component 3: Project Management, Capacity Development and Monitoring and Evaluation ..........................13

Annex I: List of Persons Met and Attending the Mission’s Kick-off and Wrap-up Meetings ............................15

Annex II: Long List of Complete Primary Schools in Target Districts for Further Eligibility Review for ECE

Classrooms Construction .....................................................................................................................................17

Annex III: Financial Management Status of GPE II and ECE Projects...............................................................24

Annex IV: Procurement Status of GPE II and ECE Projects ...............................................................................26

Annex V. Results Framework of the Early Childhood Education Project ...........................................................28

Annex VI. Results Framework of the Second Global Partnership for Education Project ...................................30

Annex VII. GPE II and ECE Projects: Social and Environmental Safeguards Compliance ...............................33

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Key Project Data: ECE Project (P145544)

Original Financing

Project Name Early Childhood Education

Approval Date

02 April 2014 Closing Date 31 July 2019

Project Number P145544

IDA Loan&Grant Amount

US$28 million Percent Disbursed

34% Start Mission Date 12 Sept, 2016

IDA Cr.#53700 Disbursement Amount

0 Percent Disbursed

0% End Mission Date 21Sept, 2016

IDA Grant#H9100 Disbursement Amount

US$9.4 million Percent Disbursed

74% Next Mission Date

16 Jan, 2017

Key Project Data: GPE II Project (P149130)

Original Financing

Project Name Second Global Partnership for Education

Approved Date

14 April 2015 Closing Date 15 July 2019

Project Number P149130 Mission Start Date 12 Sept, 2016

GPE Grant US$16.8million Mission End Date 21Sept, 2016

Disbursement Amount US$1.6 million Percent Disbursed

9.6% Next Mission Date 6 March, 2017

I. Introduction

1. An implementation support mission1 of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) and Second Global Partnership for Education (GPE II) Projects was carried out during the period of September 12–21, 2016. The main objectives of the mission were to: (i) review the implementation progress against the agreed project implementation and procurement plans; (ii) re-confirm the parameters for GPE II and ECE restructuring and support the development of detailed implementation schedule and budget for all activities affected by the restructuring; (iii) review project disbursements; (iv) assess the projects’ compliance with fiduciary, environment and social safeguards, including environmental and technical compliance of construction works under the ECE Project; (v) review and update of results indicators; (vi) provide direct technical support to the MoES team responsible for the School Based Management training; and (vii) continue the dialog on refining the Education Quality Standards for primary education with the concerned departments of the Ministry.

2. The mission team wishes to thank the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) and other involved agencies and the Development Partners (DPs) for their guidance and valuable insights. Special appreciation goes to Mr. Lytou Bouapao, Vice Minister of Education and Sports, Ms. Khampaseuth Kitignavong, Deputy Director General of the Department of Pre-primary and Primary Education (DPPE), MoES, Ms. Yangxia Lee, Director of the Inclusive Education Center (IEC) of the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES), the staff of the Education Sector Development Plan Coordination Unit (ECU), and the staff of all MOES departments who contributed to the achievement of the mission’s objectives. The mission team expresses its sincere appreciation for the excellent collaborative work with DPs, in particular Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), UNICEF, the European Union (EU), the World Food Program (WFP), JICA and Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Annex I includes a full list of participants with whom the team met.

1 The mission consisted of Mr. Plamen Nikolov Danchev (Senior Education Specialist and Task Team Leader), Binh Thanh Vu (Senior

Education Specialist), Ms. Sirirat Sirijaratwong (Procurement Specialist), Ms. Siriphone Vanitsaveth (Financial Management Specialist),

Mr. Myrna Machuca-Sierra (Education Specialist), Ms. Emiko Naka (Education Consultant), Ms. Achariya Kohtbantau (Education

Consultant), Mr. Phouvanh Phommalangsy (Education Specialist), Mr. Chris Majewski (SBM Training Consultant), Mr. Garvan O’Keeffe

(Construction Consultant), and Ms. Boualamphan Phouthavisouk (Team Assistant).

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3. This Aide-Memoire (AM) provides an account of the implementation progress and updates the parameters for adjustments to the design of ECE and GPE II project agreed with MOESs. It was discussed and agreed by the Bank mission and the ECU that this AM will be subject to public disclosure.

II. Summary of Project Status

GPE II Project

4. The project development objective (PDO) is to support the Government of Lao PDR in improving pre-primary and primary education quality. This will be done by: (i) providing additional funding at school, district and provincial levels, as well as strengthening overall capacity to manage these resources to achieve minimum education quality standards and (ii) enhancing the teaching and learning environment in schools through improved teaching practices, instructional resources and analytical products to support early grade literacy.

5. Implementation has gained momentum. While the preparations for launching the key project interventions are at a very advanced stage or already completed, the delays of approx. 12 months could not be offset. Coordination within MoES implementing units and between MoES and the DPs has improved significantly. Most of the actions agreed during the last mission (February 2016) have been completed. Procurement pace has picked up slightly, but some packages are still behind schedule. While disbursement stands at 10 percent (1 percent increase over February 2016 level), the pace is set to increase significantly with the launch of the national school based management (SBM) training (scheduled for implementation in the period October 2016- March 2017, with a total budget of approx. US$2.6 million) and the disbursement of school block grants (SBGs, first GPE II tranche scheduled for April 2017). A key legal covenant – the revision of the School Block Grants Guideline – has been finalized, reviewed by the Bank and found to be of satisfactory content and format. Formal endorsement by the MOES is pending. The enclosed results framework (Annex VI) reflects the fact that key activities have not been launched yet.

6. Component 1’s core activity, the SBM national training, has been redesigned significantly. The content of the training has been improved significantly to align closely with the objectives of the GPE II. The associated costs have been brought down substantially by reducing the original 10 day duration to 3 days only with the number of topics and sessions likewise reduced to keep trainees focused on what matters most for effective implementation of the basic principles of SBM (involvement of VEDCs, school self-assessment, school development planning and management of school block grants). The savings thus achieved have allowed the MOES to consider reallocation of funds towards the other key element of Component 1 – the School Block Grants (SBGs). The greater SBG support will have a more direct impact on Lao PDR’s accomplishment of basic education sustainable development goals (SDG 4.1). Government of Laos has taken measures to ensure that SBGs will tap on the stable regular revenues from hydropower plants (Nam Theun 2). A number of outstanding logistical and internal task management and coordination issues related to the national SBM training implementation need to be addressed with priority to ensure smooth rollout of the national capacity building program.

7. Component 2 depends upon the timely recruitment and on-boarding of the firm to design and implement the GPE II reading pedagogy intervention. In light of the significant implementation delays of all Component 2 activities and the new primary education curriculum rollout, this component needs to be refocused to take into account the new approaches to Lao language skills acquisition in early grades envisioned in the new curriculum. In order to align the interventions with the new curriculum, an extension of the GPE II project closing date by 18 months to December 2020 will be required.

8. The MOES reconfirmed and further refined the parameters for a potential GPE II project restructuring. In addition to the changes documented in the aide-memoire of August 2016, MOES and World Bank (WB) assessed the potential 18 month extension of the closing date as highly relevant. The adjustments to the project design will be first discussed with GPE. Based on that, the Government is expected to formally request project changes as soon as agreed upon with all relevant stakeholders, following the established process for GPE financed projects.

9. The accomplishment of the project development objective (PDO) is likely, subject to: (i) adhering to the implementation schedule with no further delays; and (ii) processing the discussed and agreed GPE II project restructuring in a timely manner.

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ECE Project

10. The project development objective (PDO) is to increase coverage and improve the quality of early childhood education services for 3 to 5-year-olds in target districts.

11. Implementation progress of the ECE project is significant. The project has effectively offset many of the accrued delays and procurement activities have accelerated. The construction of the originally planned 250 pre-primary classrooms has been completed, the national school meals program has been implemented according to the original timeline with no delays and timely disbursement of grants to participating villages. The construction of the community child development groups’ (CCDG) shelters is underway, the multi-age teaching training to pre-primary teachers is half-way through completion, the recruitment of caregivers to implement locally the CCDG informal modality has been completed and training is being carried out. The ECE community awareness campaign materials have been improved significantly and training of local actors to deliver monthly awareness sessions to their communities is fast approaching. Since most activities described above have just been launched or not yet completely finished, it is not possible to reflect the outputs in the attached results framework (Annex V) by the end of this mission.

12. Disbursement picked up from 26 percent (52 percent for the IDA grant and 0 percent for the IDA credit) to 34 percent (74 percent for the IDA grant and 0 percent for the IDA credit). While the rate may be still considered low, imminent activities under the project will help accelerate disbursement pace in the very near future.

13. The MOES re-confirmed its intent to request ECE project restructuring, mostly to reallocate project resources across components and activities in order to maximize the ECE project impact on the accomplishment of the targets for SDG 4.2 and SDG 2.2. The only change discussed and agreed during the mission that is slightly different from the parameters outlined in the aide-memoire of August 2016 is the size of the newly proposed disbursement category “CAC Grants to VEDCs” that will incorporate additionally the incentive scheme for the toy libraries, resulting in a change of the amount from 0.07 million SDR to 0.09 million SDR.

14. The accomplishment of the project development objective (PDO) is likely, subject to no further implementation delays.

III. Status of Implementation Progress by Components

GPE II:

Component 1: Strengthening School-Based Management

15. The School Block Grants (SBG) instruction document has been finalized. The adoption of the SBG Instructions is a GPEII legal covenant allowing the disbursement of SBGs from GPE II proceeds. In April 2016 the WB team and the Department of Finance (DOF) of MOES agreed that for the purpose of GPE II implementation, the existing SBG Guideline on the Management and Utilization of the SBGs (approved by the MOES in 2015) will be replaced by a new SBG instructions document providing specific guidance to all public pre-primary and primary schools in Lao PDR for the academic years until the closing date of the GPEII. The reason for developing a new guideline document is that the present guidelines are very broadly formulated, with basic principles relevant for all education sub-sectors but missing the specific requirements for primary education SBGs arising from the GPEII design. During the mission the document was finalized in both English and Lao language and the WB mission team’s review concluded that the content and the format was acceptable to the Bank. Copies of the SBG instructions will be disseminated to all primary school principals, VEDC and district staff during the nation-wide SBM trainings starting in October 2016. Key messages related to the use and reporting of school block grants will be integrated into the training program.

16. The provision of larger SBGs amounts will be accompanied by a campaign discouraging collection of unofficial school fees. In observance of the new education law which indicates that schools must not collect fees for compulsory education, the project will raise the community awareness of this stipulation to discourage informal fees collection from parents. Posters announcing the school block grants amounts and their disbursement timeline as well as discouragement of unofficial school fees collection will be developed and distributed to VEDC as part of the national school based management (SBM) training. Through this direct awareness campaign to community and

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parents, it is expected that the collection of informal fees will decrease and all actors will be aware of the upcoming SBG support.

17. Next Steps:

• MoES to issue a ministerial decree endorsing the final version of SBG instructions prior to the commencement of the national SBM Training in October, 2016.

• The content and design for printing of SBG posters will be completed and shared for WB review and approval by mid-October and be printed and ready for distribution by the start of nation-wide SBM training in October, 2016.

18. The government-financed SBGs will continue to be an eligible program for the revenues from the Nam Theun 2

(NT2) dam revenues. Providing greater resources to schools through increasing SBG amount to finance non-wage costs and greater investment into teaching and learning will ultimately contribute to better learning outcomes and the achievement of SDG 4.1. Using NT2 revenues will guarantee the timely and full disbursement of the increased Government portion of the SBGs (70,000 kip per primary student and 50,000 kip per student in pre-primary classes) in the years of implementation of the GPE II project. The GPE II will complement these amounts to reach the Government of Laos target of 100,000 kip per primary and pre-primary student. For primary schools with less than 30 students, GPE II will finance the difference between the actual number of students and the minimum SBG amount pegged at 30 students. Thus, these small schools in the priority 88 districts will receive total SBG of 3,000,000 Kip per year in 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19; while the small schools in the remaining 60 districts will receive total SBG of 2,100,000 Kip per year in 2016/17, 2017/18, and 3,000,000 Kip per year in 2018/19.

19. Next Steps:

• MoES to ensure SBGs continue to be an NT2 eligible program in the 2016/2017, subsequent government budgets throughout GPE II lifetime and beyond.

20. MOES confirmed all public primary schools will have savings bank accounts for SBG and other non-wage transfers. The government has recently initiated dialogue with commercial banks to facilitate the opening of bank accounts for all schools to receive SBG disbursements from 2017 onwards. The MoES has issued a letter to the Managing Directors of the three main commercial banks requesting for their cooperation to exempt initial fees for opening bank accounts for schools in 148 districts nation-wide. The Department of Finance (DoF) indicated that MoES will follow up and arrange a meeting with the commercial banks to continue with the practical arrangements for establishing nation-wide system of school bank accounts.

21. Next Steps:

• DoF/MoES to provide guidance, including a list of steps and information required for schools to open their bank accounts by end 2016.

• DoF/MoES and WB to jointly agree with the commercial banks the WB access to school bank account statements for disbursement verification

22. The school based management (SBM) training materials have been finalized. All training materials for the

program have been agreed by the relevant stakeholders including Department of Pre-Primary and Primary Education, Department of Planning, Department of Finance and the Education Standards and Quality Assurance Centre of MoES. On July 19, 2016 the training package was discussed and agreed with the main DPs engaged in SBM activities with primary schools in Lao PDR. The original 10 day training program was reduced to three days focusing on the areas of highest relevance for school based management and GPE II development objectives. The resources released from the shortening of the program will be invested to more direct and regular support to schools during project implementation. The training program includes the following areas: Day 1: Introduction of SBM guidelines, policy, strategy and the education strategic development plan; case study of administration, management and leadership, technical management, role and responsibility of the Village Education Development Committee (VEDC), and education statistics; Day 2: Education Quality Standard (EQS) and school self-assessment; and, Day 3: School Block Grants Instructions and analysis of school self-assessment.

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23. The training of core SBM trainers (ToT) has been completed. On September 19-23, 2016, a four-day ToT program was delivered at the Institute for Education Administration Development (IFEAD) for a core team of 65 national SBM trainers; 43 from provinces and 22 from central departments. For the first time in Laos, the training will be delivered to schools through a direct-training rather than a cascade training model. During the TOT it was found that not all trainers understand very well the materials they are expected to present at the national trainings.

24. Nest steps:

• MOES to develop by the end of October 2016 a risk management strategy for addressing the insufficient capacity of the few core SBM team trainers found to be underperforming at the ToT session in September 2016. An option may include training of a second group of trainers, with greater control over the suitability of the candidates.

• MOES to ensure by the end of October 2016 that the core SBM trainers can dedicate sufficient time to deliver training between October 2016 and the end of March 2017.

25. The nation-wide SBM training will be launched in the last week of October 2016 and run until the end of March 2017. The training will prepare the schools to: (i) undertake an effective assessment of their school’s current situation through the lens of the Education Quality Standard for Primary Schools; (ii) correctly anticipate the amount of grants which they will receive and the timing of the grants; (iii) produce a School Development Plan which will use the School Block Grant, together with any other resources available to them from their community, to address areas of their operations which show weakness in the self-assessment and which are most likely to affect student learning; and (iv) use and account for the School Block Grant in line with regulations.

26. The training will be delivered in two sessions by the 65 core SBM trainers. The first session will take two days, covering Days 1 and 2, and will be delivered to four officers of District Education and Sports Bureau (DESB) staff and school principals. The second part will take one day, covering Day 3 content, and will be delivered to school principals and two members of VEDC from each school. This session will be arranged for approximately a month after the first, to give the schools and the VEDCs time to complete their school self-assessment. A maximum of 45 principals will form the training group for the first session, and 15 schools (45 people) will form the training group for the second session.

27. Participation of DESB staff in the training will be of critical importance. The DESB officers attending days 1 and 2 will be mostly participants, but in some parts of the training, facilitators supporting schools in their training activities. The training of the district officers is vital to building capacity for future support to schools. Past experience indicates that not all of the officers remain in the training session for the entire training program. Expectations of trainers and trainees’ full participation will need to be clearly articulated at the start of the training program.

28. Concerns remain about the share of functioning VEDCs across the country. VEDCs are a key element of the school based management design and key stakeholder at the local level. A condition for primary schools’ access to both government and GPEII complementary SBGs is the availability of a functioning VEDC. Access to school bank accounts and withdrawal of funds from these accounts also depend upon a VEDC representative signature. Finally the last day of the initial SBM training requires the participation of two VEDC representatives. Against this backdrop, the lack of information on the share of primary schools with VEDCs a month before the start of the national SBM training is of concern.

29. Evaluation forms will be developed to evaluate the training results at the end of the training program. As the Basic Education Access and Quality in Lao PDR project (BEQUAL) program will engage in the continuous capacity building of DESB in the 66 BEQUAL districts (57 of which are also part of the GPE II 88 priority districts), the evaluation format of the national SBM training program will be developed jointly with BEQAL to ensure that data from the evaluation will assist BEQUAL in assessing school-based management capacity of DESB and primary schools in their areas, allowing better targeting of the project intervention.

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30. Next Steps:

• MOES to set up a coordination unit for the national SBM training by October 2016 and be tasked to ensure that MOES will: (i) Develop a training plan by province/district for implementation support and monitoring (ii) Deliver the required funds, training materials and equipment to each training team in order to support their

work; (iii) Monitor closely the progress of the training program including collection and analysis of the reports of the

training teams, and accurately map the schools already trained; (iv) Have appropriate risk management strategies to deal promptly, efficiently and effectively with any problems

which arise

• The evaluation format of the national SBM training program will be finalized in October, well before the beginning of the national SBM training, in close collaboration with BEQUAL.

• MOES to collect information on VEDCs at village level for the entire country and share with the WB by mid-October, 2016

• By mid-October, 2016, MOES to encourage the setting up of VEDCs where such are missing and mobilize their awareness of the project, their role with respect to SBG and school development plans and about the requirement for VEDC participation in the national SBM training.

Component 2: Improving Learning Outcomes and Assessment Capacity

31. An extension of the GPE II closing date by 18 months to December 2020 will be required to align the project with the new primary education curriculum rollout. Originally, the reading skills development pilot under Component 2 aimed to provide evidence for a future scale up and inform the development of the renewed curriculum and teacher professional development reforms supported by BEQUAL. However, given the delays in GPE II implementation and the fact that in 2018-2019 the new Grade 1 curriculum will be rolled out nationally, the reading pilot supported by GPE II needs to be refocused to start alongside the roll out of the new primary curriculum. Thus, the reading pilot will have to start one year later than originally planned – instead of starting from 2017/2018 academic year, the pilot will begin in 2018/2019, when the new curriculum for grade 1 will be in force. This adjustment will also allow the GPE II reading pilot to review the programs and strategies developed as part of the teacher professional development reform and the new curriculum framework and complement these two parallel, national reforms. As such, Component 2 reading pilot (to be implemented in a sample of 90 primary schools) will focus on building the knowledge and pedagogical skills of teachers to impart basic reading and writing skills in students to cope with the new curriculum. Strong emphasis will be placed on the training, regular support and focus on skill development of teachers to help students to become readers.

32. The GPE II pilot will be refocused taking into account the BEQUAL-led teacher professional development reform and the curriculum rollout. Given the complementarity of BEQUAL and GPE II and the alignment of GPE II reading pilot with the new curriculum framework, the MOES will have the opportunity to distil lessons about how best to scale teacher professional development activities to support the new curriculum.

33. The selection procedure for the firm that will design and implement the reading pilot has progressed well. During the last regular implementation support mission in February 2016, a decision was made to merge the implementation of the two sub-components of the reading pilot. Presently the selection process is at the “Request for Proposals” (RFP) stage. To maximize the impact of the intervention, it was discussed and agreed that the research agenda (sub-component 2.2.) aimed to analyse the acquisition of reading skills of non Lao-Tai students will be implemented at a timeline and with priority to inform the design of the reading intervention and the pedagogical instruction and training supported under sub-component 2.1. The WB mission team and MOES discussed and agreed on the specific steps and their timeline for completion of the firm selection process, as detailed below.

34. Next steps:

• Firms to submit technical and financial proposals by RFP deadline – 30 September 2016

• ECU to open technical proposals – 30 September 2016 once deadline has passed.

• ECU to prepare a technical summary, scoring tables and document packages for the evaluation committee meeting – by 6 October 2016

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• ECU to invite the evaluation committee – 7 October 2016

• MOES evaluation committee to complete the technical evaluation of proposals - 10 to 14 October 2016.

• ECU to send the minutes of the technical evaluation report to WB's for review and no-objection– 17 to 28 October 20016

• ECU to send report to the Minister of Educations and Sports for clearance – by 7 November

• MOES to open financial proposals, procurement staff to complete scores and inform ECU of combined scores as included in the final report: week of 16 November 2016

• WB's to review and provide non-objection letter to Final Evaluation Report: 23 to 30 November 2016

• ECU to inform the selected firm of award by no later than 6 December 2016

• ECU to conduct contract negotiation and prepare minutes: week of 6 – 17 January 2017

• ECU to draft and MOES to clear the contract no later than 20 December –in RFP, 90 calendar days after closing date of RFP of 30/09/16.

• ECU to send the final draft contract and negotiation minutes to WB: 17 January 2017

• WB's non-objection to contract : week of 20 January

• Signing and contract registration: 20 January – 6 February

• Start date: 13 February 2017

• Start work: mid-February

• ECU / MOES to begin contract registration to Minister of Education and Sports, Minister of Finance and Minister of Justice soon after firm start date.

35. The inclusion of a stipend program into the GPE II impact evaluation design was re-confirmed. As described in the aide memoire for the July and August 2016 implementation support missions, a stipend scheme has been considered for inclusion into the GPE II impact evaluation to test not only the impact of supply side interventions (pedagogical training for delivery of curriculum on Lao language), but also the effect on school dropout and educational outcomes of demand side incentives. During the mission, an agreement was reached that the financial support will target primary education ethnic students. Presently the Government of Laos provides scholarships to ethnic students enrolled in secondary education. Research on reading performance and dropouts shows that ethnic students are more likely to never enrol/attend schools and are at the highest risk of dropping out. The peak of dropouts in primary education occurs after grade 1. Additionally, the EGRA 2012 survey in Laos revealed that ethnic students constitute a significant share of students that cannot read a single word. The financial support for primary education ethnic students under GPE II will be equivalent to US$100 per academic year, divided into two parts –unconditional US$50 will be paid at the beginning of the school year, while the remaining US$50 will be paid at the end of the school year conditioned on the reading performance of the ethnic students. An EGRA reading skills threshold will be defined to determine eligibility for the performance award. EGRA assessments will be administered at the beginning and the end of each academic year during the two years of the pilot. In 2018/2019, when the new curriculum for Grade 1 will be rolled out, the ethnic students in grade 1 will be included in the scheme. In 2019/2020, when the new curriculum for grade 2 will be introduced, the first cohort will transition to grade 2 and will continue to benefit from the financial support scheme, while a new cohort of grade 1 ethnic students will be added. At the beginning of each school year, a community information meeting will be held, involving parents, teachers, school principal and the VEDC, emphasizing the importance of regular school attendance and improving students’ reading skills. In the villages with ethnic students in grade 1 and 2, detailed information on the financial support scheme will be provided. In the second semester of the school year preceding the start of the intervention, participating schools will be informed of the pilot and will be supported by DESB to develop a school development plan with explicit focus on reading and learning, planning carefully the use of their school block grants for that purpose. The identification of the ethnic students will be made by the VEDCs and schools and verified through the EGRA questionnaires. The process will be supervised by the district education bureaus (DESB) of the MOES.

36. The impact evaluation sample will be national representative, including 180 randomly selected primary schools. Through the lens of the new curriculum rollout, the treatment and control groups assignment will be as follows:

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Table 1: Intervention arms of the GPE II Impact evaluation Teaching and

learning

materials

Teacher

training Coaching

support Community

information

meeting

Financial support

for ethnic

students

Control (45 schools) New curriculum New curriculum N/A Yes No

Treatment 1

(45 schools) New curriculum New curriculum N/A Yes Yes, if eligible

Treatment 2 (45 schools)

GPE II Component 2 reading intervention (aligned with new curriculum framework)

New curriculum + GPE II Component 2 reading intervention

GPE II Component 2 reading intervention

Yes No

Treatment 3 (45 schools)

GPE II Component 2 reading intervention (aligned with new curriculum framework)

New curriculum + GPE II Component 2 reading intervention

GPE II Component 2 reading intervention

Yes Yes, if eligible

37. Next steps:

• By end October, MOES to share with the Bank the Education Management Information System (EMIS) data for all public primary schools in Laos with information on the main ethnic language families represented at village / school level,.

• MOES to prepare by end October the Terms of Reference (TORs) for the recruitment of individual consultants (principal investigators and research assistants) to finalize the design of the impact evaluation, further develop and refine the research questions, design sampling and randomization strategies, analyse data and the produce an impact evaluation paper

Component 3: Project Management and Monitoring and Evaluation

38. The monitoring and evaluation of the GPE II will be strengthened by the implementation of a baseline and end line surveys based on the World Bank tool “Service Delivery Indicators Plus” (SDI+). The instrument consists of six modules capturing the key aspects of quality and effectiveness of primary education, school autonomy, governance and accountability, as well as assessing the quality of teaching and learning through direct assessment of students in grade 4 and their teachers. The questionnaires will also include indicators of the Lao PDR Education Quality Standards for primary education that have clear attribution links to the interventions supported by the GPE II project (e.g. the availability of teaching and learning aids and materials, facilitated by the provision of school block grants). The information collected will enable the triangulation of school autonomy, accountability and school financing reforms in Lao PDR with the learning outcomes of the students and the quality of teaching delivered at schools. The SDI+ survey will be conducted before the beginning of the key GPE II interventions (baseline in January-February 2017) and towards the end of the project (end line in 2020) using a national representative sample of 200 randomly selected primary schools. The procurement of the survey firm to conduct the baseline and end line data collection is at an advanced stage, and so is the progress of adaptation and contextualization of the six SDI+ modules. The WB will co-finance the implementation of the SDI + through its standalone bank financed programmatic advisory services and analytics for the education sector in Laos (“Quality of Education in Lao PDR”)

39. Next steps:

• MOES to finalize the selection process of the survey firm and have it in board by mid-November 2016

40. Financial management (FM) aspects of GPE II have improved. Albeit with a significant delay, the appointment of project auditors have been completed recently. The preparation of the annual operation plan and budget have been put on hold in anticipation of the project restructuring. The recruitment of consultant to assist with accounting

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software customization has been delayed and this is of concern. Disbursement is still low, given that all efforts have been focused on completing the required prerequisites for launching the key activities under the project. Current disbursement rate is at approximately 10 percent of total allocation, not significantly different from the level registered during the previous regular implementation mission in February 2016.

41. Due to the changes to the timeline of the fiscal year in Lao PDR (to coincide with the calendar year, effective January 2017), it was agreed that the audit for this year will cover the period up to September 30, 2016. Next year’s audit will cover the period of 15 months from October 1 to December 31, 2017. For this year’s audit, the audit report and management letter will be due for submission to the Bank by March 31, 2017 (i.e. 7 months from now).

42. Interim Financial Reports (IFRs) have been submitted but not timely. ECU is strongly encourage the project to

submit the IFRs timely as it is a legal requirement of the grant agreement. Annex III presents detailed findings and agreed actions with respect to FM.

43. Procurement has gained momentum but a number of long delayed selections have not been initiated yet. With over two years of project preparation and implementation elapsed since the procurement plan was first agreed in August 2014, there were four individual consultant contracts and one single source selection (SSS) for the project audit firm contract signed. The QCBS package (US$1.25 mil.) for GPE II Component 2 is at the proposal submission stage, with four month delay from the schedule. One SSS contract (estimated cost of US$50,000) for customizing the existing accounting system has been delayed since Nov. 2015 with no TOR in place yet. It has been replanned for July 2016, as it is essential to have a proper accounting system ready for the SBG scheduled to start disbursing early next year. The WB mission team and ECU discussed and agreed to remove from the procurement plan two individual consultant packages (FMS Officer and International consultant to support management of SBM implementation). Detailed account of the mission’s finding on procurement is included in Annex IV.

44. Social and Environmental Safeguards: There were no major safeguard issues identified and the GPE II is assessed as compliant with the project safeguard instruments, namely Environmental Management Plan (EMP) and Ethnic Group Development Plan (EGDP). However, the safeguard implementation status with required information were neither documented in the progress report nor separate notes provided for the Bank’s review. Detailed account of safeguards compliance for both GPE II and ECE projects is provided in Annex VII. ECE

Component 1: Increasing Coverage of Early Childhood Education in Target Districts

Sub-component 1.1: Community-Based Contracting for Pre-Primary Classroom Construction

45. The construction of the originally planned 250 pre-primary classrooms was completed on time. The construction took place in the campus of 200 existing primary schools using community-based contracting (CBC). Works included water and sanitation facilities, appropriate access for physically disabled children, and preprimary classroom furniture. The procurement of learning aids kits and the playground equipment is in progress after long delays. The playgrounds’ procurement delay was in part caused by the limited supply of the goods on the domestic market.

46. Synergies with the BEQUAL program have been identified on investments in pre-primary classroom construction. As discussed during the implementation support missions in July and August 2016, a reallocation of funds within the ECE project components will be used to build additional 300 pre-primary classrooms using the CBC approach. At the same time, BEQUAL will support greater access to primary education by constructing new primary classrooms in remote disadvantaged communities. Overlaps were identified in the long list of ECE target villages and the first cohort of BEQUAL target villages. The technical teams of ECE and BEQUAL discussed and agreed to propose DFAT that BEQUAL CBC teams at village level would build both the primary and pre-primary classrooms and playground in the overlapping villages, with the ECE project transferring to the VEDC’s account the amount required for the pre-primary construction. This option would save the ECE project the costs for hiring and training a parallel team of engineers working on the same site and campus as BEQUAL. This will also avoid

11

confusion at village level. If this option is accepted by DFAT, the saved ECE resources will be invested in additional pre-primary classrooms in other eligible villages.

47. Next steps:

• The future procurement of playgrounds (for the additional construction after project restructuring) will be packaged with the school construction using the CBC approach.

• ECU to report to MOES on BEQUAL-ECE synergies and agree with DFAT on mode of collaboration by mid-October.

• Based on the above, ECU to finalize final the list of villages for additional pre-primary classrooms construction.

Sub-component 1.2: Community Child Development Groups for 3 and 4-year-olds

48. Community Child Development Groups’ (CCDG) coverage has been expanded from 48 to 73 villages. The pilot of this informal modality and its rigorous impact evaluation will provide evidence to inform policy decision and strategies in order to achieve SDGs in a shorter time frame at a lower cost. The construction of the CCDG shelters is underway and on schedule. A village, originally assigned to the CCDG pilot is to be settled. Instead of removing the village from the CCDG pilot, the informal modality will be implemented at the receiving location of the resettled village.

49. CCDG training materials have been revised and finalized and the training of master trainers was completed in July 2016. MOES team identified and recruited 144 caregivers from 72 CCDG villages. The training of the caregivers will be done directly by the master trainers (as opposed to the originally planned cascade training) and the training sessions are scheduled to start on September 26 until end of October 2016. After completion of the training, caregivers will start the CCDG implementation in their respective villages. Like the villages with newly constructed pre-primary classrooms and the Multi Age Teaching (MAT) pilot sites, CCDG villages will also benefit from toy libraries to stimulate children’s learning and development (see more details of toy libraries in CAC section).

50. Next steps:

• By mid-October 2016, MOES to inform the WB of the resettlement plan for the CCDG village affected by the railroad construction, ensure a CCDG shelter is constructed in the receiving village and the surveyed households and children participate in the CCDG pilot.

• By mid-October 2016, MOES to issue a Ministerial decree specifying the nature of the CCDG modality, the villages implementing CCDG, the list of the trainers and the caregivers responsible for the implementation.

Component 2: Improving Quality of Early Childhood Education Services

Sub-component 2.1: Supporting Services Package

Community Awareness Campaign (CAC) 51. CAC materials have been undergoing revisions to simplify content and single out key messages for caregivers.

By the time of the mission, the illustrations for all seven CAC modules have not been finalized yet. Two rounds of trainings of the CAC master trainers were conducted in January (based on materials that were subsequently revised) and in July 2016 (before another series of changes were introduced to the materials). Despite concerns about effectiveness of master trainers’ capacity building thus far, further refresher training (scheduled for October 13-14), will be required to reflect the new improved content of the CAC materials. To ensure high quality capacity building to the members of the VEDC and the village health volunteers (VHV) at local level, only the master trainers showing strongest commitment will be selected to deliver trainings. VEDC and VHV training will take place during October 24 - end of November 2016.

52. VEDC and VHV will receive incentives for mobilizing their communities for delivering monthly CAC sessions to them. The success of CAC depends upon the commitment of the VEDCs and VHVs and the effective mobilization of the primary caregivers and their elders. It was agreed that an incentive of US$10 equivalent will be paid per month for CAC activities delivered to the community. Therefore a new disbursement category “CAC Grants to VEDCs” will be introduced, which, in addition to the aforementioned incentive will include the incentives for the toy librarians. As a results, the proposed new allocation of funds for CAC grants has been slightly revised from SDR 0.7 million to SDR 0.9 million, compared to the estimates included in the aide-memoire

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of August 2016. The table below shows the agreed new allocation of funds to be processed as part of the planned restructuring, in million SDRs:

Table 2: Revised allocation of funds across disbursement categories

Disbursement category Original

(total)

Revised

(total)

Revised

IDA Grant

Revised

IDA Credit Goods, Works, Consulting Services, Incremental Operating Cost, Training & Workshops 10.70 7.31 2.05 5.26

CBC Grants 2.00 5.15 2.31 2.84

CCDG Grants 0.30 0.50 0.26 0.24

CAC Grants 0.09 0.09

School Meals Grants 4.50 5.15 4.48 0.67

Unallocated 0.70

Total 18.20 18.20 9.10 9.10

53. Next steps:

• MOES to finalize the CAC materials by mid- October, 2016

• MOES to deliver CAC refresher training for the master trainers on October 13-14

• MOES to select the best performing master trainers for delivering the CAC content to VEDCs and VHCs

• MOES to issue a Ministerial decree by mid- October 2016 explaining the purpose of CAC and its implementation at village level, listing the villages receiving CAC and identifying the VEDCs and VHVs in charge of the activity Toy Libraries (new activity)

54. As agreed during the August 2016 implementation support mission, all 270 CAC locations will benefit from toy libraries to encourage children’s learning and development. The original ECE procurement plan envisioned toy and books kits only for the newly constructed pre-primary classrooms and the locations implementing multi age teaching for pre-primary groups (MAT). This will be expanded to cover also the CCDG villages as well as those location receiving only CAC. The content of the toy libraries will be harmonized and consolidated into one large procurement package delivered to villages in phases according to the timeline of implementation of the CAC, CCDG, MAT and the pre-primary classroom construction. In the villages with no pre-primary facilities or implementing CCDG, the toy library would be managed by a member of the VEDC. Librarians would receive an upfront stipend of USD 25 upon signing an agreement for responsibility of maintaining the toy library. They would receive the same amount as incentive at each 6 monthly toy audit and replenishment, based on an achievement of no greater than 30 percent loss of toys and evidence of toy/book loans by local families. The payments will be included into the new disbursement category “CAC Grants to VEDCs”.

55. Next steps:

• MOES to submit for WB review the content of the ECE teaching and learning kits for pre-primary classrooms and MAT for harmonization of content with the Toy Library items, by mid-October, 2016

Childhood Disability Screening (CDS)

56. CDS will be carried out after CAC sessions have been delivered, particularly Module 7 – Disability Awareness. CDS will take place in the locations where CCDG and MAT will be implemented. The CDS team together with the international consultant on disability will discuss the details of CDS and its implementation plan in November 2016.

57. Next steps:

• MOES to develop and share with the WB the implementation plan for the CDS by mid-November, 2016. National School Meals Program (NSMP)

58. The NSMP implementation is on track. Transfers of grants to participating villages have been made on time, with the latest transfer of August 2016 securing the funds for school meals for all participating 312 school during the first semester (September 2016 –January 2017) of the current academic year. MOES re-confirmed its intention to expand the NSMP coverage to a total of 540 villages and provide meals to children aged 1-11 (as opposed to 5-11). Lingering concerns remain about the quality and regularity of monitoring the actual implementation of the

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program. Without proper monitoring, the implementation bottlenecks would remain unaddressed. MOES expressed concerns that the turnover of school staff trained to implement the program impede proper implementation and regularity of food provision. As discussed in the aide-memoire for the August implementation support mission, an external monitoring firm will be recruited to ensure: (i) effective monitoring of the NSMP implementation in the ECE project villages; (ii) timely identification and addressing of implementation capacity gaps at local level; and (iii) timely submission of regular monitoring reports to MoES and the World Bank. It is expected that the firm will be selected in the beginning of 2017 and will provide monitoring until project closing in mid-2019. The “super clean stoves” pilot and social feasibility study financed by the World Food Program (WFP) will inform the potential inclusion of cook stoves into the NSMP design.

59. MOES will take over the financing of paddy rice for the 540 NSMP villages, starting from the second semester of 2016/17 academic year. A detailed screening of the food security situation in the villages will be conducted to inform the targeting of government financial support for paddy rice. Priority will be given to vulnerable villages, while villages with sufficient availability of paddy rice will be encouraged to support NSMP implementation through community in-kind contribution. The ECE will continue financing the rest of the NSMP components, including school agriculture (school gardens, small animal farms, chicken coops, initial support for planting seeds, etc.).

60. Next steps:

• ECU to initiate the selection process for the external NSMP monitoring firm, by mid-October 2016

• MOES/IEC to revise the NSMP manual, including on financing paddy rice, and submit to WB for review, by end October, 2016

• MOES/IEC to prepare a NSMP cook book with recipes for children aged 1-5, and submit to WB for review, by mid-November, 2016

• MOES, through PESS and DESB to conduct screening of the 540 NSMP villages to assess the needs for paddy rice financial support from the Government, by end-November, 2016

• MOES/IEC to organize capacity building on NSMP implementation for the newly included villages, by end December, 2016

Sub-component 2.2: Teacher and Education Officer Training

61. The implementation of the scholarship program supporting 200 ethnic girls’ pre-service training as pre-primary teachers is on track. The 200 teacher students have demonstrated good learning performance during the first two years of their studies. The program will be completed in June 2017 when the beneficiaries expected to go back to their own villages and assume their teacher’s responsibilities.

62. The MAT curriculum and materials revisions have been completed and training delivered. A ten direct training to all MAT teachers was completed during the WB mission.

63. Next Step:

• MOES to share with WB the list of trainees (by training session) with village, district and province code for monitoring and impact evaluation purposes.

• MOES to issue a Ministerial decree outlining the MAT approach with the list of villages implementing MAT, the names of the trained teachers and the trainers in charge of this activity.

Component 3: Project Management, Capacity Development and Monitoring and Evaluation

64. Capacity development: The capacity development activities under this component have been limited to the English language training of MOES staff. Out of the 38 staff of MOES implementing units enrolled the English training program at Lao International College, 4 dropped out due to unsatisfactory exam results, while 34 continued their studies.

65. Monitoring and Evaluation: The ECE project baseline data collection was completed in April 2016. The next M&E phase includes the continuous monitoring of implementation of the key project interventions (the CAC, CCDG, and MAT), the NSMP, as well as conducting midpoint and end line data collection for the ECE project impact evaluation. The villages included in the control group of the ECE impact evaluation need to be kept “clean”

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from any additional activities affecting children aged 0-5 in order to guarantee the validity of the randomized controlled trail. Present plans of other projects and initiatives suggest potential contamination. It was discussed and agreed that MOES will coordinate closely with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) to avoid impact evaluation “contamination” of the control group villages. The coordination between the three ministries will be facilitated by the concerned teams of the WB and UNICEF projects implemented in the same provinces in Northern Laos.

66. Next steps:

• MOES, MOH, MAF, WB and UNICEF to agree on a plan that protects the control group of the ECE randomized controlled trial at a meeting on October 7, 2016

• MOES to send for WB review the TORs for the continuous, mid-point and end line data collection for the ECE impact evaluation, by mid-October 2016

67. Financial Management: The audit report and management letter were submitted with delays. The audit report has also not been disclosed, and disclosure needs to be made immediately. The IFRs were submitted but not timely. The issues with long outstanding and untimely liquidation of advance remained, and this issue needs urgent attention and resolution. The asset register is also not yet completed. Overall disbursement rate for both financing sources has reached approximately 37 percent, and while it is considered low, the potential for quick acceleration is significant, given the imminent implementation of many activities under the project. Annex III presents more details of financial management performance of the ECE project.

68. Procurement Status: The mission is pleased to see the procurement progress has been made. Three NCB goods packages were underway (One will be signed within this month; the remaining two are under final stage of evaluation). Three shopping contracts, and two international individual consultant’s contracts have been signed and the consultants are currently on board. There are remaining two individual consultant contracts which were slightly behind the schedule. The total committed amount is around US$1.3 million. The ECE project is under the process of restructuring, there will be one additional NCB (Toy Libraries – estimated cost of US$364,000) and two additional QCBS packages of consulting firms (US$600,000 each) to be procured after the restructuring. In order to advance the procurement process, the ECU will submit the updated draft procurement plan which includes the additional packages for the Bank’s no objection in principle by September 2016. The draft TORs and REOIs of the two additional QCBS consulting firm packages will also be submitted by end Sept. 2016. The proposed list of the ‘Toy Libraries package’ has been shared with the task team for comments. It is expected that the draft bidding documents will be launched by September 30, 2016. More details on procurement progress are presented in Annex IV.

69. Social and Environmental Safeguards: The project has been in compliance with the social and environmental safeguards, based on the findings during this implementation support mission and the observations during the safeguard mission to Savannakhet and Champasack provinces in April 26-29, 2016. There were no major safeguard issues identified and project safeguard instruments namely Environmental Management Plan (EMP) and Ethnic Group Development Plan (EGDP). However, the safeguard implementation status with required information were neither documented in the progress report nor separate notes provided for the Bank’s review. Detailed description of safeguards compliance is included in Annex VII.

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Annex I: List of Persons Met and Attending the Mission’s Kick-off and Wrap-up Meetings

Name Position Organization

H.E. Mr. Lytou Boupao Vice Minister MOES

Mr. Mithong Souvanvisxay Director General, DPPE MOES

Ms. Khampaseuth Kitignavong Deputy Director, DPPE and Director ECU MOES

Ms. Siphaphone Manivanh Deputy Director, DPPE MOES

Ms. Yangxia Lee DDG, DPPE and Director of NSLP MOES

Mr. Vimon Sisouva Deputy Director, DOF MOES

Mr. Khambai Sorsuriphon Deputy Director, DOF MOES

Mr. Khamfong Sommala Deputy Head of Division, ECU MOES

Mr. Phisitxay Soulinthone Deputy Head of Division, ECU MOES

Mr. Khamphanh Khamone Head of Division, Training Dept. MOES

Ms. Xuenchit Selinokham Head of Division, DOF MOES

Ms. Choula Khamthong Deputy Head of Division, REIS MOES

Ms. Phetsamone Sybounheuang Deputy Director of REIS MOES

Ms. Southsaychai Douangsavanh Head of Division, DPPE MOES

Mr. Setha MOES

Mr. Nic I’Anson International TA CCDG/MAT, ECU MOES

Ms. Chanthy Thammavongsay Head of Health Division MOES

Mr. Bounphanh Phimmachanh Technical Staff, EMIS Statistic Center MOES

Mr. Thongkeo Oula Deputy Director, REIS MOES

Mr. Sountone Phomsengsouline Deputy Head of Administrative Division, REIS MOES

Ms. Viengnapha Insiengmay Head of Health Division, REIS MOES

Ms. Bounpheng Viengsomabth Deputy Head of Division, DPPE MOES

Dr. Kaygnasone Navamane Head of Division, IFEAD MOES

Bounlum Keomanivong Technical Staff, ECU MOES

Sanitvong Phommavon Technical Staff, ECU MOES

Mr. Sengkeo Phothisane Technical Staff, DPPE MOES

Ms. Chanhome Souvannavong Deputy Head of Division, DPPE MOES

Ms. Oys Technical Staff, DPPE MOES

Mr. Khamphan Khamon DTT MOES

Kaygansone IFEAD MOES

Ms. Sengmany Souphanthalop Head of Division, REIS MOES

Ms. Choula Khemthong Deputy Head of Division, REIS MOES

Ms. Moneseng Sorinsay Deputy Chief of Section, IEC MOES

Ms. Phanomvieng Noipheunphanh Director Phonesinouane School

Ms. Bounnom Director Thaphalansay PPS

Ms. Somchay Luangpanya Technical Staff, ESQAC MOES

Mr. Sengthongsy Savanthong Deputy Director, Inspection Dept. MOES

Ms. Khamfong Khongphaly Technical Staff, Nutrition MOH

Ms. Sengamphone Sengsoulaivan Technical Staff, EMIS Statistic Center MOES

Ms. Chanthamom Thammachack Deputy Head of Division, DTT MOES

Mr. Thipphamone Chanthalangsy Head of Division, DoF MOES

Mr. Khampone Phommanichan DPPE MOES

Mr. Somphay Sengvilaysom Head of Division, Training Dept. MOES

Mr. Khamsene Sayavong Deputy Head of Division, Inspection Dept MOES

Ms. Viengkeo Phommachack Head of Division, DPPE MOES

Mr. Khamlar Lovansay Technical Staff, ECDM MOES

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Ms. Khongmany Ratthana Head of Division, DOF MOES

Mr. Vilaysouk Keosouda Technical Staff, Budget Division MOES

Ms. Chanthamaly Soulisack Technical Staff, Administrative Division MOES

Ms. Chitdavone Boulom Technical Staff, DOI MOES

Mr. Sengphet Xoumphonphakdy Deputy Head of Division, DOF MOES

Ms. Khamsaone Sengdala Head of Administrative MOES

Mr. Chanthaphone Technical Staff MOES

Ms. Darasavanh Sengmaniketh Technical Staff MOES

Ms. Vilaysone Louangamphay Technical Staff, DOF MOES

Ms. Manivone Choyvandy Technical Staff, DOI MOES

Assoc. Sengfa Tosanouphone Director of Lesson NUOL

Ms. Bouasone Thammachack Technical Staff, NUOL

Ms. Sengcahy Phommysay Technical Staff, Accounting Division MOES

Mr. Sengthong Davong Technical Staff, Accounting Division MOES

Ms. Chantana Fengboupha Technical Staff, DOI MOES

Mr. Xouayang Yiapiouyor Deputy of Section, Multi Teaching Center MOES

Mr. Sounthavy Southavong Technical Staff, Multi Teaching Center MOES

Mr. Phimmasone Sisa-at Head of Division, DOI MOES

Mr. Nimith Souvanvong Technical Staff MOFA

Dr. Chanlap Luanglath Head of Division, DTR MOH

Ms. Phuladsami Technical Staff MPI

Ms. Clemency Oliphant First Secretary/Australian Aid DFAT

Ms. Alison Bullock Teaching and Learning Specialist, BEQUAL DFAT

Ms. Anne Stasinowsky BEQUAL DFAT

Ms. Nanna Skau Head of School Meal Unit WFP

Mr. Outhai Siharath National officer, School Meal Unit WFP

Ms. Chindavanh Vongsaly Portfolio Manager in EU Delegation EU

Ms. Takaho Fukami Chief of Education UNICEF

Mr. Yasumasa Nagaoka Policy Advisor JICA

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Annex II: Long List of Complete Primary Schools in Target Districts for Further Eligibility Review for ECE

Classrooms Construction

(Primary schools with no existing ECE classrooms, sorted by population age 3-5 age)

No PROVINCE DISTRICT PRIMARY SCHOOL

CHILDREN 3-5 OUT OF ECE

CLASSROOMS TO BUILD

1 Vientiane Province Meung Meun ປະຖມບານວງ 249 2

2 Vientiane Province Meung Meun ມນລະປະຖມໂນນໄຮ 191 2

3 Savannakhet Xepon ແດນສະຫວນ 168 2

4 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ໄຊຍະເພດ 165

5 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ຫວຽດນາມ 157

6 Oudomxay Meung Houn ປາດງ 149 2

7 Attapeu Sanxai ຢງງດາກ 136 2

8 Champasak Bachiangchaleunsouk ຫວແຊ 133 2

9 Champasak Bachiangchaleunsouk ຫວຍເສດ 133

10 Savannakhet Xepon ໂພນມວງ(ພອນວ ໄລ) 126 2

11 Savannakhet Xepon ແກງທອງ 126 2

12 Champasak Khong ຂ ນາກ 124 2

13 Savannakhet Songkhon ປາກຊອງ 120 2

14 Champasak Khong ຄອນນອຍ 119 2

15 Xiengkhuang Nonghet ຫວຍແຕກ 116

16 Champasak Pakxong ຫວາງວ ໄລ 113

17 Savannakhet Meung Phin ຫວຍຫອຍເໜອ 109 2

18 Savannakhet Meung Phin ນາທມເຊ 104 2

19 Savannakhet Meung Phin ລະວາຍ 104

20 Oudomxay Meung Houn ມກໄປ 103 2

21 Oudomxay Meung Houn ບານ.ໜອງປາ 103

22 Oudomxay Meung Houn ພເລ າ 99 2

23 Oudomxay Meung Houn ປະຖມສມບນ ພເລ າ2 99

24 Saravan Lao-Ngam ເຕເມສງທອງ 98 2

25 Savannakhet Xepon ແກງ 97 2

26 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ດງຫມາກແງວ 95 2

27 Attapeu Sanxai ດາກກະນາດ 94 2

28 Oudomxay Meung Houn ປະຖມສມບນ ນ າຍ ງ 87 2

29 Houaphan Meung Khuan ຜາແດງ 87 2

30 Savannakhet Xepon ທາ◌ ໂຂງ 87 2

31 Houaphan Meung Khuan ນາຫນງ 85 2

32 Attapeu Sanxai ດາກດ 84 2

33 Saravan Lao-Ngam ປະຖມຂະຫຍອງແຂກໃນ 83 2

34 Saravan Lao-Ngam ໝນປາກດ 81 2

35 Champasak Soukkhouma ໂຄກກອງ 81 2

36 Savannakhet Meung Phin ປາຕອງ 80 2

37 Champasak Pakxong ຫວຍຊອຍ( 1 ) 80 2

38 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ນາສະໂນດ 79 2

39 Savannakhet Meung Phin ວງສ ແກວ 79 2

40 Champasak Phonthong ຊງຊາຍ 79 2

41 Oudomxay Meung Nga ພຫວດ 78 1

42 Saravan Toumlan ວງເຮ ອເຫນ ອ 78 1

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No PROVINCE DISTRICT PRIMARY SCHOOL

CHILDREN 3-5 OUT OF ECE

CLASSROOMS TO BUILD

43 Champasak Phonthong ອາງຄ າ 77 1

44 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ນາຄ າ 75 1

45 Savannakhet Songkhon ຄ ມສະຫວາງ 75 1

46 Savannakhet Meung Phin ຕະມມນອຍ 74

47 Savannakhet Meung Phin ແກງສະລງ 73 1

48 Savannakhet Xepon ຕະເປ ອ 73 1

49 Champasak Soukkhouma ບານແຊ 73 1

50 Savannakhet Meung Phin ຕາດໄຮເຊ 72 1

51 Savannakhet Meung Phin ຖາພະ 72

52 Savannakhet Phalanxai ເທ ມນອຍ 72 1

53 Saravan Salavanh ພະນວນ 72 1

54 Oudomxay Meung Nga ຮອງຖ 71 1

55 Oudomxay Meung Houn ພຽງຫຍາ 70 1

56 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ໂຄກປາຫວາຍ 70 1

57 Savannakhet Xepon ຊນເຜາ 70 1

58 Champasak Phonthong ຄນແຍງ 70 1

59 Champasak Phonthong ໜອງໄຮມ ໄຊ 70 1

60 Champasak Phonthong ໂຄກກງ 70

61 Saravan Lakhonpheng ປະຖມສມບນ ດານນອຍ 69 1

62 Champasak Pakxong ໜອງອ ໂອຍ 69 1

63 Attapeu Sanxai ດາກຍກ 69 1

64 Attapeu Sanamxai ຫາດຊາຍສງ 67 1

65 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ສະກດ 66 1

66 Saravan Lao-Ngam ດງຕອງໃຫຍ 66 1

67 Xiengkhuang Nonghet ຫວຍນາ 65 1

68 Xiengkhuang Nonghet ບານນາ 65

69 Savannakhet Phalanxai ກະຫອງ 65 1

70 Champasak Phonthong ໜອງຫອຍ 65 1

71 Oudomxay Meung Houn ປະຖມສມບນຕາດຕະແລ 64 1

72 Houaphan Meung Khuan ຫວຍງວ 64 1

73 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ບານເອ 64 1

74 Savannakhet Meung Phin ໂນນໃຊ ( ຂ ) 64

75 Saravan Lakhonpheng ມນ ຫນອງສ ແຈ 64 1

76 Oudomxay Meung Nga ຫວຍໄລ(ແສນໄຊ) 63

77 Savannakhet Xepon ອາສ ງໂທຍ 63 1

78 Saravan Salavanh ນາດອນບງ 63 1

79 Oudomxay Meung Nga ມກສກ(ໂພນສະຫວາງ) 62 1

80 Saravan Lao-Ngam ເລ າຫນອງ 62 1

81 Champasak Khong ຫມວດປະຖມສມບນຄອນ 62 1

82 Oudomxay Meung Houn ປະຖມຕະລ ບ 61 1

83 Savannakhet Meung Phin ຫນສະໂງມ(ກກໄຮ) 61 1

84 Savannakhet Xepon ລະອ ໃຫມ 61 1

85 Savannakhet Songkhon ຊະແຍກ 61 1

86 Champasak Bachiangchaleunsouk ລມສກໜອ 61 1

87 Champasak Pakxong ໜອງຫ ນ 61 1

88 Champasak Phonthong ໂນນສະຫວາງ 61 1

89 Champasak Phonthong ແກງຍາວ 61 1

19

No PROVINCE DISTRICT PRIMARY SCHOOL

CHILDREN 3-5 OUT OF ECE

CLASSROOMS TO BUILD

90 Oudomxay Meung Houn ກະຕາງຢາ 60 1

91 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ຈ ນຈງເຕກ 60 1

92 Savannakhet Xepon ຊຽງຮມ 60 1

93 Saravan Toumlan ຕາແບງໃຫຍ 60 1

94 Saravan Lao-Ngam ຫວຍເປ າ 60 1

95 Oudomxay Meung Houn ບ.ເພຍເລ ງໃຫຍ 59

96 Oudomxay Meung Houn ມນລະປະຖມເພຍເລ ງນອຍ 59 1

97 Savannakhet Xepon ມະຮາດໃຕ 59 1

98 Savannakhet Xepon ຫວຍຈງ 59 1

99 Savannakhet Songkhon ສະບໄຊ 59 1

100 Savannakhet Songkhon ນາແສນເທບ 59 1

101 Saravan Salavanh ບວງໃຫຍ 59 1

102 Savannakhet Meung Phin ກະແມບເຊ 58 1

103 Savannakhet Meung Phin ດອນຊາດ 58

104 Savannakhet Meung Phin ນາຫາດຊາຍ 58

105 Savannakhet Xepon ມະນາຍ 58 1

106 Savannakhet Songkhon ນາທງ 58 1

107 Savannakhet Phalanxai ນາທໃຫຍ 58 1

108 Savannakhet Phalanxai ນາມວງ 58 1

109 Saravan Lakhonpheng ປະຖມສມບນ ນາພະບາງນອຍ 58 1

110 Saravan Lao-Ngam ມນລະປະຖມໂນນດ 58 1

111 Champasak Phonthong ບານໂພນນອຍ 58 1

112 Attapeu Sanamxai ຈນຕ 58 1

113 Phong Saly Samphan ສະນ າເອ ປາ 57

114 Savannakhet Meung Phin ຫະຕບ 57 1

115 Saravan Lao-Ngam ປະຖມຫນອງຕາໃກ 57 1

116 Champasak Soukkhouma ອທມເກາ 57 1

117 Phong Saly Samphan ລາວແສß 56 1

118 Savannakhet Xepon ວງຫມ 56 1

119 Savannakhet Songkhon ນາຂ ເຫກ 56 1

120 Savannakhet Songkhon ນາອດມ 56 1

121 Champasak Pakxong ພຫງແກວ 56 1

122 Champasak Soukkhouma ໜອງສງ 56 1

123 Champasak Soukkhouma ໂນນຄມ 56 1

124 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ໂນນດອກໄມ 55 1

125 Savannakhet Meung Phin ລະກາຍ 55 1

126 Saravan Toumlan ນາຮອງນອຍ 55 1

127 Saravan Lakhonpheng ມນ ນາວຽນ 55 1

128 Champasak Pakxong ຫ ນລບ 55 1

129 Champasak Khong ບນນອຍ 55 1

130 Champasak Khong ຫາງດອນສມ 55 1

131 Attapeu Sanamxai ແບງວ ໄລ 55 1

132 Oudomxay Meung Houn ບານດອນນາ 54 1

133 Savannakhet Meung Phin ປະອກ 54 1

134 Savannakhet Xepon ຫວຍແຈງ 54 1

135 Savannakhet Xepon ອາໄລ 54 1

136 Saravan Salavanh ຈານເຫນ ອ 54 1

20

No PROVINCE DISTRICT PRIMARY SCHOOL

CHILDREN 3-5 OUT OF ECE

CLASSROOMS TO BUILD

137 Champasak Bachiangchaleunsouk ໄຊຊະນະ(2) 54 1

138 Champasak Phonthong ໜອງບວ 54 1

139 Attapeu Sanamxai ດອນ 54 1

140 Oudomxay Meung Nga ຫວຍລະເປ 53 1

141 Houaphan Meung Khuan ຖາເຂ ອງ 53 1

142 Savannakhet Songkhon ໂຄກສະອາດ 53 1

143 Savannakhet Songkhon ຫນອງນາງເຫ ອງ 53 1

144 Saravan Salavanh ດອນຂວງ 53

145 Champasak Bachiangchaleunsouk ເພຍລາດ(1) 53 1

146 Attapeu Sanamxai ຫນອງຫ ນ 53 1

147 Oudomxay Meung Nga ພຈ 52 1

148 Xiengkhuang Nonghet ປາຈາເໜອ 52

149 Savannakhet Meung Phin ອາລານ 52 1

150 Savannakhet Xepon ນາຫວງນອຍ 52 1

151 Saravan Lakhonpheng ປະຖມສມບນ ຫນອງແວງ 52 1

152 Champasak Pakxong ຫວຊາງ 52 1

153 Champasak Phonthong ບານກວຍ 52 1

154 Champasak Soukkhouma ບານບາກ 52 1

155 Phong Saly Samphan ໜອງຫມ 51 1

156 Oudomxay Meung Nga ຕງຕ 51 1

157 Oudomxay Meung Nga ຫວຍຈນ 51 1

158 Oudomxay Meung Houn ພຽງຫ 51 1

159 Savannakhet Meung Phin ຕງອາໄລ 51 1

160 Savannakhet Meung Phin ໂນນສງ 51 1

161 Savannakhet Xepon ວງບ ງ 51 1

162 Savannakhet Xepon ຫວຍລວາ 51 1

163 Saravan Salavanh ນາຕ 51 1

164 Champasak Phonthong ດອນຈ ກ 51 1

165 Champasak Soukkhouma ທາຫວງ 51 1

166 Houaphan Meung Khuan ຫວຍປງ (ຜາແດງ) 50 1

167 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ກາງໂພສ 50 1

168 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ໂນນຮງ 50 1

169 Savannakhet Meung Phin ນາປາງ 50 1

170 Savannakhet Xepon ນາຫວນ າ 50 1

171 Savannakhet Xepon ວງກງ 50 1

172 Savannakhet Phalanxai ກະສກ 50 1

173 Savannakhet Phalanxai ສະຫນນໄຊ 50 1

174 Saravan Lao-Ngam ໂຮງຮຽນພງຮາມ 50 1

175 Champasak Phonthong ອປະຫາດ 50 1

176 Oudomxay Meung Houn ບ.ລາງຈ ງ 49 1

177 Oudomxay Meung Houn ຜາຍ າ ເໜອ 49 1

178 Oudomxay Meung Houn ບານຜາຍ າ ໃຕ 49

179 Oudomxay Meung Houn ບ. ຮາຍ 49

180 Xiengkhuang Nonghet ຜາຫລວງ 49 1

181 Xiengkhuang Nonghet ຜາອ 49 1

182 Savannakhet Meung Phin ວງບວງ 49 1

183 Savannakhet Xepon ຫວຍຕອນ 49 1

21

No PROVINCE DISTRICT PRIMARY SCHOOL

CHILDREN 3-5 OUT OF ECE

CLASSROOMS TO BUILD

184 Savannakhet Xepon ສະແລວ 49 1

185 Savannakhet Xepon ທາເມະ 49 1

186 Savannakhet Songkhon ຜກຂະ 49 1

187 Champasak Phonthong ດອນຊາດ 49 1

188 Champasak Khong ບານໃຫມສ ວ ໄລ 49 1

189 Attapeu Sanamxai ມດກາ 49 1

190 Savannakhet Meung Phin ກອຍໃຫຍ 48 1

191 Savannakhet Xepon ວງສະຫລ 48 1

192 Savannakhet Songkhon ນາຫວາ 48 1

193 Saravan Salavanh ນາໄຊສວຍ 48 1

194 Saravan Salavanh ນາໂພນອຍ 48 1

195 Saravan Lao-Ngam ປະຖມເຕເມພປມ 48 1

196 Saravan Lao-Ngam ປະຖມຫວງເສນາ 48 1

197 Champasak Bachiangchaleunsouk ໂນນອດມ 48 1

198 Champasak Pakxong ຫກ30 48 1

199 Champasak Phonthong ໂນນພະເຈ າ 48 1

200 Champasak Phonthong ບານແກ 48 1

201 Champasak Phonthong ບານເລ າ 48 1

202 Champasak Khong ຫວຊາງໄພ 48 1

203 Attapeu Sanxai ດາກຊາງ 48 1

204 Savannakhet Xepon ເມ ອງແສນ 47 1

205 Savannakhet Xepon ສະກພ ນ 47 1

206 Savannakhet Xepon ກາຫານ 47 1

207 Saravan Salavanh ນາພະຍ 47 1

208 Saravan Lao-Ngam ນາຫນ ເຫນ ອ 47 1

209 Champasak Bachiangchaleunsouk ທງເພາ 47 1

210 Champasak Khong ມວງ 47 1

211 Oudomxay Meung Nga ຫວຍສະຫາກ 46 1

212 Saravan Toumlan ມນປະຖມກະຕາວ 46 1

213 Saravan Lakhonpheng ປະຖມສມບນ ໂພນສງ 46 1

214 Saravan Lao-Ngam ວງຄະນານ 46 1

215 Champasak Phonthong ນາສະວາງ 46 1

216 Champasak Khong ຫາດຂ ຄວາຍ 46 1

217 Attapeu Sanxai ດາກນງ 45 1

218 Oudomxay Meung Nga ຫວຍຊານ 45 1

219 Oudomxay Meung Houn ພແຊ 45 1

220 Savannakhet Xepon ອາຫ 45 1

221 Saravan Lakhonpheng ປະຖມສມບນ ວຍກະໂພໄຊ 45 1

222 Saravan Lao-Ngam ໂຮງຮຽນທງສຍ 45 1

223 Champasak Soukkhouma ໂນນໂພ 45 1

224 Champasak Khong ປະຖມບ ສມບນຫວຂະເໝາ 45 1

225 Champasak Khong ສງເປ ອຍ 45 1

226 Oudomxay Meung Nga ຫວຍຈ 44 1

227 Oudomxay Meung Houn ຜາງາມ 44

228 Oudomxay Meung Houn ຜາງາມ ໃຕ 44 1

229 Savannakhet Outhoumphon ນາເດ ອ 44 1

230 Champasak Soukkhouma ດງຍາງ 44 1

22

No PROVINCE DISTRICT PRIMARY SCHOOL

CHILDREN 3-5 OUT OF ECE

CLASSROOMS TO BUILD

231 Champasak Soukkhouma ຜກຕບ 44 1

232 Oudomxay Meung Nga ຫວຍລາວ 43 1

233 Oudomxay Meung Houn ມກປາໄລ 43 1

234 Houaphan Meung Khuan ຫນອງເລ າ 43 1

235 Houaphan Meung Khuan ຫວຍສະມດ 43 1

236 Savannakhet Meung Phin ສງເປ ອຍ 43 1

237 Savannakhet Xepon ນາ 43 1

238 Savannakhet Xepon ແກງຫວປາ 43 1

239 Savannakhet Songkhon ໂນຫຝຍ 43 1

240 Savannakhet Songkhon ນາໂພ 43 1

241 Saravan Salavanh ຈານວງ 43 1

242 Saravan Salavanh ຜກແພວເສດ 43 1

243 Saravan Lakhonpheng ມນ ຄອນສາຍ 43 1

244 Saravan Lao-Ngam ປະຖມບານ ເຕນ 43 1

245 Champasak Pakxong ໂນນຈນ 43 1

246 Champasak Soukkhouma ກດຕະບນ 43 1

247 Champasak Khong ເສດເຕາເຫກ 43 1

248 Attapeu Sanxai ດາກປອກໃຫມ 43 1

249 Phong Saly Samphan ອ ເຫລກ 42 1

250 Houaphan Meung Khuan ຫວຍອງ (ຫວຍຊາຍ) 42 1

251 Xiengkhuang Nonghet ພກແຄະ 42 1

252 Savannakhet Meung Phin ສະແລເໜອ 42 1

253 Savannakhet Songkhon ໂນນຈະເລ ນ 42 1

254 Savannakhet Songkhon ນາດງ 42 1

255 Savannakhet Songkhon ຫກ ສ ບເອດ 42 1

256 Saravan Lakhonpheng ມນ ຫນອງສະໂນ(1 ) 42 1

257 Saravan Lao-Ngam ນາຫມ ໄຕ 42 1

258 Champasak Khong ຫວດອນກອຍ 42 1

259 Attapeu Sanxai ຫນອງຟາ 42 1

260 Xiengkhuang Nonghet ຫວຍລມ 41 1

261 Xiengkhuang Nonghet ຫວຍແປກ 41

262 Savannakhet Xepon ປາງາ 41 1

263 Savannakhet Xepon ຈຽງ 41 1

264 Saravan Salavanh ສອງກະລອງ 41 1

265 Saravan Lakhonpheng ມນ ສາວແວນ 41 1

266 Champasak Khong ເດດຕາເວນອອກ 41 1

267 Attapeu Sanamxai ດອນສງ 41 1

268 Attapeu Sanamxai ປ ນດງ 41 1

269 Attapeu Sanxai ດາກປອກເກາ 41 1

270 Oudomxay Meung Houn ນາທອງ 40 1

271 Vientiane Province Meung Meun ປະຖມຄກເຫມອດ 40 1

272 Savannakhet Xepon ໄຫມ ສະກ(ພດທະນາ) 40 1

273 Savannakhet Xepon ສະແກງ 40 1

274 Savannakhet Xepon ກະຫກ 40 1

275 Savannakhet Xepon ໂພນໄຊ 40 1

276 Savannakhet Songkhon ນາກະລ ງ 40 1

277 Saravan Salavanh ກະດບ 40 1

23

No PROVINCE DISTRICT PRIMARY SCHOOL

CHILDREN 3-5 OUT OF ECE

CLASSROOMS TO BUILD

278 Saravan Lakhonpheng ປະຖມສມບນ ນະຄອນເພງ 40 1

279 Saravan Lakhonpheng ມນ ໜອງແຕ 40 1

280 Saravan Lakhonpheng ມນ ດອນຄງ 40 1

281 Saravan Lao-Ngam ນາກະລອນ 40 1

282 Saravan Lao-Ngam ດງຕອງນອຍ 40

283 Saravan Lao-Ngam ທງໂກະ 40 1

284 Champasak Pakxong ຕາໂອດ 40 1

285 Champasak Phonthong ໂນນສ າພນ 40 1

286 Champasak Khong ຫາງດອນຮ 40 1

287 Champasak Khong ຮ ທາດ 40 1

288 Champasak Khong ພແມວ 40

289 Attapeu Sanxai ດາກຊ ມ 40 1

290 Houaphan Meung Khuan ປງກາ 39 1

291 Savannakhet Xepon ແກງຫວງ 39 1

292 Savannakhet Songkhon ຫ ນກອງ 39 1

293 Savannakhet Phalanxai ຊຽງແລໂຄກ 39 1

294 Saravan Lao-Ngam ທງຂາມ 39 1

295 Saravan Lao-Ngam ຫນອງຕມ 39

296 Champasak Phonthong ນາຈານ 39

297 Champasak Phonthong ແກງກາງ 39

298 Champasak Khong ເສດສະຫວນ 39

299 Champasak Khong ຫວໂລງ 39

300 Attapeu Sanxai ດາກລຽມ 39

301 Oudomxay Meung Houn ປະຖມບ ສມບນ ບານດ 38

302 Savannakhet Xepon ສະປອງ 38

303 Savannakhet Songkhon ນາຮງແຂ 38

304 Saravan Toumlan ດອນບງ 38

305 Saravan Lakhonpheng ມນ ພດາວແຈງໃຫຍ 38

306 Saravan Lao-Ngam ຫນອງເລ າລມ 38

307 Saravan Lao-Ngam ຫນອງເລ າເທ ງ 38

308 Champasak Pakxong ທງກະຕາ◌ ຍ 38

309 Champasak Pakxong ຫວຍລ ງ 38

310 Champasak Khong ຫວຊະດ າ 38

311 Champasak Khong ດອນເຫກໄຟ 38

312 Attapeu Sanamxai ຕະເງ າ 38

24

Annex III: Financial Management Status of GPE II and ECE Projects

GPE II Project

70. Disbursement: As of August 26, the percentage disbursed increased by approximately 1%. Only two applications totaling approximately US$98,000 were submitted since its first disbursement in September 2015. The latest application submitted was June 2016.The mission team was informed that the project will be restructured and that expenditure will increase after the restructuring. We strongly encourage that the project prepares as soon as possible budget/forecast of expenditure for the next fiscal year taking into account GoL fiscal year changes. This can also be used to justify the continued use of the remaining DA balance should it become inactive again due to lack of replenishment i.e. no expenditure.

71. Accounting: The Bank had provided no objection to the TOR for ACCPAC accounting software customization since July 2016. However, the mission team was informed that the recruitment of software consultant to assist with customization of ACCPAC is still not yet commenced. ECU informed the bank team that more revision is needed for this TOR. Although there is no significant impact on the current accounting work at this time as the expenditure is still small, further delay could impact the central level workload and delay the piloting/use of software at provincial level.

72. IFR submission is up to date.

73. Next steps:

Responsible department Target date

Appoint project auditors ECU No later than September 30, 2016

Complete recruitment of consultant for software customization

ECU No later than October 30, 2016

Submit IFR for the quarter ended September 30, 2016

ECU and DOF No later than November 15, 2016

Submit withdrawal application for documentation and replenishment

ECU and DOF at least on a monthly basis. The latest application submitted was

since June 2016

Submit audit report and management letter for FY15/16

ECU and DOF No later than March 31, 2017

ECE Project

74. Advance. Outstanding advance as at June 30 is quite significant at US$0.5 million of which approximately 60% ($0.3 million) outstanding for more than three months. Same issue was noted in the previous mission and previous year’s audit. Long unliquidated advances impacts project’s liquidity, completeness of reported expenditure (expenditure could be understated), and increases the risk of ineligible expenditure and recovery of unused advances as documentation may be lost or misplaced. Hence, the mission team strongly recommend that ECU closely review and monitor the items and follow up with respective departments for liquidation. Where possible, minimize handling of cash i.e. have some payments made by DOF directly to the supplier rather than given as cash advance. The mission team requested that the ECU/DOF prepare a monthly liquidation report and share with the World Bank team on a monthly basis, ideally no later than the 15th of the next month.

75. External audit. Audit report and management letter for FY15 were submitted two weeks later than the due date. To

ensure the audit work is carried out timely and report submitted by the due date, we highly recommend ECU/DOF to start discussion on the planning for this year’s audit as soon as possible. Both audit report and management letter is due for submission to the World Bank by March 31, 2017.

76. Due to the change in the government’s fiscal year from FY17, it has been agreed that FY16 audit will cover the

period of 12 months to September 30 (following the old fiscal year). FY17 project audit will over the period of 15 months from Oct 1, 2016 to December 31, 2017. The subsequent year audits will then cover 12 months from

25

January to December. We recommend the ECU/DOF to review the TOR and make revision to the audit contract where necessary.

77. Financial reporting. IFRs have been submitted but not timely. Submission time for June quarter IFR has improved

but still with slight delay. Next IFR for the quarter ended September will be due on November 15, 2016.

78. Asset management. Some office equipment and motorbikes have been purchased. However, asset register is not yet completed at the time of this mission. It is currently being updated. The mission team strongly recommend that asset register be updated urgently to include those items, their locations etc. This is to ensure that the asset whereabouts are known.

79. Accounting software. Due to the change in the government fiscal year, the period set in the accounting software

will also need to be changed. The mission team recommends that the ECU/DOF commence discussion with software expert and make necessary contractual arrangement to ensure necessary reconfigurations can be made before the start of the new fiscal year (Jan-Dec 2017).

80. Disbursement. As of September 26, disbursement for IDA grant (H9100) and IDA Credit (53700) is at

approximately 75% and 0% respectively. Disbursement for IDA grant has picked up but still not significant i.e. by 23% since the previous mission. Therefore, the combined disbursement rate for the two financing sources is still considered low. Documentation and replenishment of the designated account has been regular (i.e. monthly). Based on client connection records, Category 4 is now overdrawn by almost 3% of the total category allocation and Category 1 is closed to fully disburse. The mission team recommends that expenditure for Category 1 be claimed up to the undisbursed amount of the IDA grant and any remaining be claimed against the IDA Credit. As for Category 4, the overdrawn should be closely monitored and consultation be made with the World Bank team for any expected overdrawn.

81. Transaction review. The mission team selected some expenditure items for review, covering Withdrawal

Applications #20, 21, 23, and 24. Two key findings are as follows: • Delay in liquidation of advance • Delay in making payment to consultants. Delay in payments to suppliers or consultants could impact the reputation

of the project and the willingness of suppliers/contractors to transact with the project. This is a repeated issue, found in the previous review.

82. Next steps:

ECE Responsible department Target date Disclose FY15 audit report on MOES website

ECU Immediately

Submit the IFR covering the period from July to September

ECU and DoF No later than November 15, 2016

Submit status of advance liquidation together with the IFR

ECU and DoF No later than February 15, 2016

Submit monthly progress report on advance liquidation

ECU and DoF Monthly no later than the 15th of next month

Submit project audit report and management letter

ECU and DoF No later than March 31, 2017

Commence discussion with software expert about configuration necessary for the change in government fiscal year

ECU and DOF As soon as possible

26

Annex IV: Procurement Status of GPE II and ECE Projects

GPE II Project:

83. Procurement Status: The mission discussed progress on implementation of procurement activities of the GPE II project with the ECU. Three individual consultant contracts and one SSS contract were signed. The large QCBS package (USD 1.25 mil.) is at the proposal submission stage, with four month behind schedule. One SSS contract (estimated cost of USD 50,000) for customizing the existing accounting system has not yet had the TOR prepared and shared with the WB. It has been delayed since Nov. 2015, with a revised timeline of July 2016 and no progress so far. This package is essential for having a proper accounting system ready for the SBG disbursement, scheduled early next year. During the mission, two individual consultant packages (FMS Officer and International consultant to support management of SBM implementation) were discussed and agreed for removal from the procurement plan.

84. The draft School Black Grant (SBG) Manual has been reviewed and comments provided to ECU in May 2016. The

SBG has been finalized and translated into Lao language for the SBM TOT (19-23 September) and national SBM training (from October 2016 – March. 2017).

85. With over two years elapsed since project preparation when the procurement plan was first agreed (August 2014),

there were four individual consultant contracts and one SSS audit firm contract signed. The progress has been very slow, with some improvements from the last mission of February 2016.

86. Staffing: Additional national procurement consultant was hired to handle GPE II procurement and was on board

since August 016. Similar to ECE, all procurement activities are handled by the consultant team (international and national) who report to the Project Director through the Deputy Project Director. ECU has no plan to assign the government staff to handle the project’s procurement due to the limited resource and capacity experience.

87. Next steps:

• The revised procurement plan will be submitted for the Bank’s no objection by October 14, 2016.

• The Technical Evaluation Report of Package C3/4 will be submitted for the Bank’s no objection by Oct. 17, 2016.

• Draft TOR and SSS justifications for Package C-11 (TA to customize the existing account system to set up additional account code for GPE II) to submit for no objection by Oct. 20, 2016.

ECE Project: 88. Procurement Status: Procurement progress has been significant. Three NCB goods packages are underway (one

will be signed within this month; the remaining two are under final stage of evaluation). Three shopping contracts, and two international individual consultant’s contracts have been signed and the consultants are currently on board. There are two individual consultant contracts slightly behind schedule. The total committed amount is around USD 1.3 million.

89. The ECE project is under the process of restructuring, with one additional NCB planned (Toy Libraries, merged

with previously included ECE teaching and learning kits – with estimated total cost of USD 364,000) and two additional QCBS packages of consulting firms (USD 600,000 each) to be procured after the restructuring.

90. In order to advance the procurement process, the ECU will submit the updated draft procurement plan including the

additional packages for the Bank’s no objection in principle by mid October 2016 latest. The draft TORs and REOIs of the two additional QCBS consulting firm packages will also be submitted by mid-October 2016. The proposed list of the ‘Toy Libraries package’ needs to be shared with the task team for review, comments and proposed approach for consolidation and harmonization of the items included in the package. It is expected that the draft bidding documents will be launched by mid-October, 2016.

27

91. 250 pre-primary classrooms have been completely constructed. The task team will add into the scope of work for the monitoring team to randomly check the documents kept at the provincial level and report whether the procurement procedures have been followed as agreed in the CBC Operations Manual. Such findings which will be part of the team’s report, to be provided by December 2016.

92. With the above progress of the procurement carried out by the ECU during the past six months, the WB mission is

pleased to upgrade the procurement performance. However, there are still challenges ahead related to the above described additional large procurement packages. The performance will re-assessed during the next implementation support mission.

93. Staffing: The Project has full time national procurement assistant and one intermittent international procurement

consultant. The ECU has hired one additional national procurement assistant separately for GPE II to share the work load. All procurement activities are handled by the consultant team (international and national) who report to the Project Director through the Deputy Project Director. ECU has no plan to assign the government staff to handle the project’s procurement due to the limited resource and capacity experience. The mission still encourages the ECU to assign the government staff to work and get the knowledge transferred from the consultants.

94. Next steps: The following documents will be submitted for the Bank’s no objection by September 30, 2016:

• Updated draft procurement plan.

• Draft TORs and REOIs of two new QCBS

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Annex V. Results Framework of the Early Childhood Education Project

PDO Statement: The objective of this project is to increase coverage and improve the quality of early childhood education services for 3 to 5-year-olds in target districts.

Project Development Objective Indicators

Core Cumulative Target Values Data Source/ Responsible

for

Indicator Name Unit of

Measure Baseline

(2013/14) YR1

2014-15 YR2

2015-16 YR3

2016-17 YR4

2017-18 End Target Frequency Methodology

Data Collection

Net enrollment rate of 3 and 4-year-olds in target districts (disaggregated by gender)

Percent 11.4

F: 11.8

13.9 F: 14.2

16.3 F: 16.6

20.4

F:21.1

18.8 F: 19 To be

measured in

September 17

21 F: 21.4

23.7 F: 23.8

Yearly EMIS EMIS

Net enrollment rate of 5-year-olds in target districts

(disaggregated by gender)

Percent 42.6

F: 43.3

49 F: 49.6

55.5 F: 55.9

59.8

F:60.9

62 F: 62.3

To be

measured in

September 17

68 F: 68.6

74.9 F:75.0

Yearly EMIS EMIS

ECE Education Quality Standards designed and

endorsed Yes/No No No No No

Endorsed by

MoES Yes/No ESQAC ESQAC

Number of classroom observation reports submitted by

the ECE officers to the principals

Number 0 19 0

38 0

57 0

76 95 Yearly DPPE DPPE M&E

Network

Intermediate Results Indicators

Indicator Name Core Unit of

Measure Baseline YR1 YR2 YR3 YR4 End Target Frequency Methodology

Data Collection

Number of beneficiaries (number) of which female (%)

(Bank Core indicator) Number

0 F: 0%

6,140 F: 50% 2,500

F:1023 = 41%

12,280 F: 50% 2,500

F:1023 = 41%

18,420 F: 50% 27,964

F:12,500=44%

24,560 F: 50%

30,700 F: 50%

Yearly

DPPE M&E Network/ECU

DPPE M&E Network/ECU

Number of VEDC members trained in Community Awareness

Campaign Number 0

1400 0

2800 0

3500 0

3,600 Yearly DPPE M&E

network/ECU DPPE M&E

Network/ECU

Number of VHVs trained in Number 0 200 420 520 520 Yearly DPPE M&E DPPE M&E

29

Community Awareness Campaign

0 0 0 network/ECU Network/ECU

Number of additional pre-primary classrooms constructed

Number 0 83

130 83

120 84

250 250 Yearly

DPPE M&E network/ECU

/EMIS

DPPE M&E Network/ECU

Number of pre-primary teachers receiving pre-service training

Number 0 200 200

200 200

200 200

200 Yearly DPPE M&E

network/ECU DPPE M&E

Network/ECU

Number of pre-primary teachers receiving in-service training

Number 0 50

0 0

450

64 500 Yearly

DPPE M&E network/ECU

DPPE M&E Network/ECU

Number of caregivers trained Number 0 96 0

0 0 96 Yearly DPPE M&E

network/ECU DPPE M&E

Network/ECU

Number of children aged 3 to 5 years received medical screening

Number 0 340 0

680 0

1020 0

1360 1700 Yearly DPPE M&E

network/ECU DPPE M&E

Network/ECU

Number of school gardens established

Number 0 50 0

150 0

250 0

300 306 Yearly NSMP NSMP

30

Annex VI. Results Framework of the Second Global Partnership for Education Project

The objective of the project is to support the Government of Lao PDR in improving pre-primary and primary education quality.

This will be done by: (i) providing additional funding at school, district and provincial levels, as well as strengthening overall capacity to manage these resources to achieve minimum education quality standards; and (ii) enhancing the teaching and learning environment in schools through improved teaching practices, instructional resources and analytical products to support early grade literacy.

Project Development Objective Indicators

Cumulative Target Values Data Source/ Responsibility for

Indicator Name Core Unit of Measure

Baseline (2014/15)

YR1 YR2 YR3 YR4 End Target Frequency

Methodology Data Collection

Percentage of schools that meet the minimum quality of service delivery2

Percentage TBD

30 Not measured

by DESB

50 80 80 Yearly EMIS, FRS, DOI

DESB and reported to ECU

Percentage of Grade 2 students in pilot schools who cannot read a single word (male)

Percentage TBD3 Premature to

measure 15

Baseline (YR1), end-line YR4)

RIES RIES

Percentage of Grade 2 students in pilot schools that cannot read a single word (female)

Percentage TBD Premature to

measure 15

Baseline (YR1), end-line YR4)

RIES RIES

Percentage of Grade 1 and 2 teachers in pilot schools who show improvement in teaching practices4 (measured through objective classroom observations)

Percentage 0 0 Premature to

measure 0 80 80

Baseline (YR1), end-line YR4)

RIES RIES

Intermediate Results Indicators

Cumulative Target Values Data Source/

Responsibility for

Indicator Name Core Unit of Measure

Baseline YR1 YR2 YR3 YR4 End Target Frequency Methodology Data

Collection

2 The minimum quality of service delivery is defined as meeting a set of minimum education quality standards. For a full list of these standards, see Annex 2. 3 This figure is based on the EGRA in 2012, which includes a different sample of schools. 4 See Annex 2 for a list of dimensions that will be evaluated in classroom observations.

31

Direct project beneficiaries (number) of which female (%)

X Number 0 0 1,200,0005 EMIS, DOI ECU

Component 1

Percentage of schools in 80 districts with SDPs meeting minimum quality6

Percentage N/A

Premature to

measure 80 Yearly DESB, DPPE, ECU DESB

Percentage of schools receiving grants with budget information publicly available to communities

Percentage N/A Premature to

measure 80 Yearly DESB, DPPE, ECU DESB

Percentage of supported VEDCs meeting at least twice per school year

Percentage N/A

Premature to

measure 100 Yearly DESB, DPPE, ECU DESB

Number of VEDCs members receiving capacity building on SBM7 disaggregated by gender

Number 0

Premature to

measure 17,900 Yearly DESB, DPPE, ECU

DESB, DPPE, ECU

Number of school principals and head of schools receiving capacity building on SBM8, disaggregated by gender

Number 0

Premature to

measure 8,900 Yearly

GPE project monitoring

MoES, DP

Number of schools receiving government block grants9

Number 8,900 8,900

8,900

8,600 – all

primary schools

8,900 8,900 8,900 Yearly GPE project monitoring

MoES, DOF

Number of schools receiving complementary GPE block grants

Number 0

5,500 Premature to

measure 5,500 8,900 8,900 Yearly

GPE project monitoring

MoES DOF

Number of districts with annual costed district education development plans

Number N/A N/A

50 0

80 148 148 Yearly DESB DESB and GPE Project Monitoring

Component 2

Percentage of trained principals and PAs in pilot schools who observe lessons and provide feedback to teachers

Percentage N/A Premature to

measure 80 Yearly

Pedagogical advisors in DESB

DESB

5 Including new students coming into the system during the project implementation. 6 The quality of the SDP will be assessed by the DESB using objective criteria: Level 1 defined as basic plan with objectives and action plan (minimum for SBG); Level 2 defined as SDP based on problem analysis; and Level 3 defined as a more comprehensive plan that links analysis to strategies to monitoring and review. 7 Includes only those receiving capacity building from the project. The training includes disability and inclusion awareness. 8 Includes only those receiving capacity building from the project. 9 Minimum conditions as defined as schools having a completed SDP, VEDCs meeting 3 times a year related to school planning, schools having a school budget by semester, and schools having financial reports

each semester.

32

Number of Grades 1 and 2 teachers trained as a part of project interventions, disaggregated by gender

Number 0

Premature to

measure 400 Yearly Project M&E DTTE

Number of pilot schools provided with kit of instructional materials for Grades 1 and 2

Number 0

Premature to

measure 80 Yearly Project M&E RIES

Number of pedagogical advisors and school principals trained as a part of project interventions, disaggregated by gender

Number 0 Premature to

measure 120 Yearly Project M&E DTTE

Evaluation framework for reading instruction in Lao language to ethnic students developed and submitted to MoES

Yes / No 0 Premature to

measure

Framework submitted

Discrete Project M&E RIES

Component 3

Number of district education officers trained in financial management, disaggregated by gender

Number 0

Premature to

measure 148 Yearly Project M&E MoES, DOF

Disability related indicator piloted for inclusion in sector statistics

Yes / No 0 No

No No

No Yes Yearly EMIS EMIS

33

Annex VII. GPE II and ECE Projects: Social and Environmental Safeguards Compliance

95. On the basis of the findings of the safeguard mission to the ECE projects conducted in Savannakhet and

Champasack provinces during April 26-29, 2016 and information provided by the ECU during this full

implementation support mission, both the GPE II and ECE projects have complied with safeguards requirements as

described in the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) and Ethnic Group Development Plan (EGDP). There was

no major safeguard issue identified. However, the safeguard implementation status with required information were

neither documented in the progress report nor separate notes provided for the Bank’s review.

Social safeguard:

96. EGDP was largely complied by the project in those communities where preschool buildings are attended by

children of mono and multiple ethnic groups. To improve and facilitate effective teaching and learning at the pre-

schools, 85 out of total 200 local candidates, who can speak the ethnic languages and understand the cultures well,

were selected to attend the Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) At the end of TTC course, these young teacher

trainees are expected to become qualified preschool teachers and will prepare the 5-year old kids to overcome with

transition to formal schooling in primary school grade 1. Visualized materials and equipment provided by the

project, DESBs and locally mobilized by the communities were used for effective teaching and learning in the

classrooms. There was no issue related to ethnic representation in the Village Education Development Committee

(VEDC), community participation in the preschool construction and project benefit distribution reported. As of the

reporting date, 5,840 ethnic kids under 3-5 years of age or almost half of total 12,328 beneficiaries have enjoyed

new preschool facilities and improved learning environment supported through the ECE.

97. All preschools visited were built with latrines and water supply schemes (WS) - boreholes constructed with electric

pumps installed. The water supply scheme was provided to supply water for cleaning the sanitation facilities and

school gardening. The mission recommended that preschool teacher and school principal should educate children on

basic hygiene and sanitation (such drinking treated or boiled water) with a warning sign displayed. The quality of

water from the WS provided to school is required to be tested and certified by the Provincial Health Office or

treated as per the UNICEF and WHO guideline.

98. For the purpose of effective monitoring and reporting on the result of EGDP implementation, the mission reiterates

its recommendation that ethnic and gender disaggregated data is required to be entered and processed in the project

information system and that a section of safeguard implementation status with supporting data to be provided in the

project progress report submitted to the World Bank for review. The required information should include the EGDP

implementation status, possible issues, concerns or feedback raised by the project beneficiaries, number of ethnic

kids enrolled in the preschools and number of ethnic preschool teachers out of total beneficiaries supported by the

project.

Environmental aspect:

99. The schools visited previously show no signs of environmental impacts resultant from the construction works. In

addition, the schools observed that were under construction were notable for having construction workers provided

and wearing proper PPE safety equipment (with the exception of steal capped boots) by safety standards in the

country this is very progressive. However, whilst the project did have what the project called a screening form (in

both English and Lao languages) but this was yet to be actually implemented as a monitoring tool. It is understood

that the form was developed too late for them to use prior to the construction taking place. In addition, the form was

considered to be overly complicated for rural Lao PDR and no training was provided on its use. The screening form

also appeared complicated and would have proved problematic in capturing the potential impacts and appropriately

managing them. It now seems unlikely that more construction activities will be financed under the ECE project but

repair work may be financed. In this case, the screening process should be updated so that it covers, initial

screening, the active work period and operation.

34

100. The schools visited were mostly clean waste usually being burned someway from the school and play areas. Given

the lack of adequate waste management facilities in these rural areas, this is normal practice in such circumstances.

However, there is the opportunity currently being missed to segregate glass, cans and plastics for recycling.

Recycling traders would pay small fees and collect directly, this could provide additional income for the school for

materials as well as avoid burning such materials. In addition, kids would learn at an early age about waste

management and recycling.

101. As noted above, the water supply systems and latrines where adequate the distance between such facilities was also

sufficient so the groundwater contamination would be avoided. There was some repair work required that would

prevent source water being depleted through leakages. The latrine systems were all fitted with ventilation pipes with

suitable design to avoid bad odors being an issue close to the schools.

102. Whilst it is less of a concern, the project should still check and review its procedures for coordination of UXO

clearance activities required in the project as questions in this regard appeared vague. It is recommended that the

client check this as a precautionary measure.

103. At the Paksong Primary school in Paksong district, the school buildings were very close to coffee plantations which

could be dangerous to the children if chemical pesticides are being sprayed or chemical fertilizers being used. The

water table used for supply water could be contaminated and airborne chemicals could be harmful for the kids. The

school authorities said that chemicals were not being used but that should be checked.

Recommendations:

104. A new review process will be initiated at the start of the October. This will include:

• Review and assess environmental monitoring needs in line with the future project developments. (Meet with the

client to assess their needs and propose an outline – As soon as possible. Meetings are now being set up for next

week.)

• Check the UXO and coffee issues mentioned above (NRA have been consulted previously and

• Organize a field trip to assess reporting needs relative to environmental safeguards prior to the new 300 classrooms

being constructed.

• Develop an appropriate monitoring system for environment.

• Provide training as required.

105. It is further suggested that the client considers how waste management can be incorporated into school training

program perhaps leading to small recycling projects (plastic bottles, tin cans etc.) perhaps as a pilot. This too will be

assessed during the field mission.