Guatemala

The development objective of the Emergency Support for Social Services Project for Guatemala is to preserve health and education services following severe flooding ... Show More + and other natural disasters that took place in Guatemala between May and September 2010. This is the second restructuring of the project to facilitate the disbursement of the remaining loan proceeds within the 2012 budget and improve the monitoring of the project outcomes. The changes include a reallocation of loan proceeds among existing categories as well as a revision of the results framework. The first restructuring, approved in May 2012, extended the project closing date from June 30, 2012 to December 31, 2012, to give the Borrower a full year of project implementation following a delay in the loan's congressional approval. Show Less -

The development objective of the Maternal and Infant Health and Nutrition Project is to support the Government of Guatemala to a) improve maternal and infant health... Show More + in the project's 40 areas of intervention; and b) reduce chronic malnutrition among children younger than two years of age in the rural areas of the 70 municipalities targeted by the project. This project paper includes: to introduce three changes in the project documents as follows: 1) extend the project closing date for five months from December 31, 2012 to May 30, 2013 to allow for the completion of critical activities; 2) reallocate funds among project disbursement categories; and 3) formally revise targets for eight indicators and description of two indicators, as well as include three intermediate results indicators in the results monitoring framework. These changes will i) allow the project to complete the few remaining activities which have been delayed as a result of changes in the Ministry of Health and related modifications in administrative and financial procedures; ii) reassign funds to take into account actual expenditures and the projects future needs; and iii) align certain targets with what can be realistically achieved based on implementation experience and prevailing country context, as well as adjust the description of two indicators: one to specify three programs referred to and the other in order to accurately reflect established reporting practice with World Bank, also include three core indicators in line with World Bank's health, nutrition, and population sector requirements. Show Less -

The development objective of the Rural Economic Development Project for Guatemala is (i) to improve the competitiveness of rural productive supply chains with stron... Show More + g indigenous participation; and (ii) to strengthen the institutional capacity of the public entities participating in the program through the adoption of a territorial management model with indigenous participation. The purpose of this restructuring is to extend the closing date for the project, by 12 months - from February 1, 2013 until January 31, 2014. The extension of closing date will be the third second level project restructuring and the first extension of closing date for this loan. Previous project restructurings were approved on April 7, 2009 and June 30, 2011. Present disbursements amount to US$10,203,618.03 or 34.01 percent of the total loan amount of US$30 million. The project's most recent progress towards achievement of PDO is rated unsatisfactory and implementation progress is moderately unsatisfactory. However, the project objectives continue to be achievable. Of the two PDO indicators, the one related to municipal projects stemming from the participatory process planning has already surpassed and doubled the target. The extension is necessary to allow the project to implement 27 already approved business plans, and seek the approval of more as feasible, enabling the project to reach the other PDO indicator (increase of total sales of the rural productive supply chain partnerships with US$50 million during the project period). The project had a satisfactory audit report in 2011; the 2012 audit report will be financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) (a co-financier of the project). Financial management, procurement performance, and the overall safeguard compliance, continue to be moderately satisfactory. An action plan has been agreed with the client and officially sent to the World Bank on August 20, 2012. The action plan is formulated in 5 steps, the first being an extension of the closing date of the loan for 12 months. The remaining 4 steps of the action plan will be discussed in detail with the client during a mission in November 2012 and specific actions will be improving performance. This will involve a project restructuring related to improving implementing agency performance, reallocation of proceeds and adjustments of intermediate indicator targets. Show Less -

The goal of the Second Rural and Main Roads Project for Guatemala is to contribute reducing rural poverty and build social cohesion by improving and maintaining acc... Show More + ess in rural areas to markets, schools, health centers and other social and economic infrastructure through broadened community participation. By emphasizing beneficiary involvement, the project will assure that local development decisions reflect the needs and priorities of rural communities. The extension is necessary to enable the satisfactory conclusion of an outstanding resettlement issue under the project with the completion of the houses and other structures reconstruction. The actions to compensate affected persons were agreed under the corrective action plan (prepared and disclosed on April 26, 2011, with latest update submitted by the Government dated August 30, 2012). An update of this plan is to be agreed between the Bank and the Government before the current closing date (before September 30, 2012), and will be disclosed in-country and under Bank project reporting. Provision of more time will enable the Government to implement needed actions to ensure the full compensation of affected persons. These actions include the completion of the houses and other structures, and effecting compensation to persons affected by resettlement under the project in accordance with the Bank safeguard policy on involuntary resettlement. This will be the fifth extension of the project closing date. The total cumulative implementation period after this extension will be nine years. Show Less -

The objective of the Emergency Support for Social Services Project for Guatemala is to preserve health and education services following severe flooding and other na... Show More + tural disasters that took place in Guatemala between May and September 2010. The closing date for the project will be extended from June 30, 2012 until December 31, 2012. The loan was approved by the Guatemalan Congress on November 24, 2011, and became effective on December 22, 2011. A retroactive disbursement of US$40 million was made on December 29, 2011, and the request for a second disbursement is currently being prepared. The project implementation has been satisfactory and progress towards achieving the project development objective remains on track. The extension is necessary in light of the delayed Congressional approval and the resulting delay in the effectiveness of the loan. The extension will give the Borrower a full 12 months for implementation of the project. This will be the first extension of the project. Show Less -

The objective of the Education Quality and Secondary Education Project is to improve access to a quality lower secondary education for low income students, especial... Show More + ly in indigenous communities, through improved primary education completion rates for overage students, strengthened flexible lower secondary education modalities and school management. The main changes to the Project and rationale are: (a) revisions to the scope or timetable of some activities, due to: (i) fiscal constraints faced by the Government to absorb in the 2012 National Budget the new positions of Facilitators for Telesecundarias1 recruited in 2011 and to train school councils; (ii) less demand than expected for accelerated primary education classrooms in monolingual and bilingual modalities, and (iii) delays and difficulties to select beneficiaries and distribute scholarships in 2011; (b) the elimination of: (i) nationwide targets for some of the project development objective (PDO) indicators given the Project focus in 196 municipalities; and (ii) changes to targets of some outcome indicators and intermediate result indicators consistent with the changes to Project activities and timetable; (c) a change in Project costs due to a change in Project activities, and cost savings on two of the sub-components; and (d) a reallocation of grant proceeds consistent with the changes to Project activities and costs. Show Less -

The goal of the Second Rural and Main Roads Project for Guatemala is to contribute reducing rural poverty and build social cohesion by improving and maintaining acc... Show More + ess in rural areas to markets, schools, health centers and other social and economic infrastructure through broadened community participation. The closing date for project will be extended from December 31, 2011 until September 30, 2012. The extension is necessary to support the implementation of the Corrective Action Plan to completion and to thus resolve all outstanding cases of involuntary resettlement. This includes principally the execution of contracts currently in the procurement stage to reconstruct houses and structures affected by the secondary road improvements carried out in Huehuetenango department. The extension will also support the completion of ongoing contracts for tertiary road and bridge improvements which will contribute towards a satisfactory outcome for the project as well as the completion of an impact evaluation study. Show Less -

The development objective of the Second Land Administration Project for Guatemala is to foster the process of achieving land tenure security in the project area thr... Show More + ough the provision of efficient and accessible cadastral and land administration services in the project area. The project is the second phase of an Adaptable Program Loan (APL). It was approved by the Board on December 14, 2006 and became effective on May 22, 2008. The closing date is December 1, 2013. The project is implemented by the Registry of Cadastral Information (RIC) with the assistance of a Project Coordination Unit (PCU). This restructuring paper seeks approval for a second Level restructuring of the project. The restructuring is requested to include service delivery contractors as a selection method for individual consultant services, and to allow the use of the latest edition of the procurement and consultant guidelines for the implementation of the project. Progress in project implementation include, among others: (i) securing the operational and administrative autonomy of the PCU; (ii) satisfactorily completing complex international bidding processes for cadastral surveying; and (iii) piloting more efficient and cost-effective processes for the required registry/legal analyses. The project requires the hiring of a number of field technical services provided by individuals for data collection, mapping, digitalization, indexing, and measurement. The implementing agency has also requested to be allowed to use the latest edition of the procurement and consultants guidelines. Show Less -

The goal of the Second Rural and Main Roads Project for Guatemala is to contribute reducing rural poverty and build social cohesion by improving and maintaining acc... Show More + ess in rural areas to markets, schools, health centers and other social and economic infrastructure through broadened community participation. There has been substantial participation of beneficiary communities at all stages of the project. The project has been successful in building planning and implementation capacity at local government level. Due to changes in project design and increases in costs, fewer kilometers of secondary and tertiary roads will have been rehabilitated than originally planned. Since resettlement has taken place in conjunction with some of the secondary road improvement works, the government has prepared and disclosed on April 26, 2011 a remedial action plan in line with Bank guidelines on involuntary resettlement. Further to the government's request the Bank is simultaneously preparing a third amendment to the loan agreement for the purposes of triggering, including the implementation of the remedial action plan. The extension is necessary to support the implementation of the remedial action plan related to involuntary resettlement to completion. The extension will also support the completion of ongoing contracts for tertiary road and bridge improvements which will contribute towards a satisfactory outcome for the project. This will be the third extension of the project closing date. Show Less -

The objective of the Second Rural and Main Roads Project for Guatemala is to reduce rural poverty and build social cohesion by improving and maintaining access in r... Show More + ural areas to markets, schools, health centers and other social and economic infrastructure through broadened community participation. The restructuring is to trigger the involuntary resettlement policy in view of the fact that resettlement has taken place under the project. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) loan in the amount of US$46.7 million was approved by the Board May 6, 2003, and became effective on November 3, 2004. There have been four restructurings of the loan agreement to date: the first, on July 26, 2006, to accommodate a modification to the project description and a reallocation of loan proceeds; the second, on March 23, 2010, to raise the financing percentage of the loan for rural road works given financial constraints in the beneficiary municipalities; the third, on June 28, 2010, to allocate the contingencies in the loan to the categories for rural and secondary road works; and a fourth on November 10, 2010 to accommodate a further reallocation of loan proceeds. At the time of project appraisal, involuntary resettlement was not expected, given that none of the road sub-projects involved significant changes in width or alignment. Careful consideration was afforded to the socio-cultural dimensions of the project in that a social management plan, under the management of Municipal Development Institute (INFOM), was put in place to maximize the positive impacts of the project and to mitigate any adverse effects. In the course of project implementation, however, significant displacement took place as a result of design changes, widening of some sections, and construction of new houses too close to the road. Show Less -