Reimbursable Advisory Services in Romania

What are Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS)?

Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS) are customized advisory services offered by the World Bank to both borrowing and graduate members. RAS are requested and paid by clients through their own or third-party resources. Through RAS, the World Bank helps clients to design or implement better policies, strengthen institutions, build capacity, and inform development strategies or operations, with a view to achieve the development goals of each client.

How clients benefit from this instrument?

Through RAS, clients benefit from global knowledge and expertise that are mobilized by the World Bank. RAS are flexible and easily adapted to meet country needs, and can take many forms, including the following:

• Analytical and diagnostic work
• Policy advice
• Donor aid coordination
• Impact evaluation
• Program implementation support
• Delivery of training
• Knowledge sharing and peer learning

Eligible Clients

RAS clients are non-commercial and include:

• Central governments
• Subnational governments
• State-owned enterprises
• Non-governmental and other not-for-profit organizations (such as chambers of commerce)
• Multilateral institutions, including development banks and regional organizations

Providing global expertise to Romania through Reimbursable Advisory Services

Evolution of portfolio in Romania

In 2010, the World Bank launched the first RAS activity in Romania at the request of the government. The objective was to help the government to identify and tackle main challenges in removing structural obstacles to the economy, while ensuring that prosperity reaches all citizens, particularly the poor and vulnerable.

To this end, the RAS program started with a set of functional reviews (FR) in key sectors of the economy that have set the stage for Romania’s structural reform program and contributed to meeting the standards and norms of the European Union (EU).

From 2011-2015, the World Bank supported the Government in implementing selected actions derived from the FR and helped advance preparations for the 2014-2020 programming period of the EU. This was achieved under a first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Bank and the Government of Romania in January 2012.

In January 2016, a second MoUwas signed with the government to continue its partnership on modernizing the country's public administration and supporting structural reform.

In July 2021, a third MoU followed and was signed between the World Bank and the Government of Romania for the continued provision of advisory services through 2029. Under this most recent MoU, the World Bank will support the Government in its continued efforts to converge to EU standards, advance shared prosperity, alleviate poverty, promote social inclusion, and strengthen the overall capacity of the public administration.

Ongoing portfolio in Romania

The current RAS portfolio has 33 RAS agreements for $ 116.55 million under implementation by mid-2021.

The ongoing RAS portfolio supports improvements in key public administration functions through capacity building and support, as well as the implementation of strategies and assessments in priority sectors. It currently includes technical assistance engagements in the following 10 key development sectors: Urban, resilience and land; Governance; Water; Macroeconomics, trade, and investment; Agriculture and food; Energy and extractives; Health; Social protection and jobs; Finance, competitiveness and innovation; Digital development; and Energy and extractives.

Completed Reimbursable Advisory Services

By October 2021, the World Bank had delivered over 60 RAS in Romania and worked with over 30 public institutions to provide technical support in sectors and areas that are vital to economic and social development in Romania. Access the knowledge and data generated so far by navigating the below list of resources available for completed RAS and grouped by World Bank Global Practices.

Education

• Assistance to the Ministry of National Education and Science Research for capacity development for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of education strategies (P157670)
• Assistance to the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research for informed decision-making on investments in infrastructure (P155507)
• Technical assistance to enhance quality assurance in the higher education system in Romania (P157508)

Environment

• Climate change and low carbon green growth program (P145943)

Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation

• Support on the implementation of the national strategy on digital agenda for Romania 2014-2020 (P152542)

Social Protection and Jobs

• Assistance to the Ministry of European Funds to inform project evaluation regarding marginalized community analyses (P161287)
• Provision of inputs for the preparation of a draft national strategy and action plan on social inclusion and poverty reduction (2014-2020) (P147269)
• Study on diagnostics and policy advice for supporting Roma integration in Romania (P145035)
• Support to the project on „Increasing the efficiency of interventions within the Ministry of Labor and Social Justice and its coordinated structures” (P166070)

Governance

• Support to the implementation of the public Procurement Strategy (P158629)

Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment

• Strengthening planning and budgeting capacity and supporting the introduction of performance budgeting (P156889)

Urban, Resilience and Land

• A full list of completed RASs in the urban development sector is available at the dedicated webpage, World Bank Urban Development Portfolio Romania.