World Bank launches Third Emergency Services Support Project for the PA – World Bank press release

Third Emergency Services Support Project

March 2008 – With the aim of supporting the Palestinian Authority in mitigating the deterioration of essential public services in education, health and social services, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved on December 13, 2007, the launching of the Third Emergency Services Support Project (ESSP 3).

The ESSP 3, financed through a US$10 million grant from the Trust Fund for Gaza and West Bank, is an integral part of the PA’s emergency program in the social sectors.  It accompanies the ongoing Bank administered ESSP Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF); both mainly finance non-salary recurrent expenditures. These companion operations will help maintain essential social services operational during the protracted crisis that the West Bank and Gaza is undergoing.  The design of ESSP 3 will allow faster disbursement than has been possible under previous ESSP phases as the bulk of disbursements will be against recurrent expenditures, not subject to Bank procurement guidelines. The ESSP3 complements the new PRDP-Trust Fund by providing a quick disbursing mechanism for the social sectors in order to ensure continued and uninterrupted provision of essential social services.

The PA’s emergency program in social services was launched with the help of the World Bank in 2002 with the aim to provide a means of rapidly channeling donor funds to priority social services in a coordinated manner. The Bank and donors have provided support for the past five years through ESSP 1, ESSP 2 and the ESSP MDTF.  Over the 2002 to 2007 period these mechanisms have disbursed over USD 220 million for the non-salary recurrent expenditures. Implementation arrangements have included design elements to compensate for institutional weaknesses in the participating agencies, while maintaining rigorous fiduciary and implementation procedures acceptable to the World Bank.

The ESSP 3 project consists of four components. Component 1 will finance the non-salary operating costs for education services, costs of general examinations and support to higher education institutions. Component 2 will finance the non-salary operating costs for health services including non-medical recurrent expenditures, and treatment in private and non-governmental clinics. Component 3 will finance the non-salary operating costs for the Ministry of Social Affairs, and its shelters, rehabilitation and treatment centers. The final component will support project management and monitoring, namely the Project Coordinating Unit in the Ministry of Finance and its incremental operating and audit costs.

The outputs of the project will be of significant importance to the social welfare of the Palestinian people. In line with its primary objective, the project will help maintain a network of public social services available to all Palestinians and in particular the poor and most vulnerable as they are particularly dependent on public education and health systems.  Its support for social care services is of special importance – it directly addresses the needs of individuals who often are most at risk – abandoned children and youth, the unskilled, the elderly and refugees from precarious family situations.  In this, the series of ESSP projects have already garnered much appreciation among the Palestinian population, and this project builds on, and is an important extension of, those experiences.

Beyond its direct effects on the target population, it generates other tangible outcomes that are beneficial to the broader economy.  It will continue to create an enabling environment that draws in donor resources and helps focus those resources on areas that are essential for maintaining the Palestinian social networks and civil society.  At the same time, serving as a catalyst for donor funds, it becomes an important instrument for the PA to channel such funds quickly for the social services to meet emergency needs, including ones that can be expected to have a large impact on the general well-being of the population and, just as importantly, on maintaining, and possibly enhancing, human capital development for future growth.