PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID)
APPRAISAL STAGE
Report No.: AB2858
Project Name
Region
Sector
Project ID
Borrower(s)
Implementing Agency
Environment Category
Date PID Prepared
Date of Appraisal
Authorization
Date of Board Approval
Social Inclusion Project
EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
Other social services (100%)
P100657
REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA
Ministry of Labor and Social Policy
2, Triaditza St.
1000 Sofia
Bulgaria
[ ] A [ ] B [ ] C [X] FI [ ] TBD (to be determined)
February 5, 2007
February 15, 2007
May 3, 2007
1. Country and Sector Background
1.
While Bulgaria has made impressive progress towards long-term stability and
sustained growth over the last seven years, serious challenges remain in addressing
persistent pockets of poverty. As a result of macroeconomic stability policies and structural
reforms, average growth reached the levels of the eight new European Union (EU) Member
States that joined in 2005 (EU8) at about 5 percent per year in 2000-04 (estimated at 5.6 percent
in 2005), and inflation has declined to single digits from hyperinflation levels. Unemployment
also declined from 18 percent in 2000 to below 10 percent in early 2006, but masks continued
low labor market participation. Despite rising living standards, Bulgaria continues to face deep
pockets of poverty and social exclusion.
2.
Poverty and exclusion are associated with low levels of education, large household
size and are heavily concentrated among ethnic minorities, in particular Roma. At the same
time, children from poor households as well as ethnic minorities in Bulgaria receive fewer years
of schooling, predicting their continued exclusion in later life. In 2003, the poverty rate for
households with household heads with primary or lower education was estimated at 28 percent,
compared to 18.3 percent for those with basic education, 8.6 percent for those with secondary
education and 3.7 percent for individuals with tertiary education. Poverty varies with household
size: The poverty rate for households with five and more individuals was estimated at 25.8
percent, compared to 7.9 percent for three member households. 2003 data also indicates a
poverty rate of 63.8 percent for ethnic Roma households, compared to 23.4 percent for Turkish
households and 9.5 percent for ethnic Bulgarian households1.
1
(Multi-Topic Household Survey, 2003)
1
3.
Children and youth from marginalized backgrounds do not benefit from education
as a way out of exclusion. Education attainment rates for individuals from poor or ethnic
monitory background between 20 and 28 years of age show that drop-out after 8th grade has been
a particular problem over the last 10-15 years. At the same time, enrollment data from 2003
confirms that drop-out remained a big problem in 2003 among children from poor backgrounds
and ethnic minorities.
4.
Low educational attainment and high drop-out rates are often linked to insufficient
preparation at the time of entering primary school. Research2 shows that pre-school
preparation fosters cognitive, language and behavioral skills, which are vital to exploit one’s full
potential in later school education. Insufficient school readiness is also associated with the large
enrollment of children from ethnic minorities in schools for children with special needs, while
child poverty and lack of parental preparedness fuel child abandonment and a constant flow of
children into institutional care.
5.
Giving people the same life chances requires investments in early childhood
development (ECD) interventions. Providing opportunities of social mobility to the excluded
requires counterbalancing disadvantages created by family background. This logically means
starting at birth by ensuring access to health and education, in order to let people acquire the
skills, confidence and stamina needed to make their own life choices. The focus of the Social
Inclusion Project (SIP), therefore, is on the early years, from 0-6, to permit the most effective
leverage to policies aimed at social inclusion. There is strong international evidence that
investments in ECD interventions, including health and educational programs, have a substantial
impact on subsequent education outcomes in primary and secondary schooling and yield greater
returns than later investments3.
6.
While enrollment in the mandatory preschool year for children aged 6 is high in
Bulgaria, there are indications that the poor make less use of kindergartens. The
Government of Bulgaria (GOB) has approved a range of strategic documents which
acknowledge the key role of pre-primary education in social inclusion and human capital
formation and call for further measures to expand pre-schooling4. Bulgaria introduced a
compulsory year of preschool in 2003/2004. While it led to an increase in enrollment for children
aged 6 to above 85 percent, data from 2003 indicates that there may be substantial
underutilization of preschool and kindergarten education among children from poor households,
national minorities, in particular Roma, and the population in rural areas 5. There is currently no
quantitative evidence on potential reasons, but international evidence supports possible
explanations including economic constraints, geographical distance, insufficient kindergarten
2
Campbell FA; et al (2002 ) Early childhood education: young adult outcomes from the Abecedarian Project,
Featherstone, H. "Preschool: It Does Make a Difference." Principal 65(1986): 16-17, Sylva, K., Melhuish, E. C.,
Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I. and Taggart, B.(2004),The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE)
Project: Technical Paper 12 - The Final Report: Effective Pre-School Education. London: DfES / Institute of
Education, University of London. Carneiro P. and J. Heckman: Human Capital Policy (with James J. Heckman), in
J. Heckman, A. Krueger, Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies, MIT Press, 2003.
3
Cunha, F., Heckman, J., Lochner, L. & Masterov, D. (2005) Interpreting the evidence on life cycle skill formation
(North Holland, Amsterdam).
4
For example the recently approved National Program for the Development of School Education and Preschool
Education and Preparation 2006-2015 underscores the educative and social role of the kindergarten.
5
MTHS 2003.
2
places and low parental understanding or motivation. For example, in Bulgaria kindergartens
require co-financing from parents, with rates decided by the municipal councils. Some
municipalities are charging rates in excess of the level of child allowance which may result in
discouraging enrollment of children from low income families.
7.
There is limited unused kindergarten capacity in more than 90 percent of Bulgarian
municipalities, but supply constraints in the big cities and at sub-municipal level. Only
about 15 municipalities have an absolute shortage in kindergarten places - mainly highly
urbanized municipalities such as Plovdiv, Burgas or Sofia. While available data suggests that
almost all municipalities in Bulgaria have some unused capacity in municipal kindergartens
which could be made available to some of the children currently not in kindergarten, there are
many municipalities who cannot absorb all low income children aged 3-6. Taking the receipt of
Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) as a proxy for low income, the picture at a national level is
the following: In 2005, 206,243 children were enrolled in kindergarten across all municipalities
in Bulgaria against 228,146 kindergarten places, indicating the availability of 21,903 free places.
At the end of 2006, almost 20,000 children between the age of 3 and 6 were from families
covered by GMI, suggesting that, on aggregate, there is enough capacity nationally to cover all
low income children. However, when looking at the municipal level, only about two thirds of all
municipalities have sufficient capacity to absorb children aged 3-6 years currently enrolled plus
children whose parents receive GMI. This leaves about 80 municipalities who cannot
accommodate additional low income children without expanding supply, out of which about 30
municipalities have a deficit in places of up to 30. Equally, even where there is an excess supply
in kindergarten places at the municipal level, there may be shortages at the sub-municipal level,
e.g. in rural areas within a municipality or and in and around Roma neighborhoods. This would
call for activities to promote coordination and alternative provision of kindergarten and child
care services as well as the expansion of supply through new kindergartens and child care
infrastructure.
8.
Developing a school readiness program ties various elements of Bulgaria’s strategic
social inclusion agenda into an effective, comprehensive and long-term effort to tackle
persistent and intergenerational poverty and exclusion. It builds on the Government agenda
laid out in (i) the Joint Inclusion Memorandum 2005, (ii) the National Report on the Strategies
for Social Protection and Social Inclusion in the Republic of Bulgaria 2006-2008, (iii) the
National Program for the Development of School Education and Preschool Education and
Preparation 2006-2015 and (iv) the Decade of Roma Inclusion Action Plans by “ensuring equal
access to services aiming at prevention of social exclusion and overcoming its consequences,
social inclusion of the most vulnerable ethnic minorities, poverty reduction among children and
equal labor market participation of the groups at risk of poverty and social exclusion”6.
2. Objectives
9.
The Government of Bulgaria aims to promote intergenerational social inclusion by
developing and rolling out nationally a school readiness program to equalize starting
conditions of children entering primary school. In support of this policy agenda, the proposed
project development objective for the Social Inclusion Project is to promote social inclusion
6
National Report on the Strategies for Social Protection and Social Inclusion in the Republic of Bulgaria 20062008, p. 10
3
through increasing the school readiness of children below the age of 7, targeting low-income
and marginalized families, including children with a disability and other special needs. The SIP
will contribute to the sustainability of the school readiness program by supporting the absorption
of European Social Fund financing.
10.
Key performance indicators: In the school readiness framework, the project aims to
achieve the following specific benefits targeted to low-income children:

Improvements in school readiness of children from low-income backgrounds and with a
disability below the age of 7, measured through improvements in cognitive skills,
including command of the Bulgarian language, knowledge of letters and print, and early
reading; and (ii) reduced drop-out from second year of primary school;

Improvements in child welfare, measured by improvements in (i) parenting skills, (ii) the
incidence of child abandonment and institutionalization, (iii) child mortality and (iv)
child nutrition; and

Expansion of coverage of child care services to low income children and children with a
disability below the age of 7, measured by increases in (i) the enrollment of children from
poor households in mainstream kindergartens, preschool and childcare services, (ii) the
enrollment of children with a disability in mainstream kindergarten, preschool and child
care services, (iii) the number of children registered with a general practitioner, and (iv)
the number of children having received a full set of immunization;
3. Rationale for Bank Involvement
11.
Social inclusion of marginalized groups, in particular Roma, and support in
absorbing European Social Funds are areas where strategic Bank involvement is desired
by the Government of Bulgaria. In recent years the Bank has been an important partner of the
Government in addressing social exclusion of the Roma through a range of lending and grants
facilities as well as through the regional Decade of Roma Inclusion initiative. Particularly, the
Bank has been engaged in child welfare reform and deinstitutionalization approaches through the
recently closed Child Welfare Reform Project and a JSDF Grant for Bulgaria on Pre-school
Education for Children in Disadvantaged Communities, and the SIP is aimed at scaling up pilottested child welfare and social service approaches. Moreover, the SIP is a strategic instrument for
the Bank to provide (i) advice on developing effective programs and (ii) initial financing to
support the Government of Bulgaria in absorbing European Social Funds for social inclusion
purposes. The SIP will also complement other Bank operations: the Social Sectors Institutional
Reform Development Policy Loan (SIR DPL) under preparation and the Social Investment and
Employment Promotion Project (SIEP) which promotes poverty targeting of community
initiatives and social infrastructure.
12.
The new Bulgaria Country Partnership Strategy identifies three strategic priorities
(i) productivity and employment, (ii) fiscal sustainability and absorption of EU funds and
(iii) social inclusion. The Social Inclusion Project supports the strategic priorities of the CPS,
which was presented to the Board on June 13, 2006, by promoting social inclusion policies,
supporting the absorption of EU funding and fostering long-term productivity and employment
4
outcomes through human capital development. Social inclusion policies are a key tool in
poverty reduction in Middle Income Countries like Bulgaria, where persistent pockets of poverty
are explained by multiple forms of exclusion. Bank support to a program promoting social
inclusion, therefore, ties with its core mission of poverty reduction in MICs.
13.
Bulgaria acceded to the European Union on January 1, 2007. After accession,
Bulgaria’s social policies and programs are subject to extensive monitoring through the EU’s
Open Method of Coordination (OMC) on social inclusion. At the same time, experience from the
EU8 shows that absorption of EU funds during the first 18 months of membership has been slow
– an important lesson for Bulgaria and one the SIP is can help address.
4. Description
14.
The SIP supports the launch of a nation-wide school readiness program which, if
proven effective, is planned to be rolled out across all municipalities over a multi-year
period. The SIP loan supports the design of the school readiness program and will integrate
municipal social, education and health service projects which are eligible for ESF and contribute
towards the start-up financing of activities in a select group of municipalities. The SIP has the
two specific substantive components, plus a Project Management Component:
15.
Component I: Integrated social and childcare services (EURO 36.59m). Component 1
consists of a menu of community subprojects including services and infrastructure investments
from which the municipality can choose according to its needs. It covers provision of a set of
integrated social and child care services for parents and children from marginalized groups and
children with a disability. All persons involved in delivery will be informed and equipped to
refer parents to the services they need, whether available under this project or through
established public channels, e.g. active labor market programs, therapeutic assistance for
disabled children and others. This service integration effort as well as greater availability of fullday child care is expected to contribute to an increase in employment among low-income
parents. Component I includes the following Subcomponents:
a) Subcomponent I.1 – Programs for parents of children aged 0-3: This subcomponent
targets parents from the moment of conception, and includes parent and familyfocused social services by trained service providers sub-contracted by the
municipality. They consist of an integrated parenting program with semi-formal
orientations in small group settings, individualized counseling and mobile community
outreach. The activities include specifically:

Orientation for (i) marginalized parents of small children and (ii) parents of
children with a disability which would be offered in municipality-provided
facilities, such as school or kindergarten buildings or facilities of other existing
social services or new constructions. Groups of parents will be taught pre-and
post-natal parenting skills, covering a menu of nurturing parenting, cognitive
skills development, preventive health care, hygiene and nutrition for children. The
curriculum will also contain an orientation about all the health and social services
available to children and families, e.g. free health services for the poor against
registration, and pre- and post-natal check-ups. The classes would be delivered by
5
trained parenting specialists, and invited experts. The parenting experts would be
trained up members of the beneficiary community wherever possible. The number
of group sessions are estimated at around 8-10, spanning a period of 4-5 months.

One-to-one parenting counseling for parents with more complex needs and
parents who have completed the program accompanies the orientation. It will be
available also to parents of children aged 3 and above on a demand-driven basis.

Mobile Outreach will be conducted in less accessible communities, e.g. Roma
neighborhoods or remote villages. A team of service providers will enter the
community on a daily basis, identify and contact eligible parents, advise on
services available to them, and provide handholding for those hard to reach.
b) Subcomponent I.2 – Programs for children aged 3-6: This subcomponent covers a
menu of options for municipalities to enhance access to formal kindergarten or child
care services for children from marginalized backgrounds and special needs,
including additional health services and measures to increase the number of childcare
places. It also includes measures to support demand (low income parents to seek child
care) and supply (municipalities to promote access of low income children to child
care). Formal kindergarten and preschool services would be offered in existing
kindergartens and schools, while alternative child care services would be offered in
private or municipal facilities.

Kindergarten fee reduction. In order to incentivize parents in need to send their
children to kindergarten, GMI recipient parents will be stimulated to send their
child to kindergarten by providing access at a discount, i.e. reducing the current
municipal kindergarten tax. Access to the fee reduction is limited to those parents
who simultaneously enroll in training and employment programs offered by the
Employment Agency (EA). The project will compensate municipalities for the
reduced fee.

Family Centers enable (i) interested individuals (including current or former
kindergarten or school teachers or jobseekers) to be child minders in their own
homes or other available municipal buildings under the existing standards for
such social services, and thereby provide about 4-5 childcare places each, or (ii)
interested community-based organizations (CBOs) to offer child care services,
again under the existing standards for social services for children.

Transport. There will be a universal transport offer to parents, with private
minibus services subcontracted by the municipality and accompanied by staff of
the nearest kindergarten to pick up children in the morning and drop them in the
afternoon. This is based on practice introduced in many municipalities in the
frame of school consolidation.

Enhanced health services include examination of children in the kindergarten by
pediatricians twice a year and by a dentist once a year.
6
c) Subcomponent I.3 – Infrastructure and material investments: This sub-component
allows participating municipalities to finance, (i) small infrastructure rehabilitation in
existing or transformed municipal kindergarten or child care service buildings as well
as educational materials, and (ii) to finance the construction of new child care centers
in underserved areas, based on a set of identification and targeting criteria. The
content of the services provided at these centers will depend on the demands of the
municipality and can comprise kindergartens or alternative services. Depending on
the demand for such investments, the project will finance new childcare infrastructure
up to 50 percent of the overall loan volume.
d) Subcomponent I.4 – Training: Training for municipal officials, service providers
and kindergarten staff is an essential precondition to effective social and child care
service provision. Separate for each category of trainees, training will be provided
before services start and would include refreshers and handholding. The training
component includes a range of activities:

Service provider training. There will be training for child care service providers
delivering parenting programs.

Kindergarten staff training. Staff will be trained on how to integrate marginalized
children of poor, culturally segregated or disabled background. They will also
receive training in early disability detection in children.

Child minder training. Child minders and CBO staff involved in child care
provision would receive necessary training for childcare. This will involve
particularly individuals from marginalized communities such as unemployed
mothers in order to provide them with qualified work.
16.
Component II: Capacity-building (EURO 2.41m). Supporting the design and launch of a
national school readiness program, the Social Inclusion Project will also finance necessary
capacity-building activities at the central and municipal level. ESF funding will be available to
finance the large part of local capacity-building activities, but SIP financing would be made
available through this component to ensure quick start-up. Component II includes the following
Subcomponents:
a) Subcomponent II.1 – Local government capacity building: Municipal staff and
social workers working at the municipal level will receive training and capacity
building in three major areas:

inter-agency work, more specifically cross-sectoral cooperation (education,
health, social services as well as social assistance); including the setting-up of
cross-sectoral forums, also with the third sector, and joint agreement of referral
maps and responsibilities. This element will centrally involve the Social Workers
of the Social Assistance Agency (SAA) as pivotal agents of future service
integration. It will also expose the public sector to the working methods of the
third sector, such as case management, and thereby provide a forum for learning
and modernization of the public agencies;
7

sub-contracting of services to and cooperation with NGOs. Discussions and
focus groups with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have revealed a need
for Municipal staff to be sensitized and qualified in this area; and

accessing European Structural and Cohesion Funds: Municipalities face
opportunities for financing social and employment service programs
complementary to the SIP agenda through ESF and social infrastructure
investments through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This
sub-component supports demand-driven capacity-building and support in
developing project proposals.
b) Subcomponent II.2 – Impact evaluation: The SIP would support the development of
a rigorous impact evaluation mechanism to inform program design and report on
program effectiveness. The project would also explore opportunities to promote
impact evaluation capacity in the Ministries of Labor and Social Policy (MLSP) and
Education and Science (MES) for activities in addition to the SIP. The national school
readiness program aims at promoting medium to long-term outcomes, such as an
increase in primary and secondary enrollment of children from marginalized
backgrounds and children with a disability, and improvements in educational
attainments. This implies the need to set both a national baseline with relevant child
welfare and education data and a project-specific impact evaluation mechanism to
evaluate the short-term effects of individual project components and to reveal the
project’s developmental impact prior to a full roll-out. The project will monitor
specific short-term and intermediate outcomes such as numbers of parents enrolled in
courses, numbers of children enrolled in kindergartens and child care centers,
attendance rates, parental behavior as well as identify the impact of the project’s
interventions on a wide range of child well-being measures such as children’s motor,
cognitive and language skills, test scores, health services utilization, food
consumption and nutrition, and child nutritional status.
17.
To ensure smooth implementation, the SIP will also have a small Project Management
Component (EURO 1.00m). This component will include operating costs, training of
implementing agency staff, technical assistance and audits.
5. Financing
Source
Government/ESF
IBRD/IDA
Communities
Total
Financing Plan (EUR m)
Local
56.64
31.48
18.35
106.45
Foreign
15.31
8.52
4.95
28.80
Total
71.95
40.00
23.30
135.25
6. Implementation
18.
The SIP is anchored in Bulgaria’s absorption mechanism for the European Social
Fund (ESF) and agreed with the GOB and the EC. The SIP is part of the Operational Program
8
“Human Resources Development” (HRD OP) which guides the programming of ESF for
Bulgaria and has obtained preliminary approval of the European Commission (Directorate
General for Employment and Social Affairs). The HRD OP is part of an overall structure for
managing European Structural Funds programmed under the National Strategic Reference
Framework (NSRF) 2007-2013 overseen by the Ministry of Finance (MOF). The MLSP is the
managing authority for ESF in Bulgaria, while three intermediate bodies, the EA, Social
Assistance Agency and the Ministry of Education and Science, are in charge of individual
chapters of the Operational Program “Human Resources Development 2007-2013.
19.
The SIP would, therefore, be implemented by the same unit that is responsible for
the management of ESF – the Managing Authority for the European Social Fund, which for
Bulgaria is the Directorate of European Funds, International Programmes and Projects at the
Ministry of Labor and Social Policy. The Managing Authority is a specialized integrated
Government unit, Directorate of MLSP, which will be responsible for all policies and
expenditures made by the ESF in Bulgaria. The Managing Authority is in the process of
obtaining European Commission accreditation for the implementation of the ESF programs –
which is expected to be in place by the time of effectiveness of the SIP.
20.
Municipalities will apply to the Managing Authority with integrated project
proposals chosen from a predetermined menu of social and child care services and needed
infrastructure for the provision of services. SIP addresses municipal capacity constraints to
develop viable and ESF-eligible projects in the following way: Instead of developing projects
from scratch and facing uncertainty as to their ESF eligibility, municipalities can apply under the
SIP for social and child care services activities that have been pre-designed and appraised and
are eligible for ESF financing. These applications take the form of integrated municipal projects
consisting of services and infrastructure investments.
21.
The evaluation of the infrastructure needs will be made according to a set of criteria
that include needs assessment of the municipality, verification of the need for infrastructure
requested, presentation of results from stakeholder consultations and others. The evaluation will
be conducted by the Managing Authority which will call an Evaluation Committee including
representatives of the Intermediate Bodies. The Managing Authority will use the capacity of the
Bulgaria Social Investment Fund (SIF), equally within the structure of MLSP, for guiding and
monitoring the implementation of infrastructure activities across participating municipalities.
7. Sustainability
22.
The Social Inclusion Project supports an agenda comprehensively laid out in
Bulgaria’s and the European Union’s social inclusion strategies. It builds on national
strategic documents such as Bulgaria’s Joint Inclusion Memorandum signed with the European
Commission in 2005 as well as the National Report on the Strategies for Social Protection and
Social Inclusion in the Republic of Bulgaria 2006-2008, the National Program for the
Development of School Education and Preschool Education and Preparation 2006-2015 and the
Decade of Roma Inclusion Action Plans. However, it also supports a recent policy drive
originating from the European Union and expressed at the March 2006 European Council
9
emphasizing the need to tackle the intergenerational dimension of social exclusion and focus on
“giving all children equal opportunities, regardless of their social background”7.
23.
The Social Inclusion Project is anchored in the Human Resources Development
Operational Program 2007-2013, the programming framework for the European Social
Fund (ESF) for Bulgaria. The SIP supports the development of and provides initial financing
for social inclusion programs eligible for ESF financing. Its anchoring in the HRD OP is aimed
at ensuring the sustainability of the SIP-supported services until the end of the ESF programming
period of 2013.
8. Lessons Learned from Past Operations in the Country/Sector
24.
The Social Inclusion Project builds on the experience of the recently closed Child
Welfare Reform Project (CWP) and an associated JSDF Grant which piloted preschool
programs for children from marginalized backgrounds. The CWP financed the establishment
of pilot complex child care facilities in ten pilot municipalities, including daycare centers which
run programs to prevent child abandonment, street children programs and other activities aimed
at children at risk. The parenting program approach supported under the SIP was successfully
piloted under the CWP in a number of sites, revealing the value of sustained engagement of
marginalized parents with small children to raise parenting capacities. In addition, the associated
Bulgaria Child Development in Disadvantaged Communities JSDF grant supported innovative
approaches to promoting access to kindergartens and preschool for marginalized groups. One of
its key lessons was that learning outcomes for children at pre-primary level were most
pronounced when parents were also involved in the activities. Hence the SIP places a strong
focus on involving parents in the child’s development early on – through parenting programs and
outreach to parents of children in kindergarten age. The JSDF experience, however, also
indicates that pre-primary education for children from marginalized backgrounds is a long-term
process and requiring a long-term strategy. Triggering ESF financing (which is available beyond
2013) for this purpose is an important element to ensure a sustained focus on this important
policy area. In addition, the CWP and JSDF experience reveal that there is substantial valuable
knowledge among NGOs and a lot of small scale activities which deserve scaling up to be
evaluated. SIP preparation has involved extensive consultation with civil society groups active in
the field of child welfare for marginalized groups at the local level. In addition, the SIP foresees
the involvement as service providers of NGOs and community-based organizations in delivering
childcare services.
9. Safeguard Policies (including public consultation)
25.
The individual activities under this project are expected to have minimal or no
environmental risks, and the project is categorized as "FI" with potential Category C and
B sub-projects. Three factors ensure that the activities implemented under the SIP project will
not be environmentally damaging interventions:

7
Bulgaria has a strong policy for enforcing environmental regulations, in particular since
Bulgaria’s accession to the EU on January 1, 2007;
Council of the European Union, Presidency Conclusions of the Brussels European Council (23/24 March 2006)
10

The SIP will finance only small infrastructure construction and rehabilitation subprojects,
with minor environmental impacts;

The SIP will benefit from experience accumulated under the Bulgaria Social Investment and
Employment Promotion (SIEP) project and the recently closed Bulgaria Child Welfare
Project in the area of implementing sub-projects according to highest standards of
environmental scrutiny.
26.
The environmental safeguard chapter of the operational manual has been publicly
disclosed on the website of the World Bank Bulgaria Country Office and in the InfoShop.
Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project
Environmental Assessment (OP/BP 4.01)
Natural Habitats (OP/BP 4.04)
Pest Management (OP 4.09)
Physical Cultural Resources (OP/BP 4.11)
Involuntary Resettlement (OP/BP 4.12)
Indigenous Peoples (OP/BP 4.10)
Forests (OP/BP 4.36)
Safety of Dams (OP/BP 4.37)
Projects in Disputed Areas (OP/BP 7.60)*
Projects on International Waterways (OP/BP 7.50)
Yes
[X]
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
No
[]
[X]
[X]
[X]
[X]
[X]
[X]
[X]
[X]
[X]
10. Contact point
Contact: Christian Bodewig
Title: Economist
Tel: 5245+210; (359-2) 9697210
Fax: (359-2) 9712045
Email: [email protected]
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria (IBRD)
11. For more information contact:
The InfoShop
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20433
Telephone: (202) 458-4500
Fax: (202) 522-1500
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.worldbank.org/infoshop
*
By supporting the proposed project, the Bank does not intend to prejudice the final determination of the parties' claims on the
disputed areas
11