World Bank Girls' Education and Women's Livelihoods (GEWEL) 2020-2028

Below a summary of implementation progress during 2024 by component: Component 1: Foundational Social Cash Transfers and Nutrition As per 2024 1.31 million households continue to receive regular cash transfer, representing approximately 39% of population and 82% of the extreme poor, exceeding end project targets. Subcomponent 1.1: Nutrition Sensitive Foundational Social Cash Transfers. Four districts for the nutrition cash top up program were selected Kawambwa, Mumbwa, Monze, and Chibombo and the caseload for potential beneficiary targeting in the four selected districts has been completed. The Zambia Integrated Social Protection Information System (ZISPIS) has refined to accommodate the new households eligible for nutrition cash top ups. Subcomponent 1.2: Nutrition Specific Activities for Demand Creation and Service Provision. The MoH has selected two districts, Monze and Chibombo, for nutrition specific interventions. A rapid assessment of nutrition service gaps has been conducted. The MoH is in the process for procuring anthropometric equipment, as well as key nutrition supplies, such as multiple micronutrient supplementations and micronutrient powders. Component 2: Keeping Girls in School and Beyond. By 2024 the KGS initiative has enrolled 173,311 girls in secondary schools from extremely poor SCT households in 65 districts, exceeding by nearly 120 percent the target of 80,000 girls. A Beneficiary Satisfaction Survey found that 77 percent of the KGS girls were satisfied with the initiative. The main reason for dissatisfaction was related to the value of the education grant, whose real value eroded over time due to inflation. GEWEL was also less successful at increasing the share of beneficiaries progressing to the next grade, largely due to the poor quality of education overall in the country, an exogenous factor outside the scope of the project. Still, attendance for KGS girls improved by 24 percent between 2020 and 2024, and the share of KGS beneficiaries progressing to the next grade stood at 61 percent, well above the national progression rate of 42 percent during the same period. The number of KGS learners in tertiary institution continues to increase, and a total of 1,714 KGS girls are being supported in tertiary institutions across the country through the Tertiary Scholarship for KGS. The Case Management System also continues to be scaled up and is currently being implemented in a total of 83 districts, with 18 having been financed from the Government of Republic of Zambias (GRZ) budget. The construction of 8 weekly boarding facilities that was started with GRZ financing is ongoing and scheduled to be completed in 2025. The success of the KGS Empowerment Pilot in comparison has been more mixed. An impact evaluation showed fairly little impact of the Empowerment Pilot, particularly on overall violence in schools, but also in terms of experience of GBV, knowledge and discussion, attitudes and norms, school climate, wellbeing, agency, and school. Nonetheless, the pilot represented an important step in addressing school related GBV, and the GRZ is committed to applying the learnings from the IE to refine the design and implementation prior to the planned scaleup. Component 3: Supporting Women's Livelihood for Climate Smart Productive Inclusion. The SWL has provided a comprehensive livelihoods package to 144,297 women from the poorest in households 81 districts, exceeding the target of 129,400 women and reaching 750,344 indirect beneficiaries. An impact evaluation of the SWL program in 2024 found that it decreased extreme poverty by 30 percent. In the long term, the full package increased overall consumption by 38 percent, food consumption by 35 percent, and nonfood consumption by 52 percent. It also improved food security, with a 23 percent reduction in months of insufficient food. Further, the likelihood of self employment increased by 48 percent and household income by 62 percent, driven by higher profits (30 percent) and savings (234 percent). Ninety nine percent of SWL beneficiaries were both satisfied with the intervention and had completed the life and business skills training. Moreover, 99 percent of SWL beneficiaries had also received the productive grant, delivered fully through the digital payment system, and 92 percent of women participated in formed savings groups. The savings groups were found to have become foundational for village banking in many communities, as they began to lend to nonmembers also, expanding credit to others more broadly. They were also noted have greatly supported members in mitigating against the worst shocks following the 2024 drought. Consequently, efforts were undertaken to digitize the savings groups to enable deeper financial inclusion and security. Many savings groups were also transitioned to cooperatives, supporting greater access to other sources of financing and better negotiating powers with aggregators. Component 4: Institutional Strengthening and Systems Building for Cash plus Delivery A national GBV Call Center has been established. Important steps towards a fully fledged Social Registry were taken Cabinet memorandum seeking approval for the development of the Social Registry was approved and a Social Registry Concept will be developed, which will include details on the governance structure, hosting arrangements, and data sharing measures. A Digital Strategy for Social Protection, and ICT Security Guidelines for MCDSS have been finalized.

Project Development Objective To support the Government of Zambia to increase access to livelihood support for women and access to secondary education for disadvantaged adolescent girls in extremely poor households in selected districts. Project Outcomes 1. Increase access to livelihood support for women 2. Increase access to secondary education for disadvantaged adolescent girls Project Components/Intermediate results 1: Supporting Women's Livelihoods 2: Keeping Girls in School - 2a: Keeping Girls in School - 2b. Social Cash Transfer 3. Institutional Strengthening and Systems Building - 3a: Gender Equality and Gender-Based Violence - 3b: Social Protection