World Bank projects and operations in Chad over the evaluation period were rated, on average, moderately unsatisfactory for development outcomes, with only one project rated satisfactory (figure 3.1). This translates into weak performance in nearly all sectors. The worst outcome ratings were in the agriculture, education, and financial sectors. Sectors that had somewhat better outcome ratings included the information and communication technology; social protection; transportation; and industry, trade, and services sectors. IEG evaluated three of five budget support operations that supported reforms in public administration; social protection; and industry, trade, and services. All were rated moderately unsatisfactory or worse.

Three main factors influenced the low ratings of World Bank projects in Chad. The World Bank’s own self-assessments (Implementation Completion and Results Reports [ICRs]) and IEG validations (ICR Reviews) provide a useful guide to the main issues behind the relatively inadequate project performance. First, the assessments highlight how the government’s long and complex procurement processes contribute to prolonged implementation delays. World Bank teams attempted to mitigate weak management and implementation capacity, but this in itself caused difficulties because of frequent government staff turnover. Implementation delays also resulted from the decentralized nature of projects combined with a low-capacity environment. Second, earlier projects suffered from weak design issues, where there were disconnects between indicators and project results. Third, weak government implementation capacity, particularly for data collection and management, resulted in significant shortcomings and difficulties in attributing projects’ achievement of development objectives.

Figure 3.1. Outcome Ratings of Closed Projects and Operations, FY10–20

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Figure 3.1. Outcome Ratings of Closed Projects and Operations, FY10–20

Source: World Bank Business Intelligence database, December 2020.

Note: FY = fiscal year; IEG = Independent Evaluation Group.

The rest of this chapter provides a more granular assessment of the effectiveness of Bank Group support to Chad. The discussion is organized in relation to the development constraints and drivers of conflict and fragility articulated in the section Main Development Constraints and Drivers of Conflict in chapter 1.1

Weak Governance, Including Weak Public Financial Management

Chad’s institutions and policy performance improved marginally over the evaluation period after sharp declines in the decade before 2010. According to the Worldwide Governance Indicators,2 rule of law and control of corruption improved somewhat over the evaluation period because of, among other factors, strengthened transparency and oversight of the oil sector and ratification and implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The indicator for voice and accountability was essentially unchanged, and regulatory quality deteriorated (figure 3.2). Chad remained near or at the bottom 10 percent of countries for all six World Governance Indicators in 2019. As measured by the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment, Chad’s policies and institutions improved marginally during the evaluation period. Chad’s average overall score rose from 2.4 in 2010 to 2.8 in 2019, still below the 3.1 average for IDA countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.3

Figure 3.2. Worldwide Governance Indicators, Global Ranking

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Figure 3.2. Worldwide Governance Indicators, Global Ranking

Source: World Governance Indicators database, http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/.

Note: Percentile global ranking is the percentage of the 215 countries whose indicators were found to be worse than Chad’s. The WGI data was not available for 2001 for all countries.

Despite consistent engagement, the World Bank’s impact on Chad’s public financial management was modest. This reflected an inability to overcome the challenges of high government turnover, slow procurement, overly complex design, and security challenges. Under the Fiscal Consolidation Program development policy operation (DPO), single-source procurement contracts were not reduced and budget settlement was not accelerated. Under the emergency DPO (approved in FY17), the public wage bill was not reduced by targeted amounts, and there were significant delays in providing oversight of state-owned enterprises and freezing of tax exemptions. In the Second Programmatic Economic Recovery and Resilience development policy financing (DPF; approved in FY19), triggers to improve the efficiency of the public wage bill and state-owned enterprise transparency and oversight were dropped. At the same time, there was some progress. The Public Financial Management Capacity Building Project (approved in FY07) helped reduce delays in budget execution and the number of steps in the expenditure circuit from 12 to 6. This project also resulted in the preparation of quarterly budgetary and financial reports and made some budget information available to the public. The Fiscal Consolidation Program DPO (approved in FY16) reduced the number of ghost workers on the public payroll, improved the procurement code by separating the procurement regulation function from the control function, and reduced some extraordinary spending.

The ISN aimed to improve Chad’s Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Performance score on the quality and timeliness of the annual accounts from a C rating in 2009 to an (ambitious) A rating in 2012. Instead, the 2018 assessment found consistently weak performance of Chad’s public finance management system, with an overall D+ score despite positive results on the computerization of Chad’s expenditure chain, restrictions on extraordinary spending procedures, and adoption of new tax codes. Chad received D ratings for annual financial reports, external audits, in-year budget reports, and extra-budgetary units’ expenditures not recorded in the central government financial statements (exceeding 10 percent of total budgetary expenditure; PEFA 2018). Chad’s best performance was for payroll controls and accounting for revenue, for which it obtained a C+. The 2019 Performance and Learning Review assessed overall progress toward greater public financial management transparency as modest.

The CPF target for reducing arrears accumulation was not achieved. Indeed, the Performance and Learning Review noted that the ratio of the stock of public expenditure arrears to total public expenditure had increased to 8.7 percent of the GDP; by the end of 2018, however, accumulated external arrears were about $63 million (0.6 percent of the GDP), down from $31 million (CFAF 17 billion) in 2017 (IMF 2020b).

World Bank efforts to support improvements in the effectiveness and transparency of hydrocarbon revenue management were partially successful. The World Bank’s Public Financial Management Capacity Building Project (approved in FY07) supported the government’s efforts to audit oil revenues. Government officials indicated that Bank Group–supported training and capacity building on petroleum sector management for staff were useful.4

Guided by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) process, Chad’s governance of the oil sector has seen a meaningful improvement. The World Bank, through funding from the EITI Multi-Donor Trust Fund, supported the creation of a revenue-tracking unit at the Treasury with a mechanism for recording and monitoring payments from extractive companies. Chad joined the EITI in 2010 and became EITI compliant in May 2013. Since April 2018, all oil and gas contracts have been published online by EITI. World Bank technical assistance and lending continued after compliance was achieved, supporting efforts to broaden the scope of EITI reporting, making Chad the first country to include oil transport (the Chad-Cameroon pipeline) and refining (the Djermaya refinery) in its EITI reporting. The World Bank also helped Chad become a leader in publicly disclosing information about oil-backed loans from Glencore and in commodity trading (disclosing information about the sale of oil). Chad provides access to the national oil company’s audited financial statements and detailed quarterly bulletins about the oil sector on the Ministry of Finance and Budget website. The World Bank continues to support the mainstreaming of EITI reporting, including by working to increase engagement with civil society organizations.

Fiscal Sustainability

Timely budget support alleviated the government’s fiscal crisis and prevented fiscal collapse. In 2016, the Fiscal Consolidation Program DPO (and its supplemental financing approved in FY17) provided $130 million in budget support in response to Chad’s public resource needs, which had ballooned because of negative oil price shocks amplified by security challenges. This support enabled Chad’s government to pay public service salaries and maintain core state functions, reducing reliance on more expensive or destabilizing sources of finance and preserving past development gains. The reversal of those gains would have had dire implications for Chad’s development and could have destabilized the region.

World Bank support to fiscal consolidation helped improve Chad’s non-oil primary balance. The Fiscal Consolidation DPOs (approved in FY16) contained prior actions to reduce extraordinary spending, which contributed to bringing Chad’s non-oil primary balance to −4.2 percent of non-oil GDP in 2019, from −28.7 percent in 2010 (IMF 2020a).

There was progress on non-oil revenue mobilization, but it remains volatile. Non-oil revenues were 7.7 percent of non-oil GDP in 2010. In 2013 and 2014, Chad benefited from statutory and exceptional advances from the Bank of Central African States (4.5 percent of non-oil GDP), which temporarily increased non-oil revenues. However, customs revenues fell thereafter due to security disruptions to cross-border trade and a slowdown in demand from Nigeria. The onset of COVID-19 and its economic impacts have likely also had a negative impact on oil revenue, adding to a record of highly volatile revenue developments (table 3.1).

Source: IMF 2011, 2013, 2015b, 2016, 2019b, 2020a.

Note: GDP = gross domestic product.

a. Estimated.

Inadequate Provision of Basic Services

Health Services

The World Bank contributed to a significant improvement in access to and quality of health services in project areas, particularly during the latter half of the evaluation period. During the ISN, the restructuring of the Second Population and AIDS Project (approved in FY10) introduced performance-based financing (PBF) and led to partial improvements in the quality and use of mother and child health services. The proportion of pregnant women receiving prenatal care, children being immunized, and youth ages 15–24 using condoms fell short of the targets because of weak local capacity to collect and manage data and underfunding of PBF toward the end of the project. Only the proportion of births attended by health workers was achieved during this period. The World Bank expanded PBF under the Mother and Child Health Services Strengthening Project (approved FY14), which led to a significant improvement in access to and quality of maternal health. All key indicators—such as access to prenatal care, use of modern contraception, and attended births—exceeded CPF targets (table 3.2).

World Bank financing led to an improvement in the quality of health centers and services in target areas. Under the Mother and Child Health Services Strengthening Project, the PBF provided incentives for health facilities and health care workers in five regions covering 2.17 million people (of which 30 percent were women and girls of reproductive age) to expand coverage and improve the quality of essential health services. The project equipped health care facilities with 155 solar fridges, surpassing the target of 134. As a result, 100 percent of tracer drugs were available in targeted health facilities, exceeding the target of 75 percent. The quality of health services in targeted areas improved from 42 percent to 65.4 percent, exceeding the target of 30 percent.5 Despite this progress, limited government funding for the health sector challenges the sustainability of this model. In 2019, activities supported by PBF stopped when project funding ended and the government was unable to continue support. Indeed, at 4.5 percent of the GDP in 2018, the budget for public health care services was low and below the regional average of 5 percent. This amount represents approximately $32 per capita per year, lower than the average of $40.50 per capita per year for other countries at Chad’s level of income.

Source: World Bank 2013b, 2014b, 2014c.

Note: CPF = Country Partnership Framework; ISN = Interim Strategy Note.

Education

The World Bank contributed to increasing access to primary and secondary education in project areas, particularly in the latter half of the evaluation period. PARSET (approved in FY03) sought to provide 400 new primary school classrooms and 400 blocks of latrines separated for boys and girls to increase enrollment and survival rate to sixth grade. By 2012, the project had exceeded the target by providing 400 new classrooms and 465 latrines. However, the survival rate to sixth grade reversed, dropping from 44 percent to 36 percent in 2012, well short of the 70 percent target. Only two of the eight target regions reached target gross enrollment rates. PARSET Phase II (approved in FY13) reduced the number of targeted regions from eight to six. The project stabilized the mobile payment system by financing salaries for 10,480 community teachers by 2020, surpassing the target of 7,000. According to the project’s impact assessment (World Bank 2020d), 75 percent of community teachers believed that the payments motivated their attendance, which in turn improved the primary school completion rate from 37 percent in 2011 to 63 percent in 2020, surpassing the target of 43 percent. The community teachers continued to receive payments until project closing in October 2021. Other development partners, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, continued to work on this platform to coordinate payments to teachers under the leadership of the Agence pour la Promotion des Initiatives Communautaires en Education - APICED. However, at the beginning of the 2020–21 school year, the schools were closed when civil servants went on strike because of the coup d’état in N’Djamena.

Although access to education improved, there is no evidence of an improvement in learning outcomes. PARSET supported the establishment of the Centre National des Curricula, which prompted a transition to Chadian-produced materials. In 2012, the project purchased and distributed 3.7 million textbooks (surpassing the target of 2.9 million) to schools in target areas. With additional financing, PARSET Phase II expanded to all regions nationwide. The project improved the textbook-to-student ratio from 25 percent in 2013 to 52 percent in 2020, surpassing the target of 50 percent. The project provided training to build capacity to 10,965 community teachers, exceeding the target of 9,000 community teachers. However, evidence of an improvement in students’ learning outcomes is not available.

Social Safety Nets

The CPF supported the government’s move toward a sustainable social safety net system to improve targeting of poor beneficiary households. The DPO for Emergency Fiscal Stabilization (approved in FY17) supported the establishment of the Safety Net Unit (Cellule Filets Sociaux). As a result of World Bank financial and technical support, this unit became fully operational, providing strategic guidance and inputs to social protection activities in Chad. Under the Safety Nets Project (approved in FY17), 14,560 additional households in target areas were identified, surpassing the CPF target of 9,000 for 2020. By 2020, the World Bank and other partners had identified 355,392 beneficiary households, or 1.8 million people out of 6.5 million living below the poverty line, of which 20 percent have been registered in the Unified Social Registry, including 100 percent of the beneficiaries under the Safety Nets Project. Despite the progress, the system has not yet been used nationally for targeting purposes. However, support to the Unified Social Registry system was retained and expanded under the Refugees and Host Communities Support Project (FY19). By August 2020, 60,000 additional households were registered, of which 8 percent of households were refugees.

Gender Inequality

The World Bank contributed to gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment through its agriculture, health, and education interventions. Measurement of gender outcomes was restricted to the health and education sectors. The agriculture portfolio adopted gender-responsive activities to improve women’s economic situation, and the share of women participating in these projects exceeded targets, but no outcome data were disaggregated by gender.

The ISN contributed modestly to gender equality. During the ISN period, the World Bank’s contribution to gender equality focused on three key outputs: (i) completion of poverty and gender assessments; (ii) increase in women’s access to antenatal care in targeted regions by 46 percent (from 79,000 in 2009 to 116,000 in 2012); and (iii) improvement in the girls-to-boys ratio in primary schools in four targeted regions. Of these outputs, only the first was achieved (under the Second Population and AIDS Project, approved in FY02). Additional financing to this project (approved in FY10) provided payments to eligible health centers, but access to prenatal care fell short of the target. Despite this shortfall, prenatal consultations in target regions increased from 1.6 percent in 2011 to 3.6 percent in 2013. PARSET (approved in FY03) supported the construction of separate latrines for girls, recruited female community teachers, provided tutoring to female students, and developed and incorporated gender sensitization modules into all teacher training programs. However, only two of the four regions involved reached the target for the girls-to-boys ratio.

Women’s and girls’ empowerment improved during the CPF period. The CPF sought to increase women’s access to modern contraceptives, assisted births, and antenatal care. The approach was sustained under the Mother and Child Health Services Strengthening Project (approved in FY14), which contributed to an increase in the number of women of reproductive age in targeted areas using modern contraceptive methods, from 7,916 in 2014 to 108,947 women in 2020, exceeding the target of 14,000. Pregnant women in targeted areas receiving antenatal care tripled from 48,300 in 2014 to 171,460 in 2020, exceeding the target of 80,000. Births attended by health care workers increased from 20,836 in 2014 to 70,872 in 2020, surpassing the target of 35,000. Despite promising outcomes from project interventions, the national rate of contraceptive usage by women in Chad remains low, although it increased from 4.8 percent in 2010 to 8.1 percent in 2019 (compared with an average of 31 percent in the Sub-Saharan Africa region). The average fertility for women in Chad remains high, at 5.6 children per woman in 2019, although it has decreased from 6.5 in 2010.

The regional SWEDD (approved in FY15) contributed to improvements in women’s and girls’ empowerment in health and education (box 3.1). The project organized social awareness campaigns on reproductive health, recruited female facilitators for safe spaces and health workers, and established safe spaces for girls designed for skill development (including reproductive health) and empowerment. The project sought to improve reproductive health knowledge of women, girls, and men in targeted areas from 32 percent in 2015 to 85 percent in 2025. By 2019, the rate was 43 percent, and the project is considered to be on track to achieve the target in 2025 under additional financing provided to SWEDD (approved in FY20). The number of girls ages 16–19 in targeted areas who participated in life skills and economic empowerment interventions reached 20,909 in 2019, just above the project’s target of 20,000. The project strengthened strategic partnerships with religious leaders, including female preachers, who are key models in Chad’s society, to promote reproductive health for women and girls’ education. Involvement of female preachers is an innovation specific to Chad and was highly praised by development partners and government officials. The project trained 1,350 religious leaders and female preachers, exceeding the target of 750, to sensitize their communities on gender topics (including reproductive health and girls’ education). Female preachers also operated as community health workers and teachers. Data on the achievements of these interventions are not yet available, but an impact evaluation was underway at the time of this evaluation.

The CPF contributed to an improvement in girls’ retention in school and primary school completion rates in intervention sites. Through the provision of latrines, coaching and skills development, school enrollment fees, school uniforms, food, and accommodations, SWEDD contributed to a reduction in the girls’ dropout rate, from 5.5 percent in 2014 to 0.8 percent in 2019. After restructuring, the retention rate of adolescent girls improved from 94.5 percent in 2015 to 98.8 percent in 2019. Under PARSET Phase II (approved in FY13), the provision of subsidies to community teachers contributed to an improvement in primary school completion rates, which reached the targets of 55.5 percent for boys in 2020 (from 48 percent in 2015) and 35.8 percent for girls in 2020 (from 29 percent in 2015). The project also improved the gender parity index from 74 percent in 2013 to 78 percent in 2020, slightly above the target of 77 percent. Regrettably, SWEDD’s geographical coverage is small and could not therefore generate impact at the provincial or national level. Thus, the share of female secondary school students in Chad remains low at 31.3 percent, significantly lower than that of neighboring countries Mali (44.1 percent) and Niger (41.9 percent; World Bank 2021).

Improvements in women’s participation in economic activities were observed under the agriculture and social protection portfolios. In social protection, pilot cash transfer activities under the Safety Nets Project (approved in FY17) targeted women-headed households. A 2021 impact evaluation found that women benefited from cash transfers in unique ways. Women were more likely than men to start new businesses and report higher revenues and profits; they also experienced increases in self-efficacy and mental and physical health (Kandpal, Schnitzer, and Daye 2021). The Agriculture Production Support Project (approved in FY12) aimed to finance 200 subprojects for female farmer organizations in target areas to enhance crop and livestock production to increase the farmers’ income. Actual achievement fell short, providing only 74 subprojects, due largely to the long and delayed subproject approval process. Despite the shortfall, the project’s ICR reported that it enabled the women’s groups to add approximately CFAF 300 million (approximately $500,000 in 2012) to their product value compared with before the project, according to the government estimates.

Although women’s productivity is hindered by weak land tenure, SWEDD succeeded in increasing the number of areas cultivated by women’s groups. This increase was achieved through a combination of capacity building, provision of tractors, and advocacy for women’s access to land. Between 2016 and 2019, land cultivated by women increased from 152 hectares to 1,921 hectares in target areas. The Value Chain Support Project (approved in FY14) provided grants to 33 percent of female beneficiaries (against a target of 20 percent) to increase small and medium enterprise production and improve access to local and regional markets in the meat and dairy industry. The Climate Resilient Agriculture and Productivity Enhancement Project (approved in FY18) sought to train at least 50 percent of young female researchers and provide agricultural assets and services to at least 30 percent of female farmers. At the time of this evaluation, there had been no progress with the training, but agricultural services had reached 12 percent of female farmers in target areas.

Gender-based violence (GBV) was not directly addressed until the latter half of the evaluation period. The ISN and Systematic Country Diagnostic highlighted the problem of GBV and the high prevalence and impact of GBV on poverty and the vulnerability of women, but they did not articulate a strategy to deal with this problem. However, there was little explicit follow-through in the CPF. Only in FY19 did the World Bank explicitly tackle GBV. This was seen in three projects: the Rural Mobility and Connectivity Project (approved in FY19), Additional Financing to SWEDD (approved in FY20), and the Refugees and Host Communities Support Project (approved in FY19). The projects sought to support behavioral change through gender-sensitized communication campaigns and training. SWEDD sought to prepare, publish, and implement an action plan against GBV by the end of January 2020, but this plan was paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Refugees and Host Communities Support Project plans to provide a stand-alone assessment of GBV by the time of the project’s midterm review in late FY22.

Climate Change and Competition for Resources

The World Bank’s contribution to increasing agricultural resilience and food security in the face of climate change was limited. The Agriculture Production Support Project (FY12) was the main World Bank project in Chad before FY15 to address climate change challenges. The project aimed to address a food emergency while also achieving longer-term crop production increases. The project’s risk assessment, however, did not recognize that government capacity was insufficient to achieve this goal. Low government capacity and limited experience also posed risks to the chosen community-driven development approach. These challenges, combined with low government buy-in, caused further delays. Given the emergency nature of the project, a formal baseline economic and financial analysis was not conducted. Weak monitoring and evaluation also undermined the ability to assess the project’s success.

To strengthen climate resilience, the World Bank supported an increase in available agricultural land and the capacity for water extraction. Since 2012, the World Bank has supported sustainable land and water management to enhance beneficiaries’ ability to cope with climate change and to make agricultural production more resilient and thus bolster food security through the Agriculture Production Support Project. By 2017, the area brought under sustainable land and water management practices was 2.5 times greater (235,520 hectares) than the appraisal target of 95,000 hectares. However, the project covered only 4.5 percent of Chad’s arable land and introduced only two of the projected three sustainable land management innovations (agroforestry and rangeland management). The project boosted livestock numbers with 330,000 additional animals (99 percent of target, or a 3 percent increase of the national herd) and achieved an increase in food crop production through expansion of land farmed. The FY15 Emergency Food and Livestock Crisis Response Project expanded water access by rehabilitating 172 water wells, against a target of 157. Although expanding total livestock, farmed land, and water access reduced short-term vulnerability, it will not be sustainable in the longer term if population growth remains high.

Inadequate Infrastructure

Progress toward regional integration and connectivity continues to face challenges because of low security on the roads and a lack of project management skills among counterparts. The active Central African Economic and Monetary Community Transport-Transit Facilitation Project was self-assessed in 2021 by World Bank staff as moderately unsatisfactory because of unsatisfactory contractor performance, weak contract management by the project implementation unit, and challenges in obtaining counterpart funding. This project was intended to support the rehabilitation and maintenance of some sections of the Bongor-Kelo-Moundou-Koutere road. However, the government terminated work before meeting performance targets. Other projects were more successful. The World Bank successfully supported the authorities in harmonizing Chad’s legal and regulatory framework for electronic communication services. In 2014, the government enacted a new framework that established a new regulator for the telecom sector, L’Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques et des Postes. The regional Central African Backbone project increased mobile coverage from 24 percent of Chad’s population to 83 percent, exceeding the target of 50 percent. The number of individuals covered by the wireless network of a mobile operator or internet service provider increased by 336 percent, helping to provide internet connection to 863,000 people by the time the project closed.6 The share of individuals using the internet in Chad increased from 28 percent in 2010 to 57 percent in 2020.

Cross-Cutting Factors Affecting the Impact of World Bank Group Support

Procurement Challenges

Procurement delays have been a long-standing challenge in Chad and were difficult to resolve despite significant efforts of Bank Group staff. World Bank Project Appraisal Documents before 2010 described Chad’s procurement rules as having considerable weaknesses. Procurement processes were described as not transparent and characterized by delays in contract signing and weak contract management. Delays were also due to slow approval of bid evaluation reports, delays in signing contracts, and limited experience of procurement staff with World Bank procurement rules (World Bank 2017d, 2018f).7

The World Bank attempted to use DPF to address procurement challenges. The Fiscal Consolidation DPOs of 2015–16 required the Council of Ministers to adopt a procurement code to separate the procurement regulation function from the control function, which the government adopted in 2015, but operationalization has been slow. In 2017, the Emergency Fiscal Stabilization DPF had a prior action to build capacity on the national Procurement Regulatory Agency. This DPF sought to implement the new procurement code and make the Procurement Regulatory Agency functional by requiring the government to (i) appoint the president and members of the National Council of Regulation and (ii) allocate a regular budget line to the Procurement Regulatory Agency. Despite these actions, the value of single-source procurement contracts as a share of the total increased substantially from 33 percent to 57 percent instead of falling to 25 percent as targeted (World Bank 2018e).

Procurement risks were elevated for most investment projects. Out of 45 investment projects reviewed, 13 rated procurement risks as high, 14 as substantial, and 10 as moderate. Eight projects did not identify procurement risk as a challenge. To mitigate procurement risks, some projects planned to launch baseline studies (World Bank 2012c), simplify processes, train project implementation staff, and hire a procurement specialist proficient in World Bank procurement procedures (World Bank 2017d). Most of the projects that rated procurement risk as moderate planned to use either a United Nations agency or a bilateral donor as a service provider or executing agency to implement project activities. Examples include the Emergency Food and Livestock Crisis Response Project, SWEDD, and PARSET.

Many government officials interviewed for this CPE indicated a lack of familiarity with World Bank procurement rules. It was common for self-evaluations of World Bank projects to identify procurement delays as a reason for inadequate performance. These delays were attributed to a lack of awareness of World Bank fiduciary obligations, lack of counterpart ability to manage the World Bank’s procurement process effectively, weak capacity of project implementation units, and complex government processes related to implementation (World Bank 2011, 2012b, 2013a, 2013b, 2020a). High turnover of government employees was often behind these reasons. Although project documents generally contained detailed implementation plans, the Bank Group country office had no staff assigned to train new employees of project implementation units on procurement.

High Turnover of Task Managers

The October 2009 self-assessment of the World Bank’s portfolio in Chad identified high rotation of task managers as a major factor complicating delivery. Turnover among task team leaders (TTLs) was high for much of the evaluation period, particularly for DPF operations. Between 2016 and 2018, five different TTLs oversaw the Fiscal Consolidation DPO, with two TTLs serving less than one year. There were at least three TTLs for each DPF operation except for the Fiscal Consolidation Support Grant (FY17). The lack of consistent leadership was not conducive to maintaining a strong policy dialogue, building trust, and ensuring consistency of reforms (and the underlying results chain).

Turnover of staff managing investment projects was also high, with 11 projects having an average of 6 TTLs each. The rest of the 33 projects had an average of 5 TTLs per project. High turnover was prevalent in all sectors (agriculture, macroeconomics, human development, and urban development) and was not primarily explained by long-duration projects, as shown in figure 3.3. Reasons for high turnover identified by past TTLs included career progression, the insecure environment, and changes due to reorganization of the Country Management Unit of which Chad was a part in 2012 (table 3.3). Overall, 168 TTLs managed 44 investment projects. The average of 4 TTLs per project was twice the average for the Africa region.8

Figure 3.3. Task Team Leaders per Project versus Project Duration

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Figure 3.3. Task Team Leaders per Project versus Project Duration

Source: Independent Evaluation Group..

Note: Each dot represents a project duration-number of TTLs combination among the 44 projects detailed in appendix C. Out of 44 projects, 32 had more than one TTL per every two years of project duration. IEG = Independent Evaluation Group; TTL = task team leader.

Source: Independent Evaluation Group and Business Intelligence database, May 2021.

Note: The “TTLs (no.)” refers to TTLs who left the project and did not return before project closing. FY = fiscal year; TTL = task team leader.