CPACC: Report 6

World Bank/GEF and the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States Project Supervision Mission
December 8-12, 1997, CPACC RPIU Offices, Barbados

This report summarizes the discussions held between the World Bank/GEF mission and the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (GS/OAS) from December 8-12, 1997 regarding the implementation status of CPACC.

The World Bank/GEF mission was comprised of Ms. Claudia Alderman, World Bank, mission leader; Ms. Loretta Sprissler, World Bank, operations analyst; and Mr. Kevin Fitzgerald, Consultant. The mission's GS/OAS counterparts were Mr. Jan Vermeiren, Principal Specialist and Mr. Claudio Volonté, Environmental Specialist of the OAS Unit of Sustainable Development and Environment (OAS/USDE).

The mission met with officials from the Regional Project Implementation Unit (RPIU), the University of the West Indies - Cave Hill Campus (UWI), the UWI Centre for Environment and Development (UWICED), the Barbados Ministry of the Environment, the Caribbean Meteorological Institute (CMI), the UWI Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES), and the Barbados Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU). (See Annex 1 for a complete list of people with whom the mission met).

The World Bank team would like to express its sincere appreciation to everyone participating in the mission for their contributions and assistance during this initial review of CPACC implementation performance.

Mission Objectives
The overall objectives of the mission were:

To review the progress made to date on the implementation of the project's 1997 Annual Operating Plan;
To confirm the effective establishment and functioning of the RPIU; and
To measure project implementation performance on the basis of the Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators outlined in the project document.

Findings of the Supervision Mission
General Conclusions:
The mission was pleased to note that project implementation progress has been good to date. The RPIU is in the process of being established and is housed in UWI's new CERMES building. The establishment of the RPIU took longer than the initial 60 days anticipated in the project grant agreement due in part to the complexities of the practical, administrative and institutional issues involved in integrating a new operation into an existing institution. The mission was pleased to note UWI's stated commitment to integrating the project into its operations, and its willingness to provide the project with the full co-operation and collaboration of the various university departments involved.

Project Performance Based on Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators:
The supervision mission conducted a review of project implementation performance based on the M&E; indicators developed for the project, and outlined in Annex 12 of the Project Document. The mission examined project progress in terms of 1) project execution performance indicators, which focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of institutional and administrative arrangements in the implementation of project activities and 2) delivered output indicators, which focus on the status of each component's expected outputs, as programmed in the 1997 annual operating plan. It would be premature at this time to assess the status of the project in terms of project impact indicators, which focus on CPACC's overall success in strengthening the Caribbean region's capability to prepare to cope with the adverse effects of global climate change. It was agreed that an appropriate time for this evaluation would be at the Mid-Term Review.

Status of Subsidiary Legal Agreements:
The mission was pleased to note that each of the eleven participating countries has signed a Cooperative Agreement with the GS/OAS outlining the terms of their participation in the project. A Cooperative Agreement has also been signed by the GS/OAS and CMI as the lead regional agency in the execution of Component 1. An agreement with the Institute of Marine Affairs on its role in the implementation of Component 1 as a Regional Archiving Centre is currently being negotiated. A "Letter of Concessions" was received from the Government of Barbados for the establishment of the RPIU granting, among other things, tax exempt status to the unit. In addition, another agreement with the Government of Barbados is under preparation to cover the establishment, equipment and maintenance of a permanent Global Positioning System receiver station, and the terms under which the data collected will be made accessible to other CPACC participating countries. Finally, an MOU with CMI for establishing the Tidal Gauge Replacement Fund, and detailing the arrangements for the disposition of data-use fees is under preparation. These agreements establish a firm basis for co-operation among the various institutions involved in the project.

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