activities, disclose project information, including SEPs, in local and official languages and formats that will help marginalized stakeholders access and understand project information. The Bank should also disclose this information on its website. Consultations and Stakeholder Engagement • Plan for and describe specific timelines for consultations and the personnel that will carry them out. Grievance Redress Mechanism • Seek input on GRM design from marginalized communities before implementation. • Set-up GRMs in a child-friendly manner. • Describe GRCs and take steps to include women, representatives of children, and other marginalized groups. • Use consistent terminology to describe GBV- related risks and how GRMs will handle them. GRMs should be equipped to handle GBV, and specifically SEA/SH-related, grievances. SEP Implementation • Include line-item budgets with adequate resources for comprehensive SEP implementation. • Describe in SEPs and Environmental and Social Commitment Plans the entity that will be accountable for updating SEPs when a commitment to do so is made. • For projects prepared on a rapid timeline such as emergency projects, disclose revised SEPs within 30 days of the project effectiveness and state a commitment to this requirement in the original SEPs and ESCPs. communities. The failure to meet these requirements conveys that the World Bank and Borrowers did not prioritize stakeholder engagement for these projects and means there are not proper accountability systems in place for governments to follow through with appropriate stakeholder engagement throughout project implementation. While the COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented health emergency, this is not the last time the World Bank and Borrowers will be faced with preparing and approving projects on a rapid timeline. In fact, in October 2020, the Bank approved a $12 million envelope to finance the purchase and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in low income countries. This funding is being deployed as additional financing to countries that have COVID-19 response projects already. Many parts of the world still have COVID-19 restrictions in place that make normal stakeholder engagement hard, but that engagement is necessary to get vaccines to the most marginalized groups in a timely and effective manner. Yet, as implementation of vaccine purchase and distribution begins, most countries still have not disclosed updated SEPs that would take this additional component into account. The recommendations in this report provide lessons for how future SEPs, and particularly SEPs prepared during an emergency, can be improved. Especially in the face of an emergency, the Bank must stand by its commitments to stakeholder engagement. If it does not, the projects and their information risk being inaccessible to marginalized groups, who will continue to disproportionately suffer. 4. Conclusion This report shows that the Stakeholder Engagement Plans for the assessed COVID-19 Emergency Response projects do not meet the requirements of the ESF, including those detailed in the ESP, ESS10, ESS1, ESS7, and the Directive on “Addressing Risks and Impacts on Disadvantaged or Vulnerable Individuals or Groups”. While comprehensive and thorough preparation of project documents on urgent timelines, as with the response to the pandemic, is difficult, meaningful stakeholder engagement in these projects is still pressing and important, especially to connect the most marginalized communities with project information and benefits and to avoid potential harm to those BANK INFORMATION CENTER | MAR 2021 20