Strengthening Results-Based Management in Social Sectors in Central America The objective of the project is to provide assistance to the Ministry of Energy and Mines and to the Regulator for (a) updating sector regulations, (b) updating the tariff schedule, (c) updating generation studies to provide a long term solution to the current electricity crisis, (d) designing regulations for attracting renewables to the generation business, including sugar mills, and (e) assisting in putting together a generation plan.  Title: Strengthening Results-Based Management in the social sectors in Central America Countries: Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. Rationale: (1) There is a strong interest from social sector agencies in the region in strengthening their capacity for results-based management. (2) It is critical to develop strong, sector-level capacity for results-based management to complement and support public sector management reforms at the central level (SIAF, etc.). (3) Strengthening results-based management in the social sectors is particularly critical given the large share of  public expenditures absorbed by the social sectors. (4) The improvement of monitoring systems to inform decision-making and support transparency is a key recommendation in most Poverty Assessments recently conducted in the region. (5) There have been a number of efforts undertaken recently to strengthen the stewardship role of the state in the social sectors, particularly with respect to anti-poverty programs. Activities that would be supported under the IDF: 1)  Development of a Results-Readiness Assessment Tool to determine the practices and gaps in agencies tasked with administering social programs. This tool will guide the baseline diagnostic of the institutional structure of existing performance management systems, as well as a stock-taking of the technical tools and platforms available, and the extent of their use in decision-making by policymakers and other stakeholders, especially citizens/beneficiaries. 2)  Application of the results readiness assessment tool to a few selected agencies in Central America, with a particular focus on agencies tasked with the coordination of a range of anti-poverty programs or which involve numerous agencies or programs and hence call for rather complex M&E systems. 3)  Knowledge Sharing on Systems and Tools: Identify successful sectoral M&E systems in the region, with a focus on identifying innovative tools and systems which have promoted a shift towards results-based management in the social sectors.  Have a workshop to share experience in setting up effective results-based management systems in social sectors. The workshops would provide a venue to share the experience documented in the Results-readiness assessments and the cases of innovative tools and systems. In recent years, several countries in Central America have created new agencies and launched ambitious strategies aimed at promoting greater coherence among a range of anti-poverty programs with the goal of strengthening their social protection systems. The purpose of this project is to inform these initiatives aimed at improving the management of poverty alleviation programs by: (i) producing a diagnostic tool to assess the institutional and information base of these agencies results monitoring systems; (ii) applying this tool to assess the results-readiness of selected social protection agencies and to develop action plans; (iii) reaching an agreement amongst the participating countries on the use of the approach and promoting a regional dialogue on options and recommendations for strengthening these systems; and (iv) promoting knowledge sharing among these programs and with broader established networks of practitioners.