13.  Environmental impacts are expected to be low to moderate. The Environmental Assessment category is B (Partial Assessment), and OP/BP 4.01(Environmental Assessment) is triggered. There will be some rehabilitation and extensions of the selected institutions. The need for new construction will be assessed as part of the project preparations. There will be no new land acquisition for the Centers of Excellence; the project will select existing institutions. In general, the project will focus on quality enhancements of the Centers of Excellence, which primarily requires “softer items” i.e. faculty and curriculum development, and learning resources, while construction will be capped at maximum 25 percent of the funding, and the rational for proposed new construction will be scrutinized to ensure such construction is critical for excellence. A clear rule on the maximum extent of civil works allowed under the project will be established in the operational manual and the subsidiary agreements between the governments and the universities. Further, ESMPs have been prepared and disclosed for each candidate institution to manage environmental and social impacts based on the submitted proposals. For in some cases (3 out of the 15 regionally-funded Centers), the civil works are so minor and localized that they can be guided by national and local laws and procedures, and therefore no ESMP has been developed. The prepared ESMPs are disclosed in country and on the World Bank infoshop website. In addition, a general set of best practice guidelines for environmental and social management was disclosed in the region in the early stages of project preparation.