Why PSIA? Why did you choose PSIA over any other bank instrument or product?

We had an overall idea that the electricity price changes in Turkey would not have significant adverse impacts for the population as a whole, since their income grew by comparable rates throughout this time, but we also knew that there would be pockets of the population that would be adversely impacted through differing channels. PSIA seemed the right tool to identify these pockets and the channels of impact.

What was the most embarrassing/challenging moment while working on this PSIA?

The most embarrassing moment while working on the PSIA was when I forgot to pay the electricity bill for my apartment in Ankara despite multiple notices, and my electricity was cut off by the utility company as a result. 

If you had to do this PSIA over, what would you do differently, based on the lessons learned from this one?

Definitely more micro-managing during the design and piloting phases of the research to ensure quality control from the beginning. 

Any recommendations for TTLs working on PSIAs – what are the top three things TTLs should always keep in mind when working on a PSIA.

1. 1. PSIAs are multi-sectoral. Make sure you have someone from each necessary sector on the PSIA team and that they understand the time commitment and the timeline for their inputs. 2. PSIAs are multi-sectoral. Think ahead of time and continuously engage different government counter-parts that will need to act upon different sets of policy recommendations. i.e. This is an Energy PSIA, but, in addition to the Ministry of Energy and other energy institutions, there are policy recommendations for Ministry of Family and Social Policy, Ministry of Agriculture, State Irrigation Institute etc. 3. Any World Bank research is as good as the impact it has on policy – so pay equal attention to quality of research and dissemination of research / engagement of relevant stakeholders. (By the way – these are not recommendations to others because we did such a good job on these. Conversely, these are recommendations to my future self as well, because I know we could have done these better.)  

What do you do when you are not doing a PSIA? I am learning how to sail – which is definitely as complicated, but much less stressful.

   BIOGRAPHY

Zeynep Darendeliler is a Social Development Specialist, currently working at the Environmental and Social Standards Advisory Team at OPCS. Zeynep has worked on a variety of areas including forced displacement and vulnerability, social analysis and inclusion, social accountability and participatory engagement, and social sustainability and safeguards. At the World Bank, the focus of her recent work covers assessing social impacts of energy subsidy reform and thinking through necessary mitigation measures for vulnerable groups, piloting the use of stakeholder committees in Southeastern Turkey between electricity service providers and electricity users to improve service provision and cost recovery, initiating a social and economic impact assessment on the impact of Syrian refugees on host communities in Turkey, and civil society / third party monitoring for social accountability in government service delivery and Bank project monitoring. Prior to joining the Bank, she has worked on forced displacement issues and livelihood restoration for demobilized soldiers in Bosnia and internally displaced populations in Turkey. Zeynep holds a graduate degree in law focusing on human rights and refugee law from Georgetown University and a bachelor degree in Eastern European Studies from Harvard University.