Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project

Advance actions, supported by retroactive financing arrangements, can help minimize or avoid startup delays. The project faced start-up delays in both countries. It took more than two years from project effectiveness in each country for the first civil works contracts to be awarded. Recruitment of project implementation consultants, preparation of bidding documents, and preparation of the detailed designs were accomplished only after the project effectiveness. Such start-up delays could have
been avoided had the project utilized ADB’s provisions advanced procurement action and retroactive financing to improve project readiness.