Search

Displaying 1 - 15 of 67

Lesson
Potential problems with funding the maintenance of completed subprojects and/or facilities arise when they highly rely on government budgetary allocations that may or may not materialize in the short- and medium-terms. This can lead to poor periodic maintenance, especially for road routine maintenance. In future projects, consideration could be given to performance-based road maintenance contracts where a period of maintenance is included (e.g., 5 years after completion) in the contracts.

Project Number: 43319-022
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion East-West Economic Corridor Towns Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
With the project's investment in improving wastewater treatment, solid waste management and recycling, an opportunity arose to establish and impose full cost recovery tariffs and charges for these activities. Appropriate tariff studies could have been undertaken and with recommendations for replication in other towns.

Project Number: 43319-022
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion East-West Economic Corridor Towns Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The requirement for counterpart funding to finance land acquisition and resettlement (LAR) should be clearly communicated to government counterparts during project preparation. Due to delayed and inadequate counterpart funds, particularly to support LAR, works were begun in several subprojects even before compensation payments were completed. This comprised noncompliance to ADB safeguards and caused the suspension of works in pertinent subprojects.

Project Number: 43319-022
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion East-West Economic Corridor Towns Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Projects at completion should ensure that there is clarity of mandates, responsibilities, and performance targets among institutions involved in the operation and maintenance (O&M) of project assets to minimize the risks to the sustainability of project benefits. The project supported the provincial government in clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the different government agencies and the private sector in O&M of the project sub-outputs.

Project Number: 43319-022
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion East-West Economic Corridor Towns Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Appropriate contract packaging, stakeholder involvement in project preparation, and reliable cost estimates are of particular importance to successful project implementation. This project encountered several weaknesses in design and preparation that made implementation challenging.

Project Number: 43319-022
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion East-West Economic Corridor Towns Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Adequate risk assessment and mitigation measures are important to help ensure project readiness. Consultations with project beneficiaries and affected persons and conducting social impact assessments during appraisal help strengthen project design and implementation (e.g., identification of safeguards-compliant project sites, beneficiaries’ participation, land acquisition requirements, design of relatedredressed mechanisms, among other things). These facilitate in identifying candidate subproject locations so that unnecessary location changes that cause delays can be avoided.

Project Number: 36339-022
Project Name: Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
When implementation arrangements are revised, it is vital to streamline the approval processes to facilitate subsequent project activities. After the Government of Australia's withdrawal of funding, the delay in the approval of the changes to the implementation arrangement also significantly delayed the recruitment of implementation consultants and in designing the water supply systems. This situation could have been avoided if timely approval of such change was prioritized, which could have allowed the civil works for designing water supply systems to commence on time

Project Number: 36339-022
Project Name: Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Modernize wastewater discharge standards. Updating the standards based on international good practice (e.g., EU or EPA) and strengthening technical capacity, regulations, and enforcement mechanisms including fees would improve compliance with the wastewater discharge standards. The wastewater standards are currently unattainable with available technologies and capital and are therefore largely neglected by operators and regulators.

Project Number: 42489-053
Project Name: Water Supply and Sanitation Services Investment Program - Tranche 4
Report Date:
Lesson
Introduce public accountability and grievance redress mechanisms for transparency and developing trust with customers. Lack of an effective mechanism for public accountability contributed to the of deficiencies project implementation. It also becomes the main contributor to the WSS sector’s inefficiency. Accountability of public utilities to the public for their services and operations is critical for performance of the WSS sector. Water utility operations are interwoven with public needs.

Project Number: 42489-053
Project Name: Water Supply and Sanitation Services Investment Program - Tranche 4
Report Date:
Lesson
Ensure dedicated PCU with full-time project director. There is a need for a dedicated project management team led by a director responsible for day-to-day management and completion of each ADB-financed project. The program suffered from high PCU staff turnover including of the director. Frequent change of staff led to delays in approving bid evaluation reports and contract variation orders, as time is needed for new staff to familiarize with project procedures.

Project Number: 42489-053
Project Name: Water Supply and Sanitation Services Investment Program - Tranche 4
Report Date:
Lesson
Develop higher project readiness. It would have helped to reduce the project start-up delays and avoid gaps in monitoring. Closer ADB monitoring and more review missions may have helped to push critical readiness actions.

Project Number: 42489-053
Project Name: Water Supply and Sanitation Services Investment Program - Tranche 4
Report Date:
Lesson
Reforms can be introduced and implemented if they are conditionally linked to capital investment. In addition, key reforms, including regulatory framework, corporatization of PNPs, and tariff adjustments, should be judiciously leveraged against associated capital investments. This approach should be continued and refined in future projects.

Project Number: 36339-022
Project Name: Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Free water supply connection policy. The policy enabled all households, including poor and low-income families, to have access to piped water supply systems. As a result, 24-hour safe water supply and sanitation coverage in target provinces increased significantly, to more than 90%. This policy should be scaled up in all provinces to promote increased water service and sanitation coverage.

Project Number: 36339-022
Project Name: Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The project’s monitoring and reporting system should be strengthened to include updates on the implementation of safeguard requirements. This is to allow (i) the public and affected villagers access to safeguard action plans, consultation opportunities, voluntary land donation criteria, and monitoring reports; and (ii) the PCU to be aware of problems during implementation that could be resolved in a timely manner.

Project Number: 36339-022
Project Name: Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Some GAP targets were formulated unrealistically for the local context. For example, the target of setting quotas of 30% for female participation in the O&M of small-scale civil works was impractical. The works were carried out by communities in which women and men work together. This could have been avoided through consultation with women in subprojects’ areas. The GAP should also have included actions and targets relating to women’s time poverty to quantify gender benefits in the water supply sector more effectively.

Project Number: 36339-022
Project Name: Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project
Report Date: