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Lesson
Cross-indebtedness has been an energy sector issue since the 1980s. Although the ESRP provided the government the means to eliminate crossindebtedness by financing the arrears out of the budget, the respite provided by the ESRP was temporary, and cross-indebtedness became a major issue again shortly thereafter, reaching unprecedented levels of about PRs503 billion by mid-2013.

Project Number: 32146-013
Project Name: Energy Sector Restructuring Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The ESRP comprised three loans. The largest (Loan 1807) was for $300 million and was designed as a three tranche plus incentive tranche program loan. The other two loans were a $50 million Asian Development Fund loan (Loan 1808) and a $5 million TA loan (Loan 1809). The government availed of the first and incentive tranches of Loan 1807 for $150 million as well as the $50 million Asian Development Fund loan when it complied with the first tranche loan conditions.

Project Number: 32146-013
Project Name: Energy Sector Restructuring Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Subsidization of electricity is a drain on budgetary resources and not sustainable in the longer term when an economy is growing and tax revenues are stagnant. Under the ESRP, electricity subsidies were expected to be eliminated with the establishment of NEPRA, and the tariff was expected to reflect and recover the full cost of production. However, the government continues to subsidize electricity, primarily to domestic and agricultural customers.

Project Number: 32146-013
Project Name: Energy Sector Restructuring Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The privatization of KESC demonstrates that private sector ownership in the energy sector has benefits in terms of efficiency gains. System losses are declining significantly, and KESC’s financial performance has improved substantially since privatization, such that it is now self-financing since first turning a profit in 2012. This accomplishment is remarkable considering the environment in which it operates includes a constrained availability of fuel for its thermal power plants and an unfavorable security and law and order situation.

Project Number: 32146-013
Project Name: Energy Sector Restructuring Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Key lessons from previous projects incorporated in and validated by this project included: (i) area-based multi-sector community development projects need to be simple to be effective; (ii) institutions with built-in capacity should be used; (iii) a flexible, demand-driven approach to community development should be followed; (iv) civil works and effective social mobilization should be balanced; and (v) the focus should be on service delivery, rather than on policy reforms involving structural changes that are beyond the scope of an area-based development project.

Project Number: 37188-013
Project Name: Sindh Coastal Community Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Each new outbreak of disease confronts projects such as this one, as well as the implementing partners and global community, with a fresh challenge, because its early spread outpaces the gathering of scientific evidence needed to formulate containment policies. Each successive outbreak is followed by an initial opaque period characterized by a frustrating lack of scientific evidence on which to base policies and technical guidance.

Project Number: 39662-012
Project Name: Prevention and Control of Avian Influenza in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
The rapid launch and accelerated implementation of the project made necessary by the threat that avian influenza would become a pandemic made it difficult to define verifiable indicators for a number of the outputs under the regional capacity building and regional coordination components. A mid-term review of the project would have facilitated a review and updating of the design and monitoring framework.

Project Number: 39662-012
Project Name: Prevention and Control of Avian Influenza in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
The project supported the One Health concept, which emphasizes the links between animal health and human health and emerging animal and human diseases. One Health provided a platform for unprecedented integration of animal, human and ecosystem health issues to fight the threat of avian influenza. The systematic collaboration of technical agencies across disciplines, such as FAO (veterinarians) and WHO (medical doctors) and civil society organizations (community health workers) supported by the project has promoted this concept since the beginning of the project.

Project Number: 39662-012
Project Name: Prevention and Control of Avian Influenza in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
Most of the benefits associated with the reforms supported under the cluster program were conditional on the final reforms to be supported under a subprogram 3, which never eventuated. To the extent that this caused reform momentum to be lost or take a risky direction, this approach risked delaying (at a minimum) or wasting years of reform effort (TA, financial resources and government commitment).

Project Number: 41545-013, 41545-023
Project Name: Sindh Growth and Rural Revitalization Program
Report Date:
Lesson
ADB's high-level steering committee demonstrated ADB's institutional support, which enhanced coordination between development partners. The committee, comprising the heads of all regional departments and the Strategy and Policy Department and chaired by the director general of RSDD, provided prompt policy guidance and expedited decisions and actions. It also ensured that the needs of the countries were ascertained and that they had adequate access to project resources.

Project Number: 39662-012
Project Name: Prevention and Control of Avian Influenza in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
Reform agendas chosen for program cluster support should be carefully selected during program design. Subprogram 1 had 25 policy conditions, while subprogram 2 had 38 policy conditions. The large number of implementing agencies and reform areas complicates program coordination. When reviewing the implementation of this cluster program, too often it seemed that quantity of policy actions was a substitute for the low number of consequent reforms that could be achieved within the indicative time-span.

Project Number: 41545-013, 41545-023
Project Name: Sindh Growth and Rural Revitalization Program
Report Date:
Lesson
ADB was able to use its convening power effectively because it had the necessary in-house technical expertise. Public health experts on ADB's staff with knowledge of emerging infectious diseases were involved in designing and implementing the project. This in-house expertise made the dialogue with the technical and regional agencies to strengthen regional collaboration within and across the animal health and human health sectors possible.

Project Number: 39662-012
Project Name: Prevention and Control of Avian Influenza in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
The importance of reform momentum and of programmatic assistance for sustaining the momentum. However, the experience with some reforms in core policy areas 1 and 3 is a reminder that when sufficient political pressure is exerted, financial and technical capacity constraints can sometimes be overcome, even in the absence of programmatic support (as would have been provided through subprogram 3). This calls for greater effort during the design and implementation stages to assess the political and economic context, which can determine whether or not a reform effort will succeed.

Project Number: 41545-013, 41545-023
Project Name: Sindh Growth and Rural Revitalization Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The purpose of program lending—which is to support structural reforms and achieve development results—should not be compromised by balance-of-payments or budget considerations. This would have meant allowing a longer program period for the required depth of reforms. ADB could have envisaged that sector reforms require a longer implementation period and should have focused on a smaller number of specified reform issues.

Project Number: 32058-023
Project Name: Road Sector Development Program (Policy Loan)
Report Date:
Lesson
Consider realistic timelines for project implementation, taking into account that institutional and policy components typically take longer to complete than the physical components.

Project Number: 32058-033
Project Name: Punjab Road Development Sector Project
Report Date: