Search

Displaying 1 - 15 of 258

Lesson
Insufficient up-to-date macroeconomic data on government websites, which could hinder timely and effective planning especially during crisis periods, needs to be rectified. The State Statistical Committee (SSC) has numerous macroeconomic indicators on its website. However, in most cases, very recent data are missing. International organizations such as ADB, the IMF and the World Bank release forecasts of macroeconomic indicators for upcoming years, and SSC should consider following the same approach.

Project Number: 55073-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Accessibility of healthcare data in Azerbaijan needs to be improved. Reports from the Ministry of Health Care are not publicly available on its website. In addition, the State Agency for Mandatory Health Insurance considers healthcare information to be highly sensitive. Accordingly, this information is not contained on its website. Information related to daily coronavirus infections and vaccinations was released publicly. It would be useful for the agency to disseminate gender, age, and region-disaggregated information to the public.

Project Number: 55073-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Sex-disaggregated data need to be accurate and usable for in-depth analyses to support policy development and program planning and implementation. The government has increased its focus on gender equality and has made significant progress on gender data tracking and transparency. Although there are a few publicly available national resources, they lack qualitative information.

Project Number: 55073-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Ensuring the sustainability of project benefits would require serious efforts from the component implementation units (CIUs) to raise funds from various sources. Governments have allocated annual budgets for CIUs to continue post-project operations. But financial sustainability is still a concern, as government allocations are sufficient to cover only routine facility maintenance and supplies and not surveillance, animal and pest outbreak responses, and repair of critical laboratory equipment.

Project Number: 43120-013
Project Name: Trade Facilitation: Improved Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Handling in Greater Mekong Subregion Trade Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Continued capacity building is required for Cambodia and the Lao PDR to move to a higher level of technical capacity in handling sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) concerns. The project has strengthened SPS capacity in Cambodia and the Lao PDR and facilitated product-specific market access agreements with neighboring countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion. It strengthened academic aspects of SPS, which were nonexistent before the project. It enabled knowledge transfer in priority SPS areas from the training and day-to-day coaching provided by project consultants.

Project Number: 43120-013
Project Name: Trade Facilitation: Improved Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Handling in Greater Mekong Subregion Trade Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Unsynchronized consultant recruitment, procurement of goods, and facility upgrades could create inefficiencies and lead to a wastage of time and resources and delayed delivery of project benefits. While overall the project proceeded smoothly, it encountered some challenges that offer valuable lessons to future projects. First, as the timing of consultant inputs and procurement of laboratory facilities and equipment were not synchronized, i.e., consultants would arrive early while facilities were not yet ready, less-than-efficient inputs were obtained.

Project Number: 43120-013
Project Name: Trade Facilitation: Improved Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Handling in Greater Mekong Subregion Trade Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Providing targeted resources to ensure sufficient understanding of ADB procurement and project administration guidelines, particularly among first-time ADB executing and implementing agencies, will help avoid startup delays. Minor implementation startup delays were encountered because of the unfamiliarity of some first-time implementing agencies with ADB procurement, financial management, and disbursement procedures. But after trainings were provided and consultants mobilized, implementation accelerated significantly.

Project Number: 43120-013
Project Name: Trade Facilitation: Improved Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Handling in Greater Mekong Subregion Trade Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Multidimensional programs need to have a balance on types of indicators but should take care to ensure that progress in threshold indicators can be properly recognized in the design and monitoring framework (DMF). Only 9 of the 12 unique output indicators between subprograms 1 and 2 had been achieved or almost achieved. Of these 9 achieved output indicators, 7 were binary , i.e., they only take the value of achieved or not achieved. The output indicators not achieved had specific numerical targets that had not been met.

Project Number: 47099-002, 47099-004
Project Name: Investment Climate Reforms Program - Subprograms 1 and 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
It is important to properly phase implementation schedules to allow for deeper analysis of output and outcome progress and rectify indicators. All four outcome indicators were not achieved but progress was recorded against outcome indicators related to increases in private investment, internationally certified Tajik firms, and regulatory quality; and in the case of women entrepreneurs was particularly good if measured by electronic tax declarations. This suggests that targets were initially overambitious and/or that outcome indicators should be considered over a longer period.

Project Number: 47099-002, 47099-004
Project Name: Investment Climate Reforms Program - Subprograms 1 and 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Political support, and ultimately political accountability, is an essential component of institutional reform. An early back-to-office report (September 2014) stated that the government appreciated the importance of promoting a better business environment in the context of the private sector’s contribution to growth in gross domestic product. The government set up a Consultative Council on Reduction of Business Inspecting Agencies, chaired by the First Deputy Prime Minister to monitor implementation progress. All policy actions were completed.

Project Number: 47099-002, 47099-004
Project Name: Investment Climate Reforms Program - Subprograms 1 and 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Continued engagement with the government on macroeconomic and structural reforms will maximize program benefits. This program was an integral part of ADB’s overall country support activities and backed the government’s strong commitment to state-owned enterprise reform and structural macroeconomic reform. Particularly through technical assistance to strengthen economic management, it supported macroeconomic stability, sustained growth, and project preparation.

Project Number: 54160-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The ambitiousness of goals should be balanced with the availability of data and capacity to quickly augment more granular data collection. Data disaggregated by sex and age of end-recipients are often not available at the time of project preparation and this was the case with this program. Even after effectiveness and during implementation, only limited new data were prepared by the government. Systems were lacking to collect such data.

Project Number: 54160-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The post-program partnership framework (P3F) provides a very effective platform for ensuring the continuity and sustainability of reforms put in place by policy-based loan (PBLs). It has provided ADB with a platform for monitoring the implementation of the reforms set into motion by this PBL and proved very effective in promoting the continuity and sustainability of reforms.

Project Number: 52049-001, 52049-003
Project Name: Trade and Competitiveness Program – Subprograms 1 and 2
Report Date:
Lesson
Early provision of technical assistance (TA) is essential to ensure that the policy actions supported by PBLs have sufficient depth and breadth and are sequenced in a manner that will enhance the PBLs’ value-addition to realizing the targeted reforms and sustaining the reform process. The TA attached to this PBL was appropriate and focused on areas that required ADB technical support because of limitations and constraints faced by the government.

Project Number: 52049-001, 52049-003
Project Name: Trade and Competitiveness Program – Subprograms 1 and 2
Report Date:
Lesson
Continued implementation of regular reform programs even under crisis situations demands a strong partnership between ADB and the government. This program continued and strengthened ADB’s support to improve the country’s macroeconomic performance under the Economic Stabilization Program initiated by the government in 2019. Sustained implementation of the program allowed the government to continue with policy reforms while fighting the pandemic.

Project Number: 52049-001, 52049-003
Project Name: Trade and Competitiveness Program – Subprograms 1 and 2
Report Date: