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Lesson
An integrated approach to sustainable recovery is necessary to enhance the development impact of the CARES program. While the CPRO’s primary purpose was to deliver emergency assistance to support the government’s pandemic response, it also supported overall measures to keep the government on track in pursuing structural reforms that would enable a sustainable recovery from the pandemic. Such measures cohere around an integrated approach to meet Cambodia’s medium- and long-term recovery needs, including an improved investment environment and sound fiscal governance.

Project Number: 54195-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The program has helped strengthen ADB’s role as a trusted partner and created a positive experience for the government to strengthen its relations with development partners. The loan provided international funds that have helped address the government’s objective to reduce borrowing in the domestic market and have helped ensure liquidity in Thailand’s private sector. The program’s accompanying technical assistance provided the government with value-added policy dialogue and technical assistance to help address the government’s knowledge needs as they evolved through the crisis.

Project Number: 54177-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Projections about the impact of road projects should be realistic and adequately consider the accessibility of the roads to be built to communities. The impact statement in the design and monitoring framework about increased access to markets, jobs, and social services in the 4 project provinces should have been restricted to the 10 districts along the project roads, as the project roads could not generate impacts in farther areas. Performance Indicators and targets should also consider data availability and baselines that proved to be limited in at least one of the project provinces.

Project Number: 43309-013
Project Name: Provincial Roads Improvement Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Indicators and targets relying on surveys that may not be available at the time of measurement could benefit from the identification of alternative measures during program design. One of the outcome Indicators in the CARES design and monitoring framework is measured by the WHO only every 5 years and information about its most recent assessment is due for release in mid to late 2022; after the end of the CARES program. Uncertainties and disruptions created by emergencies need to be considered when designing Indicators to ensure that targets are achievable and realistic.

Project Number: 54177-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Corporatized public enterprises operating on a cost-recovery basis need government funding support for infrastructure improvements. Provision of government counterpart funding should have been a condition for grant effectiveness. Instead, the executing agency, the Papua New Guinea Power Limited (PPL), partially made funds available for civil works. PPL, as a corporatized enterprise, is mandated to operate on a cost-recovery basis and did not have sufficient funding allocation.

Project Number: 41504-024
Project Name: Improved Energy Access for Rural Communities
Report Date:
Lesson
A government-led program with coordinated support from development partners, is effective in enabling a rapid, timely, and highly relevant emergency response to pandemics. ADB’s COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support (CARES) program proved efficacious in channeling support for the Cambodian government to address the adverse social, health, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Project Number: 54195-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
It is important to maintain some degree of flexibility to effectively respond to crisis situations. Perhaps the most important quality of Thailand’s CARES program was its ability to rapidly mobilize demand-driven support in a crisis; highlighting the importance in future crisis responses of maintaining some degree of flexibility in both program design and implementation. ADB was able to process and approve the program within 3 months of the government’s initial request for support. Events in Thailand necessitated loan signing to take place about 4 months after ADB approval.

Project Number: 54177-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Projections about the impact of road projects should be realistic and adequately consider the accessibility of the roads to be built to communities. The impact statement in the design and monitoring framework about increased access to markets, jobs, and social services in the 4 project provinces should have been restricted to the 10 districts along the project roads, as the project roads could not generate impacts in farther areas. Performance Indicators and targets should also consider data availability and baselines that proved to be limited in at least one of the project provinces.

Project Number: 43309-013
Project Name: Provincial Roads Improvement Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Lessons from impact assessments undertaken by the government need to be explored for possible replication or application in future crisis response operations. In addition to monitoring of program expenditures; the government conducted its own assessment of program results; such as the social impact of cash transfer programs on affected people.

Project Number: 54177-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Alternatives to grid connection should have been considered to electrify more rural poor communities. Inclusion of alternatives that are beneficial to low-usage rural customers, including solar home systems and mini grids, could have expanded project coverage and enhanced its impact.

Project Number: 41504-024
Project Name: Improved Energy Access for Rural Communities
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
It is important to reassess Indicators at midterm. In addition to project review, a reassessment of the performance Indicators at midterm should have led to adjustments in the project design, including targets and implementation timeframes. These would have bolstered the project’s potential for success.

Project Number: 41504-024
Project Name: Improved Energy Access for Rural Communities
Report Date:
Lesson
The country engagement framework (CEF) worked effectively for the CARES program and may be used for continued engagement and dialogue with the government on post-CARES follow-on work. Dialogue with key stakeholders from the private sector and civil society played an invaluable role in: (i) providing government with firsthand accounts of the challenges faced by the sectors from the evolving conditions under the pandemic; and (ii) establishing a direct feedback loop to the government on how policies were translating on the ground. The dialogue was consistent with ADB’s CEF in Cambodia.

Project Number: 54195-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Equity issues need to be carefully considered and addressed in beneficiary selection and targeting. The potential for political influence in the selection of communities that would benefit from grid connection was identified as a risk. To mitigate this risk, independent consultants were engaged to develop the beneficiary selection criteria, which would eventually stipulate that (i) customers were to be within 250 meters of the transmission line, (ii) construction of the property had to be sound, and (iii) households must have the financial means to pay for the electricity provided.

Project Number: 41504-024
Project Name: Improved Energy Access for Rural Communities
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: