Policy and reform

Implementation of government’s priorities. Involving the provincial and district levels and strengthening their capacity to identify and address the local needs reflected the government’s Sam Sang initiative, giving provinces and the districts more responsibilities and authorities. The reforms offered an opportunity to effectively apply the new policy, resulting in a strong government support for HSGP. ADB’s capacity-building activities at the provincial level in previous health projects provided useful experience to better target technical support at all levels.

Publication of air quality should be institutionalized to provide a feedback loop to policy makers and to empower the public to assess overall progress. ADB’s participation in the longer-term framework for air pollution abatement will reinforce the feedback and will be an instrument to provide additional assistance that will ensure the continued air pollution reduction in Ulaanbaatar and other urban areas in Mongolia.

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.

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.

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.

The ownership and rationale of policy reforms need to be carefully assessed at appraisal. Strong ownership and consistent government support are critical to the success of program loans. As such, the ownership and rationale of policy reforms should be carefully assessed at appraisal. In assessing ownership, it is important to remember that policy actions affect many stakeholders, both within and outside the government.