Country context

Aligning TA deliverables to the knowledge needs articulated and defined by governments enhances the value proposition and value addition of ADB technical assistance to developing member countries. In this case, the significant knowledge delivered by the TA on the impact of COVID-19 on the labor market and foresights into the emerging skills and professions in the post-pandemic environment provided critical inputs to the development of the Solidarity Fund for Kazakhstan (AFK) and related policies.

Land acquisition issues in PNG are more difficult to resolve than in other countries, as 97% of land is customarily owned. In this project, In this project, In this project, they were harder to contend with than expected at design stage due to changes in weather patterns that affected travel plans, with many of the sites located at sea. In a project as widely dispersed geographically as this one, more time will also have to be allowed for site access and community engagement activities.

Careful political economy analysis can help identify potential legal or regulatory changes on the horizon that could impact planned interventions. In this case, changes in the regulatory framework related to hazardous waste management resulted in the cancelation of one output.

Continuing dialogue between ADB and the Uzbekistan government is necessary to further improve the government's focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Potential gender entry points for ADB could be to support knowledge building on gender-based budgeting, integrating gender and social dimensions into social protection systems, and gender-focused small and mediyum-sized enterprise development programs for job creation.

It is important to listen to government counterparts and to understand the local context of the country through in-depth diagnostic study. This will help in recommending suitable and context-specific solutions. Project teams should try to anticipate country requests, especially during the conduct of the diagnostic studies, for which costs can sometimes be underestimated.

Ensuring that the design of the TA aligns with ADB strategic regional efforts is important in order for the TA to contribute to longer-term sustainable results. In this case, the TA was aligned with ADB strategies and policies on RCI, energy, and environment, as well as the national and regional policies and strategies of the SASEC member countries.

An established cooperation platform like the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) facilitates the design of a regional TA and is particularly helpful in ensuring that TA activities are well grounded, technically sound,and flexible. The TA design and planning process followed a comprehensive and collaborative approach, analyzing regional cooperation and integration (RCI) potential and challenges in the energy sector of the SASEC region, with extensive consultations undertaken among various stakeholders in each SASEC member country.

TA consistency with the country partnership strategy is important. This TA was envisioned to provide knowledge for future ADB fintech projects, consistent with respective DMC country partnership strategies.

With strong justification and available financing in place, government-proposed adjustments to output components during implementation can help ensure a project's continued alignment with evolving government strategies. This can also deliver more outputs that contribute directly to achieving the project's outcome and generate greater social and economic benefits. In this case, following the government's new policy on poverty reduction, the provincial and county governments proposed to resurface all the 1,200 km roads connecting lower-level village roads.

Support cannot be directed to the most vulnerable in a crisis in the absence of a social protection system that can be utilized or adapted for this purpose—which provides an additional reason for working with developing member countries to establish and strengthen such systems.