ADB has been at the forefront of social welfare reform in Mongolia. Continued engagement at the country level is key to further strengthening the system through improved targeting, consolidation of benefits, and improved financial sustainability. Although not the aim of the emergency assistance loan, the project highlighted the need for further reforming the system.
For interventions in a new country, it is important to assess the capacity of the government’s financial management system thoroughly before launching a project, especially when investing valuable grant resources.
The government’s internal approval processes need to be carefully considered when designing and implementing a policy reform program. In Viet Nam, the consensus-building approach to policymaking requires significant time and coordination, particularly for policies that would entail changes to the legal framework. The process for amending laws is a significant constraint, as the lawmaking cycle usually takes 5 years. Inadequate consideration of these features of policymaking and lawmaking in Viet Nam could lead to unrealistic program schedules.
Technical knowledge in the sector and confident partnership with the sector’s main agencies built up over long-term policy dialogue are required for successful interventions and country assistance in a period of crises. When the food and financial crises required rapid assistance to Mongolia, ADB’s sector knowledge and the relations built up over several years of policy dialogue and assistance were the basis for rapidly preparing a program and project package to assist the government.
Opportunities for advance procurement remain limited in Cambodia because financing is unavailable for detailed engineering designs in advance of loans. This limits the preparatory actions that could be undertaken to improve project readiness. Solutions such as a project design facility are being considered and may be possible from 2024 onwards.
When functions and responsibilities are decentralized, policy dialogue with the concerned local authorities during project processing is just as important as dialogue at the central level.Although ULBs in Bangladesh depend on LGD, they enjoy some autonomy. The ULBs rapidly realized the benefit of better governance and financial management and these components were timely implemented. However, it took longer for the ULBs to appreciate the benefits of investments in sanitation and food safety funded by the project loan.
In a federal–provincial type of country having multiple government structures, sectoral functions, and finances are intricately interwoven. Factoring such institutional arrangements fully while designing projects is critical and requires extra effort to ensure an effective coordination and coherence.
Effective coordination and harmonization of policies, strategies, and action plans among the development partners can meaningfully support fragile countries. The joint policy reform matrix (JPRM) demonstrated how four development partners came together to provide sizable budget support to Tonga in its hour of need, when the country faced multiple challenges, including disasters triggered by natural hazards, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a fragile economy.
An innovative approach is needed to encourage the government in implementing critical reforms, but the approach needs to be culturally sensitive. The program shows that a reform associated with a wage bill is difficult to implement. Layoffs or significant cuts in overtime payment have social ramifications and need to be dealt with sensitively, especially when there are limited alternative employment opportunities.
Short-term training courses have many advantages that make them more preferable than longer bachelor- and masters-level courses. The project colleges' management, teachers, and trainers expressed their preference for short-term training courses over the longer bachelor- and masters-level courses the project provided. This reflects their desire to receive specific subject training that can be achieved in more focused and shorter courses.