Overambitious objectives

A holistic approach, which can lead to overambitious scope and targets, needs to be carefully weighed during the project design stage. This program and its numerous outputs adopted a holistic approach, which might now seem overly ambitious, particularly for the first urban transport undertaking in Ulaanbaatar. A phased approach could have been considered to focus resources on clearly identified priorities and to develop capacity.

The objectives and implementation period for sector reform projects need to be well-aligned with the government’s long-term vision and carefully consider existing capacities. This project's overall objective was ambitious as sector reforms require long-term and sustainable interventions, adequate resources, and sufficient time. Increasing student enrollment and rural higher education institutions offering distance education programs were not achievable through a single project intervention.

Limited baseline data could lead to unrealistic performance Indicators and targets. Because this was ADB’s first TVET grant project in Timor-Leste, which introduced a new area of formalized skills development, baseline data for the targets were limited. This led to some unrealistic performance Indicators and targets. For example, the number of students and trainers to be trained appeared to be modest, whereas the target of 65% of graduates to find employment within 3 months of graduation was overambitious.

Integrating the local capacity and existing fishing practices in project design helps in improving the efficacy of project components and approaches. Local fishermen in the Northern Province are not well equipped to take full advantage of large infrastructure such as a fishery harbor. Their boats and gears do not allow for the type of large-scale multiday fishing operation that is to benefit from the harbor. Landing sites and anchorages are better suited to their immediate operation needs.

In designing an multitranche financing facility program, it is important to formulate tranche-specific design and monitoring frameworks that are logical and have sound links of outcome and outputs in line with the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) principle. These indicators need to work in concert to reflect the appropriateness and continuum of the results chain leading up to the high-level development impacts that are most relevant to the scope and focus of that specific tranche.

An adequate assessment of institutional implementation capacity during project preparation enables identification of suitable expertise and skills set needed to facilitate project implementation. In country context where there is weak implementation capacity, complex designs with multiple components require experienced experts to enable better quality of project implementation. For example, in selecting the consultant-specialists, rigorous vetting and screening process helps in ensuring that the selected consultant is the most qualified expert for the required technical expertise.

Program design and implementation in least developed (and fragile) countries need to take account of the limited administrative capacity of the government. While ADB designed a program which supported the government in undertaking reforms and sufficient consulting services resources to help bridge capacity gaps, the timeframe for the program was too ambitious and ADB did not provide adequate continuity in the staff providing project supervision. These deficiencies contributed to the underperformance in program outcomes.