Education Sector Reform Project

Project design and implementation schedule. Design and implementation of policy reform activities are inherently complex, requiring coordination between various stakeholders. Considering the complexities, sufficient time should be allowed. Some of the target years specified in the DMF (design and monitoring framework) were unrealistic. Given the time required for design and implementation, especially under uncertain political situations, an adequate degree of flexibility needs to be built into the project design to respond to changes in the government's policies and priorities. For the design of and capacity building for policy reforms, a technical assistance attached to the project could have been considered. Contract awards and disbursements concerning policy reform activities tend to be slower than investment activities, which should be taken into account in the preparation of procurement plans and the projection of contract awards and disbursements._x005F_x000D__x005F_x000D_Procurement of technical equipment and materials. Lack of capacity to prepare bidding documents, evaluate bids, and monitor contract execution can significantly delay project implementation. Procuring technical equipment and materials - notably natural science laboratory equipment, didactic books for TTIs (teacher training institutes), and ICT (information and communication technology) learning objects - proved particularly challenging under the ESRP (Education Sector Reform Project). Careful capacity assessment and planning can prevent procurement delays arising from capacity constraints.