Having a strong, experienced executing agency was important to the success of this project. The professional, permanent and technical central project office (CPO) added value to project implementation and the quality of project outputs. However, for new similar projects, these implementation arrangements, where a central ministry such as Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) work as the executing agency, is in principle no longer possible in accordance with the new government policy. Instead, provinces will be the executing agencies except in the case of large and nationally important irrigation schemes, MARD can still be a central executing agency. For decentralized projects of similar nature, the implementation arrangements should allow experienced, capable agencies like CPO to provide technical guidance and backstop support, and lead coordination between ADB and provincial implementing or executing agencies, even MARD will no longer have executing agency status.
Strengthening Water Management and Irrigation Systems Rehabilitation Project