The risk assessment of political resistance to devolution was not sufficiently robust, and mitigating measures were not realistic. The design should have been revised to address political resistance to implementation of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2001 (PLGO). Failure to do so undermined program implementation. Another significant design flaw was the multi-sector and ambitious scope of the program. This observation was also raised by the executing agency (EA) during the program completion review mission. The demands of implementing reforms across four sectors limited the extent of sustained interaction in any one sector. The water supply and sanitation sector, in particular, faces a very different set of development needs and requires specific technical expertise. The multi-sector Second Social Action Program Project faced similar implementation challenges, though this lesson was not sufficiently incorporated into the program design.
Punjab Devolved Social Services Program