Second West Bengal Development Finance Program

On the PBL design, the DMF should have identified the results of each policy action rather than adopting them as the output indicators. More rigor should be taken in selecting the outcome indicators. The indicators used for school attendance and dropout rates were neither appropriate to measure the result of the program nor its policy actions and suggest a weak design. Since the state is highly committed to pursuing the reforms, it could be argued that these reforms would have been carried out anyway by the government despite the program. A more detailed account of the ADB dialogue would help to illustrate the role played by the ADB PBL, and why it was needed.