Project preparation should have included better articulation of the need or logic for integrating a program loan and a project loan in a sector development program (SDP). Policy dialogue, which is essential to clearly establish an understanding among the executing agencies that policy reforms and project loan financed investments are interlinked, should have been undertaken; however, this was missing in this SDP. Two separate loans delivered in sequence may have been preferable and more manageable. While ADB increasingly looks for integrated solutions, the objectives of this intervention may have been better achieved by implementing the program loan and the project loan separately and over time. Proposals that aim to work with several institutions and at different levels of government do not need to be packaged into a single intervention. The need for integration could be more clearly set out at the country partnership strategy level and may involve several interventions, not one.
Urban Public and Environmental Health Sector Development Program