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Lesson
Continued advisory support is required to sustain the momentum of reforms in Palau's energy sector. ADB provided substantial advisory support through ADB staff and by engaging experts through technical assistance operations to help the Palau Public Utilities Corporation (PPUC) implement the agreed policy actions and prepare background studies for both subprograms.

Project Number: 54151-001, 54151-003
Project Name: Palau Public Utilities Corporation Reform Program 
Report Date:
Lesson
Changing internal guidance and expectations created additional pressure in designing ADB’s COVID-19 response programs and this has to be managed more effectively in future similar situations. At the time this program was prepared, ADB policy and guidelines on the COVID-19 pandemic response option (CPRO) were still being developed, and managing changing internal guidance and expectations added a significant amount of pressure.

Project Number: 54245-001
Project Name: Health Expenditure and Livelihoods Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Development partners are a great source of assistance in designing and implementing crisis response programs. The program design and implementation benefited greatly from the presence in Palau of the EconMAP team in situ in the Ministry of Finance (MOF), analyzing economic trends and providing regular advice, and the program team’s coordination with the International Monetary Fund and the Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre team in Fiji. Given thin capacity in MOF, such support has been invaluable.

Project Number: 54245-001
Project Name: Health Expenditure and Livelihoods Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Flexibility during implementation enhances program responsiveness. The government made timely adjustments to ensure complementarities between two major assistance programs at the time—the United States’ Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act 2020 that provided unemployment benefits to citizens of Palau and the country’s own Coronavirus Relief One-Stop Shop (CROSS) Act of 2020 that provide relief to the private sector. Funding from the CROSS components with lower uptake were reallocated to those with higher demand.

Project Number: 54245-001
Project Name: Health Expenditure and Livelihoods Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Coordinating or shared reporting and the use of government’s own systems would ease the burden of monitoring and reporting the implementation of crisis response programs. Developing a monitoring system that can be effectively implemented during a pandemic when there are competing demands on the time of staff, who are already stretched, is problematic. This is accentuated when other partners impose similar reporting requirements. Coordinated or shared reporting and reliance on government’s own internal systems would lessen this burden.

Project Number: 54245-001
Project Name: Health Expenditure and Livelihoods Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The RRP outlined that one of the program outputs was the establishment of the policy and legal framework to enable the provision of sustainable and efficient water and sewerage services, including allowing for outsourcing of the management function to a private company. Examples of merged power and water utilities and private sector-run water utilities include the UNELCO Engie in Vanuatu and the American Samoa Power Authority (footnote 9). These types of viable utility options need to be considered during the appraisal of similar programs.

Project Number: 44031-013
Project Name: Water Sector Improvement Program
Report Date: