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Lesson
Clear horizontal and vertical roles for urban sector agencies are important under a multisector approach. A multisector approach in the urban sector is readily implementable in the Lao PDR, because, for the most part, subsectors are within the mandate of the ministry responsible for urban development and its provincial branches. The approach can be enhanced further with the inclusion of urban transport in urban projects. This would not be difficult, given the mandate of MPWT/DPWT.

Project Number: 33432-013
Project Name: Vientiane Urban Infrastructure and Services Project
Report Date:
Lesson
A demand-driven community approach facilitates better implementation. The village area improvement experience highlights the importance of proactive communities during the design, implementation, and maintenance of projects. The use of similar principles may be replicated or expanded for a larger set of beneficiaries. An important lesson from the village area improvement program is its use of a demand-driven approach to development instead of the top-down, supply-driven activities of the past.

Project Number: 33432-013
Project Name: Vientiane Urban Infrastructure and Services Project
Report Date:
Lesson
A balanced approach to urban land use ensures success. A “bottom-up” approach to urban land use could help avoid a potential overload of infrastructure and service networks due to overcrowding, pollution, increased poverty, and environmental degradation. Building on the success of the village area improvement initiative, in particular (but also community participation initiatives in earlier ADB-supported urban projects), support for community planning could complement and support higher level urban and regional plans.

Project Number: 33432-013
Project Name: Vientiane Urban Infrastructure and Services Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Difficult decentralization reforms will benefit from a systematic sector-wide approach to change. While building toward common reform agenda goals, several ADB initiatives toward decentralized urban governance were not adequately linked. This long process would have benefited from a comprehensive reform framework based on institutional, political, and economic imperatives and a clear sector road map.

Project Number: 33432-013
Project Name: Vientiane Urban Infrastructure and Services Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Implementing urban institutional reform is complex. Careful attention must be paid to the following aspects of urban institutional reform: (i) its acceptance by all key stakeholders through a participatory process; (ii) a thorough understanding of local politics; (iii) realistic phasing, sequencing, and timing of its institutional and policy reform; and (iv) an appropriate balance between allocated resources and expectations of the stakeholders involved. A more open-ended policy dialogue may yet prove more helpful than the application of loan covenants.

Project Number: 33432-013
Project Name: Vientiane Urban Infrastructure and Services Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Funding should be commensurate to the size and scope of the program to align incentives. The total amount of funding under the program was $15 million (spread over three tranches), yet the release of funds was contingent on compliance with some 42 conditions, some of which carried costs significantly greater than the program amount (e.g., recapitalization of the SOCBs). Interest payments alone on the recapitalization bonds were estimated at $18-$20 million over the originally anticipated program period of 3 years.

Project Number: 33359-013
Project Name: Banking Sector Reform Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Political support and macroeconomic stability are vital to the success of a development assistance program. At the time the Banking Sector Reform Program (BSRP) was approved, the government had just come out of a severe macroeconomic and fiscal crisis. The fiscal situation had stabilized by 2003 with a deficit equivalent to 5.6% of gross domestic product (GDP).

Project Number: 33359-013
Project Name: Banking Sector Reform Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Flexibility can help strengthen stakeholder ownership and support effective implementation. The first set of governance agreements had to be revised to unlock progress in implementation.

Project Number: 33359-013
Project Name: Banking Sector Reform Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The decentralized approach introduced during implementation contributed to strengthening the capacity of PIUs and speeded up project progress. PIUs demonstrated their abilities in implementing, supervising, and monitoring physical activities, as well as in managing civil works contracts. As a result, the project implementation was expedited at around midterm and caught up to schedule despite the delays in early stages of project implementation.

Project Number: 31352-013
Project Name: Small Towns Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The tranche conditions were overloaded with complicated policy reforms and involved too many implementing agencies with different interests, overstretching the weak administrative capacity of the government.

Project Number: 33359-013
Project Name: Banking Sector Reform Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The project's geographical coverage posed a major challenge to monitor subproject implementation in 12 project towns located all over the country from the northern tip (Phongsali) to the south (Samakkhixai). Particularly during rainy season, it was time-consuming for project coordination unit (PCU) staff and consultants to travel to the project towns, as well as for personnel from UDAAs and project implementation units (PIUs) to attend meetings and workshops.

Project Number: 31352-013
Project Name: Small Towns Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The program's significantly longer than anticipated implementation also meant that there was considerable turnover of key staff within executing and implementing agencies as well as on the ADB team (six mission leaders over the course of implementation). These changes contributed further to delays as new staff learned their responsibilities and adjusted to the many exigencies of a complex and wide-ranging program. A program of more focused scope would have helped reduce the effective transition period for new staff, thereby allowing more effective and timely implementation.

Project Number: 33359-013
Project Name: Banking Sector Reform Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Given the limited time and resources under the project, capacity building for urban development administration authorities (UDAAs) focused on construction management and supervision, operation and maintenance (O&M) of infrastructure and of sanitary landfills, and exchange of lessons among UDAAs. Various workshops were organized on these topics for managerial staff, accountants, and engineers of UDAAs. By strengthening core capacities, the project created momentum for continued support of long-term capacity building to enable UDAAs to provide quality public services.

Project Number: 31352-013
Project Name: Small Towns Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The program's approach to dealing with nonperforming loans (NPLs) might have concentrated more fruitfully on strengthening credit assessment with a focus on future cash flows rather than security, through greater support for the development of needed procedures and capacity in this regard. Attempting concurrent reforms of a fundamental nature in the legal and judicial system requires a significant commitment of resources over the medium to long term, well beyond those available under the program and its associated TA.

Project Number: 33359-013
Project Name: Banking Sector Reform Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The community's involvement in various project activities and its interactions with the government and project staff greatly enhanced the sense of ownership. Community participation and contribution was the key to successfully completing the village upgrading subcomponent. This was evidenced by the fact that the actual community contribution of $206,000, mainly in cash, exceeded the estimated amount of $200,000 expected at appraisal to be mainly as labor.

Project Number: 31352-013
Project Name: Small Towns Development Sector Project
Report Date: