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Lesson
Overly prescriptive approaches limit the scope for adaptive management of livelihood restoration programs for project-affected people. Clear recognition of the many risks associated with implementing a complex project in partnership with a relatively inexperienced and limited-capacity government led to a concerted effort to “get everything right,” as it were, before the project even started. That is reflected in the negotiation of a comprehensive and highly detailed concession agreement, a 1,362-page legal document.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
It is important to avoid overly ambitious objectives in project design. The enhancement of biodiversity conservation in NNT-NPA was an overly ambitious objective. The area to be protected involved the entire watershed and an area downstream. Its size challenged the capability and capacity of a number of agencies to plan, implement, and sustain conservation requirements.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
A large, complex development project requires a commensurate and substantive long-term commitment. The exceptionally long preparation and implementation periods (2003–2019) were essential to provide sufficient time for analysis, appraisal, and supervision of a complex project and ensure an eventually successful outcome in a high-risk context.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Quality project sponsors are essential for success, but their limitations and country capacity constraints also need to be considered. The selection of a well-qualified developer as the primary equity holder in the NTPC consortium appears to have played a major role in the efficient construction and operation of the dam and power facilities with very modest cost and time overruns.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
It is essential to carefully study and consider less socially and environmentally disruptive options in investment decision making in hydropower. Possible alternatives in future cases, for example, could include river offtake, run of the river, small decentralized hydro systems, and backup from solar and wind power. The choice should be made through a participatory assessment that gives the same weight to social and environmental dimensions as to technical and economic aspects.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Biodiversity conservation in the context of hydropower projects requires an approach whereby “conservation forest” is balanced with “production forest” as a source of income for affected people. To date, ADB, the World Bank, and international organizations consider many of the village forest activities as failures (e.g., trees are being cut down to the roots) with government advisors having little understanding of forestry practices in relation to biodiversity conservation and sustainable practice.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
IFI collaboration can yield a major developmental contribution with a high-risk project in a limited-capacity country. The close and effective collaboration of ADB, the World Bank, and other IFIs from an early stage provided the necessary confidence for the private sector to undertake a pioneering, complex, and large-scale project in a limited-capacity country. Although the total IFI loans and guarantees were modest in scale, the independent evaluation team established that they had been a necessary requirement for the international dollar financiers to extend loans to NTPC.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Consultants can be tapped to train the government ministries/agencies, which in turn are expected to train other stakeholders. However, this requires a long-term commitment to recognize improved capacities and the retention of ministry-trained staff by offering incentives.

Project Number: 39542-022
Project Name: Implementing the Greater Mekong Subregion Core Agriculture Support Program (Phase 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Institutional arrangements need to be robust and well-coordinated to deliver results. It must be clearly recognized for designing a large size and regional TA projects, especially involving multiple countries and development partners. Capacity needs assessment can serve as basis for specifying focus activities by country and targeting the scope of capacity building.

Project Number: 39542-022
Project Name: Implementing the Greater Mekong Subregion Core Agriculture Support Program (Phase 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
An analysis of priority stakeholders can yield a clearer idea of the cost-time effort required to reach these beneficiaries, given transport and communication constraints.

Project Number: 39542-022
Project Name: Implementing the Greater Mekong Subregion Core Agriculture Support Program (Phase 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Taking into account foreign exchange risk during TA design stage is important. Also, devising appropriate risk mitigating strategies or mechanism to address foreign exchange rate volatility is useful. This strategy could include the use of a currency conversion mechanism where donor funds are converted upon receipt into either one specific currency that is to be the primary use currency (e.g., USD), or a balanced mix of currencies (as used by the World Bank) are held so that the project funds are not so susceptible to the fluctuations of any one currency during project implementation.

Project Number: 39542-022
Project Name: Implementing the Greater Mekong Subregion Core Agriculture Support Program (Phase 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Developing a cadre of locally based trainers through a ‘training of trainers’ approach has been shown to be a very effective method of increasing capacity of those trained, while also retaining such capacity within the national and local areas.

Project Number: 39542-022
Project Name: Implementing the Greater Mekong Subregion Core Agriculture Support Program (Phase 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
An additional lesson is having an important facilitative role in attracting donor funding even without substantial investments of its own, ADB can leverage its knowledge and connections to implement significant projects in collaboration with other stakeholders.

Project Number: 39542-022
Project Name: Implementing the Greater Mekong Subregion Core Agriculture Support Program (Phase 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
A lesson from this TA is that the benefits of a regional TA approach seem strong in terms of applicability among GMS countries, and the potential for improving standards and value chains across different product categories is great. As one gets into the “retail” side of capacity development (where farmer and other producer beneficiaries are trained on how to produce according to the standards), the costs vis-à-vis the benefits of TAs from different activities and for different stakeholder groups may need to be shown before they attract donor buy-ins.

Project Number: 39542-022
Project Name: Implementing the Greater Mekong Subregion Core Agriculture Support Program (Phase 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Based on the recommendations indicated in the TCR, one lesson is that collaboration with other development partners, not only through the conduct of activities but also through cofinancing, could be a valuable and important means of facilitating delivery of intended results.

Project Number: 39542-022
Project Name: Implementing the Greater Mekong Subregion Core Agriculture Support Program (Phase 2)
Report Date: