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Displaying 481 - 495 of 497

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 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:
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 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
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 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 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
Focus in scope is important. The extended time period, the considerable amounts of counterpart and staff time, and the breadth of technical assistance (TA) support involved in program implementation (6 years and about $6 million in loan and grant-based TA resources) clearly indicate the scope and complexity of the program. Significant additional support was also provided under rural finance-related projects to address Agriculture Promotion Bank (APB) and microfinance-related measures.

Project Number: 33359-013
Project Name: Banking Sector Reform Program
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
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
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
Program design encompassing a good technical analytical basis was useful. The technical analytical basis for the formulation of the ESP was very sound. There were a large number of detailed studies and reports financed by ADB, the government, and other donors that the ESP could build on. This was particularly true in terms of environment-related information, data base and analytical work. Complex programs, such as the ESP, should be preceded by good analytical work in order to inform the program design, particularly the conditions to be included in the policy matrix.

Project Number: 34543-013
Project Name: Environment and Social Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Considering the full range of opportunities for enhancing the human resource base would produce a more sustainable outcome. The RRP correctly identified the weak human resource base of Lao PDR as a risk to the implementation of the ESP. These weaknesses remain with no immediate or short-term solution.

Project Number: 34543-015
Project Name: Environment and Social Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Adequate donor coordination was important to implement a complex crosscutting program in a small country with many donor agencies. Donor coordination in the formulation and implementation of the ESP was adequate. The design of the World Bank's LENS project was well-synchronized with the ESP. The phasing-out of Sida assistance appears to have been well-timed with the phasing-in of development assistance from the Finnish Government. Donor coordination is important to ensure synchronization of activities and avoid duplication of effort.

Project Number: 34543-014
Project Name: Environment and Social Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Need for better stakeholder analysis and involvement for complex programs. The RRP could have provided a better stakeholder analysis of the central government agencies and their evolving roles in the management of environmental and social safeguards. It omitted analysis of the mandate and remit of the Ministry of Finance and the key role that it would need to play in establishing sustainable financing mechanisms, including on the revenue collection aspects. The RRP should have flagged this as a substantial risk.

Project Number: 34543-017
Project Name: Environment and Social Program
Report Date: