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CSV
Lesson
Widespread assistance from development partners (DPs) in times of crisis could lead to fiscal expansion and unsustainable expenditures that require subsequent downward adjustments. The inflow of DP assistance to support the Republic of Marshall Islands’ (RMI) COVID-19 response plan has masked its structural fiscal deficit and led to expenditures that were unsustainable and needed to be adjusted afterwards. With the pandemic winding down, it has become most important for the country to heed the EconMAP’s recommendation for it take steps to address this fiscal deficit.

Project Number: 54358-001
Project Name: Health Expenditure and Livelihoods Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Targeted assistance will help ensure that crisis response programs reach those who need them most. Targeted assistance to women and girls, including in safeguarding their health and safety and prioritizing their coverage in socioeconomic assistance, helped support the well-being of these vulnerable groups. Harmonizing efforts to distribute WASH and dignity kits with those undertaken by a civil society group eliminated the risk of duplication and inefficiencies thus maximizing available assistance from various sources.

Project Number: 54358-001
Project Name: Health Expenditure and Livelihoods Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Better coordination or shared reporting and reliance on government’s own systems would ease the burden of monitoring and reporting the implementation of crisis response programs. Developing an effective reporting and monitoring system during a pandemic is difficult because of competing demands on staff time. This is accentuated when other development partners providing complementary support similarly impose reporting requirements.

Project Number: 54358-001
Project Name: Health Expenditure and Livelihoods Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Changing internal guidance and expectations added significant pressure in designing ADB’s COVID-19 response programs and this has to be managed more effectively in future similar circumstances. ADB was still refining its COVID-19 pandemic response option (CPRO) policy and guidelines when this program was prepared. Managing the changing internal guidelines and expectations added significant pressure.

Project Number: 54358-001
Project Name: Health Expenditure and Livelihoods Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The rapid launch and accelerated implementation of the project made necessary by the threat that avian influenza would become a pandemic made it difficult to define verifiable indicators for a number of the outputs under the regional capacity building and regional coordination components. A mid-term review of the project would have facilitated a review and updating of the design and monitoring framework.

Project Number: 39662-012
Project Name: Prevention and Control of Avian Influenza in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
The project supported the One Health concept, which emphasizes the links between animal health and human health and emerging animal and human diseases. One Health provided a platform for unprecedented integration of animal, human and ecosystem health issues to fight the threat of avian influenza. The systematic collaboration of technical agencies across disciplines, such as FAO (veterinarians) and WHO (medical doctors) and civil society organizations (community health workers) supported by the project has promoted this concept since the beginning of the project.

Project Number: 39662-012
Project Name: Prevention and Control of Avian Influenza in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
ADB's high-level steering committee demonstrated ADB's institutional support, which enhanced coordination between development partners. The committee, comprising the heads of all regional departments and the Strategy and Policy Department and chaired by the director general of RSDD, provided prompt policy guidance and expedited decisions and actions. It also ensured that the needs of the countries were ascertained and that they had adequate access to project resources.

Project Number: 39662-012
Project Name: Prevention and Control of Avian Influenza in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
ADB was able to use its convening power effectively because it had the necessary in-house technical expertise. Public health experts on ADB's staff with knowledge of emerging infectious diseases were involved in designing and implementing the project. This in-house expertise made the dialogue with the technical and regional agencies to strengthen regional collaboration within and across the animal health and human health sectors possible.

Project Number: 39662-012
Project Name: Prevention and Control of Avian Influenza in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
Each new outbreak of disease confronts projects such as this one, as well as the implementing partners and global community, with a fresh challenge, because its early spread outpaces the gathering of scientific evidence needed to formulate containment policies. Each successive outbreak is followed by an initial opaque period characterized by a frustrating lack of scientific evidence on which to base policies and technical guidance.

Project Number: 39662-012
Project Name: Prevention and Control of Avian Influenza in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
Policy dialogue required on-the-ground support from ADB. Establishment of the ADB development coordination office in November 2011 played a key role in forging policy dialogue, although this was undertaken issue-by-issue (expenditure management, taxation, and state-owned enterprise reform) rather than through a holistic approach. Other development partners also provided substantial support for public sector reform in the Republic of Marshall Islands, but the coordinated dialogue with government that has been used successfully in programs elsewhere in the Pacific was missing.

Project Number: 43321-013, 43321-023
Project Name: Public Sector Program - Subprograms 1 and 2: Program Completion Report
Report Date:
Lesson
All Pacific developing member countries, including the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI), have great difficulty implementing policies to support long-term adjustments. The program included several line expenditure conditions under output 2 that the government struggled to implement and monitor (para. 16). In the end, the government decided to make across-the-board expenditure cuts rather than the targeted cuts proposed under the program. The condition targets were related to budget estimates rather than budget outturns.

Project Number: 43321-013, 43321-023
Project Name: Public Sector Program - Subprograms 1 and 2: Program Completion Report
Report Date:
Lesson
The program's DMF was overambitious (para. 8) and, based on ADB guidelines for DMF preparation could have been correctly recast to make the outcome the intended impact and output 1 the intended outcome. The outcome and impact statements and indicators and targets in a DMF need to be realistic and take into account the country context. [Main text, para. 38]

Project Number: 43321-013, 43321-023
Project Name: Public Sector Program - Subprograms 1 and 2: Program Completion Report
Report Date:
Lesson
The intended program outcome of achieving fiscal sustainability was overambitious, given the historically slow pace of reforms in the Republic of Marshall Islands and in other countries facing fragile situations. Moving forward with the reforms needed to fully deliver the program outputs required approval of three key pieces of enabling legislation, but the program design did not take into account the likelihood of a lengthy parliamentary approval process and underestimated the political opposition such reforms might encounter.

Project Number: 43321-013, 43321-023
Project Name: Public Sector Program - Subprograms 1 and 2: Program Completion Report
Report Date:
Lesson
Even if a project is aligned with regional strategies, designs need to incorporate sufficient national consultation and consider country absorptive and technical capacity and commitment.

Project Number: 38599-022
Project Name: HIV/AIDS Prevention and Capacity Development in the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
National M&E remains a challenge due to lack of capacity and minimal regional support to assist participating DMCs. While regional evaluations of some activities have taken place, they need to focus on impact or outcome indicators rather than on the process of implementation.

Project Number: 38599-022
Project Name: HIV/AIDS Prevention and Capacity Development in the Pacific
Report Date:
CSV