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Lesson
The knowledge team (formerly Knowledge Advisory Services Center) from the former Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department administered the TA and supervised consultants until the TA was transferred to the Partner Funds Division. Managing consultants through external resources should be based on a clear understanding of ADB procedures and guidelines and should be adopted only if necessary.

Project Number: 52299-001
Project Name: Demonstrating Future Thinking and Foresight in Developing Member Countries
Report Date:
Lesson
The development of specialized expertise requires careful selection and the engagement of qualified consultants and proper management of expectations from all parties. Future thinking and foresight is a specialized expertise. It is crucial to identify and engage consultants with proven experience to ensure they can provide the necessary guidance and insights. It is also a new approach for ADB and thus, clear onboarding, communication, and setting expectations for both Staff and consultants who were critiical to the success of the TA.

Project Number: 52299-001
Project Name: Demonstrating Future Thinking and Foresight in Developing Member Countries
Report Date:
Lesson
Hands-on involvement of ADB Staff in the conduct of capacity building workshops and documentation allows for rapid learning and upscaling of new technologies being introduced and further developed. The future thinking and foresight activities were implemented by ADB Staff and individual consultants. ADB Staff were ands-on in the conduct of the workshop and the documentation. This facilitated rapid learning and scaling up of future thinking and foresight approaches under other TA projects.

Project Number: 52299-001
Project Name: Demonstrating Future Thinking and Foresight in Developing Member Countries
Report Date:
Lesson
Establishing robust partnerships with country teams in resident missions is essential for designing capacity-building initiatives with DMCs and for generating buy-in to new approaches to engage with DMCs. ADB can use future thinking and foresight to engage with DMC agencies to develop interdisciplinary scenarios relevant to futures planning. The futures scenarios enable conversations beyond the most preferred futures which are normally described in national development plans.

Project Number: 52299-001
Project Name: Demonstrating Future Thinking and Foresight in Developing Member Countries
Report Date:
Lesson
Regular involvement of country teams from resident missions and with external partner experts in the field are crucial in ensuring the continued relevance and significance of TA support. For this TA, the design and planning were also informed by discussion with relevant department leading country programming work.

Project Number: 52299-001
Project Name: Demonstrating Future Thinking and Foresight in Developing Member Countries
Report Date:
Lesson
Involving relevant stakeholders within ADB and in DMCs in the design and implementation phases enhances the relevance and impact of the TA outputs. IPCC was ideally placed to manage consultant engagement, prepare and complete the Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report, and disseminate findings. ADB can collaborate with IPCC further in other climate change-related activities

Project Number: 52299-001
Project Name: Demonstrating Future Thinking and Foresight in Developing Member Countries
Report Date:
Lesson
The relevance of a TA could attract interest from other resident missions and lead to changes in scope and implementation arrangements to accommodate requests for support. Initially, this TA was designed to provide quick response to developing member countries' (DMCs) need to improve development planning.

Project Number: 52299-001
Project Name: Demonstrating Future Thinking and Foresight in Developing Member Countries
Report Date:
Lesson
Leveraging regional platforms is essential in ensuring that the knowledge generated from a TA is widely disseminated to the intended users, as it fosters collaboration among various stakeholders and promotes continuous learning across DMCs. Noting the urgency and importance of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC)) report and its implications, it was appropriate to organize dissemination workshops for ADB Staff (including ADB Board members), and for DMC government officials and civil society organizations, so that mutual understanding could lead to integrated activities.

Project Number: 52299-001
Project Name: Demonstrating Future Thinking and Foresight in Developing Member Countries
Report Date:
Lesson
It is important for projects engaging many consultants to have a clear record of what was delivered and why the scope of contracts was changed or reduced. The firm’s final report should summarize the key deliverables and their usage. It is also important to undertake a structured turnover process especially to submit TA documentation sharing insights, best practices, and lessons from the TA experience.

Project Number: 52013-001
Project Name: Research University Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Despite odds, it is not impossible for TA projects to collect the necessary information to prepare ensuing projects. The TA scope and implementation arrangements had been changed to adapt to the changing context arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, it was able to gather all the requisite information to prepare the ensuing project.

Project Number: 52013-001
Project Name: Research University Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
An exogenous shock such as the COVID-19 pandemic can significantly affect TA execution and associated plans and government priorities. When that happens, it will be useful to pause TA implementation, revisit the processing timeline, take sufficient time to observe and discuss with the executing agency, and make adjustment where possible. The TA was well aligned with strategy documents at national and ADB level.

Project Number: 52013-001
Project Name: Research University Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Changes in scope could cause a lack of alignment between outcomes and outputs in the project’s results chain. The outcome target indicator for the increased number of disadvantaged students enrolled in HEIs was not linked to the output activity and indicator that the project design intended. By associating an outcome target with a potential output activity that can contribute to its achievement, project implementation activities would be purposeful.

Project Number: 43007-023
Project Name: Higher Education Reform Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Inadequate risk assessments can prevent projects from achieving results. The design and monitoring framework was designed with more assumptions made than risks identified. Overall project implementation was impacted by changes in government, although higher education institutions (HEIs) remained a priority for the government. Identification of risks related to unforeseen changes in government would have informed ADB and the project implementation unit of factors that could prevent the achievement of project results.

Project Number: 43007-023
Project Name: Higher Education Reform Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Budget allocations and actual expenditures to continually achieve project objectives are an indication of its sustainability. As there was a general lack of a strong legal framework or related reform to support the sustainability of the project, ADB should have used information on budget allocations and actual expenditure for the higher education sector after project implementation to more substantially confirm the sustainability of the project’s results.

Project Number: 43007-023
Project Name: Higher Education Reform Project
Report Date:
Lesson
It is important to include in the design and monitoring framework (DMF) the extent to which capacity-building activities improve trainees' perception of their capacity to perform project-related tasks to gauge the effectiveness of such activities. Most project activities were capacity building. However, DMF targets measuring capacity-building activities were limited to the number of trainees reached which was purely informational for project accountability.

Project Number: 43007-023
Project Name: Higher Education Reform Project
Report Date: