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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
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
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
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
At project appraisal, staff turnover in government agencies including project implementing units (PIUs) was identified as a risk. It could have been prudent for the resident mission to provide insight into mitigation measures based on experience in other ADB projects and those of other development partners, particularly in ensuring proper repository of project documents to facilitate the efficient transfer of project responsibilities to new PIU staff.

Project Number: 45010-002
Project Name: Skills for Employment Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Completion of project activities relied heavily on consultant inputs without coordination with specific departments in the executing and implementing agencies to enable capacity building and integration. Implementation arrangements during project design could have identified departments whose purpose aligned with the project initiatives to ensure sustainability upon project completion

Project Number: 45010-002
Project Name: Skills for Employment Project
Report Date:
Lesson
It is prudent to consider providing project implementation support through a better-staffed consulting to mitigate existing capacity gaps in project agencies. At project appraisal, ADB identified the executing agency as having limited experience with ADB projects; yet it was made responsible for leading project performance tracking by the proect implementation unit (PIU), with the support of only two individual consultants for a short term. Changes in government exacerbated the lack of leadership and management capacity of the PIU.

Project Number: 45010-002
Project Name: Skills for Employment Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Factors that contributed to the overall success of the project include (i) the openness willingness, and flexibility of ADB and the government to respond positively to emerging need and demand; (ii) agreements by stakeholders to increase the number of MES representatives in the project steering commitee, which balanced the views and bargaining power of MES in the decision-making process; and (iii) the willingness of ADB to use its own resources to hire staff consultants when required to help resolve procurement bottlenecks and accelerate project implementation especially during critical per

Project Number: 45010-002
Project Name: Skills for Employment Project
Report Date: