Search

Displaying 1 - 15 of 17

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
Engaging an international firm with extensive experience proved to be the best option for this TA which focused on a complex and highly specialized topic. Nevertheless,there will always be an indispensable need for national perspectives and experiences, best provided by national consultants, to inform and be considered in TA analyses and recommendations. Future TA could benefit from increased engagement with local experts, either as individual consultants or as subcontracted members of international consulting firms or TA implementation teams.

Project Number: 53198-001
Project Name: Developing a Disaster Risk Transfer Facility in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Region
Report Date:
Lesson
A functional coordinating mechanism centered around a competent consultant team leader is key to the success of a complex implementation arrangement. The TA engaged a consulting firm, which subcontracted six additional international and national partners. This helped build a great partnership for knowledge and solutions. However, as many parallel activities were unfolding, the firm had difficulty coordinating input and outputs.

Project Number: 53035-001
Project Name: Sustainable Fodder Management
Report Date:
Lesson
To ensure knowledge creation, documentation, and dissemination, a good combination of consultants with both practical and documentation capacity needs to be considered in the preparation of the terms of reference of the TA and selection of consultants. The national consultant team, which conducted most of the TA activities, lacked adequate skills in summarizing and writing down key knowledge acquired through the TA. The international consultant was brought in to help improve documentation only after the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

Project Number: 53035-001
Project Name: Sustainable Fodder Management
Report Date:
Lesson
Designation of an alternate TA team leader despite resource constraints is necesssary to ensure seamless project continuity and institutional knowledge transfer. It will also mitigate potential disruptions caused by staff turnover.

Project Number: 54344-001
Project Name: Supporting the Establishment of a CAREC Regional Infrastructure Projects Enabling Facility
Report Date:
Lesson
Provision of adequate technical support for the executing and implementing agencies with respect to procurement planning as well as consultant recruitment and management helps in streamlining the procurement timeline processes. Specifically, providing capacity building support and training on ADB procurement procedures, biddings, and contracts facilitates effective execution of civil works' activities.

Project Number: 49168-001
Project Name: Improving School Dormitory Environment for Primary Students in Western Region Project
Report Date:
Lesson
High turnover of staff in project implementing and other relevant agencies affects institutional memory. It requires additional time and effort to introduce to new staff while ensuring close involvement and ownership in project implementation.

Project Number: 45009-002
Project Name: Fifth Health Sector Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
High staff turnover worsens capacity constraints. In this project, it aggravated lack of capacity to undertake procurement using ADB's Procurement Guidelines and the increased risk of misconduct and delays during implementation. Additional procurement capacity building for executing agency staff during implementation is therefore necessary even if procurement capacity risk is considered minimal at project appraisal.

Project Number: 48226-003
Project Name: Fifth Health Sector Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Proper handover of project responsibilities and documents will prevent staff turnover from negatively impacting project implementation and documentation. Staff turnover at the executing and implementing agencies caused implementation delays and loss of institutional memory. The executing agency was not able to prepare the project completion report because staff could not recall or find information related to the original project. The unintended consequences would have been prevented by proper handover of documents and responsibilities.

Project Number: 42322-012
Project Name: Food and Nutrition Social Welfare Program and Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Selection of the most suitable modality to support institutional development requires adequate consideration of the various factors intricately linked to it, including the prevailing political dynamics, incentive structures in public administration, and commitment of the relevant development agencies. In the case of this project, frequent changes in the senior management of the Erdenes Mongol jeopardized project ownership and seriously affected implementation.

Project Number: 49409-001
Project Name: Strengthening Institutional Framework and Management Capacity Project
Report Date:
Lesson
High staff turnover, weak procurement and contract management capacities, and lack of familiarity with ADB procedures, often the cause of implementation delays, need to be addressed jointly by ADB and government counterpart agencies. Because of the changes in the executing agency’s senior-level officials, turnover of the project staff was high. The project also suffered from counterpart agencies' weak procurement and contract management capacity and lack of familiarity with ADB guidelines.

Project Number: 43007-023
Project Name: Higher Education Reform Project
Report Date:
Lesson
High turnover of government project staff affects institutional memory and implies additional time and effort to introduce the project’s concepts to a new team to ensure the government is involved and owns the project implementation.

Project Number: 41243-012
Project Name: Fourth Health Sector Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Effective procurement plans and strategies require the conduct of relevant market and technical assessments, adequate consultation with pertinent government officials, and appropriate contract packaging. Several procurement issues, including unresponsive bidding, inadequate consulting services, inadequate terms of reference for consultants, etc. occurred mainly because of the technical nature of the goods and works required, which caused some changes in procurement arrangements during implementation.

Project Number: 49113-001
Project Name: Managing Soil Pollution in Ger Areas through Improved On-site Sanitation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The use of lump sum construction supervision contracts under conditions of frequent design changes is disadvantageous for the consultant and could jeopardize project implementation. The use of a lump sum contract between the EA and consultant for this project was not suitable. Lump sum contracts work well when tasks are precisely defined and the risks to both parties are well understood. In this case, the project had frequent design changes that resulted in extended discussions on the variations and severe implementation delays.

Project Number: 41192-013
Project Name: Regional Logistics Development Project
Report Date: