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Lesson
Targets should be realistic and reflective of outcome level intended results.

Project Number: 50254-001
Project Name: South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Customs Reform and Modernization for Trade Facilitation Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The TCR lesson is well developed and the TORs are also well written.

Project Number: 48218-007
Project Name: Support for Value Chain Development under the Nepal Agriculture Development Strategy
Report Date:
Lesson
The main lesson is that better planning of consultancy needs can help in more timely recruitment of international and national consultants. In this case, delays in start-up of TASF activities, and non-extension of the Future Cities Program to which TA project was linked, impacted project disbursement. Consultancy overcommitments subsequently required reallocation of cost categories under the TA project.

Project Number: 48206-001
Project Name: Promoting Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (Phase 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
The TCR noted that consultants’ performance was a key factor in achieving delivery. Engaging quality consultants is important, and that in the case of high ADB staff turnover, consultants can play a role in keeping the project going. Core consultants and national experts provided institutional memory and, by working together, they were able to deliver quality outputs in a timely manner. SAOD has confirmed this when finalizing this validation report. Changes in ADB personnel did not, therefore, significantly affect progress.

Project Number: 46470-001
Project Name: Action on Climate Change in South Asia
Report Date:
Lesson
SAOD added the importance of recognizing country processes in project management. Recognizing in-country protocols is crucial to working together successfully with partner national agencies.

Project Number: 46470-001
Project Name: Action on Climate Change in South Asia
Report Date:
Lesson
The TCR noted that gaining the full cooperation of national agencies was important. The in-country governance arrangements, including the working groups and steering committee, played an important role in providing a steer, facilitating access, and reviewing outputs.

Project Number: 46470-001
Project Name: Action on Climate Change in South Asia
Report Date:
Lesson
The TCR could have commented on what lessons can be derived from the TA coordination unit model, which is a unit located in Manila that engages with national consultants based in countries.

Project Number: 46470-001
Project Name: Action on Climate Change in South Asia
Report Date:
Lesson
Surveys of beneficiary perceptions of the quality of outputs (such as plans, reports, workshops, training, and other communications) should be included in the design of the TA project. It is difficult to say much about the quality of outputs and their potential contribution to targeted outcomes without such feedback.

Project Number: 46257-001
Project Name: Strengthening Integrated Water Resources Management in Mountainous River Basins
Report Date:
Lesson
A combination of various types of capacity enhancement activities like reports, workshops, and communication tools helped in bringing together disparate national and regional stakeholders, and this helped with coordinating TA project implementation and building support for TA project outputs.

Project Number: 46257-001
Project Name: Strengthening Integrated Water Resources Management in Mountainous River Basins
Report Date:
Lesson
While this TA predates Strategy 2030, this mention of the role of the resident missions is a bit of the “One ADB approach” where knowledge and expertise from across the organization come together for more effective delivery. It would be helpful to have more details about how orin what way the RMs supported this TA. It is not totally clear what the TCR means by “arrangements to ensure the continuity of initiatives,” but as mentioned above, utilizing the research and work undertaken in this TA as a groundwork for future TAs or operations is a good way to get additional value from it.

Project Number: 45419-001
Project Name: SASEC Subregional Energy Efficiency Initiative
Report Date:
Lesson
The TCR mentioned the usefulness of a flexible approach to drafting consultant’s terms of reference such that they are broad based—this is a generalizable lesson in managing staff and consultant resources, and useful in the context of limited availability of climate finance specialists.

Project Number: 47286-001
Project Name: Enhancing Readiness of ADB Developing Member Countries for Scaled Up Climate Finance
Report Date:
Lesson
All TA consultants were recruited as individual consultants. While this allowed ADB to select strong candidates, the administrative workload was significant, especially with the need to replace the experts with the change in TA scope. While recruitment of a firm would have been more efficient, recruiting individuals provided ADB flexibility in identifying strong candidates.

Project Number: 48218-007
Project Name: Support for Value Chain Development under the Nepal Agriculture Development Strategy
Report Date:
Lesson
The same project officer handled the sole subproject under the cluster TA from the start to the end. There was also no change in consultants at any stage. They were found to be highly qualified for the tasks assigned. This shows the importance of consistency not only in managing the TA, but also of the consultants’ inputs for successful achievement of the outputs.

Project Number: 45396-001
Project Name: South Asia Economic Integration Partnership
Report Date:
Lesson
The TCR could have elaborated on the need for consultants to ably navigate (or be supported to navigate) the consultant management system to ensure timely closure of TA accounts.

Project Number: 53140-001
Project Name: Developing Accountability and Mechanism Framework for Financial Intermediaries
Report Date:
Lesson
The project was completed with strong support from resident missions. Engagement of national consultants (India and Nepal) to complement international consultants’ input on national level expedited data gathering and stakeholder’s consultation process became more efficient. Arrangements to ensure the continuity of initiatives and maintaining the institutional knowledge and memory among sector staff are important.

Project Number: 45419-001
Project Name: SASEC Subregional Energy Efficiency Initiative
Report Date: