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Lesson
The integrated approach to disaster recovery operations beyond infrastructure restoration to also include activities directed at restoring livelihood and improving the resilience of infrastructure and economic activity to disasters.

Project Number: 39631-013
Project Name: Earthquake Emergency Assistance Project
Report Date:
Lesson
WAPDA was unbundled because the organization had degenerated into an unwieldy, overcentralized, and multilayered bureaucracy, dominated by political expediency and experiencing declining efficiency and quality of service. Even though the unbundling was carried out, operational and financial performance of the unbundled entities did not improve significantly.

Project Number: 32146-013
Project Name: Energy Sector Restructuring Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Cross-indebtedness has been an energy sector issue since the 1980s. Although the ESRP provided the government the means to eliminate crossindebtedness by financing the arrears out of the budget, the respite provided by the ESRP was temporary, and cross-indebtedness became a major issue again shortly thereafter, reaching unprecedented levels of about PRs503 billion by mid-2013.

Project Number: 32146-013
Project Name: Energy Sector Restructuring Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The ESRP comprised three loans. The largest (Loan 1807) was for $300 million and was designed as a three tranche plus incentive tranche program loan. The other two loans were a $50 million Asian Development Fund loan (Loan 1808) and a $5 million TA loan (Loan 1809). The government availed of the first and incentive tranches of Loan 1807 for $150 million as well as the $50 million Asian Development Fund loan when it complied with the first tranche loan conditions.

Project Number: 32146-013
Project Name: Energy Sector Restructuring Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Subsidization of electricity is a drain on budgetary resources and not sustainable in the longer term when an economy is growing and tax revenues are stagnant. Under the ESRP, electricity subsidies were expected to be eliminated with the establishment of NEPRA, and the tariff was expected to reflect and recover the full cost of production. However, the government continues to subsidize electricity, primarily to domestic and agricultural customers.

Project Number: 32146-013
Project Name: Energy Sector Restructuring Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The privatization of KESC demonstrates that private sector ownership in the energy sector has benefits in terms of efficiency gains. System losses are declining significantly, and KESC’s financial performance has improved substantially since privatization, such that it is now self-financing since first turning a profit in 2012. This accomplishment is remarkable considering the environment in which it operates includes a constrained availability of fuel for its thermal power plants and an unfavorable security and law and order situation.

Project Number: 32146-013
Project Name: Energy Sector Restructuring Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Clarify roles and respect existing mandates. Initial delays in implementation of the project were caused by confusion about the roles of new and existing institutions. Any large- scale reconstruction operation requires clear delineation of the mandates of levels of government, to provide the structure and clarity required for all stakeholders to work with maximum efficiency. To the extent possible, the provincial and regional governments and federal agencies should be provided with capacity to perform their mandated roles.

Project Number: 39631-013
Project Name: Earthquake Emergency Assistance Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Have a dedicated lead institution. The dedicated federal (Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority or ERRA) and provincial reconstruction authorities led the overall coordination and monitoring, and facilitated procedures, policies, and strategies for reconstruction. This arrangement allowed efficient and transparent reconstruction, and established the government's commitment to and credibility in mobilizing resources.

Project Number: 39631-013
Project Name: Earthquake Emergency Assistance Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Institutionalize - fast-tracking - and flexibility. The technical assistance (TA) attached to the project allowed flexible responses to diverse capacity gaps, and fast-tracked procurement and disbursement, and the implementation of the safeguards policy. The flexibilities allowed under the emergency policy reduced procurement time and enabled efficient mobilization of resources.

Project Number: 39631-013
Project Name: Earthquake Emergency Assistance Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Enhance transparency for effective oversight. The government-established ERRA Council, headed by the prime minister, consists of independent and reputable individuals from civil society in the affected regions. The council followed the reconstruction process and reviewed and reported regularly to the general public on its progress and outcomes, developing a sense of ownership. Independent oversight, involving representatives of civil society disseminating information to key constituents, promoted transparency and enhanced the credibility of the host government.

Project Number: 39631-013
Project Name: Earthquake Emergency Assistance Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Articulate policies, strategy, and standards early. The local populations and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) started reconstruction work well before provincial and federal governments started articulating their responses. Expectations rose, and some facilities, especially in health, were built by bilateral donors to standards that were much higher than the capacity of the line agencies to maintain them. This resulted in inconsistencies, violations of policies and standards developed for reconstruction work, and unsustainable operation of completed facilities.

Project Number: 39631-013
Project Name: Earthquake Emergency Assistance Project
Report Date:
Lesson
No new lessons

Project Number: 38458-013
Project Name: Infrastructure Development
Report Date:
Lesson
While the project-preparation facilities made sense, the TA loan itself was spread too thinly. The funds were dispersed across three sectors, and were handled by numerous agencies managing subprojects in many locations. This made coordination a challenge right from the outset, especially given the absence of an experienced and capable local coordination team. It did not work. In retrospect, the multi-sector design of the TA was wrong, and approval should not be given for similar TA loans in the future. The important lesson learned here is to restrict loans to one sector at a time.

Project Number: 38458-013
Project Name: Infrastructure Development
Report Date:
Lesson
ADB should have restructured its technical assistance (TA) loan much earlier, taking into account two events: (i) the approval of new multitranche financing facilities (MFFs) with project-preparation components that duplicated some of the TA's work, and (ii) dramatic changes in the economy that made some subprojects irrelevant and/or unfundable. The review missions reported on consultant services and their performance, and they did propose a major restructuring of the TA over time.

Project Number: 38458-013
Project Name: Infrastructure Development
Report Date:
Lesson
The Planning and Development Division's (PDD lack of capacity to assist the implementing agencies delayed the issuance of consultant mandates, thus slowing down work on some priority subprojects. The choice of the PDD as the executing agency was a mistake. The PDD lacked qualified staff,, access, and a track record. The setting up of new units to manage consultancy contracts does not work and should not have been proposed in the first place.

Project Number: 38458-013
Project Name: Infrastructure Development
Report Date: