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Lesson
Adequate project readiness and accurate designs are critical for large infrastructure projects. Lack of these could cause delays, i.e., this project encountered a delay of over 2 years in finalizing the detailed design for the major civil works contracts and delays in procurement. Furthermore, inclusion of additional scope of works and delays in land acquisition and resettlement plans, and COVID-19 impacts hindered timely implementation.

Project Number: 40540-014, 40540-017
Project Name: South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Road Connectivity Project
Report Date:
Lesson
A geo-fabric reinforced seal could be replicated to provide more robust waterproofing and as a strain-alleviating membrane for treating road surface cracks. The geo-fabric reinforced seal installed for a 500 m length of the project road on a pilot basis proved to be an effective spray sealing technique for treating badly cracked and distressed pavements, particularly where crack movements are slow.

Project Number: 40540-014, 40540-017
Project Name: South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Road Connectivity Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Substantial cost overruns could result from inadequate detailed design, new legislation (e.g., banning slow-moving traffic from highways), changes in pavement composition to address climate change impacts and overloading, constructability issues, unforeseen project features, and road safety and traffic issues.

Project Number: 40540-014, 40540-017
Project Name: South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Road Connectivity Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Replacing higher-level skills courses with in-demand entry-level courses can raise the job placement performance of projects. Industry associations initially expected a strong demand for mid- or higher-level technical skills; however, job placements from these courses were more challenging than those from more entry-level courses. Therefore, the outcome indicator related to increased shares of higher-level skills was not increased, and was instead pegged at just about 18%l, which proved more realistic.

Project Number: 42466-015
Project Name: Skills for Employment Investment Program - Tranche 1
Report Date:
Lesson
The choice of executing agency (EA) is critical to project success. The Minifstry of Finance, the project EA, provided strong leadership and was able to engage the private sector efficiently. Its broad, multisector overview of the economy helped ensure relevant outcomes from the project, and its central ministerial position facilitated effective coordination across multiple ministries.

Project Number: 42466-015
Project Name: Skills for Employment Investment Program - Tranche 1
Report Date:
Lesson
Projects with complex technical requirements, such as this one on railway rolling stocks, need to hire a panel of experts to support the project team throughout procurement, supply, and commissioning. The financial closing of this project was delayed due to various reasons related to the complexity of technical specifications and the Bangladesh Railway's (BR) requirements for locomotives.

Project Number: 49094-001
Project Name: Railway Rolling Stock Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Using well-established and reputable industry associations as primary implementing partner for training rather than directly contracted training providers is a strategically sound decision for scaling up sector-specific, job-ready training. The industry associations already had a working knowledge of the skills gaps and needs in their respective industries, which reduced the time needed to develop programs and deliver industry-required skills courses. Job placement was also made easier thus facilitating the attainment of the performance indicators.

Project Number: 42466-015
Project Name: Skills for Employment Investment Program - Tranche 1
Report Date:
Lesson
A consolidated annual project financial statement ((APFS) needs to be required from projects with more than one component, and this should be included in the project administration manual and monitored closely for compliance. Submission of the consolidated APFSs for the first 2 fiscal years was delayed because of time lag in consolidating the reports on the two components.

Project Number: 49094-001
Project Name: Railway Rolling Stock Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Continuous monitoring of training results and job placement is required to ensure the integrity of the training data provided. The online training management system (TMS) was set up to track large-scale training outputs from numerous training providers, which also became a basis of milestone payments. The Skills Development Coordination and Monitoring Unit (SDCMU) carried out several types of monitoring and verification activities. Rigorous monitoring and regular field checks were essential for the payment system based on milestone achievement, especially with respect to job placement.

Project Number: 42466-015
Project Name: Skills for Employment Investment Program - Tranche 1
Report Date:
Lesson
The multitranche financing facility (MFF) modality is appropriate for the phased Implementation of major reforms. It also proved suitable for the new training partnership model introduced by this investment program, which took time to take off within both the government and the private sector. This is because the stakeholders deemed it important to familiarize themselves first with the model— learn which aspects were working well, which ones did not. and subsequently modify or redesign those aspects that proved inappropriate or ineffective.

Project Number: 42466-015
Project Name: Skills for Employment Investment Program - Tranche 1
Report Date:
Lesson
Setting a high job placement target to qualify for the final milestone payment can can create a negative incentive for training providers to inflate the training costs so as to cover for all their costs regardless of whether or not they meet the job placement target. This lesson, arising from a similar project in Nepal, was heeded by the tranche 1 project that lowered the job placement target from 70% to 60% to ensure that the training providers do not to lose their focus on job placement.

Project Number: 42466-015
Project Name: Skills for Employment Investment Program - Tranche 1
Report Date:
Lesson
Close consultation with stakeholders during project design and implementation is especially needed to address the difficulties commonly arising from finding appropriate sites for solid waste and medical waste management facilities in urban projects. Due to lack of land and higher costs of construction than estimated at appraisal, it was not possible to construct the integrated waste treatment facilities, slaughterhouses, and medical waste management facilities planned under this program. These components were eventually dropped.

Project Number: 39305-013
Project Name: Urban Public and Environmental Health Sector Development Program 
Report Date:
Lesson
Overall project success depends to a large extent on the successful implementation of risk mitigation measures carefully identified at appraisal. Weak institutional arrangements and lack of ownership saddled the implementation of this program. A lack of capacity and coordination among different agencies compounded the difficulties. The difficulties could have been minimized or avoided through the timely implementation of risk mitigation measures drawn at appraisal. The measures should be based on a thorough assessment of all potential risks throughout the project period.

Project Number: 39305-013
Project Name: Urban Public and Environmental Health Sector Development Program 
Report Date:
Lesson
The One ADB approach is effective in delivering in timely crisis response. A contributing factor to the timely delivery of COVID-19 assistance and support is the One ADB approach in program processing, especially the strong role of the resident mission. With all the relevant departments working as contributors and partners, this approach broke down barriers and improved communications, resulting in faster turnaround and higher-quality outputs. The resident mission played a critical role in the preparation of the program, policy dialogue, and the eventual implementation of the program.

Project Number: 54180-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Spreading a project across a wide geographic areas creates additional coordination and administrative difficulties. The project had a wide coverage in southern Bangladesh where several subprojects were distributed across 12 districts, adding coordination and administrative burden to implementing agencies. The project could have selected fewer districts to reduce the implementation burden.

Project Number: 45084-002
Project Name: Coastal Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Project
Report Date: