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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
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
Close and sustained engagement with the government and development is essential to the success of crisis response programs. This program’s design and implementation benefited from the strength of ADB’s close engagement with the government. ADB’s continuous policy dialogues with the government contributed to the government’s response strategy and development financing plan. The resulting close alignment also promoted ADB’s rapid processing, impactful design, and smooth implementation of the program.

Project Number: 54180-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Maintaining economic growth and protecting the vulnerable in crisis situations demand timely intervention and sizable stimulus package. The success of the government countercyclical program in maintaining economic growth and protecting vulnerable populations validated the effectiveness of the government’s approach.

Project Number: 54180-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
ADB's COVID-19 Pandemic Response Option (CPRO) modality was effective. The CPRO program established a model for ADB to channel timely support to developing member countries to address major health and economic challenges. The speed of delivery, efficient implementation, and strong development impact achieved validate the success of this model, which can be deployed to further assist countries in their economic recovery.

Project Number: 54180-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
This is an appropriate point, but this lesson could have been better phrased as follows: An active partnership with the government is necessary to reduce delays in project commencement and to ensure full commitment and timely allocation of counterpart resources.

Project Number: 48139-001
Project Name: Enhancing the Institutional Capacity of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division
Report Date:
Lesson
This lesson suggests that the TA project may not have focused enough on the actual needs of the staff, and they could have done a better job at identifying gaps in skills and meeting these through partnerships.

Project Number: 45376-001
Project Name: Capacity Building for Portfolio Management
Report Date:
Lesson
The TCR did not have a lesson for this criterion. However, during the finalization of this validation, the South Asia Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division (SARC) provided this lesson: Implementing regional TAs is more complex and entails continued commitment and engagement of participating countries. A comprehensive risk analysis and appropriate mitigating measures should be in place and regularly updated throughout implementation to efficiently address issues that may come up.

Project Number: 45396-001
Project Name: South Asia Economic Integration Partnership
Report Date:
Lesson
Another lesson relating to the TA is the selection of appropriate design and monitoring framework indicators that pertain to the effective utilization of knowledge products. Since the main outputs of regional capacity development TAs are knowledge products, monitoring the extent of utilization or uptake of the knowledge products produced within and/or outside ADB would benefit from user surveys or interviews. These surveys and interviews can help provide insights into how the knowledge products have benefited their users.

Project Number: 47146-001
Project Name: Macroeconomic Modelling for Improved Economic Assessment
Report Date:
Lesson
Sequencing of activities can help to progress implementation. For example, early capacity development and analytical work can help to speed up disbursement, while use of knowledge and evidence comes at a later stage in implementation.

Project Number: 48206-001
Project Name: Promoting Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (Phase 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
The political economy is a key consideration and can result in significant delays especially if counterpart capacity is low.

Project Number: 48206-001
Project Name: Promoting Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (Phase 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
To avoid risk of failure, an umbrella TA should balance out the risk in the portfolio between highly innovative yet risky activities and those with firm disbursement schedules.

Project Number: 48206-001
Project Name: Promoting Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (Phase 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Flexible umbrella TA projects allow for the projects to be opportunistic and take on new initiatives, but there could be implementation challenges and time delays. This also means that not all results may be known at TA project completion. For instance, the subproject on future cities was included through additional TASF resources, but this also required extension and the procurement of additional consultancy services. Although work progressed in the three pilot cities, it is not clear whether this was taken up by the respective governments by the end of the TA project.

Project Number: 48206-001
Project Name: Promoting Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (Phase 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Agreed. It is the validation’s view that the delay in government approval due to government processes should have been duly considered with a proper assessment of current capacity. Such an assessment is important in reviewing project risks and incorporating risk mitigating strategies. In this case, the timeframe for the project appears to have been underestimated. Political unrest was not identified as a risk upfront but accounted for significant interruptions to the project implementation.

Project Number: 45078-001
Project Name: Strategic Masterplan for Chittagong Port
Report Date:
Lesson
Additionally, this validation notes that feasible technical solutions that support national needs are critical to getting buy-in and ownership. For instance, some of the final reports for Bangladesh and Bhutan were produced in collaboration with national partners. It is missing from the TCR a description of the issues that led to including the DMF’s third outcome indicator in the DMF, or to managing lessons arising from a substantial increase in budget mid-way through implementation.

Project Number: 46470-001
Project Name: Action on Climate Change in South Asia
Report Date: