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Lesson
An innovative approach is needed to encourage the government in implementing critical reforms, but the approach needs to be culturally sensitive. The program shows that a reform associated with a wage bill is difficult to implement. Layoffs or significant cuts in overtime payment have social ramifications and need to be dealt with sensitively, especially when there are limited alternative employment opportunities.

Project Number: 55016-001
Project Name: Economic Recovery Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Effective coordination and harmonization of policies, strategies, and action plans among the development partners can meaningfully support fragile countries. The joint policy reform matrix (JPRM) demonstrated how four development partners came together to provide sizable budget support to Tonga in its hour of need, when the country faced multiple challenges, including disasters triggered by natural hazards, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a fragile economy.

Project Number: 55016-001
Project Name: Economic Recovery Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Sustained commitment, coordination, and collaboration are critical foundations for the continued effectiveness of the CDF modality, as capacity limitations and competing political priorities pose challenges in many small Pacific DMCs.DMCs have remained committed to reforms during and after the first two phases. The program improved in coordination and collaboration between borrower entities responsible for finance and DRM.

Project Number: 50028-001, 50028-002
Project Name: Pacific Disaster Resilience Program (Phases 1 and 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Staffing and consultant resources for country engagement as well as technical assistance (TA) appear still limited relative to the number of countries and the program scope. ADB’s role in coordinating and systematically addressing DRM has been strengthened through the program. The attached TA has been playing a growing role in boosting ADB capacity (including for knowledge building and sharing), and the overlap and continuity of the new TA attached to the program’s fourth phase approved in 2023 is positive.

Project Number: 50028-001, 50028-002
Project Name: Pacific Disaster Resilience Program (Phases 1 and 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
The potential for success of any innovation cannot be established without taking risks.Taking the risk of an innovative program design that piloted the use of the policy-based lending (PBL) modality for contingent disaster financing (CDF)—for only the second time in ADB (following the Cook Islands’ Disaster Resilience Program) and the first time at the regional level—has led to significant success. It contributed to policy change and product innovation at ADB.

Project Number: 50028-001, 50028-002
Project Name: Pacific Disaster Resilience Program (Phases 1 and 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Partnerships and cofinancing possibilities need to be further explored, considering that traditional and emerging bilateral and multilateral partners have a strong presence in the Pacific which could provide opportunities for greater collaboration.

Project Number: 50028-001, 50028-002
Project Name: Pacific Disaster Resilience Program (Phases 1 and 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
A more systematic tracking of performance across countries, which could build on new assessment frameworks developed under the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) program in some areas of DRM, could enhance the innovations introduced by this program, particularly phasing of interventions and a differentiated approach that addresses the challenges of implementing planning, policy, and legal frameworks in fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCAS) and small island developing states (SIDS).

Project Number: 50028-001, 50028-002
Project Name: Pacific Disaster Resilience Program (Phases 1 and 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Increasing disaster risk financing (DRF) in participating DMCs is critical to reduce negative impacts on lives, livelihoods, and economic and fiscal outcomes. The program contributed to significantly higher pre-disaster financing, helping to partially fill gaps following a disaster event. Three aspects could be further explored. First, CDF was created for medium-scale disaster events that occur about every 3–10 years, whereas, in practice, qualifying events in the Pacific have occurred with greater frequency and led to higher levels of damages in certain countries.

Project Number: 50028-001, 50028-002
Project Name: Pacific Disaster Resilience Program (Phases 1 and 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Addressing specific risks and impacts affecting women in disaster situations can make a tangible difference for women and vulnerable groups in and beyond the disaster context. Among the approaches shown viable are enabling the participation of women and other vulnerable groups in planning and decision-making, ensuring that resilience efforts benefit them, and making disaster responses more responsive to their needs.

Project Number: 50028-001, 50028-002
Project Name: Pacific Disaster Resilience Program (Phases 1 and 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
Failing to describe and include the history of prior experience of a particular reform in the program weakens the case for their relevance. In Tonga, civil service reform had an extended history. Pointing out the lessons learned from earlier efforts and how they were incorporated into the current program would have strengthened the justification for these reforms.

Project Number: 52030-001
Project Name: Strengthening Macroeconomic Resilience Program
Report Date:
Lesson
At the methodology level, actions that demonstrate the achievement of program policy matrix milestones should indicate what was achieved, rather than the process of their accomplishment. Cabinet approval is an inadequate indicator to demonstrate the successful implementation of policy reform in Tonga.

Project Number: 52030-001
Project Name: Strengthening Macroeconomic Resilience Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Timely capacity development for executing agencies with limited experience in ADB’s procurement rules and in safeguard requirements are important for an efficient project implementation. For example, retendering of TWB’s first works contract caused significant delays and could have been avoid

Project Number: 42394-022
Project Name: Nuku'alofa Urban Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
It is important to prepare meaningful monitoring frameworks with relevant and clearly defined indicators and targets to assess project effectiveness objectively. For example, the service area (Nuku’alofa water supply network or the overall Tongatapu island) to which the baseline data refer to are unclear (footnotes 16 and 17). In addition, the PCR noted that some of the gender indicators were outside of the project’s sphere of influence and could have been better defined.

Project Number: 42394-022
Project Name: Nuku'alofa Urban Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Ensuring that contractors engage project management and supervision team with adequate capacity is important. The reason for delays in implementing works contracts and the poor quality of works at the beginning of the project was the low performance of works contractors, who did not provide adequate management and supervision staff in accordance with their contractual obligations. Implementation agencies had to provide additional input to compensate contractors’ deficiencies, which resulted in high additional costs for consulting services.

Project Number: 42394-022
Project Name: Nuku'alofa Urban Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
In small island developing countries with limited policy reform capacity, ADB should avoid targeting multiple reform areas in one policy-based operation—i.e., debt management, civil service reform, management of the wage bill, public procurement, and private sector development—and keep prior actions to a minimum.

Project Number: 48361-001, 48361-002, 48361-003
Project Name: Building Macroeconomic Resilience Program
Report Date: