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Lesson
Regular scrutiny of the financial statements by ADB, coupled with periodic training of finance and project accounts staff, will help expedite financial closure. The financial management arrangements of the recipient and executing agency were robust. Even then, financial closure of the grant account took 1.15 years from the grant closing date because of delays in the liquidation of advances and additional time needed to resolve the statement of expenditures review findings. Financial closing was further exacerbated by COVID-19 in-country lockdown measures.

Project Number: 44240-014
Project Name: Thimphu Road Improvement Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Adequate technical assessment during appraisal is important to ensure output targets are completely identified and properly designed. Because of inadequate technical assessment of the road surface conditions and the lack of a comprehensive road safety audit, this project's output targets were limited.

Project Number: 44240-014
Project Name: Thimphu Road Improvement Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Continuous consultations with communities throughout the project cycle are important for meaningful adaptations in project design and avoidance of conflicts during implementation. The Thimphu thromde used its own resources to conduct consultation and participation activities, which included national television announcements, public information campaigns including to building owners prior to construction, and community monitoring meetings. Consultations with road users post-implementation helped confirm the perceived projects benefits.

Project Number: 44240-014
Project Name: Thimphu Road Improvement Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Dependence on consulting services hired under a separate ongoing ADB-funded project can cause coordination problems and unnecessary delays. For instance, the submission of this project’s 2018 semiannual environment monitoring reports was delayed because of lack of dedicated attention. Better management of the consultants by the project management unit would have helped achieve the intended efficiency.

Project Number: 44240-014
Project Name: Thimphu Road Improvement Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Institutional continuity, through the retention of project staff throughout implementation, is crucial to project success. Most of the EA and IA staff were retained throughout the project implementation period. The resulting institutional continuity tremendously helped the successful completion of the project.

Project Number: 44240-014
Project Name: Thimphu Road Improvement Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Diligent project financial monitoring enables savings to be identified at an early stage, making it possible for additional components to be undertaken thereby improving project results and benefits. The project's executing and implementing agencies identified some savings after the award of two original works packages. This enabled an additional works package to be prepared, procured, and executed within the extended implementation period.

Project Number: 44240-014
Project Name: Thimphu Road Improvement Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Nonpartisan, broadly upheld leadership is crucial to the success of pandemic/crisis response programs. Leading the national efforts in the fight against the pandemic, His Majesty the King traveled extensively across the country to achieve the highest level of preparedness and to instill public confidence by alleviating the difficulties faced by the people and ensuring uninterrupted supply of food and essential commodities. His Majesty’s compassionate leadership resulted in building mutual trust and confidence among the people and their leaders.

Project Number: 54183-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Combating pandemics of COVID-19’s scale requires a whole-of-society-and-government approach. While replicating the Bhutanese experience may be difficult given the country's uniqueness in many ways, Bhutan's strong leadership and the government's relentless endeavor to implement public safety measures while vaccinating nearly the entire adult population is notable. Bhutan’s COVID-19 response with a whole-of-society-and-government approach under the leadership of the King is exemplary and provides a model for combating pandemics of such a scale.

Project Number: 54183-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Preparedness should be front and center of a disaster and/or pandemic response. The government set up a health emergency operations center and a WHO emergency operations center in 2018, and invested in medical camp kit tents, initially meant to be deployed for disaster relief. During the pandemic, the tents were repurposed to screen and treat patients with respiratory symptoms. In 2019, the country upgraded its Royal Centre for Disease Control laboratory, with equipment to not only handle new and deadly influenza viruses but also SARS-CoV-2.

Project Number: 54183-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Social relief and economic stimulus packages are key to alleviating the impacts of wide-scale disasters and/or pandemics. The government designed and implemented a comprehensive social relief and economic stimulus program on top of the public health measures, which were the main drivers behind Bhutan’s success against COVID-19. Every effort was made to minimize the financial hardship for needy households and small businesses as a result of the pandemic.

Project Number: 54183-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
A robust targeting and monitoring system is essential to prioritizing the poor and vulnerable in emergency assistance and disaster risk reduction. While the government’s National Resilience Fund monitoring system ensured that social relief reached the poor and the vulnerable and other affected groups as envisaged, the preparation of reports took almost 1 month on average. The COVID-19 experience indicates that pandemics affect women and women differently because of gender inequalities caused by socioeconomic conditions and societal gender norms, which put women and girls at a disadvantage.

Project Number: 54183-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
This validation offers the following lesson: although TA design may identify a particular model of consultancy, these needs may evolve during the program requiring adjustment. In this case, in developing a model that responded to the needs of ACMF’s working group on corporate governance, the TA project shifted its approach since the regulators felt that an audit firm (rather than consultants) would lend more credibility and recognition to the validation exercise.

Project Number: 48143-001
Project Name: Enhancing Association of Southeast Asian Nations Capital Market Integration
Report Date:
Lesson
This validation has rephrased the recommendation into a lesson as follows: Providing adequate visibility to partners who have either financed the project or have special interest and stake in seeing its success is necessary to ensure their continued support.

Project Number: 48143-001
Project Name: Enhancing Association of Southeast Asian Nations Capital Market Integration
Report Date:
Lesson
This validation agrees that cooperation and coordination, especially with other ADB departments, is important. This was a missed opportunity for this TA project. It is, however, not clear though why a visit to the People's Republic of China is required or recommended for the next ACMF TA.

Project Number: 48143-001
Project Name: Enhancing Association of Southeast Asian Nations Capital Market Integration
Report Date:
Lesson
This validation offers the following lesson: it is important to work and clearly communicate with ACMF and its working groups to get buy-in to the TA project. This is evident in how stakeholders noted their appreciation to this approach.

Project Number: 48143-001
Project Name: Enhancing Association of Southeast Asian Nations Capital Market Integration
Report Date: