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Lesson
Flexibility in project design is required to respond to changes in subproject scale and adapt capacity support to the changing needs. This project was implemented across eight provinces, with significant differences in the size and scope of provincial waterworks (PWW) subprojects and local capacities. A flexible design was crucial to its successful implementation.

Project Number: 41403-013
Project Name: Urban Water Supply Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Opportunities for advance procurement remain limited in Cambodia because financing is unavailable for detailed engineering designs in advance of loans. This limits the preparatory actions that could be undertaken to improve project readiness. Solutions such as a project design facility are being considered and may be possible from 2024 onwards.

Project Number: 41403-013
Project Name: Urban Water Supply Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Establishing well-staffed and operational project management units (PMUs) and project implementation units (PIUs) as early as possible is essential for effective implementation. Timely recruitment and mobilization of project implementation consultants will also ensure that technical resources are in place to support the PMUs and PIUs. Delays in consultant recruitment and high turnover in specialized areas need to immediately addresses as these could adversely impact project activities.

Project Number: 41403-013
Project Name: Urban Water Supply Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Institutional arrangements to implement mandatory safeguard polices and reporting systems and gender action plans need to be established in the initial stages of the project. This is to avoid potential delays which could adversely impact project adherence to social and environmental safeguards and gender equality results. Adequate human, rechnical, and budgetary resources and strict monitoring by the PMU and ADB are required to ensure compliance.

Project Number: 41403-013
Project Name: Urban Water Supply Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Managing implementation during emergency situations requires a flexible and adaptive approach. Amod the COVID-19 pandemic, PMU and PIU systems were based on (i) adjusted work practices, (ii) limited staff movements and restrictions on international and national travel, (iii) changes in consultant resource use and approach, (iv) supplier delays and reduced contractor capacity, and (v) assessments of the impact on implementation timelines, and planning extensions, as required.

Project Number: 41403-013
Project Name: Urban Water Supply Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The transition of PWWs into independent corporate entities requires adequate preparation to ensure they have the capacity, technical and financial management skills, and resources for viability and sustainability. To support this transition, the PMU adopted a phased and practical approach, implementing vital actions with training and technical support. The PWWs developed business planning and financial reporting systems and adopted supervisory control and data acquisition systems. The PMU has identified the first PWWs that are considered ready for the next step as a corporate entity.

Project Number: 41403-013
Project Name: Urban Water Supply Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Experience with this program validated the four reasons for the choice the policy-based lending (PBL) programmatic approach as most suitable for the development of the finance sector of Cambodia. First, financial sector development is a gradual process that requires proper sequencing. Key foundational reforms of the banking subsector must be in place before progressing to more complex reforms of the nonbank subsector.

Project Number: 44263-013, 44263-015, 44263-016
Project Name: Inclusive Financial Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The existence of a national sector strategy that serves as a blueprint to identify progress and near-term and future reforms needed to grow the sector is another reason for the suitability of the PBL programmatic approach. Government coordination and ownership of reforms articulated through a series of national sector strategies are necessary to ensure that financial sector development is based on predetermined steps, with each one supported by interagency coordination to achieve broad support for reforms.

Project Number: 44263-013, 44263-015, 44263-016
Project Name: Inclusive Financial Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
With financial services playing a key role in supporting the growth of the real economy while promoting inclusive finance, a comprehensive reform approach supported by technical assistance (TA) is required to make the financial sector more inclusive. As the sector continues to grow and ADB funding is limited, TA and strong development partner coordination are essential to ensure financial resources are strategically targeted, to avoid overlapping or overcrowding of assistance in particular areas at the expense of others.

Project Number: 44263-013, 44263-015, 44263-016
Project Name: Inclusive Financial Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Long-term engagement establishes understanding and trust, which are vital for any reform program to succeed but indispensable for the finance sector, where policy actions such as those relating to interest rates or foreign exchange may involve significant externalities. A new program dedicated to financial sector reform is not in the offing, but this lag provides ADB an opportunity to re-enter the sector and focus on targeted subsectors such as financial inclusion and capital markets.

Project Number: 44263-013, 44263-015, 44263-016
Project Name: Inclusive Financial Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The transformative policy, institutional reforms, and student- and teacher-centered approaches are key to the progressive improvement of the upper secondary education (USE) subsector in Cambodia. The dropout rate of 8.0% among science scholarship recipients was low compared with the national average of 18.5% in USE, and science stream students performed better in the grade 12 exam in terms of higher scores compared to their peers in the social science stream.

Project Number: 47136-003
Project Name: Upper Secondary Education Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Executing agency capacity to undertake large and complex irrigation projects can easily be overestimated, and relatively minor issues can delay both startup and/or effectiveness and implementation. In this case, overall implementation was made considerably more complex by the major civil works redesign which impacted procurement and safeguards requirements. Delays in recruiting consultants and getting the Ministry of Economy and Finance to agree to including price revisions in consultants' contract delayed loan effectiveness, in turn startup and implementation.

Project Number: 40190-013
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project 
Report Date:
Lesson
Without a comprehensive and robust design and monitoring framework (DMF) and without undertaking the necessary updates, the level of project achievements against targets cannot be ascertained. In this project, the scale and character of planned physical works in one scheme were substantially altered during implementation, but the impact of this change on project effectiveness cannot be properly captured by the indicators in the DMF. Similarly, without conducting baseline and impact assessments, the economic viability of project investments cannot be reliably established.

Project Number: 40190-013
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project 
Report Date:
Lesson
Project costing at design stage should realiably estimate the costs of all civil and other engineering costs and provide allowance for foreign currency fluctuations. The actual cost of one irrigation scheme turned out some $10 million greater than estimated at approval. This resulted in significant revision to the subproject design. The revision also incorporated the appreciation in special drawing rights against the US dollar and the domestic and international inflation that pushed down the real value of project resources.

Project Number: 40190-013
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project 
Report Date:
Lesson
Implementation is difficult if the capacities of consultants and executing agency staff fail to match the skill sets required for detailed design and construction of planned works. This issue contributed to the need for contract extension of the national consultants. The project also engaged three individual consultants (hydrologist, hydraulic specialist, and database specialist) to support the newly established Department of Hydrology and River Works and National Flood Forecasting Center.

Project Number: 40190-013
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project 
Report Date: