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Lesson
Understanding changing market conditions during implementation and undertaking timely adjustments in the design in response to the conditions help maintain the relevance of the project and facilitate delivery of outputs within the planned timeline. The minor changes made in the design were instrumental in accelerating the pace of the project after a slow start and in delivering the expected project outputs.

Project Number: 47046-002
Project Name: Gansu Featured Agriculture and Financial Services System Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
State-owned banks are often used for policy lending that target specific sectors offering low interest rates and preferential terms. It is important that during project preparation, financial intermediaries selected are aligned with the market-based approach of FIL projects to avoid crowding out subloans and nonparticipation of selected intermediaries in lending to the target sector.

Project Number: 47046-002
Project Name: Gansu Featured Agriculture and Financial Services System Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
It is important for future projects to exhaust options to finance a certified institute to prepare IEEs. The project management office's initiative to use a project implementation consultant to prepare the IEEs for category B subprojects was a pragmatic solution to fulfill ESMS requirements and reduce the financial burden on subborrowers. Nonetheless, this approach may have contributed to the suboptimal quality of the IEEs and added to the consultant’s intended key roles, i.e., project oversight, training, monitoring, and reporting.

Project Number: 47046-002
Project Name: Gansu Featured Agriculture and Financial Services System Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Improved implementation of the ESMS would require complete documentation of the steps being followed and strengthening of linkages with other ADB safeguard measures. Implementation of the ESMS steps for impact assessment, consultation, monitoring, and reporting was less documented than the other steps for screening and categorization in the initial environmental examination (IEE) and safeguard monitoring reports. The COVID-19 health and safety plan was prepared during project implementation, but the ESMS template was not updated to include the plan.

Project Number: 47046-002
Project Name: Gansu Featured Agriculture and Financial Services System Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Effective communication mechanisms enhance project implementation and need to continue beyond project completion. The effective communication mechanisms established by the project management and implementation institutions guaranteed joint efforts to timely find issues, actively communicate and consult with all parties, and seek and adopt effective solutions. After project completion, the relevant institutions should further ensure smooth communication.

Project Number: 47046-002
Project Name: Gansu Featured Agriculture and Financial Services System Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Repeated and progressive training and continuous practice are effective in promoting mastery and proficient use of the environmental and social management system (ESMS). The ESMS was a new concept for the executing and implementing agencies, and its implementation depended on the gradual accumulation of knowledge and experience from learning and practice. The financial intermediaries’ successful incorporation of the ESMS into their business was largely attributable to robust training and practice.

Project Number: 47046-002
Project Name: Gansu Featured Agriculture and Financial Services System Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Making social and Gender action plan (SGAP) an integral part of the ESMS and consultants' deliverables would help ensure its implementation. Guidance and training on the SGAP were provided by ADB’s social development specialist and/or ADB’s social development staff consultant during the ADB review missions. SGAP implementation was made an integral part of the ESMS; in addition, it was included in the terms of reference of social development consultants for the project. Both measures ensured implementation as well as progress monitoring of the SGAP.

Project Number: 47046-002
Project Name: Gansu Featured Agriculture and Financial Services System Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Balanced distribution of project benefits may require the provision of incentives for coverage of less attractive project areas. The beneficiaries of the project were highly concentrated in a few counties. Adequate incentives (e.g., bonus and honor) to the financial intermediaries and county project management offices to implement the project activities in all project counties would have ensured balanced the distribution of project benefits.

Project Number: 47046-002
Project Name: Gansu Featured Agriculture and Financial Services System Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Additional ADB support for safeguard implementation should be anticipated for future projects in which the executing and imoplagencies have no prior experience in ESMS. ADB environmental safeguard support was comprehensive for project preparation but less so for project implementation. This was due to a range of factors, which contributed to reduced guidance for the review of subproject safeguard categorization, draft safeguard documents, and support for the implementing agencies.

Project Number: 47046-002
Project Name: Gansu Featured Agriculture and Financial Services System Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
It is important to examine the rural grassroots performance of financial intermediaries being considered for agricultural financial service projects with a large number of clients. The performance of potential intermediaries for agricultural financial service projects catering to smallholder farmers, cooperatives, and agricultural small and medium enterprises needs to be examined to ensure that intended benefits are not unduly compromised.

Project Number: 47046-002
Project Name: Gansu Featured Agriculture and Financial Services System Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
It would be best for ADB to review all subprojects classified as category B for the environment in all future financial intermediation loans. The ESMS criteria defining the number and types of subprojects to be reviewed by ADB resulted in the submission of only 11 sample subprojects and one IEE to ADB for review. The criteria were originally designed to balance the need for an adequate ADB review and guidance with the practical need to avoid reviewing a very large number of subprojects.

Project Number: 47046-002
Project Name: Gansu Featured Agriculture and Financial Services System Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The “Partnerships and/or networking” lesson category refers to the establishment of networks with other institutions and related events, which built capacity or strengthened client relations. This lesson is more of a recommendation for other entities to promote legal frameworks more to foster sustainability of infrastructure investments.

Project Number: 48472-001
Project Name: Promotion of Environmentally Sustainable Infrastructure Investment in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
Rather than being a lesson learned, this is a useful recommendation. A suggested rephrasing of this into a lesson learned is: Establishing an interagency cooperation between different government authorities and designating representatives with a co-leading role ensure better management and timely resource mobilization, especially when targeted participants (including FDI investors and overseas contractors) are not managed and inspected by the implementing agency but by other government authorities.

Project Number: 48472-001
Project Name: Promotion of Environmentally Sustainable Infrastructure Investment in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
This is a valuable suggestion that would allow for knowledge sharing across the region.

Project Number: 48472-001
Project Name: Promotion of Environmentally Sustainable Infrastructure Investment in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date:
Lesson
These are useful lessons learned from stakeholder participants. IED further notes that active participation by state-owned enterprises representatives, private sector project developers, and institutional investors highlighting the economic case for the promotion of environmental infrastructure in such TA workshops would be essential to ensure meaningful dialogue and effective knowledge dissemination.

Project Number: 48472-001
Project Name: Promotion of Environmentally Sustainable Infrastructure Investment in Asia and the Pacific
Report Date: