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Lesson
Monitoring and evaluation framework. The overall success of the program could have been greater had the design and monitoring framework (DMF) been better designed. The impact statement could have been closer to the outcome and assumptions about investor and consumer confidence more realistic. The impact statement could have focused on maintaining sustainable and inclusive public sector spending rather than to restore the Georgian economy to the pre-war trajectory of growth and social development.

Project Number: 42529-013, 42529-023
Project Name: Growth Recovery Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
ADB business procedures. While program preparation was shorter than for typical program grants and loans, streamlined and abbreviated business procedures for processing crisis response programs could allow the response to be more timely.

Project Number: 42529-013, 42529-023
Project Name: Growth Recovery Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Lending Modality: The crisis in Georgia, triggered largely by exogenous shocks, has underscored the need for a suitable modality that will enable ADB to provide quick support. While ADB has a program lending policy, there is no special modality for a financial crisis response operation for Asian Development Fund countries. The special program loan in the program lending policy is limited to ordinary capital resources countries (OCR). ADB's Countercyclical Support Facility (CSF) helped disburse anti-crisis support quickly to OCR eligible countries.

Project Number: 42529-013, 42529-023
Project Name: Growth Recovery Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Socially responsible budget. Rapid disbursements into a budget that is socially responsible and sound in macroeconomic terms provide an efficient channel for supporting public spending, including social, infrastructure, and countercyclical stimulus.

Project Number: 42529-013, 42529-023
Project Name: Growth Recovery Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Monitoring and evaluation framework. The overall success of the EAPCR could have been greater had the DMF been better designed. The impact statement could have been closer to the outcome, and assumptions about investor and consumer confidence should have been more realistic. The impact statement could have focused on maintaining sustainable and inclusive public sector spending rather than to restore the Georgian economy to the pre-war trajectory of growth and social development.

Project Number: 42477-013
Project Name: Emergency Assistance for Post-Conflict Recovery
Report Date:
Lesson
Lending Modality: Having an appropriate modality is critical. ADB's Disaster and Emergency Assistance Policy together with Achieving Development Effectiveness in Weakly Performing Countries provided a ready framework for Emergency Assistance for Post-Conflict Recovery (EAPCR).

Project Number: 42477-013
Project Name: Emergency Assistance for Post-Conflict Recovery
Report Date:
Lesson
A program should have a well-defined exit strategy. This program was designed for implementation over 3 years with specified medium-term targets. It successfully closed upon completing subprogram 3. Without an exit strategy, the program risks reform fatigue and may encourage lax compliance with policy reforms. Introducing the post-program partnership framework during subprogram 3 proved to be effective in ensuring the sustainability of key reforms.

Project Number: 40538-013, 40538-023, 40538-033
Project Name: Development Policy Support Program Cluster
Report Date:
Lesson
If necessary, triggers should be supported by technical assistance (TA), as were the subprogram 2 and 3 public financial management (PFM) triggers. During the review of subprogram 2 policy triggers, the government and ADB identified gaps in government budget execution, internal audit and controls, and reporting, acerbated by the underdevelopment of the government's computerized accounts system. The government asked ADB for longer-term integrated TA to strengthen its PFM framework.

Project Number: 40538-013, 40538-023, 40538-033
Project Name: Development Policy Support Program Cluster
Report Date:
Lesson
Using numerical targets such as the tax revenue-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio as triggers, as initially done in subprogram 2, should be cautiously approached. Ambitious numerical targets that are not supported by a realistic reform timetable are likely to fail.

Project Number: 40538-013, 40538-023, 40538-033
Project Name: Development Policy Support Program Cluster
Report Date:
Lesson
A program cluster approach with prior expected actions enveloped by a medium-term framework with flexibility built into its design is an effective approach to supporting government reforms. It promotes continuous dialogue with the government on reforms and allows for program changes to effectively and efficiently respond to new or worsening risks to the economy and shifts in government policy priorities.

Project Number: 40538-013, 40538-023, 40538-033
Project Name: Development Policy Support Program Cluster
Report Date:
Lesson
Weak government commitment. Given the political environment and the likelihood that a significant lack of consensus might be a daily reality on this project, the design should never have been so complex, with four different subcomponents, leading to a much larger MFF expectation. Perhaps a lesson here is that to achieve early and committed buy-in to required reforms and institutional shake-up, smaller and simpler components could be tested through a small scale or project preparatory TAs, which may lead to visible and larger MFF commitments.

Project Number: 38405-013
Project Name: Mega City Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Counterpart funding and incentive issues in TA loans. Despite the challenges in project implementation, the project support unit (PSU) and local support unit (LSU) had utilized close to $4 million in counterpart funding, while ADB disbursed only 15% of the TA loan. As a result, the actual split between ADB and the government was 15:85, when the agreement was 70:30. Thus, a key lesson is that there should have been far greater oversight on the utilization of counterpart funds, as the ADB-financed expenditures and activities and overall progress of the TA loan lagged far behind.

Project Number: 38405-013
Project Name: Mega City Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Problematic shifting of priorities. Continuing problems with government approvals, and constant changes in focus, scope, and direction caused major delays. ADB noted a range of concerns over the continuing delays on the processing of the Project in its previous incarnation, the Karachi Mega City Development Program, after developing the loan proposal to the point of loan negotiations in May 2008.

Project Number: 38405-013
Project Name: Mega City Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Avoidance of challenging issues. At both government levels (the government of Sindh and City District Government of Karachi or CDGK), there was a systematic avoidance of exposure to and tackling of various governance and institutional issues, as well as reforms required to examine and correct these challenges. Analysis of the few project subcomponents completed illustrates that the government of Sindh and CDGK only implemented easy studies that did not and could not tackle major disputes or issues that might require serious reforms in Karachi.

Project Number: 38405-013
Project Name: Mega City Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Lessons from previous projects. Lessons from two older ADB urban sector loan projects to Karachi in 1986 and 1991, respectively, which were rated unsuccessful and partly successful, include the need for (i) greater attention to sustainability, (ii) enhanced project design based on sound assessments, (iii) careful consideration for institutional shortcomings of executing and implementing agencies, and (iv) greater efforts to address the financial insolvency problems of the Karachi local government bodies.

Project Number: 38405-013
Project Name: Mega City Development Project
Report Date: