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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:
Lesson
The decentralized approach introduced during implementation contributed to strengthening the capacity of PIUs and speeded up project progress. PIUs demonstrated their abilities in implementing, supervising, and monitoring physical activities, as well as in managing civil works contracts. As a result, the project implementation was expedited at around midterm and caught up to schedule despite the delays in early stages of project implementation.

Project Number: 31352-013
Project Name: Small Towns Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The project's geographical coverage posed a major challenge to monitor subproject implementation in 12 project towns located all over the country from the northern tip (Phongsali) to the south (Samakkhixai). Particularly during rainy season, it was time-consuming for project coordination unit (PCU) staff and consultants to travel to the project towns, as well as for personnel from UDAAs and project implementation units (PIUs) to attend meetings and workshops.

Project Number: 31352-013
Project Name: Small Towns Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Given the limited time and resources under the project, capacity building for urban development administration authorities (UDAAs) focused on construction management and supervision, operation and maintenance (O&M) of infrastructure and of sanitary landfills, and exchange of lessons among UDAAs. Various workshops were organized on these topics for managerial staff, accountants, and engineers of UDAAs. By strengthening core capacities, the project created momentum for continued support of long-term capacity building to enable UDAAs to provide quality public services.

Project Number: 31352-013
Project Name: Small Towns Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The community's involvement in various project activities and its interactions with the government and project staff greatly enhanced the sense of ownership. Community participation and contribution was the key to successfully completing the village upgrading subcomponent. This was evidenced by the fact that the actual community contribution of $206,000, mainly in cash, exceeded the estimated amount of $200,000 expected at appraisal to be mainly as labor.

Project Number: 31352-013
Project Name: Small Towns Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The consultants under the loan were hired through quality- and cost-based selectio (QCBS). The staff remuneration in the bids was inadequate for good-quality staff. The level of effort and the skill set specified in the request for proposal (RFP) also did not match the complexity of the assignment. Similar issues encumbered the RFP for the nongovernment organizations (NGOs), allowing generally weak firms to submit bids that could not fully appreciate the tasks ahead.

Project Number: 27182-013
Project Name: North-West Frontier Province Urban Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
A major reason for the delay in project start-up was the variance between the report and recomendations of the president (RRP) and the government's PC-1 planning document. Draft RRPs and PC-1s for a project should be shared between ADB and the borrower well before loan approval.

Project Number: 27182-013
Project Name: North-West Frontier Province Urban Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The project schedule was unrealistic for a complex project that relied heavily on existing capacity and several up-front conditions before the subproject investments. The scheduling of complex sector and policy loan projects has to be improved and streamlined on the basis of actual implementation experience.

Project Number: 27182-013
Project Name: North-West Frontier Province Urban Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The project design offered flexibility in developing models for community and private sector participation in the delivery of urban services, without providing a clear framework or adequate resources for these activities. Flexibility is important in the design of sector loans, but for this flexibility to be effectively used, additional capacity, a guiding framework, and resources should be included in the sector loan, with supporting technical assistance for project administration to guide the use of the resources.

Project Number: 27182-013
Project Name: North-West Frontier Province Urban Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The project did not provide market-based salaries. Good staff was therefore hard to retain and turnover was high. This was a major reason for project failure. The overall cost implications of paying professional managers market-based salaries are marginal, especially when the substantial impact of weak capacities on project output and outcomes is considered, as this project demonstrated.

Project Number: 27182-013
Project Name: North-West Frontier Province Urban Development Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
There was a 3-year gap between the project preparatory technical assistance (PPTA) evaluations (in the last quarter of 1999) and the start (effectiveness) of the project (in the last quarter of 2002). Most structural and financial management plans, base maps, and priority subprojects therefore had to be reappraised at the start of the project, further delaying the project and straining limited capacity. To keep evaluations and project designs relevant, the time between project preparation and start up should not exceed 1 year.

Project Number: 27182-013
Project Name: North-West Frontier Province Urban Development Sector Project
Report Date: