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Lesson
The government needs to institutionalize a safeguard system within the organizational framework of the project, particularly during implementation, for effective monitoring and supervision of and timely compliance with safeguard covenants.

Project Number: 37027-013
Project Name: Subregional Transport Facilitation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
There were some difficulties in contract administration between Department of Customs (DOC) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Although the contract for automatic system of customs data (ASYCUDA) was signed between Department of Roads (DOR) and UNCTAD, DOC was the main agency to supervise UNCTAD's work. DOC felt that it was less effective in the UNCTAD contract implementation because it was not a party to the contract. Contract provisions should have clearly stated the role, responsibilities, and implementation arrangements of DOC.

Project Number: 37027-013
Project Name: Subregional Transport Facilitation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The government needs to review and include interim milestone dates in the contract documents to ensure timely work completion and avoid extensions.

Project Number: 37027-013
Project Name: Subregional Transport Facilitation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The absence of international joint venture partners in the implementation of international competitive bidding (ICB) contracts awarded to them was observed during project implementation. To ensure involvement of all joint venture partners in contract administration, it would be necessary for each individual joint venture partner to issue a guarantee against the collateral for their individual and joint liability. Issuance of individual and joint liability along with a performance bond would ensure liability for the work among all joint venture partners.

Project Number: 37027-013
Project Name: Subregional Transport Facilitation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The other lesson learned from the project is that the award of contracts to low price bidders can result in contract management difficulties and implementation delays. To win a contract, the bidders, who are not familiar with Fe?de?ration internationale des inge?nieurs-conseils (FIDIC) contract and contract management in ADB-funded projects, offer low prices and take it for granted that the contract amount would be increased through contract variations during implementation.

Project Number: 35337-013
Project Name: Guangxi Roads Development II Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The difficulties encountered in implementing the intercounty road were attributed to the low capacity of local counties in project implementation. The officers in the Baise Communications Bureau and Baise Highway Administration Bureau had no experience in implementing multilateral development bank-financed projects, particularly in procurement, disbursement, and project management. The lesson is that proactive efforts and timely actions should be undertaken to build the capacity of officers in local counties when they are responsible for local road components.

Project Number: 35337-013
Project Name: Guangxi Roads Development II Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Monitoring and evaluation is an important part of any project and the ASDP was fortunate to have monitoring and evaluation officers in the PCU and in theprovinces and districts. The adoption, diffusion, and cost/production surveys were an important part of the monitoring and evaluation system and helped provide information on the value of the project. This aspect of the project was particularly well implemented.

Project Number: 34380-013
Project Name: Agriculture Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The project found very few agroenterprises in the target districts. Toward the end of the project, the focus switched to providing agribusiness skills to the higher-performing farmer households that had already been trained in the new technologies. A number of examples emerged where these farmer households moved along the production chain and got involved in the production and/or sale of farm inputs to other farmers—e.g., chicks for chicken farming, fingerlings for fish farming, chicken feed, vaccines.

Project Number: 34380-013
Project Name: Agriculture Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The project targeted a large number of districts (18) in four different provinces. The geographical spread meant that a decentralized training model was essential. Project staff deployed in the provinces and districts needed to be skilled to a level commensurate with the requirements of the project - i.e., agricultural commercialization and diversification. MAFF provided this training and skills development centrally but enabled provincial and district extension staff to provide training and back-up support to the farmer households.

Project Number: 34380-013
Project Name: Agriculture Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
New activities such as vegetable growing, mushroom growing, pig fattening, chicken raising, and fish farming are more profitable than traditional paddy production and have had high adoption rates. However, for most of the targeted farmer households these new activities will be supplementary to paddy cultivation rather than a substitute for it. This is because most smallholders' paddy production is for own consumption rather than for sale.

Project Number: 34380-013
Project Name: Agriculture Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Budgetary constraints mean that once the project ends, follow-up provision of provincial and district extension services from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) staff is limited. This highlights the importance of developing the informal farmer-to-farmer and input-supplier-to-farmer extension services. In particular, the village extension worker (VEW) program introduced late in the project's life has trained a number of farmers who will continue to disseminate their knowledge to neighboring farmers.

Project Number: 34380-013
Project Name: Agriculture Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The uptake of some project activities was constrained by the lack of funds (or credit) for necessary capital expenditure items (e.g., costs of establishing greenhouses, chicken-raising facilities). This was accentuated by the project's deliberate policy of seeking to involve a substantial proportion of the rural poor, who lacked cash or access to credit. Future projects should include adequate funds for such purposes or seek involvement of a nongovernment organization with funding available for such items.

Project Number: 34380-013
Project Name: Agriculture Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
At appraisal, the social and cost implications of the resettlement plans required in connection with the divestment of the state-owned rubber estates (SOREs) were not fully anticipated. This was a key reason for the 2-year delay in the release of the second tranche of the program loan. The scope and cost of resettlement plans needs to be clearly recognized at the time of project design, since they are time-consuming to prepare and costly to implement.

Project Number: 34380-013
Project Name: Agriculture Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Although there clearly was a commitment to change in relation to most tranche conditions, there was back-tracking on the initial commitment to divest state-owned enterprises. However, after considerable reflection and reconsideration of options over the program period, all state-owned enterprises were successfully divested, and the benefits of this - significantly better operations and financial performance of the ongoing enterprises, and cost savings for those wound up - are increasingly appreciated.

Project Number: 34380-013
Project Name: Agriculture Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
It was not until the establishment of working groups for each of the tranche conditions in late 2005, under the initiative of the program support unit (PSU), that ownership of the process became more localized. There were delays in the development of work plans and budgets, and the consequent disbursement of funds to the working groups caused a delay in meeting tranche conditions. However, resolving difficulties and obstacles was made easier by empowering the working groups to come up with their own ideas and solutions through internal processes.

Project Number: 34380-013
Project Name: Agriculture Sector Development Program
Report Date: