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Lesson
Future potential of distance education. The DEMP failed to expand tertiary education opportunities and increase the employability of graduates to the extent intended. The question of how to achieve both of these objectives remains. A central issue in this regard is how to improve external degrees. One of the lessons of the DEMP is that Sri Lankan students may not yet be ready for fully online courses, at least for the longer degree courses.

Project Number: 33251-013
Project Name: Distance Education Modernization Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Innovation needs champions. Effective champions are critical for the success of any new initiative. This is even more true for innovative projects, where strong commitment to the project on the part of both the government and ADB are critical to success. The failure to locate the DEMP within a government agency with strong ownership of the project was one of the factors that led ultimately to its failure.

Project Number: 33251-013
Project Name: Distance Education Modernization Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Ensure that the project performance indicators are appropriate for the time frame. In most education projects, and the DEMP was no exception, the focus of project implementation is on the development of facilities, teacher training, and programs that are only completed near the end of the project. The final achievement measures, however, are generally framed in terms of the number of students intended to benefit from the program. Again, the DEMP was no exception.

Project Number: 33251-013
Project Name: Distance Education Modernization Project
Report Date:
Lesson
A sound strategy for sustainability must be agreed. The experience of the DEMP provides a good lesson on the importance of developing and operationalizing sound sustainability strategies. The project paved the way for the establishment of an innovative national online learning system, but the lack of a clear long-term plan was one reason why the concept eventually failed.

Project Number: 33251-013
Project Name: Distance Education Modernization Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Ensure that the investment will be sustained. Fundamental change to education systems is complex and does not happen quickly. When an entirely new system is being created, as it was under the DEMP, it is critical that a commitment for sustained investment is made. Neither the government nor ADB had any interest in a follow-on project. Even a 1-year extension to allow enrolments to continue their upward trend at the end of the project was viewed unfavorably. Innovation and reform require more long-term commitment to be successful.

Project Number: 33251-013
Project Name: Distance Education Modernization Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Ensure adequate ADB support for project implementation. By definition, the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to guide and embed innovative change are likely to be scarce in both the borrowing countries and in ADB. It is evident that additional time and resources are required to support implementation, which did not happen in the case of the DEMP.

Project Number: 33251-013
Project Name: Distance Education Modernization Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Require expanded risk matrixes for all innovative projects. Considerable time, effort, and emphasis must be placed on the development and monitoring of the risk matrix for innovative projects. This applies particularly to risk identification and potential risk mitigation strategies. A range of alternative strategies should be developed in detail for every identified risk. The risk matrix and mitigation strategies for innovative projects should be discussed extensively by ADB and the government to ensure a common understanding and commitment.

Project Number: 33251-013
Project Name: Distance Education Modernization Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Allocate significant resources for preparation of innovative projects. For innovative projects, significant resources are needed up front. This can include resources for assessing the feasibility of, and demand for, the project objectives and approaches for achieving them, as well as to lay the groundwork for ensuring their acceptability among different interest groups. Resistance to the innovations proposed cannot be overcome at the same time as project implementation is proceeding. The same applies to demand for the project outputs and outcomes.

Project Number: 33251-013
Project Name: Distance Education Modernization Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Ensure projects have a clear and achievable focus. Apart from its innovative nature, the DEMP was also very broad, with the project inputs spread very thinly. The project included the construction of a national broadband network; mobilization of non-traditional partners including private institutions; capacity building and institution strengthening within the OUSL; development of online courses, which is notoriously difficult and slow; and implementation of these courses with the expectation of rapid, high enrolments.

Project Number: 33251-013
Project Name: Distance Education Modernization Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The DSPP entity undertook non-operational decisions relating to the company name and accounting practices without gaining the required approvals from the lenders before implementing the decisions. While these matters have been satisfactorily explained subsequently, they raise concerns for lenders seeking to confirm that the project entity is being managed in accordance with the requirements of the loan documents; significant time is expended to work through these issues as they are discovered.

Project Number: 45915-014
Project Name: Dahanu Solar Power Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The hedging policy approved at appraisal did not reflect the foreign exchange hedging instruments available in the local market. When exchange rates deteriorated, the hedging policy and the required sponsor support needed to be renegotiated. It is fairly usual to have rolling foreign exchange hedging requirements, rather than the life-of-loan program that was originally documented, and better investigation of the likely options that would be available to the project could have reduced the work required to adapt to the situation as it arose.

Project Number: 45915-014
Project Name: Dahanu Solar Power Project
Report Date:
Lesson
RPL is a strong company with extensive resources, enabling it to quickly identify appropriate technology, supervise quality construction, and be a good corporate partner within the communities it serves. To meet the requirements of CERC’s tariff regulations, RPL needed to develop and construct a project in a short period of time that would withstand the local climate conditions. The project’s performance above expectations is due to RPL’s decisions about technology, design, and construction quality.

Project Number: 45915-014
Project Name: Dahanu Solar Power Project
Report Date:
Lesson
ADB’s long-term focus on energy sector development in India has supported all aspects of the improving energy situation in the country. Work done by ADB has contributed to policy changes, new infrastructure, and increased private sector participation in the delivery of electricity to end-users. Established knowledge of the local situation, and particular focus on renewable energy enabled ADB to respond quickly to the policy changes supporting solar power and provide timely support to an important client to deliver the first utility-scale solar PV plant in India.

Project Number: 45915-014
Project Name: Dahanu Solar Power Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Reassessment and careful choice of independent marker operator. The government should look carefully again at the need for an independent market operator (IMO). As far as the evaluation could ascertain, use of the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC), which is not an IMO, has had no obvious adverse repercussions to date. This finding suggests that it could be counterproductive to force the pace of change to establish the IMO that the Electric Power Industry Reform Act and project design called for, and the government undertook to create but did not.

Project Number: 36018-013
Project Name: Electricity Market and Transmission Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Time needed to deal with rights-of-way. Projects such as this one need to allow sufficient time to assess and address the issues in acquiring right-of-way. The project’s compensation and resettlement problems could have been resolved more quickly if those affected had been made better aware of the property valuation process and the impact the project would have on them. The project could have established a mechanism to deal with disputes, and local government institutions could have been engaged to help resolve them.

Project Number: 36018-013
Project Name: Electricity Market and Transmission Development Project
Report Date: