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Lesson
It is essential to carefully study and consider less socially and environmentally disruptive options in investment decision making in hydropower. Possible alternatives in future cases, for example, could include river offtake, run of the river, small decentralized hydro systems, and backup from solar and wind power. The choice should be made through a participatory assessment that gives the same weight to social and environmental dimensions as to technical and economic aspects.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Biodiversity conservation in the context of hydropower projects requires an approach whereby “conservation forest” is balanced with “production forest” as a source of income for affected people. To date, ADB, the World Bank, and international organizations consider many of the village forest activities as failures (e.g., trees are being cut down to the roots) with government advisors having little understanding of forestry practices in relation to biodiversity conservation and sustainable practice.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Overly prescriptive approaches limit the scope for adaptive management of livelihood restoration programs for project-affected people. Clear recognition of the many risks associated with implementing a complex project in partnership with a relatively inexperienced and limited-capacity government led to a concerted effort to “get everything right,” as it were, before the project even started. That is reflected in the negotiation of a comprehensive and highly detailed concession agreement, a 1,362-page legal document.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
It is important to avoid overly ambitious objectives in project design. The enhancement of biodiversity conservation in NNT-NPA was an overly ambitious objective. The area to be protected involved the entire watershed and an area downstream. Its size challenged the capability and capacity of a number of agencies to plan, implement, and sustain conservation requirements.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
A large, complex development project requires a commensurate and substantive long-term commitment. The exceptionally long preparation and implementation periods (2003–2019) were essential to provide sufficient time for analysis, appraisal, and supervision of a complex project and ensure an eventually successful outcome in a high-risk context.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Quality project sponsors are essential for success, but their limitations and country capacity constraints also need to be considered. The selection of a well-qualified developer as the primary equity holder in the NTPC consortium appears to have played a major role in the efficient construction and operation of the dam and power facilities with very modest cost and time overruns.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
IFI collaboration can yield a major developmental contribution with a high-risk project in a limited-capacity country. The close and effective collaboration of ADB, the World Bank, and other IFIs from an early stage provided the necessary confidence for the private sector to undertake a pioneering, complex, and large-scale project in a limited-capacity country. Although the total IFI loans and guarantees were modest in scale, the independent evaluation team established that they had been a necessary requirement for the international dollar financiers to extend loans to NTPC.

Project Number: 37734-013, 37910-014
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Successful introduction of a new crop may require support from both private sector and government. Through the project, PRAN has introduced cassava in Bangladesh at commercial scale. Its first approaches to farmers were in 2014. PRAN has accessed support from multilateral development banks and nongovernment organizations to develop the crop but interaction with the government appears to have been limited.

Project Number: 46904-014
Project Name: Sylvan Agriculture Limited PRAN Agribusiness Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Additional studies to confirm project impacts are important when ADB is delivering first-time projects. This project was ADB’s first private sector agriculture project since 1985 and at the time of appraisal very few recent private sector approvals had been made in Bangladesh. The gender and poverty impact studies were undertaken at ADB’s request to identify the importance of the project for women, factory workers, and contract farmers. These were high-quality assessments and provided recommendations, some of which were incorporated into the second ADB loan to SAL.

Project Number: 46904-014
Project Name: Sylvan Agriculture Limited PRAN Agribusiness Project
Report Date:
Lesson
To confirm development outcomes, both clear definitions identifying the target beneficiaries and clear detailed records of participation are required. The project design did not provide a clear definition of contract farmers. It was therefore unclear whether only the lead contract farmer should be counted toward the outcome target number of farmers, or whether the group of farmers represented by the lead farmer should be included, or whether the entire cohort of lead farmers, lead farmer groups, and seasonal workers was covered by the term.

Project Number: 46904-014
Project Name: Sylvan Agriculture Limited PRAN Agribusiness Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Project outcome targets must be set at appropriate levels and risks must be recognized and appropriately mitigated. The evaluation recognized that this was the first agribusiness project done by ADB private sector operations since 1985 and that familiarity with contract farming may have been limited at the time of appraisal. The target of 25,000 contract farmers for SAL’s operations appears to have been formulated based solely on the starch plant’s capacity, rather than on specific analysis of likely farmer participation.

Project Number: 46904-014
Project Name: Sylvan Agriculture Limited PRAN Agribusiness Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Selecting a strong sponsor with alignment on development targets is critical to achieving results. PRAN is a flagship company in Bangladesh with sufficient corporate experience, resources, and knowledge to develop and deliver agribusiness projects. Through its newly established group company, SAL, the project was constructed to appropriate standards on time and under budget. All the required permissions were obtained, and the project complied with government regulations and ADB requirements. Contract farmers and factory staff benefited from the project.

Project Number: 46904-014
Project Name: Sylvan Agriculture Limited PRAN Agribusiness Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Nonrevenue water will remain a neglected issue without serious government and development partner support and targeted project actions. The project’s high target levels for NRW, at 70%, reflected a low priority given by both government and ADB. There were no specific actions outlined in the project design to achieve reductions in NRW. Metering should have improved the ability to monitor and control losses. Although impressive results in metering were achieved, the priority appears to have been to improve collection efficiency rather than seriously address NRW.

Project Number: 40296-013, 45299-001
Project Name: Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
A simplified monitoring and evaluation system, with direct reporting to the executing agency, would have led to better assessment of the project’s performance. The ability to evaluate project performance and benefits was seriously compromised when the collection of performance data was discontinued even though collection was required under the loan agreement. The PPMS for the project was complex and was maintained only for the duration of each loan’s implementation period.

Project Number: 40296-013, 45299-001
Project Name: Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Long-term engagement is needed to foster private sector participation in water supply provision. Along with other development partners, ADB has contributed significantly to the development of an enabling environment for private sector engagement in the provision of WSS services in Armenia. This would not have been possible without ADB’s long-term engagement in the sector through this project and other interventions. ADB support to draft the PPP law (approved in June 2019) and continuing support on regulations will further enhance the enabling environment.

Project Number: 40296-013, 45299-001
Project Name: Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project
Report Date: