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Lesson
Public sector management reform programs have the potential and can be designed to support the government in staying on the reform course despite challenges. A lack of fiscal buffers and effective social protection systems exacerbated the economy’s vulnerability to the COVID-19 pandemic.This program has successfully supported the government in hanging on to the reform process despite these challenges.

Project Number: 52225-001, 52225-002, 52225-003, 52225-004
Project Name: Promoting Economic Diversification Program (Subprograms 1, 2 and 3)
Report Date:
Lesson
The crisis presented an opportunity for promoting and institutionalizing gender equality, which the program has successfully harnessed.The program featured strong gender equality actions that helped significantly to promote gender empowerment and ensure its formalization in the government’s policy agenda. These actions include improving the policy, legal, and institutional environment for gender equality, supporting women’s entrepreneurship and access to finance, and strengthening protection from gender-based violence during the pandemic.

Project Number: 52225-001, 52225-002, 52225-003, 52225-004
Project Name: Promoting Economic Diversification Program (Subprograms 1, 2 and 3)
Report Date:
Lesson
Deep diagnostic work, extensive technical assistance (TA), and evidence-based policy dialogue benefit the design and implementation of public sector management reform program. ADB has ensured continuity in policy reform efforts through programmatic policy-based lending (PBL) modality. Through this and other PBL programs, it has been very effective in engaging in high-level dialogue for upstream and mid-term support. PBLs are even more important now at other partners (such as the World Bank) are no longer providing general budget support.

Project Number: 52225-001, 52225-002, 52225-003, 52225-004
Project Name: Promoting Economic Diversification Program (Subprograms 1, 2 and 3)
Report Date:
Lesson
Focusing on downstream engagement in select areas through sector development programs and project investments could help unlock structural bottlenecks in service delivery at the local level. This would require follow-on collaboration with various sector teams, such as in agriculture, trade, information technology, health, education, energy, urban, and climate solutions. In other words, building on policies, laws, and institutional capacity to improve service delivery and overall client experience.

Project Number: 52225-001, 52225-002, 52225-003, 52225-004
Project Name: Promoting Economic Diversification Program (Subprograms 1, 2 and 3)
Report Date:
Lesson
Effective coordination and harmonization of policies, strategies, and action plans among the development partners can meaningfully support fragile countries. The joint policy reform matrix (JPRM) demonstrated how four development partners came together to provide sizable budget support to Tonga in its hour of need, when the country faced multiple challenges, including disasters triggered by natural hazards, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a fragile economy.

Project Number: 55016-001
Project Name: Economic Recovery Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
An innovative approach is needed to encourage the government in implementing critical reforms, but the approach needs to be culturally sensitive. The program shows that a reform associated with a wage bill is difficult to implement. Layoffs or significant cuts in overtime payment have social ramifications and need to be dealt with sensitively, especially when there are limited alternative employment opportunities.

Project Number: 55016-001
Project Name: Economic Recovery Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The development partner assistance was ambitious. Its timeliness and the volume of ADB's Comprehensive Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic (CPRO) financial assistance were well-received by the government. However, this led to a rushed design and inadequate attention to monitoring of implementation, particularly regarding existing capacities to collect gender-disaggregated data in the absence of any existing digital social security systems.

Project Number: 54243-001
Project Name: Health Expenditure and Livelihoods Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
A comprehensive social welfare framework can greatly strengthen the impact of emergency response measures and programs that were intended to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the most vulnerable households. As intended, the program helped to successfully mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on citizens and businesses. It was aligned with ADB's Strategy 2030 and the Pacific Approach.

Project Number: 54243-001
Project Name: Health Expenditure and Livelihoods Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
It is important to maintain some degree of flexibility to effectively respond to crisis situations. Perhaps the most important quality of Thailand’s CARES program was its ability to rapidly mobilize demand-driven support in a crisis; highlighting the importance in future crisis responses of maintaining some degree of flexibility in both program design and implementation. ADB was able to process and approve the program within 3 months of the government’s initial request for support. Events in Thailand necessitated loan signing to take place about 4 months after ADB approval.

Project Number: 54177-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The urgency of the lending produced outcomes that, while unavoidable, are nevertheless instructive. For example, target setting was difficult because the contours of the pandemic were fluid. Liaising with the government was also challenging. The timeline for initial response was tight, and ADB worked with a small number of government teams in the interest of speed. This concentrated approach to planning was complicated by the pandemic affecting government officials’ health and well-being personally.

Project Number: 54139-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
It is important to digitalize government services in times of crisis. This effort is best pursued through collaboration with the private sector in Indonesia. The collaboration can strengthen the country's defense against future outbreaks and improve the targeting of social assistance. Digitalization including ithe financial sector should remain a focal point of ADB’s policy dialogue with Indonesia.

Project Number: 54139-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Failing to describe and include the history of prior experience of a particular reform in the program weakens the case for their relevance. In Tonga, civil service reform had an extended history. Pointing out the lessons learned from earlier efforts and how they were incorporated into the current program would have strengthened the justification for these reforms.

Project Number: 52030-001
Project Name: Strengthening Macroeconomic Resilience Program
Report Date:
Lesson
At the methodology level, actions that demonstrate the achievement of program policy matrix milestones should indicate what was achieved, rather than the process of their accomplishment. Cabinet approval is an inadequate indicator to demonstrate the successful implementation of policy reform in Tonga.

Project Number: 52030-001
Project Name: Strengthening Macroeconomic Resilience Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Outcome indicators that do not measure the achievement of outcomes and that are only indirectly linked to the desired outcomes weaken the attainment of objectives.

Project Number: 51059-001, 51059-002
Project Name: Improved Fiscal and Infrastructure
Management Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Strong alignment with government strategies and priorities leads to strong government ownership and participation in program implementation. The reforms adopted under this program were essential to improve fiscal credibility and strengthen the capital market in Armenia. They were fully aligned with the strategies of the government and ADB. Because of this strong strategic alignment, government ownership of the program remained strong and all implementing agencies actively coordinated with ADB to achieve the reform agenda.

Project Number: 53248-001
Project Name: Second Public Efficiency and Financial Markets Program
Report Date: