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Lesson
It will be essential to find a balance in future TA projects between continuing support for the whole region and having activities and outputs focus on a subset of countries to allow for more granularity in analyses and deeper engagements. This was the first TA for the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) in the field of disaster risk financing (DRF), and as such, was designed to cover all 11 CAREC countries.

Project Number: 53198-001
Project Name: Developing a Disaster Risk Transfer Facility in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Region
Report Date:
Lesson
Guidance for completing CPRO DMFs underscored the dynamic nature of a crisis operation and the need to be prepared to strengthen, amend or add DMF indicators during implementation. The fact that this was not followed reflects a built-in lack of flexibility with DMFs (and perhaps the difficulty of making changes in accordance with existing Project Administration Instructions).

Project Number: 54178-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Rapid Response Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The design and monitoring frameworks (DMFs) of the COVID-19 Pandemic Response Option (CPRO) extracted aspects of the government’s response plan that were important to ADB and restricted the number of indicators and targets in order not to burden the government. However, this made demonstrating outcome-level achievement difficult because it relies too much on one or two indicators and targets (weak horizontal logic) and is narrowly and inadequately supported by a minimal number of outputs (weak vertical logic).

Project Number: 54178-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Rapid Response Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Technical assistance (TA) is important to ensure timely identification and support to critical reforms at challenging times. TA support contributed to the program being implemented within the original timeline. Transaction TA allowed for the development of additional activities that formed the post-program partnership framework (P3F). The practice of including P3F actions in the design of the programmatic policy-based lending should be continued, as it shapes up next-level dialogue with the government. It also helps ADB and the government to maintain a longer-term prospective.

Project Number: 51066-001, 51066-003
Project Name: Finance Sector and Fiscal Management Improvement Program (Subprograms 1 and 2)
Report Date:
Lesson
ADB has become more proactive in handling crises and providing support to its developing member countries (DMCs) by delivering emergency assistance. The process has been defined further after the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing DMC governments to access and implement emergency programs smoothly and ADB to provide resources more effectively and efficiently.

Project Number: 56147-001
Project Name: Building Resilience with Active Countercyclical Expenditures Program
Report Date:
Lesson
ADB has become more proactive in handling crises and providing support to its developing member countries (DMCs) by delivering emergency assistance. The process was defined further after the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing governments of DMCs to access and implement emergency programs smoothly and allowing ADB to provide resources more effectively and efficiently. The monitoring and reporting mechanism employed for collecting data was also streamlined and became more user-friendly after the experience with the COVID-19 Pandemic Response Option.

Project Number: 56150-001
Project Name: Building Resilience with Active Countercyclical Expenditures Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The inclusion of expected losses from health-related national emergencies must be considered in the program design of contingency disaster financing given the experience in COVID-19. Because health is now a part overall hazard, this will somewhat provide a quick guide in fund disbursements in case of such occurrences.

Project Number: 52018-001
Project Name: Disaster Resilience Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Continuous and consistent technical assistance (TA) is crucial to the successful implementation of reform programs and sustainability of the reform process. This program is built on the long-term engagement of ADB and development partners in Fiji. It therefore benefited from extensive TA in public sector management, reforms introduced through the previous PBL, and project investments in the water and energy sectors.

Project Number: 55116-001
Project Name: Sustainable and Resilient Recovery Program
Report Date:
Lesson
The program design benefited from interaction with ADB staff preparing similar Comprehensive Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic (CPRO) programs in other Pacific countries. ADB’s CPRO policy and guidelines were still being refined while the program was under Preparation. Managing the changing internal guidelines and expectations while also coordinating virtually (due to COVID-19 restrictions) with Vanuatu, ADB’s Pacific Liaison and Coordination Office, and ADB headquarters added significant pressure.

Project Number: 54179-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Fiscal Response Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Basing the reporting requirements on the monitoring systems of the government’s own response plan and providing dedicated assistance for monitoring and evaluation will help reduce the burden of the government in meeting the reporting requirements of massive budget support, pandemic response programs such as the CPRO. Budget support mechanisms are relatively new for the borrower, as most development assistance is delivered as project funding or through technical assistance.

Project Number: 54179-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Fiscal Response Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Institutional and technical capacities to effectively implement PFM reforms remain weak, and absorptive capacities remain low. This can often be further compounded by frequent changes in leadership and staffing, which can cause further delays. ADB's continued engagement with the Ministry of Finance must be at all levels of the administration (management and operational levels) to strengthen the institutional and organizational capacity and reduce the impact of staff turnover on reform impact.

Project Number: 52146-001
Project Name: Strengthening Public Finance Management Program (Subprogram 1)
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
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
Quick disbursing budget support is an effective instrument to respond to a crisis. Such an approach allows for strong alignment with government priorities and supports the government's ownership of the response measures. The eligibility criteria provide the necessary framework for due diligence. Timely upstream support can then be complemented with other forms of support–technical assistance, knowledge work, project investments–to reinforce the intended impact.

Project Number: 54138-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date:
Lesson
ADB staff and departments faced an unprecedented challenge in proceeding (urgently) with program development while learning how to apply the criteria and template for the new COVID-19 Pandemic Response Option (CPRO) modality and applying the 'One ADB' review process.

Project Number: 54169-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program
Report Date: