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Lesson
A well-designed monitoring and evaluation system helps ensure proper attribution of project investments to the achieved outcomes, at project completion. Specifically, a monitoring and evaluation system, with sufficient and dedicated staff, could monitor and assess pertinent project-related data. These help in corroborating that systematically gathered information during implementation is indeed the result of a project’s intervention.

Project Number: 40190-013
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Adequate and thorough preparation at design enhances the project’s quality at entry which is critical in supporting the government’s and ADB’s priority to promote rural development and reduce poverty. Specifically, a greater consideration of the design and scope for improving disaster risk management and climate resilience could support the upgrading and rehabilitation of other infrastructures, such as roads, energy, and social services, resulting in higher development impacts.

Project Number: 40190-013
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
A project performance monitoring system (PPMS) based only on implementation and gender data has limited usefulness. To adequately evaluate the impact of a project and estimate its economic internal rate of return that reflects the primary and secondary benefits of the project, a PPMS needs to include the economic data of project beneficiaries, e.g., avoided economic losses.

Project Number: 40190-013
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Implementation is difficult if the capacities of consultants and executing agency staff fail to match the skill sets required for detailed design and construction of planned works. This issue contributed to the need for contract extension of the national consultants. The project also engaged three individual consultants (hydrologist, hydraulic specialist, and database specialist) to support the newly established Department of Hydrology and River Works and National Flood Forecasting Center.

Project Number: 40190-013
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project 
Report Date:
Lesson
Effective gender mainstreaming in infrastructure projects may be helped by the inclusion of community-based activities that foster women's participation. In this case, community-based disaster risk management and flexible training schedules proved effective.

Project Number: 40190-013
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project 
Report Date:
Lesson
Executing agency capacity to undertake large and complex irrigation projects can easily be overestimated, and relatively minor issues can delay both startup and/or effectiveness and implementation. In this case, overall implementation was made considerably more complex by the major civil works redesign which impacted procurement and safeguards requirements. Delays in recruiting consultants and getting the Ministry of Economy and Finance to agree to including price revisions in consultants' contract delayed loan effectiveness, in turn startup and implementation.

Project Number: 40190-013
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project 
Report Date:
Lesson
Without a comprehensive and robust design and monitoring framework (DMF) and without undertaking the necessary updates, the level of project achievements against targets cannot be ascertained. In this project, the scale and character of planned physical works in one scheme were substantially altered during implementation, but the impact of this change on project effectiveness cannot be properly captured by the indicators in the DMF. Similarly, without conducting baseline and impact assessments, the economic viability of project investments cannot be reliably established.

Project Number: 40190-013
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project 
Report Date:
Lesson
Project costing at design stage should realiably estimate the costs of all civil and other engineering costs and provide allowance for foreign currency fluctuations. The actual cost of one irrigation scheme turned out some $10 million greater than estimated at approval. This resulted in significant revision to the subproject design. The revision also incorporated the appreciation in special drawing rights against the US dollar and the domestic and international inflation that pushed down the real value of project resources.

Project Number: 40190-013
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project 
Report Date:
Lesson
Incorporation into the project design of cost-sharing arrangements with irrigation water users broadens the scope for promoting project sustainability and improving related approaches and practices. In the Lao PDR, forming a water users’ group and assigning it the responsibility of collecting water charges is an important step toward project sustainability. However, this was not fully integrated into the project design and no relevant output Indicators were included in the design and monitoring framework.

Project Number: 40190-023
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Incorporating nature-based solutions in flood and drought risk management projects, as appropriate, will enhance project outcomes. The project adopted a holistic approach to reducing flood and drought risks by incorporating multiple infrastructure options, such as embankments, roads, drainage channels, navigation, and pumping stations, together with an early warning system. Not relying on just one type of infrastructure added value by delivering better project benefits.

Project Number: 40190-023
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Advance actions, supported by retroactive financing arrangements, can help minimize or avoid startup delays. The project faced start-up delays in both countries. It took more than two years from project effectiveness in each country for the first civil works contracts to be awarded. Recruitment of project implementation consultants, preparation of bidding documents, and preparation of the detailed designs were accomplished only after the project effectiveness. Such start-up delays could have

Project Number: 40190-023
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Clarity on implementation roles and responsibilities and consistent collection and monitoring of Gender-disaggregated data are key to the successful execution of the project Gender action plan (GAP). Gender trainings at inception stage provided clarity on the roles and responsibilities of consultants and implementing agency staff. The well-defined division of labor provided a strong kickstart to the implementation of the GAP. Integration of sex-disaggregated data collection into the system enabled reliable Monitoring and evaluation of GAP progress throughout the project.

Project Number: 40190-023
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Participation fosters strong beneficiary ownership of projects. This project encouraged the participation of local communities and other stakeholders from the planning stage and throughout implementation. This active participation enhanced project ownership by the beneficiaries. As revealed by the post completion survey, the project has retained this community support.

Project Number: 40190-023
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Timely orientation and training of relevant stakeholders on social safeguards will help avoid related difficulties and problems. All entitled households were compensated according to the updated resettlement plans. However, detailed measurement survey errors and mistakes in implementing the voluntary land donation resulted in some payments being made after the commencement of construction work. A corrective action plan approved by ADB was subsequently implemented and all payments were completed.

Project Number: 40190-023
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
A thorough needs assessment is necessary to align the livelihood restoration training programs to the needs of severely affected households (SAHs) and so increase their uptake of the programs. Only a few SAHs attended the livelihood restoration programs designed to support them. The opportunity cost in terms of farmers’ time was high either because the SAHs were involved in more rewarding economic activities, or the trainings did not respond to their needs.

Project Number: 40190-023
Project Name: Greater Mekong Subregion Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project
Report Date: