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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:
Lesson
More effort toward improving cooperation on regional public goods will strengthen the value addition of future regional projects. Cooperation between the two countries during implementation was limited. More inter-country activities toward strengthening cooperation on regional public goods such as early warning systems, flood and drought management control, joint missions to share country experiences, and knowledge sharing during project implementation would be useful in future regional cooperation projects.

Project Number: 40190-023
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
In this instance, the executing agency was competent and major issues did not arise. With a less experienced executing agency, the geographic and sectoral scope and range might have proved too challenging without the front-loading of due diligence and screening that a sector project provides.

Project Number: 43049-013
Project Name: Comprehensive Agricultural Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Consideration of the range of alternative modalities helps strengthen the project formulation phase. In the case of this project, this type of assessment could have examined the merits of a project investment vis-à-vis a sector loan in the choice of the modality. If this project had been formulated as a sector project, each of the diverse candidate subprojects would have been analyzed prior to investment, allowing those that were economically unviable or potentially damaging (from an environmental or social point of view) to be dropped and substituted by more viable ones.

Project Number: 43049-013
Project Name: Comprehensive Agricultural Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Regular monitoring and early course correction are required to mitigate poor project readiness and weak baselines. The project suffered from project readiness issues that resulted in significant cost overruns and delays. While ideally these would be captured before project approval, if they are not, it is imperative that identified flaws are acted on as soon as possible during implementation to allow for course correction.

Project Number: 37536-013
Project Name: Land Improvement Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Future sector strategies and projects seeking to modernize agriculture in Uzbekistan will require a thorough analysis of the markets and an evaluation of the sustainability of previous interventions. The new sector reform strategy seeks to reduce farm quotas, support other high-value crops (including horticulture), and introduce more resource-efficient agricultural methods (e.g., drip irrigation).

Project Number: 37536-013
Project Name: Land Improvement Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Small targeted technical assistance can have a significant impact on institutional capacity. The project supported the enhancement of the GIS capabilities of the Hydrogeological Melioration Expeditions (HGMEs), primarily through the GEF grant. Local HGMEs have benefited from the institutional capacity building provided through the project. Through the use of GIS, they are able to map drainage and irrigation infrastructure and facilities in the project areas, to support their O&M planning and implementation.

Project Number: 37536-013
Project Name: Land Improvement Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Agricultural drainage projects will yield greater benefits if they are coupled with complementary support for irrigation and other agricultural support mechanisms. In this case, the farms achieved more efficient drainage through the project, but the project did not pay enough attention to ensuring the prudent use of water. Overwatering is still practiced by farmers, exacerbating the inefficient transfer of water from sources to farms (40% reported water loss).

Project Number: 37536-013
Project Name: Land Improvement Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Getting fixated on one type of beneficiary formation can limit beneficiary participation and project scope and impact.

Project Number: 39432-013
Project Name: Participatory Small-Scale Water Resources Sector Project
Report Date: