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Lesson
Engaging an international firm with extensive experience proved to be the best option for this TA which focused on a complex and highly specialized topic. Nevertheless,there will always be an indispensable need for national perspectives and experiences, best provided by national consultants, to inform and be considered in TA analyses and recommendations. Future TA could benefit from increased engagement with local experts, either as individual consultants or as subcontracted members of international consulting firms or TA implementation teams.

Project Number: 53198-001
Project Name: Developing a Disaster Risk Transfer Facility in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Region
Report Date:
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
In turbulent times, projects must formulate comprehensive contingency plans for major emergencies such as (i) strengthening risk management with flexible plans to address unpredictability, (ii) developing adaptable resource plans, (iii) enhancing supply chain transparency to mitigate delays, (iv) improving remote team collaboration, and (v) leveraging digital technology to monitor projects during emergencies. This project was affected by the pandemic and required a loan extension until 30 June 2022, necessitating a corresponding extension of the implementation period.

Project Number: 45022-002
Project Name: Jiangxi Ji'an Sustainable Urban Transport Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Careful political economy analysis can help identify potential legal or regulatory changes on the horizon that could impact planned interventions. In this case, changes in the regulatory framework related to hazardous waste management resulted in the cancelation of one output.

Project Number: 45009-002
Project Name: Fifth Health Sector Development Project
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
An established cooperation platform like the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) facilitates the design of a regional TA and is particularly helpful in ensuring that TA activities are well grounded, technically sound,and flexible. The TA design and planning process followed a comprehensive and collaborative approach, analyzing regional cooperation and integration (RCI) potential and challenges in the energy sector of the SASEC region, with extensive consultations undertaken among various stakeholders in each SASEC member country.

Project Number: 52070-001
Project Name: South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Regional Energy Cooperation
Report Date:
Lesson
Frequent review missions are crucial to overcoming implementation challenges. The TA was administered by staff located in head office with good support from the Pakistan Resident Mission. However, ADB staff assignment changed during the TA implementation period; and the limitations and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic induced challenges to consultant management and client interaction. Frequent review missions significantly helped address these challenges.

Project Number: 51249-003
Project Name: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Water Resources Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Ensuring that the design of the TA aligns with ADB strategic regional efforts is important in order for the TA to contribute to longer-term sustainable results. In this case, the TA was aligned with ADB strategies and policies on RCI, energy, and environment, as well as the national and regional policies and strategies of the SASEC member countries.

Project Number: 52070-001
Project Name: South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Regional Energy Cooperation
Report Date:
Lesson
It is important for projects engaging many consultants to have a clear record of what was delivered and why the scope of contracts was changed or reduced. The firm’s final report should summarize the key deliverables and their usage. It is also important to undertake a structured turnover process especially to submit TA documentation sharing insights, best practices, and lessons from the TA experience.

Project Number: 52013-001
Project Name: Research University Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Despite odds, it is not impossible for TA projects to collect the necessary information to prepare ensuing projects. The TA scope and implementation arrangements had been changed to adapt to the changing context arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, it was able to gather all the requisite information to prepare the ensuing project.

Project Number: 52013-001
Project Name: Research University Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
An exogenous shock such as the COVID-19 pandemic can significantly affect TA execution and associated plans and government priorities. When that happens, it will be useful to pause TA implementation, revisit the processing timeline, take sufficient time to observe and discuss with the executing agency, and make adjustment where possible. The TA was well aligned with strategy documents at national and ADB level.

Project Number: 52013-001
Project Name: Research University Sector Development Program
Report Date:
Lesson
Unforeseen events could significantly impact project implementation.

Project Number: 43316-012
Project Name: Pakse Urban Environmental Improvement Project
Report Date:
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
Support cannot be directed to the most vulnerable in a crisis in the absence of a social protection system that can be utilized or adapted for this purpose—which provides an additional reason for working with developing member countries to establish and strengthen such systems.

Project Number: 54346-001
Project Name: COVID-19 Rapid Response Program
Report Date: