Post-TA financial resources

The statement in the TCR was a finding and not a lesson.

Additional TA resources to respond to lender due diligence would have been required if Kazpost had borrowed. As Kazpost did not borrow, there was no need for further funding.

A lesson from this TA is that the benefits of a regional TA approach seem strong in terms of applicability among GMS countries, and the potential for improving standards and value chains across different product categories is great. As one gets into the “retail” side of capacity development (where farmer and other producer beneficiaries are trained on how to produce according to the standards), the costs vis-à-vis the benefits of TAs from different activities and for different stakeholder groups may need to be shown before they attract donor buy-ins.

Building on lessons learned from this TA, and in response to strong requests from WGA and GMS Ministers of Agriculture, a follow-up TA (ADB TA 9916) entitled “GMS Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security Program” was prepared to cover six priority themes: (i) promoting green, inclusive, and gender-responsive agri-food value chains; (ii) facilitating climate-smart agribusiness financing; (iii) enhancing food safety and quality standards, certification, and traceability; (iv) improving cross-border animal health and value chains; (v) managing water and soil for enhanced food security in a ch

This is a description of a follow_x005F_x0002_on activity and not formulated as a lesson. It could, for example, be: The effectiveness of a TA project can be enhanced if a follow-on TA will build on the results of the first.

The follow-on TA has road safety component to support the implementation of some findings of this TA which is costed at $1 million.

The TCR did not mention this dimension explicitly in the document. In-country ownership by government and/or private sector would be required to consolidate gains.

Having a very successful and efficient small-scale TA activity that fulfills the needs of country partners and sets the stage for long-term strategic planning can catalyze subsequent larger-scale investments that scale-up and more fully implement the TA inputs. With a relatively short duration (implemented over approximately 19 months), and a modest budget ($0.42 million USD disbursed), the TA successfully provided important TA support for the country partners. Following the completion of the TA, the country partners were interested in a follow-up project.

It may be possible for the private sector to finance a scale-up and expansion (e.g., through sponsorship of conferences) if this sector perceives some profit or other incentives to participate.

Other countries that have similar issues could cofinance knowledge-sharing events to learn valuable lessons for their own countries’ policies and practices.