Management (staffing, including consultants)

This validation offers the following lesson: although TA design may identify a particular model of consultancy, these needs may evolve during the program requiring adjustment. In this case, in developing a model that responded to the needs of ACMF’s working group on corporate governance, the TA project shifted its approach since the regulators felt that an audit firm (rather than consultants) would lend more credibility and recognition to the validation exercise.

The performance of the consultants was highly satisfactory. The international consultant responsible for first two outputs was very efficient in managing inputs to respond to the changing situations and needs on the ground. The consultants for the two pilot projects were very knowledgeable and had good communication skills to coordinate the projects with local teams. They were highly regarded by the executing agency and the implementation agencies.

The TCR lesson is well developed and the TORs are also well written.

All TA consultants were recruited as individual consultants. While this allowed ADB to select strong candidates, the administrative workload was significant, especially with the need to replace the experts with the change in TA scope. While recruitment of a firm would have been more efficient, recruiting individuals provided ADB flexibility in identifying strong candidates.

Despite what the TCR noted with regards to the incorrectness of the performance indicator (Appendix 1), the design and monitoring of outputs and outcomes for TA projects should be owned by ADB’s own project officers—not delegated to government counterparts or consultants.

Good practices and toolkits to boost community engagement during project preparation and implementation need to be mainstreamed.

Agreed. Strong field office support helps to facilitate smooth and efficient project implementation and delivery.

The project was completed with strong support from field offices.

The main lesson is that better planning of consultancy needs can help in more timely recruitment of international and national consultants. In this case, delays in start-up of TASF activities, and non-extension of the Future Cities Program to which TA project was linked, impacted project disbursement. Consultancy overcommitments subsequently required reallocation of cost categories under the TA project.

Timely consultant recruitment, fielding and rigorous monitoring ensured quality and on-time implementation and completion of subprojects. Regular project performance reporting facilitated in alerting management of operations departments regarding progress and performance of subprojects.