TA implementation could be more challenging due to the involvement of different stakeholders. For future similar TA projects, it is recommended that ADB consider direct financing and independent administration. This will put implementation and consultants’ recruitment under project team control.
Adjusting consultant management to unanticipated disruptions, e.g., restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, will make project delivery more robust and resilient to challenges that arise during project implementation. The flexibility in the recruitment of consultants ensured the efficiency of this TA.
Effective collaboration and coordination, country missions, and sustained communications are crucial to successful project implementation. The TA achieved its objectives through effective collaboration and coordination between ADB and SASEC countries. Country missions provided opportunities for course corrections when ground truthing revealed some additional risks or incorrect assumptions. Hybrid (online and offline) mode of communication allowed the TA activities to be implemented but at reduced cost.
Effective institutional arrangements and adequate project management capacity are crucial to project success. At the onset, effective institutional mechanisms and linkages were established to ensure efficient project management andimplementation. Extensive, expanded, and continuingCapacity development through hands-on training, advocacy, and dissemination of knowledge products provided a cohesive approach to ensure that innovative technological solutions to groundwater degradation were effectively addressed and absorbed by stakeholders.
It is important that consultants are knowledgeable in their fields and have established relationships with the ADB team. team. Well managed working relationships result in satisfactory performance.
Continuous monitoring and fluent communication with the consulting team coordinator can ensure on-time delivery, particularly when using teams of individual consultants.
Careful selection of competent experts and close consultant monitoring and coordination is essential to ensure the quality of TA outputs. As the two consultants engaged by this TA needed to work on separate topics to deliver one report, close monitoring and coordination by the ADB team proved critical to the timely attainment of consultant deliverables. Regular meetings were conducted to oversee progress, give guidance, avoid preventive abortive work, and deliver quality outputs.
Using individual consultants and resource persons provides flexibility in contract implementation. A summary recording of pertinent contract data must be kept updated to support efficient consultant management.
Regular and consistent monitoring during the preparation of initial environmental examination documents, environmental impact assessments, environmental management plans, remedial action plan, and gender action plan is critical, and should include an audit report during submission to ensure not only compliance with guidelines but also adequacy of consultations with minutes of proceedings. This avoids any critical issues from surfacing that would affect project design and implementation timeline.
A holistic approach, including an exit strategy, helps improve the design of long-term support for the power sector. Therefore, the supervision of the investment program needs to closely track the capital works being implemented by the executing agencies using their own funds, and the assistance provided by other agencies, including complementary programs initiated by the government. Any gaps should be then filled by utilizing loan savings. ADB started supporting the Madhya Pradesh power sector over 20 years ago and the approved loans add up to $1,720 million.