Project reporting

Project reporting needs to be undertaken holistically to provide a comprehensive view of implementation progress and support the synergistic delivery of project outputs. The inclusion of an implementing agency, the Advanced Centre for Integrated Water Resources Management (ACIWRM), which is independent of the executing agency (EA), the Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd (KNNL), created confusion in quarterly and annual reporting requirements.

Proactive and attentive ADB reviews foster project success. The implementation of this project benefitted from proactive and attentive ADB reviews. These reviews facilitated timely approval of submissions, including requests for extensions and cancelation of loan funds.

Better coordination or shared reporting and reliance on government’s own systems would ease the burden of monitoring and reporting the implementation of crisis response programs. Developing an effective reporting and monitoring system during a pandemic is difficult because of competing demands on staff time. This is accentuated when other development partners providing complementary support similarly impose reporting requirements.

Coordinating or shared reporting and the use of government’s own systems would ease the burden of monitoring and reporting the implementation of crisis response programs. Developing a monitoring system that can be effectively implemented during a pandemic when there are competing demands on the time of staff, who are already stretched, is problematic. This is accentuated when other partners impose similar reporting requirements. Coordinated or shared reporting and reliance on government’s own internal systems would lessen this burden.

Project scope changes provide opportunities for correcting the weaknesses in the design and monitoring framework (DMF) that can result in an unreliable assessment of the project achievements. The outcome and outputs of the DMF were logical, and the stated risks and assumptions were relevant. However, there were weaknesses in the indicators used to measure the project’s achievements. Some of them were addressed through the DMF updates accompanying the changes in scope.