Technical

Piloting is important to establish the viability and sustainability of novel methologies and approaches. The implementation of pilot schemes for innovative and participatory waste reuse and recycling approaches helped assess the viability and sustainability of the proposed solutions before suggesting these approaches for rollout on a larger scale. The outcomes of the schemes have demonstrated that recyclable waste can be processed community groups and small businesses and put into economic circulation, which leads to th3 generation of new jobs and income.

Use of existing project management units (PMUs) in the executing agency enables timely start and implementation. The project largely benefited from the use of the executing agency's existing PMU, which was actively involved in grant processing and in facilitating grant approval and ratification by the central and provincial governments. The PMU professionally handled the advance contracting action for the selection of a detailed engineering and design consultant, which was mobilized within 1.5 months of grant effectiveness.

Shifts in the types of projects can affect the financing products that may be supported under the clean energy financing (CEFP) platform. At project design, the CEFP was planned to provide three types of financing products: entrusted loans, guarantee funds, and lease financing facilities. During implementation, only entrusted loans were utilized. The other two financing products were not used because of shifts in the types of projects which did not require guarantees and lease financing.

The use of IT has become part and parcel of fiscal decentralization efforts. Before the program, most agencies were hesitant to invest in IT infrastructure and resorted to grants from development partners. The program encouraged the government to appreciate the importance of sustaining the systems from the local governments' own budgets, greatly reducing the risk that the systems would not be sustained.

there is a growing need to identify more efficient and sustainable mechanisms for local capacity development. Face-to-face training is costly. The government must find out how existing technologies can be utilized to provide such training and to make the required investment in IT infrastructure.

Policy reforms should resolve issues, such as by defining the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders and operationalizing service delivery through appropriate institutional arrangements. Policy reforms should articulate how budgetary resources will be shared at different government levels and how resources from public and nonpublic sources will be mobilized for sustainability.

The mobilization of students has been a major factor that contributed to effective capacity utilization and to the success of the program. Mobilization is usually hindered by (i) the perception that skills training is inferior to general upper secondary and tertiary education, and (ii) the view that skills development is a pathway for the academically less-performing students. SImilarly, there is a huge need for training of trainers, and qualified trainers must be recruited to ensure the quality of training and to maintain the supply of competent technical trainers.

Private sector participation in skills development is still limited at each stage of the skills development value chain. The limited enterprise support in such trainings may be caused by the lack of recognition and understanding of mutual benefits that could be derived by training institutes and enterprises.

Institutional and technical capacities to effectively implement PFM reforms remain weak, and absorptive capacities remain low. This can often be further compounded by frequent changes in leadership and staffing, which can cause further delays. ADB's continued engagement with the Ministry of Finance must be at all levels of the administration (management and operational levels) to strengthen the institutional and organizational capacity and reduce the impact of staff turnover on reform impact.

Poor quality detailed project reports (DPRs) have led to a host of problems, including cost escalation, delayed implementation, and increased land acquisition. Therefore, care should be taken while preparing DPRs to avoid issues during construction.