Commitment and leadership

High-level leadership facilitates the support and participation of all stakeholders and government entities in TA activities. Direct leadership of a deputy director general-level government officer, with strong expertise and interest in economics and management, championed the active engagement and contribution of local stakeholders throughout implementation, and this significantly contributed to the TA’s high effectiveness.

Strong coordination and regular meetings between the executing agencies and ADB teams, backed by governments' strong commitment to reforms are crucial to the success of reform programs. This program was an effective countercyclical crisis response tool that helped Uzbekistan respond to an external economic shock. Strong coordination and regular meetings between the government counterparts and ADB teams were key to implementing the program outputs.

Ownership of the reform process is critical and, given the experience of this, it will remain so. The reform agenda was fully in line with government and ADB strategies and priorities. This allowed for timely and quick support that resulted in comprehensive products. Detailed discussion on outcome indicators at the design stage is critical to finding the best possible indicators for measuring outcome.

Strong commitment of executing and implementing agencies is instrumental to project success. The project target impact was fully aligned with the government’s high priority for sustainable socioeconomic development. The provincial and local governments listed this project under their priority project pipeline and practical projects for civilian affairs. The provincial and project county and city governments provided full support to the project (policy, technical, financial, institutional, social, environmental, etc.) from preparation through post-implementation.

Strong government ownership could play a major role in attracting the interest and eventual investments of industry players

Government leadership and coordination are key to successful sector reforms. The main reason for the delay in completing subprogram 3 was because of the time needed to complete the coordination for a presidential regulation that required more interministerial coordination and agreements than a ministerial regulation. While this additional requirement makes this action more irreversible, overcoming the coordination challenge was not without difficulty. Government leadership for careful coordination was critical in completing this policy action.

The government needs to do more to provide leaderahip and guidance to infrastructure projects in Kiribati. The Project Steering Commitee, renamed in 2016 as the National Infrastructure Development Steering Committee, was set up to guide several other infrastructure projects aside from this one. Therefore, it can provide only limited support to the ADB project. Achieving the intended impacts of a major project such as ADB's requires regular and proactive direction from senior government representatives through all phases of the project.

Strong political will and commitment at all levels of government authorities have a decisive impact on the effective and efficient implementation of land acquisition and resettlement activities in the context of complex project situation. It is important for an executing agency to be proactive and work closely with local authorities and stakeholders to resolve identified issues on the ground. Monitoring of the implementation of the land acquisition and resettlement plan could start early to identify issues and find effective solutions in a timely manner.

Strong government commitment and leadership is critical to the implementation of reforms. In this project, this enabled the successful implementation of policy actions and reforms agreed under the post-program partnership framework (P3F). The single-tranche, stand-alone modality combined with the P3F was useful in bridging a period of high uncertainty, continuing and building on reforms from the previous programmatic approach while providing flexibility to reflect the new government’s priorities in a follow-on medium-term reform program.

Effective and efficient implementation of large-scale land acquisition and resettlement activities depends largely on strong political will and commitment at all levels of the government. An executing agency needs to be proactive and initiate close working relationships with local authorities to resolve identified issues on the ground. Local communities, particularly affected households, must be engaged and their concerns should be adequately factored in by project design.