Regions and Countries

	Table of Contents
p. 8 of 9 BACK | NEXT Executive Summary I. Introduction II. Current Development Trends and Issues III. Pacific DMC Development Strategies IV. ADB's Development Experience V. ADB's Strategy VI. Delivering the Pacific Strategy VII. Risks and Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Appendixes

Responding to the Priorities of the Poor: A Pacific Strategy for the Asian Development Bank 2005-2009

---

VII. Risks and Performance Monitoring and Evaluation

A. Risks

143. The successful implementation of this strategy will be most affected by the potential continuation of political instability in some PDMCs, accompanied by the risk of insecurity and conflict; the role of, and incentives provided by, development partners in the Pacific; and internal administrative and procedural constraints to PARD delivering the Pacific Strategy.

144. Recent experience in the Pacific gives reason to assume that there is a high probability of long-term, significant political instability in more than one PDMC during the strategy period, and a moderate likelihood of new or resumed conflict. Important long-term measures to address these issues relate to strengthening the development process, and specifically to enhancing participation in development programs and broadening and strengthening demand for good governance. Greater and more proactive engagement with policy makers (e.g., through informal “retreat” processes) may also have a useful preventive effect on instability in the weakerperforming PDMCs. However, it must be acknowledged that ADB has limited capacity to address the underlying systemic weaknesses in the political institutions of some PDMCs.

145. Incentives for good governance and effective policies and institutions in the PDMCs can be undermined if aid is provided without careful thought to broad policy and program outcomes. Responses to this risk should be multifaceted, including building the demand and capacity for good governance within PDMCs; include enhanced effort on policy dialogue and development partner coordination, both with PDMCs and among development partners; and assure careful project selection by ADB itself.

146. ADB administrative procedures are designed to ensure that resources are accounted for, to support quality control and to encourage clarity on roles of different parts of the organization. The procedures build on lessons from previous experience. However, ADB procedures can sometimes be complex to administer. They seek to manage the large scale of most ADB operations, which the Pacific does not share. There is a risk, given the relatively small number of PARD staff and large number of projects and PDMCs, that these procedures will constrain both PDMCs and ADB from developing and delivering the new products and services required to successfully implement the Pacific Strategy.

147. However, there are also opportunities to address this risk while ensuring that no shortcuts are taken on rules essential for accountability in areas such as procurement. In January 2002, the President approved a Pacific Operations Action Plan, which streamlined procedures for country strategy, programming, and economic, thematic, and sector work in the Pacific. This approval needs to be implemented in full and built upon, possibly including the development of innovative delivery modalities and greater cooperation with other development partners. The greater focus of this strategy on more tightly defined objectives and KRAs are also important tools to manage the administrative burden. Finally, renewed ADB commitment to managing for development results will provide a supportive environment in which to pursue appropriate flexibility and responsiveness to the needs of ADB’s clients—the PDMCs.

B. Performance Monitoring and Evaluation

148. The Pacific Strategy will both guide and benefit from the strengthening of results frameworks at the country level (in CSPs and CSPUs) and in sectors at the country level (in sector road maps). Countries and sectors within countries will be the “front line” for performance measurement and assessment by PARD.

149. The function of the results management approach for the Pacific Strategy will be to ensure, based on country-level outputs and outcomes, that PARD maintains a focus on its selected KRAs. KRA outputs and outcomes will therefore be the primary focus of Pacific Strategy monitoring. The approach will be fully integrated into PARD’s work processes, draw on existing country-level data wherever possible, and seek to develop sustainable approaches to data gathering where new information is required.

150. ADB already has a corporate system of annual reporting on KRAs—PARD will adopt the Pacific Strategy KRAs for this purpose. Each KRA will be assigned a team, headed by a “process owner” from among PARD’s sector or thematic specialists. This person will be responsible for compiling existing ADB country-level information on the KRA and for annually providing a brief progress report to PARD management. The report may recommend future directions for ADB work to advance achievement in the KRA (e.g., through regional technical assistance funds set aside for this purpose). Analogous to country desk officers, the process owner will not be directly responsible for implementing all activities contributing to a KRA, but will draw on input from all relevant project officers, and where possible will convene a KRA team from that group. An important output of the annual monitoring process will be to inform country teams of lessons learned and key issues to be discussed with PDMCs and reflected, as appropriate to local circumstances, in CSPs, CSPUs, programs, and projects.

151. ADB will identify common indicators (though not targets) to be used across the range of PDMCs. Regional analytic work, TA, and work with regional technical organizations will support this effort, with a view to building ownership of performance indicators in key development areas across the PDMCs. This work will also be advanced in cooperation with other development partners where possible (e.g., the World Bank on appropriate indicators for PSD in the Pacific). A draft Pacific Strategy Results Framework is in Appendix 6. It remains a work in progress.

152. Broad outcomes at the goal and strategic objective levels will be monitored annually using standard economic and social indicators that are widely available. PDMC reporting to the United Nations system on progress toward the MDG targets will be central. Data produced by regular ADB processes, including economic data published for the biannual Asian Development Outlook publications and results of ADB’s CPA process for ADF-eligible countries will also provide key progress indicators at this level. The main purpose of data collected at the goal and strategic objective levels will be to provide trend information on development performance of PDMCs, highlight differences in performance among them, and provide early warning if operating conditions are not supportive for ADB activities. When important trends emerge, this information should prompt a review of the ongoing appropriateness of country-level KRAs and of targets set out in CSPs and CSPUs.

Back VI. Delivering the Pacific Strategy	Next Appendixes