Managing for Development Results at ADB

Results Matter April 2008

Managing for Development Results Innovation at the Country Portfolio Level in the Kyrgyz Republic
By Valeri D. Tian, Senior Project Implementation Officer, Kyrgyz Resident Mission

Juan Miranda, Director General of the Central and West Asia Regional Department, discusses development effectiveness issues with Mr. Akylbek Japarov, Minister of Economy and Trade of Kyrgyz Republic.

ADB, KfW (German Development Bank), the Islamic Development Bank, and the World Bank have been conducting joint country portfolio reviews (JCPR) in the Kyrgyz Republic since 2004.

ADB Kyrgyz Resident Mission (KYRM) led this exercise in 2006 and 2007, and introduced the application of MfDR approaches for the country portfolio management. During the 2006 JCPR, KYRM initiated the use of the portfolio management framework (PMF) as a major results-based methodological tool, and the single joint background paper for all participating donors. The PMF allowed the participating donors and the Government to (i) define the portfolio management impact, outcome, outputs and activities levels; and (ii) agree on specific targets/indicators for each of them. PMF replaced the standard action plans for portfolio improvement and placed a stronger focus on aid development impact. The single background paper format allowed for a concise and harmonized analysis of the joint portfolio, and integrating the systemic portfolio management issues.

The 2007 JCPR featured integration of several sector results matrixes with the PMF. The sectors included health, education, road, and irrigation. This became the next step in advancing MfDR at country portfolio level. The PMF summarizes the joint portfolio impacts at sector level and its contribution to country development. Sublevel analyses are done through sector results matrixes, which identify the contributions from individual project impact and outcomes to respective sector performance. Combining the PMF with sector results matrixes allowed interlinking the individual projects, sector strategies, the national development strategy, and the joint country portfolio. KYRM provided methodological guidance to the concerned ministries and agencies to develop their sector results matrixes, based either on the existing sector strategies or agency’s vision on the sector development. KYRM also intensively consulted with the concered staff from partner organizations (KfW, Islamic Development Bank, and World Bank) on the proposed methodology, which was based on ADB’s South Asia Department’s experience.

The PMF, combined with sector results matrixes, became a useful tool to analyze aid contribution to sector development and overall assistance impact on country development. It also allowed advancing heated discussions between the Government and the civil society on aid efficiency from political to rational grounds. The work was highly appreciated by the Government and was cited by the World Bank as best practice in the region.

To ensure knowledge transfer and sustain the achieved progress, ADB conducted a workshop on results-based methodology for the Government, World Bank, KfW, and Department for International Development staff in summer 2007. The workshop created the necessary “critical mass” within the Government and donor community to maintain the MfDR approach in country portfolio management. The 2007 JCPR also contributed to development of results-based joint country support strategy agreed between the Government and major donors.

This experience also contributed to the increased Government ownership over the country portfolio management. The Ministry of Economic Development, who will lead the upcoming 2008 JCPR, plans to further expand the MfDR approach to the remaining sectors.

Learn more about MfDR in ADB’s developing member countries

View entire document [ PDF: 421kb | 8 pages ] | About Results Matter