Independent Evaluation

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Ongoing Evaluations
Evaluation of the Environment and Social Program in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Loan 1867-LAO)

This evaluation will assess the performance of the Environment and Social Program (ESP) in the Lao People's Democratic Republic and provide inputs into three broader evaluations in the country being carried out by the Independent Evaluation Department: program evaluations in the transport and energy sectors, and a country assistance program evaluation.

The ESP, implemented from February 2002 to August 2006, was the first and only program loan provided by ADB to support policy reforms for environmental management and social safeguards in a developing member country. The executing agency for the ESP was the Science, Technology, and Environment Agency (STEA). The program completion report rated the project as successful.

This evaluation will review the findings of the completion report and assess the ESP following the Guidelines for Preparing Performance Evaluation Reports for Public Sector Operations. It will use the standard criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, institutional development, and impact. The evaluation will also identify key issues and lessons for ADB operations, specifically focusing on these major issues:

1. Incremental approach to limited implementation capacity. The effect of ESP's incremental approach, that was considered consistent with the realities of the country’s limited implementation capacity, was not clear from the completion report. The evaluation will investigate further on the efficacy and sustainability of the incremental approach in facilitating program implementation.


2. Institutional impacts and related capacity building measures. The environmental functions of the STEA were taken over by a new ministry-level agency, the Water Resources and Environment Administration. The evaluation mission will assess the institutional impact of this structural change, as well as the degree of interaction between STEA and the Water Resources and Environment Administration, and the sector ministries.


3. Progress under the Environmental Protection Fund component. Given that the Fund was established during the latter stage of the ESP's implementation period, the completion report did not provide a detailed assessment of its activities and to what degree the component has achieved its objectives. In general, this evaluation will examine the progress being made under the Fund and how it has supported activities related to environmental protection and natural resource conservation.


4. Donor coordination. The evaluation will assess the extent to which the donor coordination undertaken made use of linkages with other donors and effectively leveraged the different donor support to better implement the ESP.

Team Leader: Marco Gatti, mgatti@adb.org
Contact: evaluation@adb.org