GRANT COMPLETION REPORT[1]
POST CONFLICT FUND GRANTS
Revised Template version 7/30/07
A. BASIC GRANT INFORMATION
Grant Name: Tajikistan Leadership Seminar on Strategic Directions for Development
Grant TF Number: TF058061
Task Team Leader Name: Lystra N. Antoine
Sponsoring/Managing Unit: WBIRC
Grant Amount: US$ 70,000.00
Executing Agency: World Bank
Grant Approval Date: 02/20/07
Grant Closing Date: 04/30/07
B. DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES AND DESIGN
1. Original (and Revised) Trust Fund Development Objectives
Provide original statement of objectives from the grant proposal. If original objectives have been changed, explain the timing and nature of the revisions, and their justification.
The original objective of the grant proposal is to assist high-level government officials from Tajikistan in their efforts to strategically think through a set of key priority reforms for the next couple of years, including thinking through the sequencing and management of these reforms.
The original objective of the grant proposal has remained the same throughout the grant period implementation.
2. Original (and Revised) Trust Fund Activities/Components
Provide original activities/components to be financed by the Grant. If original activities/components have been changed, identify them, and explain the nature of the revision and, their justification.
The activities for which the Grant has been given are the preparation and carrying out of the Tajikistan Leadership Seminar including: (a) case studies preparation; (b) provision of interpretation, translation, facilitation and conference planning services; and (c) provision of transportation, accommodation and allowance for seminar participants, as well as the rental cost of the conference rooms and equipment and associated overheads.
The original activities of the Grant have remained the same throughout the grant period implementation.
C. OUTPUT & OUTCOME
1. Achievement of Grant Development Objective
Discuss the extent to which the grant development objectives have been met, with linkage to outcome indicators. This includes an assessment as to whether the actual output/deliverables were successfully completed, compared to the expected output, for each activity/component of the grant. For activities where the output is a report or a dissemination event such as a workshop, conference, training, or study tour, assess the Quality, Presentation and Dissemination. Applicable reports and/or documents are to be attached to the GCM
The timely preparation and submission of five case studies (Albania, Bulgaria, Ireland, Latvia, and South Korea) on all key cross-sectoral development issues as well as the delivery of the Seminar outside of Tajikistan prior to other major international meetings on Tajikistan is a clear indication that the activity has achieved its grant development objective in terms of knowledge generation, sharing and analysis.
In addition, a few days prior to the seminar, a respected Russian expert on strategic reforms worked with key Tajikistan Government members to help them prepare their presentations in accordance with the cross-cutting development issues of the seminar and to build consensus. This task was critical as some of the Government participants had been recently nominated following the November 2006 elections in Tajikistan and had never made a presentation in front of the entire Cabinet.
As a result of the expert mission, the Government prepared and shared a series of well developed presentations on the following strategies: (1) investing for growth; (2) key priorities in human development; (3) sustainability in infrastructure development; (4) private sector development; (5) public administration reform; and (6) public expenditures and public finance management.
The objectives of the grant were clear and important as the analysis and strategic thinking achieved in the seminar provided a critical input into a major donor community meeting on Tajikistan, the Tajikistan Development Forum. The Forum brought together development partners of the country in Dushanbe on June 2, 2007 to assess the implementation of the Tajikistan first Poverty Reduction Strategy and to carry out an open dialogue between government representatives, development partners and the civil society on the implementation of the country’s National Development Strategy and the second Poverty Reduction Strategy recently adopted by the Government.
Expected Output 1: Country case presentations
Actual Output: A total of 5 cases were prepared by internationally renowned consultants, academicians and practitioners (i.e. senior government members). Quality: beyond the country focus, the case studies included cross-sectoral development issues and their linkages to strategic reforms. Policy Notes prepared by the World Bank on various sectors were shared in advance with the resource persons to better customize their analysis to the Tajikistan context. Presentation: the case studies were delivered in English in a power point presentation format, with simultaneous translation in Russian. The presentations were projected simultaneously in Russian and in English on two screens, put side by side, to engage the whole audience. Dissemination: the case studies were disseminated electronically to all participants.
Expected Output 2: Round-table discussions & Working group sessions
Actual Output: The discussions were facilitated by a Russian facilitator, previously Bank staff. In addition, the Chief Economist of the ECA region attended the meeting and gave a presentation to facilitate the debate. However, seats were arranged in a U shape form, instead of round-tables, per the request of the Tajikistan Government, in order to maximize the time and opportunity for interaction and dialogue among each participant, given that some of the government representatives had been recently nominated and the significant number of non-Tajikistan participants (World Bank; IFC; IMF).
2. Development Impacts, including those that are Unintended/Unrelated to Grant Objectives
Discuss all other outcomes and impacts achieved under the Grant (including unintended, positive and negative). Where relevant, discuss how the grant has contributed to the development/strengthening of relevant institutions, mobilization of other resources, knowledge exchange, recipient policy/program implementation, replicable best practices, introduction of new products, New Forms of Cooperation with Other Development Institutions/NGOs, etc., which would not have been achieved in the absence of the grant.
The most significant outcome of the seminar lays in the fact that a large group of government representatives (19 in total), some of them key ministers, and a large number of resource persons, were brought together outside of Tajikistan in a short amount of time to think strategically about reforms and development priorities, in preparation for the June Tajikistan Development Forum, a significant donors’ community meeting.
Other significant development impacts include the following:
1. The ability to discuss the cross-sectoral implications of policy discussions, given that all line ministries were represented together with the President's advisors;
2. The Tajikistan government members leading the strategic discussions, having come prepared to lead discussion with their own presentations on Tajikistan's overall development and sectoral strategies;
3. The seminar led to a coherent strategy discussion by the Government at the Development Forum in Dushanbe;
4. The requests for sectoral strategic discussions and more frequent discussions, brokered by the Bank.
Another positive outcome is the appreciation conveyed by the Tajikistan Government to the World Bank country team for these types of events. In particular, they expressed the fact that the World Bank is the only donor who organizes such gathering and has the ability/convening power to bring together international development players in the same room (IFC, IMF).
Finally, given the appreciation expressed for some of the speakers by the Tajik representatives, the same resource persons were recommended for another high-level gathering organized by the World Bank. The senior government representative from Latvia and the Russian expert on strategic reforms recently participated in a CAS discussion workshop for Mongolia. Both speakers were much appreciated by the World Bank Mongolia country team and the client. The representative from Latvia was even privately invited to meet with senior government officials from Mongolia following the workshop.
D. SUSTAINABILITY
Describe how likely, and for how long, the outcomes will be sustained after completion of grant activities, and the likelihood that some changes may occur that are detrimental to the achievement of the grant development objectives. These may include factors such as technical, financial, economic, social, political, environmental, government ownership/commitment, other stakeholder ownership, institutional support, etc,.
The outcomes of the grant activities will be sustained beyond the duration of the grant for the following reasons: (a) its timeliness with the Tajikistan Development Forum held two months after the seminar in Turkey; (b) the interest expressed by the Government members to have a mini-event in October/November 2007 with the country’s economic team and key members of the Bank country team as a follow-up event and (c) the official request from the Government to organize another high-level seminar in FY08, the fifth in a series of annual events.
E. PERFORMANCE
State whether the project was (a) Bank-executed, (b) recipient (government) executed, or (c) third party/NGO executed. Assess how well the executing agency carried out its specific responsibilities assumed under the grant. If the Bank is executing Recipient work on behalf of Recipient, describe how well the rationale for Bank execution was realized.
The project is Bank-executed.
The rationale for Bank execution was well realized given that the Bank managed to organize a high-level Government seminar outside of the country in a short amount of time, mobilizing a high-level group of government representatives from various sectors, and assembling a significant number of resources persons of high-caliber and other development partners.
F. LESSONS LEARNED / RECOMMENDATIONS
List (a) the most significant achievements of the grant as well as (b) the most significant challenges faced. List and describe (c) the most significant positive and negative lessons learned from the success or failure of the grant activity (these can be grant-specific as well as corporate lessons) and, as appropriate, make constructive (d) recommendations for follow-up or undertaking similar activities in the future.
(a) Most significant achievements of the grant
Ability to satisfactorily respond to the needs of a high-level government delegation in terms of knowledge sharing and advice on strategic directions for development on a large range of issues (Private sector development and Investment Climate; Energy and Infrastructure; Human development including health and education), in a matter of two months, and in preparation for a major donors’ community meeting.
(b) Most significant challenges
* Finding cases from the “right” countries (i.e. countries not too advanced from a development perspective and not too similar from the recipient country, in this case Tajikistan)
* Finding the right balance between cross-cutting issues and sector specific issues; as well as between strategic and technical issues in order to accommodate the different levels of seniority/expertise of the participants.
(c) Most significant positive and negative lessons learned
One of the most positive lessons is the importance to meet and discuss with the government participants prior to the event in order to build consensus, prepare the ground for the analysis, assist in the preparation of presentations, agree on content, estimate the gaps in “knowledge” and assess the receptivity to international policy advice.
The experience from the seminar has also shown that early identification of resources persons is key to ensuring that the presentations are adequately customized and relevant to the recipient’s country context. Resource persons need to be given sufficient time to read, get familiar and understand a country’s development challenges. In that respect, the Policy Notes prepared by the Bank should have been shared earlier with both the resource persons and the government members.
Finally, in retrospect, it may have been useful to organize a few working group sessions during the seminar to facilitate focused discussions on technical issues, following the strategic, policy-level presentations and lessons learned from other countries. Also, it may have been useful to organize a day-long meeting prior to the seminar between the facilitator and the resource persons given the number of case studies and the focus of the seminar on cross-sectoral issues.
(d) Recommendations
Based on discussions held between the Bank country manager for Tajikistan and the participants after the seminar, it was advised to share the recommendations and major highlights of the seminar to the highest political level (i.e. the President of the country) because of the strategic nature and focus of the discussions as well as for international exposure.
[1] The Grant Completion Report (GCR) is a simplified version of the Implementation Completion Memorandum (ICM) which is required for reporting on World Bank trust funds. The GCR is intended to ease the burden of reporting on project details while ensuring that valuable lessons from PCF grants are captured and shared. In order to ensure continuity, the GCR template utilizes the same structure and terminology as the ICM.