| General Information |
Project/Program |
Project (Loan & Grant) |
| Project Name |
Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management Project (P065798 &P052006) |
| Duration |
Board of Approval: 02/08/2000 Closing Date (original): 12/31/2003, (actual): 12/31/2007, |
| Donor |
World Bank |
| Implementiong Organization |
Ministry of Environment |
| Sector and/or Subsector Classification |
Government Administration |
| Region |
Please check map in ICR pg. 37. Main beneficiaries are the MOE's departments, Virachey National Park (VNP) management team, eight pilot communities and 21 villages, provincial authorities from Ratanakiri and Stung Treng. |
| Financing |
Entire project costs were estimated to USD 4.91 million; actual costs were USD 5.31 million. IDA financed USD 2million for the P065798 and USD 2.74 million for P052006. |
| Analytical Information |
Stakeholders |
International Development Association, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ministry of Environment, Non-governmental organization, Project Implementation Unit, World Wildlife Fund, World Bank, Civil Community, Affected People, Global Environment Facility. The Bank's high engagement with stakeholders is noted by the ICR. However, from comments from other partners and stakeholders note that no official stakeholder meetings were held but a workshop to point out main outputs and feedback from NGOs. |
| Cross-cutting Issue |
Environment |
Corruption of the Park Director and Provincial Governor undermined the conversation and public credibility including falsified patrolling data by park rangers. |
| Gender |
No information regarding gender was to be found in the ICR. |
| Impact Analysis |
Project aligns with the 1997 Country Assistance Strategy and 1997 National Environmental Action Plan. |
| Effectiveness |
Ownership/Partnership |
Evaluation |
The Implementation Completion Report noted the government and Senior Minister had exceptionally high commitment for the project. PA management was based on community consultation and participation which lead to increased ownership and capacity but slowed down implementation due to the new roles given to the governmental staff and the enlarged number of participating stakeholders. On the other hand, the government performance ia rated as moderately unsatisfactory with significant shortcomings in governance and inter-ministerial coordination. Strained Ministry relationships and cooperation, especially among the MOE and MAFF had led to parallel creating of NRM management. In the comments of other partners and stakeholders, it notes that no relationship between the Ministry and NGOs exist. |
| Rating |
2/5 |
| Policy Coherence/Harmonization |
Evaluation |
No information regarding policy coherence and harmonization was to be found in the Implementation Completion Report. |
| Rating |
N.A. |
| Evaluation Framework |
Evaluation |
A monitoring system was established in 2003, Action Operation Plan, tracking down activities, responsible staff, milestones, timeline and budgets. According to the ICR, the monitoring and evaluation design failed to take in frameworks for clear links between objectives, outputs, and indicators. |
| Rating |
2/5 |
| Alignment/Composition of Finance |
Evaluation |
The project closing date was extended three times, doubling the implementation period from four years to eight years; this change led to increase of project management costs for daily operations for the Virachey National Park, consulting contracts, and etc. All financial monitoring and annual reports were done accordingly but no civil servant was assigned to work with the financial management consultants during implementation phase, leading to limited financial management capacity. In addition, the sustainability rating of overall project is assessed as moderately unlikely mainly due to financial issue. |
| Rating |
2/5 |
| Other Remarks |
This project had given local communities power and decentralized the central government creating challenges of the community into government programs. The ICR notes the project had relied on the Bank's support as other major donors have started to reduce their support. |
