Details

The Asian Development Bank required the services of a Transport Specialist (Railways Engineer) who assisted the Independent Evaluation Department in conducting a Sector Assistance Program Evaluation (SAPE) focusing on the Uzbekistan Transport Sector including a project performance evaluation report (PPER) of Loan Projects 1631-Railway Rehabilitation and 1773-Railway Modernization.

Services

The Consultant performed the following tasks:

• Review ADB’s documents related to the loans and TAs as needed to develop a thorough understanding of the projects and the evaluation, including the Reports and Recommendation of the President (RRPs), the Project Completion Reports (PCRs), consultants' reports relevant to the projects and sector, a sample of PPERs and CAPE sector assessments, and IED's guidelines for PPERs and CAPEs;
• Review Government plans, policies, and regulations for the transport sector, including the contributions of ADB-financed projects to the plans, policies and regulations as applicable, to determine the Government's priorities for railways development in the late 1990s, the Government's priorities in roads and railways from 2004 to 2009, and the relevance of transport sector investment plans to the performance of the sector;
• Interview relevant former and current UTY management and staff to assess UTY's commitment to the investments and reforms promoted under the railways loans and related technical assistance, the effectiveness of the reforms, and ADB's marginal contributions;
• Review consultants' reports from the project preparatory technical assistance (PPTA) studies to determine the appropriateness of the design of the railway and roads projects, then identify and assess differences between the design and the actual projects;
• Visit project sites and assess the relevance and appropriateness of project facilities and structures, the adequacy of construction and maintenance;
• Compare ADB-financed railways and roads projects to others to identify the differential cost, timing, performance, and sustainability of ADB-financed projects, and use that differential to assess ADB's efficiency, effectiveness, and contributions to sustainability;
• Review the precision and accuracy of UTY's traffic data and forecasts, and collect new data as needed to revise the data and forecasts;
• Review and assess the institutional arrangements for railway and road maintenance, including planning, financing, budgeting, and execution, both during the implementation periods of the projects and at present;
• Compare the ADB-financed railways and roads projects with projects financed by others to identify differences with ADB-financed projects, and assess the value-added of ADB’s financing on railways and roads (e.g., technology transfer and adoption, capacity building, etc.) as applicable, including the impact on private sector development;
• Assess whether the contracting arrangements and equipment support under the projects have contributed to technology transfer or upgrading capacities of domestic companies, or have otherwise contributed to private sector development;
• For the completed railways' projects, collect socioeconomic indicators to determine the impact of the projects on the beneficiaries and calculate the projects' poverty impact;
• For the ongoing roads project, review project files and consult with the government to make a preliminary assessment of the likely impact of the project; and
• Assist in drafting the PPER and SAPE and help the team leader with other tasks related to the evaluation.