DUSHANBE, October 10, Asia-Plus - On October 10, the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) carried out the third joint review of their Tajikistan portfolio operations.

Tatiana Evstifeyeva, Public Relations Assistant at the World Bank Dushanbe Office, said  that this annual exercise, called the Country Portfolio Performance Review (CPPR), provides an opportunity for both the Banks and the government to review the health of the portfolio and come up with an action plan to address critical issues.

According to her, the CPPR is expected to contribute to the preparation of the second Poverty Reduction Strategy for 2006-2009.  The two previous reviews took place in March 2004 and June 2005 both resulting in adoption of time-bound action plans.  The Government’s Aid Coordination Unit was instrumental in preparing the CPPR and implementing the recommended measures.

Overall objectives of the current CPPR include: 1) assessment of portfolio’s effectiveness in terms of implementation progress and potential development impact; 2) ensuring consistency of the portfolios with the country’s development goals and the WB and ADB country strategies.

The Banks and the Government of Tajikistan (GoT) also use the CPPR process to discuss and address generic issues affecting the portfolio. As a result, a focused and time-bound joint Action Plan for 2006 was adopted to rectify the deficiencies impeding effective portfolio implementation.

Representatives of the Government, WB, and ADB participated at the review meeting. Among the major generic issues discussed at the CPPR were the project sustainability and institutional impact, impact orientation of project implementation and portfolio management, as well as harmonization.  It was proposed in order to increase sustainability, institutional impact and capacity building to improve project implementation set-up via gradually transferring project implementation function into relevant government agencies. Improving monitoring and evaluation frameworks and introduction of a comprehensive results-based strategic approach in work of the ministries and agencies will increase impact orientation of the project portfolio. More harmonization between WB and ADB would be achieved via strengthening information exchange and initiating the process of developing the joint country partnership strategy. Based on the discussions of the above-mentioned issues participants agreed upon a comprehensive and time-bound joint WB-ADB-GoT Action Plan.

Tajikistan became a member of WB in 1993 and ADB in 1998.  As a low-income country, with per capita GDP of USD 350 in 2005, Tajikistan receives highly concessional financing from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and Asian Development Fund (ADF) in form of credits and grants. In fiscal year 2006, Tajikistan, due to its large external debt, was eligible for 100 percent grant financing from IDA and 40% grant from ADF. In fiscal year 2007, because of improved external debt situation, the ratio of grant-to-credit IDA financing is determined at 45 to 55 percent respectively.

The total committed assistance of the two Banks to Tajikistan amounts to around US$690 million, out of which 63 percent or US$433 million has been disbursed. The total size of the Banks’ current portfolios is US$384 million comprising 27 on-going projects in the fields of energy, rural development, health, education, social protection, institutional building, water supply and sanitation, community development and other. To date, around 30 percent of the portfolio or US$110 million has been disbursed.