David, J. T. (2014). Ensuring efficient and effective design, appraisal, and implementation of development projects thru utilization of lessons learned (Unpublished master's thesis) Public Management Development Program, Development Academy of the Philippines.

Public Management Development Program Middle Managers Class Batch 5 Thesis (MMC)--Development Academy of the Philippines.

Development programs and projects are the means of the government to achieve its development objectives indicated in its Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016. Major capital projects across all sectors are implemented to support attainment of sector objectives, and the national development agenda for reducing poverty and promoting inclusive growth for all. However, issues that affected project implementation result in delays in the delivery of supposed benefits intended to the beneficiaries. Problems on procurement, issues on budget and funds flow, right-of-way, resettlement, peace and order, and LGU-related concerns are the most common issues that occur and recur from one project to another. Recurring issues in project implementation can be that the effect of lessons learned and realized during project implementation were not efficiently factored in or considered in the preparation, design, and appraisal of new development projects and programs. Lessons learned in project implementation are critical inputs in improving the design, appraisal and implementation of development projects. Lessons learned are useful to implementing agencies as inputs in designing new projects as well as to oversight agencies such as NEDA in appraising proposed projects for implementation, and facilitating resolution of issues encountered during project implementation. The issues on availability, accessibility and dissemination of lessons learned are factors that hinder efficient utilization of lessons learned in the various stages of the project development cycle. The lack of clear guidelines in collection of lessons learned as well as the weak processes in data capture and documentation are the foremost considerations with regard to the issue of availability. On accessibility, the lack of knowledge based systems to store and retrieve information for future use provides problem on accessibility of information, while effective dissemination is constrained by the limited available information and irregular provisions/dissemination of information on lessons learned. The Re-entry Project (ReP) was aimed to contribute in addressing the issue of recurring issues and delayed implementation of development projects through efficient utilization of lessons learned. Enhancing mechanisms on lessons learned shall contribute in ensuring efficient and effective design, appraisal, and implementation of development projects thereby increasing the likelihood of achieving the projects' development objectives. The ReP provided five key outputs on enhancing mechanisms on lessons learned to achieve said objectives. First was the preparation of projects lessons learned profiles or logs of ongoing and completed projects. The logs contain lessons learned and realized during project implementation of loan-assisted projects across various sectors in the key project management areas of scope, quality, time, cost, human resource, communication, procurement and risks. It identifies the situations, tasks, action taken and the corresponding lessons realized at that particular stage of the project phase. A total of 54 loan-assisted projects were prepared with lessons learned logs while nine for the completed/closed loans. In order to facilitate accessibility (by NEDA Sector Staffs and Regional Offices, IAs, LGUs, NGOs, among others), and for faster dissemination of the lessons learned logs, the second ReP output was a compendium of lessons learned logs that is readily accessible to they key stakeholders. This was made possible by uploading the compendium in the NEDA website and in the Monitoring and Evaluation Staff (MES) Dataserver accessible in PDF format. The third output was the harmonized evaluation report templates, from ongoing to ex-post evaluations, and highlights section on lessons learned in each individual evaluation reports. Anchored on the Project Evaluation Report (PER) at ex-ante, each project evaluation reports were assessed and came up with a harmonized evaluation templates for each evaluation report. The fourth ReP output, intended to address the issue on availability, was the database files of key M&E documents (PERs, Loan Agreements, End of Project Reports (EOPRs), Ex-Post Reports among others) which are the major sources of lessons learned, and information readily accessible in the MES Dataserver. The fifth and last output was the regular dissemination of lessons learned information to NEDA Sector Staff, Regional Offices, and other development stakeholders. Regular preparation of lessons learned logs was mainstreamed into the regular function of the NEDA-MES including regular dissemination of lessons learned information to other NEDA units, Development Partners and other stakeholders. Efforts to further enhance the ReP intervention on lessons learned (e.g. expanding the scope of coverage to include grants, locally funded as well as incorporation in the proposed enhancement of the NEDA's Programs and Project Information Exchange System (PPIES)) shall be continued and shall be included in the work plan of the NEDA-MES in 2015.