Sector Assistance Program Evaluation on Education in Uzbekistan

Ongoing loan projects. 
Discussions with PIUs during the SAPE mission give the 
impression that the ongoing loan projects—ESDP (investment loan), STDP, ICTBEP, and 
RBEP—are likely to be effective because their design is based on the specific lessons learned 
from within Uzbekistan. To begin with, the last three projects (STDP, ICTBEP and RBEP) are 
inherently simpler. In a sense, they are the second-generation projects and more focused than 
ESDP with its complex design. ESDP was designed with a number of implementation agencies 
involved in different components of the investment loan. RBEP, for example, focuses only on 
the three regions. Nonetheless, slippages and faults due to lack of coordination during 
implementation erode the effectiveness even of these projects. For example, under STDP, the 
library resource rooms were not ready in time to accept equipment because the government did 
not finance the room refurbishment in a timely manner (RRP, RBEP, Appendix 12). However, it 
is only upon completion of the ongoing projects and preparation of the PCRs that anything 
certain can be said about their effectiveness. The preliminary rating is effective. 
 
84. 
Technical assistance.
Overall, the TAs are rated as effective. They succeeded in 
delivering their objectives in a difficult and challenging context. (Effective, rating is 3.8.) The TAs 
were appropriately identified. They performed multiple functions, e.g., suggesting policy reforms, 
providing hands-on training to ministry staff, and building capacity by familiarizing staff with ADB 
procedures, as they had no experience working with international financial institutions (IFIs). 
Some TAs made excellent contributions such as TRS, which was cited by ADB’s 2009 Annual 
Report
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as an important achievement. Generally, these TAs successfully assisted in the 
preparation of the policy loan and the implementation of successive loan projects. As a matter of 
fact, their magnitude seems to be inadequate in view of the challenges. The 2006 CAPE also 
noted the limited amount of TA available for the challenges ADB faced. IED’s TPAR evaluated 
the TA for Monitoring the Implementation of Education Reform and and the TA for Capacity 
Building in Education Finance as highly successful. However, confidentiality of data produced 
by the monitoring system impeded the dissemination of information, policy advocacy and donor 
coordination, a problem that is not confined to the TAs. TA-specific issues include: (i) some TA 
reports were bluntly critical instead of being nuanced—analysis carried out under the TA for 
Interim Review of Senior Secondary Education included some criticisms of SSE policies that 
elicited a defensive response from MOHSSE; (ii) sometimes the systems suggested by the TA 
consultants were beyond the capacity of the civil servants; and (iii) the TA for Monitoring the 
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ADB. 2010. ADB Annual Report 2009. Manila. 

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Implementation of Education Reform established an education database—the information 
system for monitoring education reform—that turned out to be too sophisticated for policy 
analysis. 
85. 
Summing up performance effectiveness, the completed loan projects are rated effective. 
BETDP was certainly effective even if it did not include any M&E arrangements. Further, its 
rating would have been greater if the appraisal estimates had factored in the cost of importing 
paper for the textbooks. SSEP, which is the least effective of the loan projects, could have been 
better implemented. The policy loan component of ESDP is also partly effective, but the final 
assessment hinges on the completion report for the investment loan component of ESDP. Field 
visits to the schools during the SAPE mission gave the impressions of schools being run well 
and equipment used effectively. Pedagogic outcomes of improvements in the teaching–learning 
process are being actively pursued and emphasized in schools.
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TAs generally addressed the 
right topics and themes, but their magnitude was inadequate in view of the challenges they 
faced in Uzbekistan. M&E continues to be the major weakness of the otherwise robustly 
growing Uzbekistan education system. All loans and TAs are rated effective.