Marshall Islands - Maritime Investment Project

Overview & Synopsis

Ratings for the Maritime Investment Project for Marshall Islands were as follows: outcomes were highly unsatisfactory, the Bank's performance was moderately unsatisfactory, and the monitoring and evaluation quality was modest. Some lessons learned included: operations in FCV contexts should generally have a modest level of ambition and complexity and a flexible project design. Focusing on strengthening the enabling environment and targeting fewer but more accessible and strategic port facilities will have better matched the overall context of RMI in which transportation, information sharing, implementing agency capacity, and governance arrangements pose significant challenges. Starting with a smaller operation would have made it easier to reassess the feasibility and restructure MIMIP during COVID-19, whereas scaling down an enormous MIMIP scope was challenging, given that GoRMI had already raised expectations of beneficiary communities. Restructurings should be done in a timelier manner to allow for a reassessment of the project's feasibility, incorporate changes, and or scale down (or up) appropriately. When the project doesn’t progress as expected during implementation, the World Bank and the client must consider and act on project restructuring and/or cancellation. Making timely decisions would facilitate the work of all parties involved. Portfolio-level CIU support should be implemented as a standalone IPF operation with an efficient and robust monitoring and evaluation framework and stronger World Bank implementation support. A central services unit (CSU) standalone IPF will have greater accountability for performance. The design of the CSU should include a clear mandate to provide portfolio-wide functions such as fiduciary and M&E, formalize increased hands-on support to the PIUs and support a more focused approach to portfolio management to achieve performance targets.