Laos_Sustainable Rural Infrastructure and Watershed Management Sector Project (LAO 50236)

The core problem of the agriculture, natural resources and rural development sector in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) can be summarized as low agricultural productivity, quality, diversity, and unrealized trade potential, with a rapidly eroding natural resource production base due to physical, economic, and capacity constraints.

A transaction technical assistance (TRTA) is needed to help the government to prepare the ensuing project. It will define the scope, cost, procedures for identifying subprojects, financing plan, implementation arrangements, procurement, technology issues, capacity development, maintenance arrangements, and adherence to ADB safeguard policies.

The TRTA team will support the preparation of the Sustainable Rural Infrastructure and Watershed Management Sector Project, including ADB project documents (the report and recommendation of the President and its linked documents, as well as the GCF concept paper and full application for the ADB components.

The Team Leader will: (i) report to the ADB and will liaise with the government, and other stakeholders; (ii) be responsible for the timely submission of all deliverables at the quality standards required by ADB; (iii) plan and coordinate the inputs of the consulting team; (iv) ensure the overall viability of the project; (v) ensure liaison with other relevant projects, especially those financed by ADB; (vi) lead and supervise the preparation of all reports required by ADB, including the draft report and recommendation of the president (RRP), its linked and supplementary documents and the feasibility studies of the representative productive rural infrastructure (PRI) subprojects; (vi) lead the subproject screening and prioritizing process; (vii) ensure that all ADB requirements for internal processing are covered; (viii) ensure coordination with the other components of the TRTA such as the components conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the European Space Agency; and (ix) preparing a concept paper and subsequently a full application for submission to the GCF.