Azerbaijan - Judicial Services and Smart Infrastructure Project

Overview & Synopsis

Ratings for the Judicial Services and Smart Infrastructure Project for Azerbaijan were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory, the bank performance was also satisfactory, and the borrower's performance was also satisfactory. Some lessons learned included: other financing instruments, such as a Program-for-Results with disbursement-linked indicators (introduced in 2012) or an IPF with performance-based conditions, which could have been explored to engage and support the medium, to long-term vision for the sector. The Presidential Decrees of 2014 and 2019 underline the project and emphasize the need for technical upgrades and investments. However, they also reflect on Azerbaijan's commitment to an efficient justice system that supports socio-economic progress, as did the ‘Vision 2020’ and presented an opportunity to engage in policy dialogue and explore opportunities for a Program-for-Results. This could have benefitted activities that received less attention and struggled to fully meet expectations, such as support for JA in advancing judicial skills. The PIU struggled to balance the complexity and multitude of IT procurement vis-a-vis market limitations. The country office-based procurement team provided close support and multiple trainings while implementing JMP and JSSIP. The market research carried out at the beginning of the AF stage led to improvements in procurement packaging and resulted in more diversified contract awards. However, this did not overcome the country's limited IT capacity. A single vendor was heavily involved in follow-up system development contracts after the first system development contract was awarded to them, effectively positioning this vendor as the IT partner of the MoJ.