The Dar es Salaam water supply and sanitation project completion report (PCR) has won the Operations Evaluation Award for Best Project Completion Report from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The award ceremony took place on 24 November 2011 in Tunis, to mark the end of the AfDB's Evaluation Week.

"It is the second edition of the award dedicated to celebrating the recognition of PCRs at the Bank," said Operations Evaluation Director, Franck Perrault. He described the award as a crucial factor for recognition for high quality PCR, which are "tangible knowledge products for our institution". He stressed that high standard PCRs were important for institution's reputation for being a Knowledge Bank.

An OPEV task manager and panel facilitator, Foday Turay, revealed the major criteria that led to the choice of the Tanzania report and said: "We found this report to have a clear, objective and comprehensive storyline with not only a sound analysis of achievements and shortcomings but also with credible and potentially useful lessons learned."

The project report covered the metropolitan area of Dar es Salaam, which has a population of more than four million people. Approximately, USD 170 million was invested into the project, 30 percent of which came from the African Development Bank, 25 percent from European Investment Bank, 40 percent from the World Bank and five percent from the Tanzanian government.

Echoing Mr. Franck Perrault, ORQR division manager, Mr Simon Mizrahi, the director of ORQR underscored that high quality PCRs would enable the Bank to draw from its success and failure, to see how efficient and effective they are. He commended OPEV for establishing the prize, stressing that from a low rate of PCR submissions for some years, today 90 percent of Bank reports had been produced within stipulated deadlines.

For his part, the Regional Director, Gabriel Negatu, added that the report was prepared in a challenging environment, and affirmed that it was a good example of a PCR conducted with limited resources. He stressed, however that the key challenges would be to incorporate lessons for the design of future projects, to ensure quality at entry.

Operations Vice President, Aloysius Ordu, chaired the meeting and extended his warmest ongratulations to the team who created the repor for scooping the prize on the eve of Tanzania's 50th independence anniversary, which he said was " another good reason for celebration today".