UNDP and the Asian Development Bank (ADB)
The Asian Development Bank is a multilateral development finance institution dedicated to reducing
poverty in Asia and the Pacific. Established in 1966, it includes 63
member states, mostly from the region. Its headquarters is in Manila,
with 27 other offices around the world, including: 19 resident missions
in Asia, 3 sub-regional offices in the Pacific, 1 country offices in
Philippines, representatives in Frankfurt, Tokyo, Washington D. C. and
a special liaison office in East Timor.
ADB has the following functions: a) extending loans and equity investments
to its member countries for their economic and social development, b)
providing technical assistance for the planning and execution of development
projects and programs and for advisory services, c) promoting and facilitating
investment of public and private capital for development, and d) responding
to requests for assistance in coordinating development policies and
plans of its developing member countries.
What does ADB do?
ADB adopted a poverty reduction strategy in 1999, as a result of which
this institution began to focus its work toward eliminating poverty
in the region. In this respect, AsDB projects and programs emphasize
one or more of the following priorities:
- Economic growth,
- Human development,
- Gender and development,
- Good governance,
- Environmental protection,
- Private sector development,
- Regional cooperation.
In terms of sectors, ADB focuses on the following: agriculture and natural
resources, education, energy, finance, health, nutrition, and social protection;
industry and trade; law, economic management, and public policy; transport
and communications; water supply, sanitation, and waste management; activities
involving multiple sectors.
The main instruments used by ADB in its operation include the following:
loans, technical assistance, grants, guarantees and equity investments.
ADB's annual lending volume is typically about $6 billion, with technical
assistance usually totaling about $180 million a year.
Co-financing
ADB has an Office of Co-financing Operations, which acts as the organization's
focal point for planning, promoting and arranging cofinancing for ADB
projects, and for formulating policies on cofinancing and guarantee
operations. This office performs the following functions: Assisting
borrowers to obtain cofinancing from commercial financial institutions,
official funding agencies and export credit agencies; identifying appropriate
cofinanciers; assisting ADB operational units to determine appropriate
financial packages; arranging and administers loans from cofinanciers;
establishing and manages technical assistance grant funds; coordinating
utilization of the Japan Special Fund within ADB; administering the
ADB-Japan Scholarship Program; Administers the Japan Fund for Poverty
Reduction.
In 2004, cofinancing reached $2.4 billion. ADB includes UNDP in its
list of priority institutions with which to engage in cofinancing activities.
UNDP and AsDB: Joint areas of intervention
UNDP and ADB work together on:
a) poverty measurements and assessments to, inter alia, enable Developing
Member Countries (DMCs) to formulate a poverty reduction strategy, action
plan or agenda and meet the respective requirements of the Parties for
poverty-oriented programming,
b) assessment of needs of DMCs for technical support to formulate, revise
or update a national poverty action plan, strategy or agenda, or to
establish a national poverty monitoring mechanism,
c) joint sponsorship of forums to establish national consensus on how
best to deal with poverty issues,
d) common research, studies and project missions and,
e) identification, design, and as appropriate, implementation, of technical
cooperation projects to support DMCs in advancing their national poverty
reduction agendas. Other possible areas for the future include: governance,
private sector development, information and communication technology,
environment, gender and development and indigenous peoples.
