Home 
Publications Catalog Online Publications ADB Review Article
Results on the Ground
|
The concepts of development effectiveness and managing for development results (MfDR) emerged from an ongoing global dialogue that began at Monterrey, continued at Rome and Marrakech, and culminated at the Second High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Paris in March 2005.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is deeply engaged in these global dialogues and is committed to MfDR at country, institutional, and partnership levels. The key challenge is to translate these high-level concepts and commitments into results on the ground—only by doing so can development assistance have a positive impact on the lives of poor people in ADB’s developing member countries (DMCs) and ensure that the Millennium Development Goals are attained.
ADB began to develop a blueprint to become a fully results-oriented institution in 2003. At that time, as then Director General of ADB’s Strategy and Policy Department, Kunio Senga helped define the MfDR agenda and an action plan to institutionalize the commitments contained within it.
In early 2004, ADB received the endorsement of ADF IX donor countries to proceed with the action plan. When Mr. Senga became Director General of ADB’s South Asia Department (SARD) later in 2004, one of his priorities was to put those global principles into practice in ADB’s largest regional department and, more importantly, to achieve development results on the ground in DMCs.
According to Mr. Senga, “All these international dialogues must, in the end, lead to better development results from our lending and nonlending operations at country level. Unless we focus on results on the ground, ADB cannot become a truly results-oriented institution.”
SARD’s development effectiveness and results management team was created to improve the focus of ADB’s development assistance on expected results in DMCs in the region. To accomplish this, the team works within all stages of planning, processing, implementation and monitoring of operations to identify and put in place practices and procedures that improve the focus on desired outcomes and results achieved by ADB and DMC governments. This has required a change in mind-set.
As SARD’s Deputy Director General John Samy puts it, “We used to consider our job done when we finished, for example, building a high-quality road that was wanted by the government. Now, when building a road, we make sure we all agree what objectives the road is being built for, and we keep watch to see to what extent those objectives are being achieved.”
“The building of the road itself is no longer the ultimate objective; only an input toward a higher expected result. It sounds simple, but it represents a major shift in the way we do our work.”
SARD’s MfDR activities include, among others, assessing country-level institutional capacities for implementation, monitoring, and evaluation; identifying gaps in those capacities; and developing plans to fill those gaps. This is done always in conjunction with the preparation of results-based country strategies and programs (CSPs) that depend on country capacity for MfDR.
“Unless we focus on results on the ground, ADB cannot become a truly results-oriented institution“
- Kunio Senga
Director General, ADB’s South Asia Department
SARD also ensures that all country planning documents are results-oriented. SARD has produced ADB’s first results-based CSP in Nepal, and is currently working on two more in Bangladesh and Bhutan.
SARD also seeks to improve project quality at entry, and develop and implement country-specific monitoring and evaluation systems that use and strengthen country-owned systems—especially at sector level.
It also devises results-based sector and thematic road maps—and, most importantly—helps enhance ADB staff capacities by engaging in and building up a community of practice with other regional departments where experience can be shared.
Early and comprehensive stakeholder consultations play a key role in improving project quality at entry and lead to more effective use of ADB assistance.
ADB programs and projects aim to meet the expressed needs of poor people and ensure that projects achieve desired results—a lack of focus on results that make sense in a particular environment can lead to a waste of funding agency resources if the beneficiaries’ expressed needs are not taken into account.
For example, a small microfinance loan may enable neighbors in a village to start a small sewing business together. They may express a need to funding agencies for manual sewing machines, rather than electric. If funding agencies insist on electric machines, over time, the villagers find that, due to power supply instability, they are unable to work the hours required to make enough income to repay the loan.
Had their wishes expressed in their initial business plan been taken into account, the funding would have been used more effectively.
SARD’s results team works closely with staff in dialogue with DMCs. The team emphasizes the need for harmonizing ADB’s strategy and approach with other donors and improving alignment of CSPs with nationally owned development strategies. SARD is particularly interested in helping DMCs implement results-oriented public and financial management systems. Grant-funded advisory technical assistance is often used to help countries strengthen institutions and develop capacities.
As SARD’s results team shares best practices and lessons learned with other regional departments, the results agenda is taking root more widely across ADB.
A community of practice is evolving: staff are sharing experiences—successes and failures—and collaborating to improve their effectiveness on the ground. This, in turn, helps SARD’s results team to operate as an integral part of the department and collaborate closely with operations staff in everything it does.
Go back to current issue
© 2008 Asian Development Bank Privacy | Terms of Use |
 Top of page |