Nongovernment Organizations and Civil Society

News from ADB for Nongovernment Organizations
 September 2002, Volume 2, Issue 5

In this Issue

1. Regional Development Banks Reaffirm Commitment to Partnership
2. Developing a new Framework for ADB-NGO-Government Cooperation
3. Education Policy Aims for Universal Primary Education, Gender Equality
4. Indonesian Farmers get a Boost
5. Pacific Islanders Adopt Action Plan for Sustainable Water Management
6. East Timor Becomes ADB's 61st Member
7. ADB Begins NGO Training Courses for Staff
8. Project Supports Preschool and Disabled Children in Mongolia
9. Public Consultations Completed on Inspection Function Review
10. NGOs Working with Street Children to Confer with ADB
11. Workshops Help NGOs and Civil Servants Improve Internet Skills
12. Asian Labor Unions Meet with International Financial Institutions
13. Second Edition of the Civil Society Yearbook set for October Release
14. NGO Visitor: Conference of Asian Foundations (CAFO)
15. Upcoming Events
16. Latest Documents Available from ADB

ADB President Tadao Chino and the presidents of the African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Inter-American Development Bank have stressed their continuing commitment to promoting sustainable development. In a joint statement on 2 September at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the regional development bank heads said: "The Johannesburg Summit underscores the importance of many voices around an agreed objective - the voices of institutions and governments alongside voices of NGOs and communities, responsible business and all stakeholders."

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2.  Developing a new Framework for ADB-NGO-Government Cooperation

As reported in the last Partnership Newsletter, ADB is holding a series of consultative workshops with stakeholders to explore ways to partner with civil society, and improve the interactions between ADB, member governments, and civil society organizations. Under a regional technical assistance project, ADB is organizing at least nine country workshops and three subregional workshops in its developing member countries. Workshops have also been held in Sydney and at ADB's 35th Annual Meeting in Shanghai, and one is planned for London in late October. Workshop participants have been encouraged to suggest their ideas for improved cooperation between ADB, NGOs and governments, and to propose ways to improve collaboration. At the end of this process, ADB will organize a regional meeting with stakeholders in Manila to outline a proposed framework for tripartite cooperation. Those interested, but unable to participate in a workshop, may comment on the issues paper posted on ADB's web site. For more information, contact Cindy Malvicini at ngocoordinator@adb.org.

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3.  Education Policy Aims for Universal Primary Education, Gender Equality

ADB has approved a new Education Policy aimed at providing everyone in the Asia-Pacific region with equal access to education to empower those caught in the poverty cycle to break out and participate in national development. The policy underpins ADB's support for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which include enrolling all children in primary school, promoting gender equality, and empowering women by 2015. ADB plans to invest over $1 billion in loans for education projects between 2002 and 2004. In literacy and nonformal education, ADB will provide more support for innovative and responsive programs, particularly in collaboration with NGOs. Projects will include backing for NGO-led provision of skills training in income-generating activities for poor women. For more information, contact Gudrun Forsberg at gforsberg@adb.org.

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ADB will help raise 400,000 Indonesian households above the poverty line with a $56 million loan that will enable farmers take better advantage of market opportunities. The project will empower poor farmers in 1,000 villages to adopt innovative agricultural and marketing methods, and make village-level public investments that meet local needs. It will also give farmers access to information about appropriate technologies, and reorient ongoing agricultural research to focus on meeting the needs of marginal farmers in rainfed areas. NGOs will help the villagers organize in farmer groups, identify innovations to meet their particular needs, and propose public investments required to introduce the innovations. Contact Mandar Jayawant (mjayawant@adb.org) or Yoshiharu Kobayashi (ykobayashi@adb.org) for more information.

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A regional action plan for sustainable water management in the Pacific islands has been adopted following a week-long meeting in Sigatoka, Fiji. The meeting, which concluded on 3 August 2002, included representatives of 18 Pacific island country governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies, civil society, and the private sector. The South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) and United Kingdom Department for International Development financed participation of 10 NGOs in the meeting, co-organized by ADB and SOPAC. Delegates stressed the participatory nature of their deliberations, and reinforced their commitment to share knowledge to address common water problems, and develop solutions. The action plan calls for collaborative approaches in six areas: water resources management, island vulnerability, awareness, technology, institutional arrangements, and financing. A synopsis of NGO views and other information can be found on SOPAC's web site. Additional details are available from Clive Carpenter, Head of Water Resources, SOPAC at Clive@sopac.org.

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6.  East Timor Becomes ADB's 61st Member

Newly independent East Timor joined ADB on 23 July 2002. Since 2000, ADB has approved 19 technical assistance projects for East Timor, amounting to $8 million from grant funds for project preparation, capacity building, policy advice, and economic management. ADB has also served as a co-administrator of the multi-donor Trust Fund for East Timor (TFET), which has contributed $53 million to the restoration of physical infrastructure, particularly roads, ports, water supply, and power facilities, as well as the development of a microfinance project. Mee-ja Hamm has been named to head ADB's Special Liaison Office in Dili.

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ADB's NGO Center and Budget, Personnel and Human Resources Division have begun a new series of staff training courses on working with NGOs. Key elements of the NGO Center's mandate are to raise ADB personnel awareness of NGO issues and concerns, and improve staff ability to collaborate effectively with civil society organizations. The training started in July and by December 2002 five courses will have been held in Manila and at two Resident Missions. The first course at headquarters took place 13-15 August, and targeted project and country team leaders. Topics included: "NGOs in the Development Process," "Engaging NGOs in a Participatory Mode," and "Project Stakeholder Analysis." More details are available from Hemanta Mishra at hmishra@adb.org.

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Preschool and disabled children in Mongolia will benefit from a $14 million ADB concessional loan. The Second Education Development Project will improve existing facilities or build new schools for more than 100,000 kindergarten, primary and secondary school children, including 2,000 children with disabilities who will be brought into the system for the first time. In the cities, the project aims to increase the number of school places in the poorest areas, especially communities where families live in traditional gers (tents). In rural areas, the project will provide dormitories so children from nomadic families can board at school. More details are available from Robert Schoellhammer at rschoellhammer@adb.org.

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The third and final draft of a working paper on the review of ADB's Inspection Function will be submitted to ADB's Board of Directors by October. ADB's Inspection Function review consultations have been ongoing since March of this year, and comments have been received from civil society, including NGOs and project-affected people, private sector representatives, and government officials. Consultation workshops were held in Beijing, Frankfurt, Karachi, Kathmandu, Manila, Ottawa, Phnom Penh, Sydney, Tokyo, and Washington, DC. The ADB web site, where the latest draft of the working paper may be viewed, also invited input. For further information, contact Suresh Nanwani atsnanwani@adb.org.

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ADB will invite 13 representatives of NGOs working with street children in seven Asian and Pacific urban centers to participate in a round table discussion in Manila. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for late November or early December. Most of the NGOs helped organize a series of children's art competitions sponsored by ADB and held in Dhaka, Jakarta, Kathmandu, Manila, Phnom Penh, Port Moresby, and Ulanbaatar in May and June this year. The competitions gave a chance to 1,000 current and former street children to use their artistic ability to express what they could do for themselves and their communities if given the opportunity. The NGO representatives will share insights with ADB staff in operational departments who are directly concerned with poverty reduction issues. The meeting will also give a chance to the nonprofit organizations to share practical information, strategies, and approaches for aiding homeless urban youth. A commemorative book containing selected artworks from the competitions, children's photographs, and descriptive text will be issued during the roundtable. For more information, contact Robert Salamon at rsalamon@adb.org.

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ADB's webmaster, Penelope Price, recently conducted half-day Web usability workshops for NGO and government staff at Resident Missions in Cambodia and Lao PDR. Price noted that, "time and content matter in a world where Internet connection costs are high, where people scan rather than read, and where few users are prepared to scroll down a web page". The workshops focused on applying key guidelines for making an organization's homepage easier for visitors to navigate, formatting and writing for busy online readers, creating effective hyperlinks, using global English, and applying copyright correctly to Web documents. Price also gave a tour of the ADB web site, one of the major channels through which ADB disseminates information about its poverty-reduction work.

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ADB will host the ICFTU-APRO Regional Dialogue with International Financial Institutions (IFIs), 10-11 October 2002 in Manila. The dialogue will provide an opportunity for labor union representatives to interact with staff and Management of ADB, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank on employment conditions for workers and social issues in development. Strengthening dialogue with labor unions is a key component of ADB's Social Protection Strategy, approved in September 2001. Participants in the 2-day meeting are also expected to discuss the roles and modes of operation of IFIs, and consider labor union opinions and concerns about IFI initiatives in developing countries. For more details, contact Isabel Ortiz at socialprotection@adb.org.

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The London School of Economics Global Civil Society Programme will release the second edition of the annual Global Civil Society Yearbook on 7 October. The report includes chapters on the state of global civil society, civil society in different cultural contexts, and global civil society and religion. It will also feature three issue-oriented case studies on AIDS and other communicable diseases, the International Criminal Court, and corporate social responsibility. Other topics to be addressed include organizational forms, media, and access to global public debates, global cities, diaspora networks, and data on civil society around the world. The Yearbook will be available on the Internet on the date of publication. For more information, contact Marlies Glasius at M.Glasius@lse.ac.uk.

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A group of senior program officers from the Japan Foundation Asia Center, Toyota Foundation, Sasakawa Peace Foundation, International House of Japan, Japan Center for International Exchange, and Nippon Foundation began networking with various Asian foundations and associations in the early 1990s. The networking initiatives eventually involved over 70 active members in 11 Asian countries and territories. In 1996, the group formed the Conference of Asian Foundations and Associations (CAFO).

Today, CAFO comprises civil society professionals pursuing new models for collaborative action among like-minded organizations across Asia. CAFO seeks to enhance transnational civil society, helping organizations build their capacity to address the needs and aspirations of their constituencies. The network holds an annual conference with participants being mainly middle-level program and management officers of member organizations who discuss issues such as the environment and cultural exchange. Conferences have produced ideas for joint action, especially in promoting the creation of a transnational civil society in Asia.

CAFO operates several programs, including "Asia Confers" and "Asia Dialogues with the World". Launched in 2001 and 2002, respectively, these 3-year programs include an annual seminar. "Asia Confers" provides a venue for young civil society professionals to discuss issues of common concern with their Asian colleagues, while "Asia Dialogues" brings together Asian civil society professionals and their counterparts from outside Asia to exchange views and broaden their perspectives, while building a broader international network. It also serves as a platform for airing globally Asian civil society concerns.

CAFO brings together individual and institutional members in People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taipei,China and Thailand. The network maintains its secretariat in Manila.

Isagani Serrano, Julio Galivez-Tan, Marie Lisa Dacanay, and Anthony Tsui of CAFO member organizations visited the NGO Center to describe upcoming plans, including a conference to be held later this year in Beijing to review the outcome of the World Summit for Sustainable Development ("Rio + 10"). For more information on CAFO, contact secretariat@cafo-network.org or visit the organization's web site: http://www.cafo-network.org/about_us.htm.

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As reported above (item #2), ADB is considering new ways of partnering with civil society, and improving interactions between ADB, member governments, and civil society organizations. By the end of 2002, ADB hopes that a new framework for working more closely together will have been agreed upon. During September and October, ADB will continue the series of workshops launched in May to seek stakeholder views on developing the framework. For the complete schedule of workshops, and other information view here.

• Dialogue on River Basin Development and Civil Society in the Mekong Region, 2-6 September 2002, Brisbane, Australia. Contact: Andrew Wyatt, AMRC, tel: (61.2) 9036.9277; email: A.Wyatt@geography.usyd.edu.au.
• The Third US-Japan CSO Forum: "Transforming the Roles of US and Japanese NGOs to Meet New Global Realities," 17-18 September 2002, Washington, DC, USA. Contact: Katsuji Imata, Japan-U.S. Community Education and Exchange, tel: (81.3) 5805.3920; fax: (81.3) 5805.3921; email: katsuji@jucee.org; web site: http://www.jucee.org.
• ADB-ILO Regional Technical Workshop on Core Labor Standards, 18-19 September 2002, Manila, Philippines. Contact: Rafaelita Jamon, ADB, tel: (63.2) 632.4444; email: socialprotection@adb.org; web site: http://www.adb.org/Documents/Events/2002/Core_Labor_Standards/.
• Regional Consultation Workshop on Water and Poverty, 22-26 September 2002, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Contact: Wouter Lincklaen Arriens, ADB, tel: (63.2) 632.6754; email: wlincklaenarriens@adb.org; web site: http://www.warpo.org/waterandpoverty/.
• Regional Conference on Disability and Development, 2-4 October 2002, Manila, Philippines. Contact: Emilie Ballares, ADB, tel: (63.2) 632.4444; fax: (63.2) 636.2444; email: disabilityworkshop@adb.org; web site: http://www.adb.org/documents/events/2002/disability_development.
• 3rd World Congress of Rural Women, 2-4 October 2002, Madrid, Spain. Contact: Secretariat, email: cmmmujer@presencia-inter.com
• Saving Mothers Lives: What Works: An International Conference on Best Practices, 3-6 October 2002, New Delhi, India. Contact: Aparajita Gogoi, Centre for Development and Population Activities, email: aparajitagogoi@vsnl.net

• ICFTU-APRO Regional Dialogue with International Financial Institutions, 10-11 October 2002, ADB Headquarters, Manila, Philippines. Contact: Myrna Magbitang, Conference Coordinator, ADB, tel: (63.2) 632.4444; fax: (63.2) 636.2444; email: socialprotection@adb.org; web site: http://www.adb.org/Documents/Events/2002/ICFTU_APRO.
• ADBI, ADB and Inter-American Development Bank Workshop on Social Protection for the Poor, 21-25 October 2002, ADB Headquarters, Manila, Philippines. Contact: Josephine D. Javier, Conference Coordinator, ADB, tel: (63.2) 632.4444; fax: (63.2) 636.2444; email: socialprotection@adb.org; web site: http://www.adb.org/Documents/Events/2002/SocialProtection.
• The Association for Sustainable & Responsible Investment in Asia International Conference, "Sustainable and Responsible Investment: Practice and Vision in Asia," 26-30 October 2002, Tokyo, Japan. Contact: Sweeta Motwani, ASRIA, tel: (85.2) 3105.3701; fax: (85.2) 3105.9707; email: sweeta@asria.org; web site: http://www.asria.org/events/japan/oct02.
• 14th World Congress of Environmental Journalists, 27-31 October 2002, Sri Lanka. Contact: Dharman Wickremaratne, APEC, tel: (94.1) 873.131; fax: (94.1) 883.187; email: afej@sri.lanka.net

• Fourth Asia Development Forum, 3-5 November 2002, Seoul, Korea. Contact: Jeffrey Liang, ADB, tel: (63.2) 632.6630; fax: (63.2) 636.2357; email: jliang@adb.org; web site: http://www.adb.org/Documents/Events/2002/ADF/default.asp.
• Dialogue on River Basin Development and Civil Society in the Mekong Region, 8-12 November 2002, Ubonratchathani, Thailand. Contact: Andrew Wyatt, Australian Mekong Resource Centre, tel: (61.2) 9036.9277; fax: (61.2) 9351.3644; email: A.Wyatt@geography.usyd.edu.au

• NGO Forum on the Second Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies, November 10-12, 2002, Seoul, Korea. Contact: Yong-hyon Kim, Conference Secretariat, tel: (82.2) 723.6038; fax: (82.2) 723.6061; email: cd2002_1@mofat.go.kr; web site: http://www.cd2002.go.kr/about/non.htm.

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16.  Latest Documents Available from ADB

ADB documents that have been approved for public release, and sent to ADB Depository Libraries around the world, have been added to ADB's web site. These documents include Country Economic Reviews, Country Economic Updates, Environmental Impact Assessments, Reports and Recommendations of the President, Summary Initial Environmental Examinations, and Technical Assistance Reports. Newly released documents include the Philippines Country Program Update for 2002, the Technical Assistance Completion Report of the Urban Poverty Study (PRC), an Evaluation Report on the Privatization of Public Sector Enterprises (Lessons for Developing Member Countries), the Project Completion Reports for the Tree Crop Smallholder Sector Project (Indonesia), and the Road Overlay and Improvement Project (Bangladesh).

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Questions about the contents of Partnership Newsletter or about ADB relations with NGOs, may be directed to Bart W. Édes at ngocoordinator@adb.org. Learn more about ADB cooperation with NGOs.

© Copyright 2002. Partnership Newsletter is published six times a year by ADB's Office of External Relations in conjunction with the ADB NGO Center. Previous issues are available here. Hypertext links provided in Partnership Newsletter do not imply ADB endorsement of the views expressed on non-ADB web sites. Such links are provided solely as an information service. Published contributions do not necessarily represent the view of ADB Management, staff, or members. ADB reserves the right to edit submissions. Partnership Newsletter may be redistributed with credit given to Asian Development Bank.

NGO Center
Asian Development Bank
P.O. Box 789, Manila 0980, Philippines
Tel: (632) 632-4147; (632) 636-2648

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