Nongovernment Organizations and Civil Society

1. Deadline Approaches for Annual Meeting Registration

Civil society organizations (CSOs) are invited to attend the 39th Annual Meeting of ADB’s Board of Governors, to be held in Hyderabad, India on 3-6 May. Several sessions will be held on topics of interest to CSOs, which must be accredited in advance by their home government in order to register and participate. Requests for accreditation must be received by 15 March, while deadline for online registration is 15 April. To propose ideas for discussion at the Annual Meeting, or request additional information, contact Suzanne Nazal, Civil Society Cooperation Officer, NGO and Civil Society Center, Regional and Sustainable Development Department at ngocoordinator@adb.org.

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2. Development Institutions Agree on a Common Approach to Corruption

ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda and leaders of six other international financial institutions have agreed on the need to standardize their definition of corruption, improve the consistency of their investigative rules and procedures, strengthen information sharing, and assure compliance and enforcement actions taken by one institution are supported by all others. They have also agreed to work together to assist countries in strengthening their capacity to combat corruption and improve cooperation with civil society and other stakeholders and institutions with the goal of enhancing transparency and accountability.

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3. Independent Evaluation of ADB Safeguards Announced

ADB’s Operations Evaluation Department (OED) is evaluating ADB’s safeguard policies on the environment, indigenous peoples, and involuntary resettlement. The evaluation complements ADB’s pending review of these policies. OED welcomes stakeholder views on, and experiences of, the application of safeguard policies in ADB supported operations. For more information, contact the evaluation team at evaluation@adb.org.

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4. Strategy Sets ADB Support for Regional Cooperation and Integration

ADB has prepared a draft Strategy on Regional Cooperation and Integration and made it available for public comment. The strategy aims to promote an integrated, poverty-free, prosperous, and peaceful Asia and Pacific region. Priority areas include regional/subregional economic cooperation programs, trade and investment cooperation and integration, monetary and financial cooperation and integration, and regional public goods. For more information, contact Cuong Minh Nguyen, Regional Cooperation Specialist, Office of Regional Economic Integration, at aric_info@adb.org

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5. Project Engages Pakistani Coastal Communities to Improve Livelihoods

The Government of Pakistan has asked ADB to help design, in a consultative and participatory manner, a coastal and inland community development project covering Sindh Province’s coastal districts of Badin and Thatta, and the coastal areas of Karachi. The proposed project will seek to improve the investment environment and livelihoods of local people. ADB has conducted seven consultative workshops on the three main project areas that were attended by more than 350 representatives from affected communities, civil society, and Government. For more information, contact Vidhisha Samarasekara, Natural Resource Management Specialist, South Asia Regional Department (SARD), vsamarasekara@adb.org

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6. Fiji Islands Looks to Renewable Energy

ADB has approved $650,000 in technical assistance project to help the Fiji Islands prepare a project that will expand the Fiji Electricity Authority’s (FEA’s) program for renewable and indigenous resources, and to upgrade FEA's transmission and distribution networks. The technical assistance will also assess FEA's financial performance, analyze the "climate-proofing" of the proposed project to withstand extreme climate events, and assess the possibility of using the clean development mechanism for the project. For more information, contact Carol Litwin, Senior Economist, Pacific Department, at clitwin@adb.org.

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7. NGOs Selected to Address Poverty in the PRC’s Jiangxi Province

NGOs have been competitively selected to serve as partners in state-funded poverty reduction activities in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Selected nongovernment organizations (NGOs) will work with local governments, poor villagers, and other stakeholders in Jiangxi Province on poverty reduction and planning, and oversee state-funded poverty reduction efforts that poor communities have identified as priorities. As this is the first time in the PRC that state funds for national programs have been channeled through NGOs on a significant scale, the pilot has the potential to fundamentally change the way the Government pursues poverty reduction efforts and state-funded programs more broadly. For more information, contact Christopher Spohr, Social Sector Economist, East and Central Asia Department, at cspohr@adb.org

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8. Poor Households to Gain Improved Access to Insurance in Sri Lanka

ADB will help to provide insurance products to poorer households in Sri Lanka through a technical assistance project funded by a $600,000 grant from the Poverty Reduction Cooperation Fund, financed by the Government of the United Kingdom. The project will enable the Government to develop the micro-insurance sector by reviewing the insurance policies in the country and recommending improvements based on successful micro-insurance schemes in other countries. A pilot micro-insurance scheme will also be tested to identify cost-effective means of providing insurance services especially to households in selected conflict- and tsunami-affected areas. For more information, contact Mayumi Ozaki, Rural Finance/Microfinance Specialist, SARD at mozaki@adb.org.

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9. Special Project Facilitator Releases Annual Report

The 2005 annual report of ADB’s Office of the Special Project Facilitator (OSPF) has been published with details on outreach activities, outcomes of complaints received, and feedback on OSPF’s complaint processes provided by NGOs, local communities, governments, and ADB. To request a hard copy of the report, contact Karin Oswald, Senior Project Facilitation Specialist, OSPF, at koswald@adb.org.

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10. ADB Seeks Senior Gender Advisor

ADB’s Policy on Gender and Development promotes the mainstreaming of gender issues into all ADB activities, including macroeconomic and sector work, and lending and technical assistance operations. To coordinate and support gender mainstreaming, ADB seeks a Senior Gender Advisor to work in its Regional and Sustainable Development Department (RSDD) in Manila, Philippines. Interested individuals should submit their CVs with a cover note to Director, Gender, Social Development and Civil Society Division, RSDD at CS-jobs@adb.org, noting “Gender Position” in the subject line.

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11. INTRAC Seeks Capacity Building Success Stories

The International NGO Training and Resource Centre (INTRAC) is soliciting examples of capacity building with a successful impact. Prizes will be offered to the best examples. First prize is a 2-week exchange visit to INTRAC in Oxford, United Kingdom, followed by attendance at INTRAC’s Civil Society and Capacity Building Conference in December. Deadline for submitting examples is 28 April. For complete details, write praxis@intract.org.

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12. NGO Visitors: Mercy Malaysia

This regular feature spotlights one of the many CSOs whose representatives have recently met with ADB staff at the institution’s headquarters in the Philippines.

The Malaysian Medical Relief Society (MERCY Malaysia) is a medical relief organization dedicated to providing humanitarian aid in crisis and non-crisis situations regardless of race, religion, culture or boundary.

With a vision to be outstanding in the delivery of humanitarian aid to all, MERCY Malaysia was formed in June 1999 to fulfil the following objectives:

• provide humanitarian assistance, especially in the form of medical aid, to Malaysians and non-Malaysians in need;
• increase the spirit of caring, volunteerism and humanitarianism among members regardless of race, religion and culture;
• educate society, including medical professionals, on emergency medical aid and medical relief work;
• collaborate with other local and international organisations in achieving these objectives; and
• promote the concept of total disaster risk management in its recovery and developmental projects.

Presently, MERCY Malaysia has over 30 projects active in eight countries. In 2005, MERCY Malaysia handed over a total of 231 houses to the community living in Kampung Weu Raya in the area of Lhoknga, Aceh Besar. These houses were built to be seismic resistant with clearly demarcated tsunami evacuation routes. Other disaster preparedness initiatives were also incorporated into the project, including children’s educational books. In its home country, MERCY Malaysia conducts outreach to local communities in various states, and operates the Drug Rehabilitation and Assistance Programme to assist former drug users to get back on their feet and return to the society.

MERCY Malaysia also hosts the secretariat of the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN), which since 2002 has promoted coordination and collaboration among NGOs and other stakeholders for effective and efficient disaster reduction and response in the Asia and Pacific region. ADRRN promotes sharing of experiences and knowledge among its network members through partnership in emergency/disaster relief response, publications, workshops and meetings on issues related to disaster risk reduction.

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13. Upcoming Events

A listing in this section does not imply ADB endorsement or availability of financing for participants.

• Asia Microfinance Forum, 21-24 March, Beijng, People’s Republic of China (PRC). Contact: The Foundation for Development Cooperation, Brisbane, Australia, e-mail: info@fdc.org.au; tel: +61 7 3236 4633; website: http://www.bwtp.org
• 6th International Evaluation Conference, 3-5 April, Soesterberg, The Netherlands. Contact: International NGO Training and Research Centre, e-mail: training@intrac.org; tel: +44 (0)1865 263040; website: http://www.intrac.org/pages/6thevalConference.html
• International Conference on “Public Accountability in ODA,” 26-29 April, Siem Riep, Cambodia. Contact: Wolfgang Eckes, Freidrich Naumann Foundation, e-mail: assistant.r721@thailand.fnst.org; tel: +66 2 365 05 70.
• 3rd Meeting of the Network for NGO-Business Partnerships for Sustainable Development in Asia and Pacific, 5 May, Bangkok, Thailand. Contact: Pareena Prayukvong, KIAsia, e-mail: pareenap@kiasia.org; tel: + 66 2 229 3131; website: www.network-ngo-ps.org
• 7th International Conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research, 9-12 July, Bangkok, Thailand. Contact: ISTR, Johns Hopkins University, e-mail: istr@jhu.edu; tel: +1 410 516 4678; fax: +1 410 516 4870; website: http://www.istr.org
• International Economic and Social Forum, 25-28 October, Lyon, France. Contact: Scientific Foundation of Lyon, e-mail: newsletter@forum-lyon.com; website: http://www.forum-lyon.com

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14. Latest Documents Available from ADB

ADB makes hundreds of documents publicly available each year on its web site, http://www.adb.org, and through a growing network of 170 depository libraries around the world. The extensive online Publications Catalog allows users to browse through a list of over 4,000 titles. These include country economic reviews, project completion reports (PCRs), reports and recommendations of the President (RRPs), summary initial environmental examinations (SIEEs), technical assistance completion reports (TACRs), and technical assistance reports (TARs).

Examples of recently published documents include:

• Capacity Building for Social Assessments TACR (PRC)
• Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Environmental Improvement Project-Mongolia SIEE (Mongolia)
• Agriculture and Natural Resources Sector-Evaluation Report (Lao PDR)
• Independent External Monitoring of Resettlement Activities of the Southern Transport Development Project TAR (Sri Lanka)
• Private Sector Development: A Revised Strategic Framework
• Establishment of the Tonle Sap Basin Management Organization II TACR (Cambodia)

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