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1. Stakeholder Input Sought on ADB's Energy Strategy
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has initiated a review of its energy policy. The result of the review will be a new strategy to guide ADB energy sector operations. A consultation draft of the new strategy has been posted on ADB's website for comment through 27 July. Dozens of civil society organization (CSO) representatives are among those invited to share their views on the proposed strategy at workshops being organized in Almaty, Beijing, Delhi, and Manila. For more information, contact Jong-Inn Kim, Principal Energy Specialist, Energy, Transport and Water Division, at jkim@adb.org.
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2. Annual Meeting Discussion Panels will Address ADB Policies and Strategies
A record 192 CSO representatives participated in ADB's annual meeting, held 4-7 May in Kyoto, Japan. In addition to meeting with ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda, CSO delegates shared views on ADB operations with ADB senior staff and members of official delegations. Several panel discussions and briefings were held on topics of particular interest to CSO representatives, such as the Safeguard Policy Update. Read the panel presentations.
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3. Sustainability Report Highlights ADB Initiatives
The recently published ADB Sustainability Report documents how ADB’s efforts on the environment, social development, and governance aim to help improve the lives of the poor in the Asia and Pacific region. The report also shows how ADB manages its facilities to minimize its corporate environmental footprint. For more information, contact sustainabilityreport@adb.org.
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4. ADB and UN Habitat Working to Rebuild Homes on Nias Island
ADB is working closely with United Nations (UN) Habitat to help local communities on Nias Island, Indonesia reconstruct and rehabilitate houses for the victims of the March 2005 earthquake. The ADB-supported housing program is being implemented through UN Habitat, Help eV of Germany, and the Agency for the Reconstruction of Aceh and Nias, and includes about 1,500 new houses and rehabilitation of nearly 900 homes. The Nias housing program encourages the direct involvement of the community in design and implementation. For more information, contact Pieter Smidt, Head, ADB Extended Mission for Sumatra, at psmidt@adb.org.
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5. Project Aims to Improve Coastal Livelihoods in the Philippines
ADB is helping the Philippines strengthen its fragile marine ecosystem through a $33.8 million loan to improve coastal resource management and boost livelihoods of fisher folk. ADB will also administer a $9.0 million Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant for the project, which will be carried out in six priority marine biodiversity corridors and ecosystems, covering mostly poor coastal communities in 68 municipalities in 6 provinces. For more information, contact M. Jamilur Rahman, Principal Project Management Specialist, Southeast Asia Regional Department (SERD), at mjrahman@adb.org.
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6. Water and Sanitation Project to Clean Up Environment of Nanjing
ADB will help clean up the environment of Nanjing, the People's Republic of China (PRC) through a $100 million loan for a project to manage and protect the city's water resources. The project, an integrated part of wider water resource initiatives being carried out by the PRC authorities for Nanjing and the Qinhuai River, as well as the Yangtze River Basin, will reduce water pollution, help prevent flooding, and improve the urban environment. For more information, contact Sangay Penjor, Principal Financial Analyst Specialist, East Asia Department (EARD), at spenjor@adb.org.
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7. Clean Energy Supply Boosted in PRC's Gansu Province
ADB will help provide cleaner, more reliable energy in the Gansu Province, PRC by lending up to $50 million to support two run-of-river medium-sized hydropower projects in Zhangye City. Upon completion, the project will avoid about 1 million tons of coal use per year of operation, and is expected to be eligible for certified emission reductions under the Clean Development Mechanism. For more information, contact Ashok Bhargava, Senior Energy Specialist, EARD, at abhargava@adb.org.
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8. Grant Supports Development of Microfinance in Pakistan
A $2 million grant from ADB's Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR), financed by the Government of Japan, will test ways to expand microfinance outreach and services to the poorest in Pakistan. The project will develop innovative savings products, complete with policies and procedures that will be disseminated to all microfinance banks. The project complements the Improving Access to Financial Services Program, approved in December 2006, with a $320 million loan from ADB. For more information, contact Sukanda Lewis, Financial Economist, Central and West Asia Department, at slewisadb.org.
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9. Publication Examines Link between Legal Identity and Poverty
A recently completed ADB technical assistance project explored the critical role that legal identity plays and the practical difference it makes in the lives of people. Covering Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Nepal, the project has helped increase understanding and awareness of the nexus between legal identity and poverty. The project's findings are cited in Legal Identity for Inclusive Development. For more information, contact Caroline Vandenabeele, Senior Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, at cvandenabeele@adb.org.
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10. Integrity Division Publishes Annual Report of Complaints
ADB's Integrity Division received 171 fraud, corruption, and misconduct complaints in 2006, leading to 108 investigations. The division found that 37 firms and 32 individuals had violated policy during the year and debarred 34 firms for periods ranging from 1 to 7 years, and three firms for 10 years. Fourteen individuals were debarred indefinitely and 17 for periods ranging from 1 to 7 years, while one person was reprimanded. For more information, contact Clare Wee, Director, Integrity Division, at cwee@adb.org.
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11. Office of the Special Project Facilitator Summarizes Complaint Record
Since ADB's Accountability Mechanism began its work in 2004, the Office of the Special Project Facilitator has received 11 complaints, four of which were eligible. Of the seven projects found to be ineligible, one concerned a procurement matter, which is excluded under the mechanism; one was submitted after the project completion report had been prepared, which is also excluded; and five were submitted without the complainants first having availed of the procedures available to them under the project. For more information, contact Robert C. May, Special Project Facilitator, at spf@adb.org.
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12. Book Profiles Testing of Participatory Budgeting
ADB has released a book documenting experiences, successes, and challenges of pilot-testing participatory budgeting at the local level in three countries - Indonesia, Marshall Islands, and Pakistan. The pilots, carried out under an ADB grant project, and documented in Fostering Public Participation in Budget-Making, examined the challenges of involving the public in the budget process and highlighted the need for an active and articulate civil society. The book is available online free of charge.
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13. CSO Visitor: Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era
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.
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) is a network of women scholars and activists from the economic South who engage in feminist research and analysis of the global environment. DAWN members work for economic and gender justice, and for democracy. In partnership with other global NGOs and networks, DAWN undertakes activities at the regional and global levels in areas such as the political economy of globalization, political restructuring and social transformation, and sexual and reproductive rights.
DAWN was created in 1984 on the eve of international conferences marking the end of the UN Decade for Women when a group of feminists from developing countries prepared a platform document and organized several workshops at the NGO Forum in Nairobi. The document, titled Development, Crises and Alternative Visions: Third World Women's Perspectives, was a critique of feminists of the South of 3 decades of development. Written by Gita Sen and Caren Grown, it highlighted the impacts of four interlinked and systemic global crises-famine, debt, militarism, and fundamentalism-on poor women in the developing world and offered alternative visions.
The document significantly impacted the Nairobi conference and, for the first time, put macroeconomic issues firmly on the agenda of the women's movement. Since then, DAWN has continued to influence global debates on development by offering holistic analyses from the perspective of feminists in the South that is grounded in women's experience and inspired by women's collective strategies and visions.
DAWN's vision is a world where inequality based on class, gender, and race is absent from every country and from relationships among countries; where basic needs become basic rights; and where poverty and all forms of violence are eliminated. DAWN's vision also includes the diversion of resources used in producing means of destruction to areas where they will help relieve oppression inside and outside the home. Further, the network envisions a world where all institutions are open to participatory democratic processes and where women share in determining priorities and making decisions.
Much of DAWN's global advocacy work involves partnering with other organizations and networks to reform international institutions, ensure that governments live up to the commitments they make at conferences, and mainstream gender in NGO advocacy initiatives. DAWN's work at the regional level, including in Asia and the Pacific, connects with the priorities of women's organizations and CSOs, and helps strengthen capacity to address issues arising from the impacts of globalization.
On 18 May 2007, DAWN members representing several countries met with ADB staff from various departments to discuss achieving development results from poverty, gender equality, and women empowerment programs. For more information on DAWN, see: www.dawnnet.org.
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14. Training Courses and Workshops in 2007
A listing in this section does not imply ADB endorsement or availability of financing for participants.
- Managing Change within Organizations, 7-25 July, Oxford, UK. Contact: Olga Savage, INTRAC; e-mail: training@intrac.org; tel: +44 (0)1865 263055; website: www.intrac.org.
- Publish You Pay Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop for Civil Society: Natural Resources, Corruption, Governance and Transparency, 6-11 August, Bali, Indonesia. Contact: Henry Parham, PWYP; e-mail: coordinator@publishwhatyoupay@org; tel: +44 77 6026 8959; website: www.publishwhatyoupay.org.
- Introduction to Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation, 10-14 September, Oxford, UK. Contact: Olga Savage, INTRAC; e-mail: training@intrac.org; tel: +44 (0)1865 263055; website: www.intrac.org.
- Annual Commune on Participatory Development, 11-22 September, Hyderabad, India. Contact: Praxis India; e-mail: info@praxisindia.org; tel: +91 11 4164 2348; website: www.theworkshop.in.
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