National Poverty Reduction Strategies Fund

Partnerships for Poverty Reduction

Welcome to the first edition of the NPRS-PRF E-Newsletter. Reducing poverty in the Asia and Pacific Region is a colossal task. It is not possible without financial, implementation, and knowledge partnerships across the public, private and civil society sectors. The two poverty funds administered by ADB - the NPRS (the Cooperation Fund in Support of the Formulation and Implementation of National Poverty Reduction Strategies, financed by the Government of the Netherlands) and the PRF (the Poverty Reduction Cooperation Fund, financed by the Government of the United Kingdom) - are meant to strengthen such partnerships for innovative poverty reduction activities. Since 2001/2002, up to about 120 technical assistance projects in Asia and the Pacific have been implemented with the support of the two funding partners.

The quarterly newsletter will give you updates on events, good practices, publications and other knowledge products generated through NPRS-PRF.

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Legal identity is a right, but how does it help reduce poverty? An ADB study funded by the PRF tries to find out in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Nepal.

INTERVIEW:
"It's about using the law to make lives a little bit better," says Caroline Vandenabeele, an ADB Senior Counsel and team leader for the legal identity project, on the role of the Office of the General Counsel in poverty reduction.

C-BIRD: Creating Partnerships for a Better Tomorrow

Business has a critical role to play in poverty reduction. The C-BIRD project took the first step towards creating partnerships that will capitalize on the resources of the private sector to empower the rural poor with skills that will help them come out of poverty. Read the feature article and project case study [ PDF ].

Does Air Pollution Affect the Health of the Poor More?

A project recently launched in Viet Nam will answer this and other related questions by examining for 30 months how air pollution affects the health of children and their families, and whether the effects are higher among the poor, in Ho Chi Minh city. Read more about the project and its news release

Ensuring that Road Investments Benefit the Poor [ PDF ]

Poverty reduction through road investments is greatest when the poor are involved in the planning processes. A technical assistance financed by the PRF has successfully shown how this can be done in the People's Republic of China, a country where thousands of poor villages are still not connected by roads.

Securing Cambodia's Garment Industry in a Post-MFA World

With the lifting in December 2004 of the Multi-Fiber Agreement, Cambodia's garment industry appeared to be at risk. A technical assistance project helped ensure that the country's garment workers would not go hungry by developing strategies to increase their productivity in both garment and non-garment sectors.

Helping Communities in Lao PDR to Help Themselves

A project to upgrade a national road in northern Lao PDR will boost economic growth in the country, but it may also adversely affect the poor local population living around the road. A technical assistance project worked on improving their knowledge and skills to enable them to better respond to both the opportunities and threats brought about by the road upgrading.

Bangladesh Delegation Visits ADB to Discuss Urban Governance

A delegation from Bangladesh exchanged experiences on urban governance reforms with counterparts in the Philippines under the ADB supported Bangladesh Urban Governance and Infrastructure Improvement (sector) Project (UGIIP).

A PRF technical assistance (TA) Participation of the Urban Poor in Municipal Governance, is supporting the UGIIP to strengthen urban governance by enhancing the participation and involvement of the urban poor in municipal governance. The TA will establish an institutional mechanism increasing the poor's access to decision-making processes at the municipal level, and adopt participatory pro-poor planning and monitoring systems in selected municipalities.

The delegation visited Marikina and Quezon cities and the Manila Water Company. The visit was capped by a presentation in ADB by Mr. Ashraful Alam, Project Director for the ADB supported UGIIP, on their experiences in implementing urban governance reforms, including means to enhance accountability in municipal management, involve civil society in municipal decision-making and discuss the performance-based approach applied in the Project.

Other Upcoming Activities

• HIV/AIDS Vulnerability and Risk Reduction among Ethnic Minority Groups Through Communication Strategies in the GMS (RETA 6247), Midterm Review Workshop, 21 November 2006, Vientiane, Lao PDR



• Poverty Reduction in Upland Communities in the Mekong Region through Improved Community and Industrial Forestry (RETA 6115), Final Regional Workshop, November 27-28, Bangkok, Thailand



• Participatory Poverty Study of the Tonle Sap Basin (CAM TA 4283), Final Workshop, November 28-29, Cambodia



• Poverty Reduction in Coal Mine Areas in Shanxi Province (PRC TA 4566), Final Workshop, November 2006 [date to be determined], PRC



• Legal Identity for Social Inclusion (RETA 6188), Final Regional Workshop, 6 December 2006, Phnom Penh, Cambodia



• Using Enhanced Methodology for Participatory Assessment for Equitable and Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation (RETA 6224), Final Regional Workshop, January 2007 [date to be determined], ADB Headquarters, Philippines



• Pilot Project on Institutionalizing Civil Society Participation to Create Local Pro-Poor Budgets (RETA 6170), Publication Launch, January 2007 [date to be determined], ADB Headquarters, Philippines

E-Learning toolkits to boost public service delivery in Asia

Two e-learning toolkits - Citizen Report Card (CRC) methodology and the Continuous Improvement and Benchmarking (CIB) - were produced for citizens' use with financial support from ADB (through a technical assistance funded from the PRF) and the Asian Development Bank Institute and launched in July 2006 to improve transparency and accountability in the delivery of public services in Asia. The e-learning toolkits contain self-paced learning modules that enable users to develop the basic competencies to successfully apply CRC methodology and CIB techniques.

Participatory Poverty Assessment in Mongolia This report aims to help understand the qualitative aspects of poverty from the point of view of the poor, toward a better understanding of how to design programs to reduce it. The study was funded by the NPRS.

Central Asian Republics: Gender Assessment Synthesis Report This report is a synthesis of the country gender assessments prepared under a regional technical assistance funded by the NPRS. Country-specific gender assessments were prepared for Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan.

Social Protection Index for Committed Poverty Reduction This publication intends to present the outcome of the studies under the regional technical assistance (RETA) funded by the NPRS and PRF, and to initiate discussion about the methodology. The publication has seven sections: one section for each country covered by the RETA describing their respective social protection activities, and one multicountry section comparing the results of the country studies and deriving the social protection index.

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