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Disaster and Emergency Assistance Policy

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Conclusion

126. The growing importance of emergencies in the Asia and Pacific region has resulted in new demands for greater efficiency and effectiveness in providing urgently needed assistance. Therefore, ADB will merge its existing emergency policies (rehabilitation assistance) into a single, expanded, comprehensive disaster and emergency assistance policy to enhance its institutional capacity to act quickly, flexibly, and responsibly. Reviews of ADB emergency policy and lending over the past decade have identified the following key gaps and limitations: (i) the failure to fully address such critical issues as sustainable livelihoods, weak governance, transitional safety-net provision, institutional capacity, and human and social capital depletion; (ii) the need to place greater emphasis on early warning, prevention, mitigation, and preparedness; (iii) the inadequacy of financing; and (iv) the dispersed and ad hoc organizational response to emergency assistance.

127. If it is to achieve its overarching goal of poverty reduction, ADB must address these shortcomings. Strategic intervention in emergency preparedness and response will be in line with the prevention, transition, and recovery phases of natural and non-natural disasters. ADB will focus on protective strategies that help save lives and protect property and resources before they are lost rather than waiting for an emergency to occur.

128. To develop its comprehensive approach to emergencies, ADB will promote the following analytical assessments in partnership with relevant shareholders and agencies: (i) risk and vulnerability assessments, as relevant, to complement ADB’s environmental and social assessments; (ii) watching briefs to maintain ADB’s knowledge of social and economic trends in a country even during periods of inactivity in that particular country; and (iii) damage and needs assessments undertaken as priority actions after an emergency and conducted in partnership with relevant shareholders and key local actors to provide the basis for preparing an RRP and/or an IOS, as appropriate.

129. To enhance its emergency assistance, ADB will adopt the following instruments as part of its emergency assistance package: (i) the use of portfolio restructuring in disaster-affected DMCs within and across sectors; (ii) the introduction of EALs needs to specially explain new terms and conditions as rapidly approved short-term, small loans to help rebuild high-priority physical assets and restore economic, social, and governance activities after emergencies, to be used exclusively for the prompt restoration of critical services to the population and not to address medium- to long-term economic rehabilitation investments or sector or institutional problems unrelated to the emergency;⁵⁷ (iii) a shift to normal lending to follow on the heels of the transitional emergency financing, in particular, to address medium- to long-term comprehensive reconstruction, prevention, and mitigation requirements; and (iv) TA for disaster and emergency to provide support to address immediate short-term requirements in the wake of a natural disaster or in a post-conflict situation and to enhance the EAL’s reach and impact.

130. To effectively apply and use the proposed analytical assessments and assistance instruments, ADB will enhance its business processes for emergency assistance as follows: (i) ADB operational policies should be liberally interpreted to ensure speedy and effective rehabilitation; (ii) appropriate financial and economic internal rates of return will be flexibly used with the emphasis on least-cost, high-impact, and rapid solutions not prejudicial to quality assurance in rehabilitation or reconstruction work; (iii) efforts will be made to shorten project processing time; and (iv) ADB will communicate and consult systematically with affected communities and coordinate its support with that of other agencies and shareholders to enhance the impact of its emergency assistance. Regional departments are responsible for policy implementation. An anchor for emergency assistance will guide and coordinate these efforts.

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