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p. 4 of 8 BACK | NEXT I. Introduction II. Background Information III. Operational Assessment A. NARO's Utility and Operational Effectiveness for the Bank B. NARO's Usefulness from the Perspective of its Constituencies C. Ongoing Efforts to Improve Effectiveness and Minimize Costs IV. Benefits and Costs V. Conclusions

A Review of North American Representative Office : III. Operational Assessment

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A. NARO's Utility and Operational Effectiveness for the Bank

1. General

5. NARO has provided the Bank with the ability to regularly interact with key decision-makers in Canada and the us to better inform them about the Bank's activities. NARC has helped raise the profile of the Bank with key interest groups and to a lesser degree with the public at large. NARO has contributed to educating the North American constituencies about Bank operations and its developing member countries (DMCs). A physical presence in North America has also facilitated development of working relationships with a wider range of interest groups; this in turn has improved the depth, quality, and timeliness of information flows. And NARO's presence has sent a message to the constituencies that the Bank is committed to jnteraction with interest groups and individuals.

6. Prior to NARO's establishment, constituency information came to the Bank through the news media, third party sources, and missions visiting North America. In many instances, information received by the Bank was of limited value as it was out of date, incorrect, incomplete, too general, poorly focused, and/or lacking authority. NARO has helped to rectify these information problems by proactively serving as the Bank's eyes and ears. With a broad contact network and through relationships that have evolved over time, NARO has improved the timeliness and quality of the information reaching the Bank (see Appendix 3 for a partial listing of NARO's contacts). This has provided the Bank with more time to evaluate, plan for, and respond to issues of importance. In addition, information that the Bank requires can now be obtained and analyzed by NARO and Headquarters at a level and depth that was previously not possible. This has further improved the Bank's ability to evaluate, plan, and respond.

2. Resource Mobilization

7. During NARO's first two years of operation, resource mobilization figured prominently in its work program. The seventh Asian Development Fund (ADF VII) negotiations concluded on 17 January 1997. NARO contributed to this successful outcome in a number of ways as was envisioned in the TOR. It served as a conduit for the resource mobilization effort; monitoring developments with Canadian and US government officials¹ , articulating the Bank's position on ADF issues when requested, and feeding information back to the Bank on developments likely to influence ADF VII negotiations. In the US, NARO also played an important representative role for the Bank through regular contacts with the staff of influential House and Senate committees. For ADF VI, NARO contributed to the Bank's resource mobilization effort by monitoring and following up on the payment of the US arrears. The frequency of discussions and access achieved by NARO would not have been possible for visiting Headquarters' missions. While it is not possible to isolate NARO's resource mobilization impact from that of Headquarters, one outcome indicates that NARO may have provided a valuable contribution-the amount of the US burden-shared ADF VII pledge was larger than announced during the early stages of negotiations.

3. Activities in Canada

8. NARO has devoted considerable attention to developing an outreach program in Canada. The range of engagement achieved would not have been possible if the Bank had relied on missions from Headquarters. During its first two years of operation, NARO visited all of the major cities in Canada's 12 provinces and territories at least once-the Bank is the first regional multilateral financial institution (MFI) to take this initiative. Missions were structured around meeting a cross-section of interest groups in each city, including academia, business associations, development NGOs, government officials, and research organizations. Wherever possible, speaking vents were arranged in advance with business associations, research organizations, and universities to reach the maximum audience possible. Missions were also built around events organized by third parties; these offered opportunities to engage large and/or diverse audiences, for example,

• forums in Edmonton and Vancouver, organized by the Halifax Initiative, to discuss the MFls in the 21st century-the audience consisted primarily of development NGOs, academics, students, and concerned citizens;
• four one-day seminars in Atlantic Canada, organized by government agencies as a follow-up to an Asian trade mission and as part of Canada's Year of Asia Pacific, to inform small- and medium-sized businesses about Bank operations and policies;
• a panel discussion in Ottawa, organized by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) as part of its two-day series of events for its International Development Days, to discuss Emerging Asia and the Asian Development Bank;
• a presentation in Montreal, organized by the Canadian Government as part of he 16th Meeting of the APEC Human Development Working Group, on the role and activities of the Bank in the area of human resource development in the Asia-Pacific; and
• representation of the Bank at the conference on and signing of the Treaty on land mines in Ottawa.

9. In Washington, NARO has made presentations and become a regular participant at quarterly luncheon meetings organized (originally) by the Canadian Embassy to establish contacts with World Bank staff. This provided NARO with opportunities to interact with the Canadian expatriate community, meet with visiting delegations, and expand links with Canada-based interest groups and the MFls.

4. Activities in the United States

10. In the US, NARO also structured its activities around an outreach program. Because of staff constraints coupled with the priority assigned to resource mobilization, coverage focused, f r the most part, on Washington. This has not significantly impacted NARO's ability to interact with American interest groups as Washington, being the federal capital, is the headquarters of many important business associations, development NGOs, and research organizations. Rather, it has provided opportunities to build close working relationships with these key interest groups. These include, for example, the US Treasury Department; the National Foreign Trade Council, which is an advocate for US participation in the MFls; the US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Business Council; the Bank Information Center, a development NGC that monitors the activities of the MFls; and key congressional staff.

11. Being located in Washington has provided the Bank with opportunities to work much more closely with interest groups on specific tasks. For example, NARO actively participated in the preparation of a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, co-chaired by Senator Bill Bradley and Congressman John Kaisich, on The Role of the United States in Multilateral Development Banks. With Headquarters' support, NARO supplied the Center with background information on the Bank's strategy, policies, and operations. This was followed by NARO's attendance at more than a dozen meetings to explain the Bank and its achievements to a select audience drawn from a cross-section of the political, government, business, and international development community. NARO also provided background material and support to the Congressional Research Service, an arm of the US Congress, during the preparation of another study on the MFls.

12. NARO has established good working relations with the development NGO community in Washington by promoting interaction and information flows. Concerted efforts were made by NARO to ensure that the community was aware of ongoing policy developments and that questions relating to policy and/or project concerns were promptly answered. A subject requiring special attention and explanation was the Bank's inspection function given the differences in policy and implementation arrangements that exist between the Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), and the World Bank (WB). These interactions, requiring the support of Headquarters, have helped keep the development NGO community informed about the Bank's activities and have promoted an open, transparent relationship with the Washington-based development NGOs.

13. Coupled with NARO's speaking engagement with groups like the Bankers Association for Foreign Trade, the US-ASEAN Business Council, and at a conference on Environment in the Market Place organized by the US Department of Commerce, NARO initiated informal briefings for interest groups, using staff visiting Washington as resource speakers, to enhance awareness and understanding of the Bank's operations and policies. To date, 12 briefings have been arranged: six with the development NGC community covering issues relating to environment, energy, gender, NGOs, and the inspection function; three with the business community covering the Bank in general, operations in the Peoples' Republic of China, and the private sector; and three with staff of the US Treasury and State departments to discuss the Bank's operations in the DMCs. NARO's leveraging of staff resources has provided the Bank with opportunities to discuss issues of concern with interest groups in more depth and detail than possible by NARO staff alone.

14. Away from Washington, NARO's outreach program has mainly focused on academia and business associations. Visits were made to universities in Arizona, California, New York, and Pennsylvania to meet with senior faculty members on development issues in Asia; participate in panel discussions; and/or conduct seminars on issues of concern to the faculty and students. The seminar at Columbia University focused on the importance of sustainable development and the seminar at the University of California focused on the role of multilateralism in Asian economic development. Concurrently, on these missions meetings were arranged with business associations to discuss the Bank's activities and policies. NARO also visited a number of US cities for discussions with state officials on Bank operations, most recently in North Carolina and Maryland.

5. Interaction with the MFIs and UN

15. NARO is located on the ninth floor of a commercial building situated at 1730 Pennsylvania Avenue. The office is approximately 50 meters from the WB's headquarters and within 500 meters of the headquarters of the IADB, International Finance Corporation, and International Monetary Fund (IMF). This close proximity to the Washington-based MFls has facilitated coordination efforts for NARO and simplified the work of visiting Bank staff who use NARO as a communications center and a staging point when meeting with the MFls.

16. NARO's interaction with the MFls has been driven primarily by the requirements of Headquarters. Interaction has focused on areas where the Bank lacks contacts given the direct Bank/MFI working relationships that exist in many areas, for example, between operational, financial policy, and strategic planning counterparts. Through its network of informal MFI contact points, NARO has demonstrated value in its ability to respond to coordination and information requests originating from Headquarters that require a local presence. For example, NARO has been effective in

• facilitating coordination with IMF and WB in activities connected with currency crisis issues in Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, and Thailand;
• sourcing information required on an urgent basis, for example, how IADB responded to the Mexican debt crisis;
• acting as a liaison for Management with other MFls; and
• obtaining background information and draft versions of policy papers where the MFI counterpart relationships are weak or do not exist.

NARO has also demonstrated value through its ability to monitor and report on developments within the MFls on which the Bank has limited information, for example, the joint IMF/WB Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative.

17. NARO's interaction with the UN has also been driven by the requirements of Headquarters, which, when compared to the MFls, have been minimal. This is due in part to differences in Bank/UN mandates, operations, and practices. However, NARO has maintained contact with the Washington office of the United Nations Development Programme and has visited UN headquarters in New York on two occasions.

6. Other Considerations

18. NARO has contributed to improving the operational effectiveness of the Bank in a number of ways that were not originally anticipated. Specifically, NARO

• facilitated attendance of 200 key policy makers at the Emerging Asia seminar held in Washington 29 October 1997; this seminar attracted senior US Government officials, drew a large audience, and generated good media coverage;
• supported commercial cofinancing operations in North America by assisting the Office of Cofinancing Operations arrange a mission to Washington, New York, and North Carolina; the office facilitated contacts with the US Export- Import Bank as well as with second-tier banks possibly interested in cofinancing opportunities with the Bank;
• supported media operations by making a presentation to the Foreign Press Section of the National Press Club in Washington, attending the Washington Roundtable for the Asia-Pacific Press, providing several interviews to journalists, and responding to requests for background information;
• coordinated arrangements for congressional staff to meet with senior Bank staff during trips to two DMCs;
• arranged for the Bank Information Center to visit Headquarters for briefings with staff on policies and operations that are of interest to development NGOs; and
• contributed to briefings and other arrangements when the President visited Washington.

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