Catalog

	Table of Contents
p. 7 of 26 BACK | NEXT I. Introduction II. Changes in Development Environment and Agenda III. Themes for Organizational Effectiveness IV. Objective and Principles of Organizational Change V. Analysis of Options VI. Main Features of Organizational Change A. New Geographic Regions B. Enhancing Country Focus: New Regional Departments C. Function and Structure of Regional Departments D. Establishment of a new Regional and Sustainable Development Department E. Role and Responsibilities of Vice Presidents F. Establishment of a Management Committee G. Strategy and Policy Department H. Upgrading the Private Sector Group to a Private Sector Operations Department I. Office of External Relations J. Economics and Research Department K. Office of the Secretary / Office of the General Counsel L. Knowledge Management M. Project Administration and Portfolio Management N. Risk Management O. Checks and Balances VII. Complementary Changes VIII. Challenges and Responses IX. Budget Implications and Implementation Plan X. Conclusions XI. Recommendations

Reorganization of the Asian Development Bank : VI. Main Features of Organizational Change

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A. New Geographic Regions

41. The core of the proposed reorganization is to unify accountability for all ADB services to a DMC under one regional department each for a defined geographic area. All DMCs will be grouped into five geographically contiguous areas.

42. A range of criteria has been applied in considering the appropriate number of regions. These include enhancing country focus, preserving sectoral strength and expertise, operational efficiency, managerial requirements and strengthening subregional cooperation. A larger number of regions will strengthen country focus, but risk fragmenting sectoral expertise, require more staff resources, and complicate subregional cooperation. Having fewer regions will have the opposite effect. The proposal for five regions strikes the most reasonable balance between these trade-offs.

43. The geographic areas included in the five regions have been identified on the basis of a number of considerations such as geographic proximity, similarity in social and cultural background and features, similarity in economic and social systems, stage of development, operational convenience, scope for subregional cooperation and linkages with existing subregional groups, and least disruption to ADB operations.

44. The identified groupings are East and Central Asia, the Mekong, the Pacific, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.¹¹ The merits of this grouping are that

1. South Asia forms a coherent group and the prospects of ADB playing an active role in subregional cooperation are maintained;

2. the growing cooperation between PRC and Central Asia is recognized;¹²

3. the Mekong sub-region, which is a recognized subset of ASEAN, and a successful grouping for regional cooperation, remains together;

4. the Pacific, which is working well, is left undisturbed;

5. since these groupings are close to present arrangements, the disruption to ADB operations will be less than in any other configuration; and

6. for the same reason, loss of institutional memory will be less than in other configurations.

45. South Asia and the Mekong region will report to one operational Vice President, and East and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific to the other. In terms of workload and span of control of staff, these are broadly balanced. There will be two regional departments responsible for ASEAN countries: the Mekong and Southeast Asia departments. As these will report to different operational Vice Presidents, all possible steps will be taken to ensure adequate coordination of ADB operations between them.

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