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p. 5 of 21 BACK | NEXT Operational Priorities and Performance Toward the Millennium Development Goals ADB's policy framework for reducing poverty Thematic priorities Social Development, Gender, and Social Protection Environment Governance and Capacity Building Private Sector Development Financial Management Nongovernment Organizations and Civil Society Economics Sector priorities

Annual Report 2002 : Operational Priorities and Performance : Thematic priorities

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Social development, gender, and social protection

Poverty can be reduced only when programs promote socially inclusive development. This means supporting the disadvantaged and vulnerable members of society by providing them with access to basic services such as education and health care, creating opportunities for their economic empowerment, and giving them a voice in decisions affecting their lives. In the Asia and Pacific region, supporting the poor and most vulnerable groups means removing gender disparities; improving the lives of indigenous peoples in remote communities; and providing social protection to marginalized and disadvantaged groups against illnesses, natural disasters, and civil conflicts.

Within the reorganized ADB, four networks—gender and development, social protection, participatory development, and involuntary resettlement—promote inclusive social development. The Social Development, Gender, and Social Protection Committee serves as an anchor to the networks.

Gender and development: ADB’s commitment to the internationally endorsed MDGs underscored its objective of addressing gender issues and reducing the gender gap. The commitment also placed renewed emphasis on the need for ADB to promote gender equity if ADB is to realize its vision of a region free of poverty.

Several activities in 2002 bolstered ADB’s efforts to promote gender equity, and others provided evidence of ADB’s commitment (see Box on the left). An interim progress report on the implementation of the 1998 Gender and Development Policy, submitted to the Board of Directors in 2002, noted the progress achieved in addressing gender equity in ADB’s portfolio of activities (see http://www.adb.org/Documents/Reports/Gender/in317_02.pdf). The reports also identified further improvements and actions, particularly the need to increase the number of loans directed toward gender equity objectives (see Box below).

ADB’s External Forum on Gender (EFG), established in 2001, held two sessions in 2002 and conducted two in-house seminars for staff on Gender and Postconflict Reconstruction and Gender, Macroeconomics, and Trade (see http://www.adb.org/Gender/forum.asp). The EFG consists of experts on gender and development and women’s rights from several ADB members, representing various disciplines and perspectives. As an external group, the EFG provides ADB with opportunities to tap into current thinking on gender issues and to dialogue on emerging gender concerns in the region.

For more on gender and development, see http://www.adb.org/Gender/.

Social protection: A progress report on the implementation of the Social Protection Strategy (see http://www.adb.org/SocialProtection/strat.asp)—submitted to the Board of Directors in 2002—indicated that a significant number of ADB loans have been designed to address social protection concerns. Several loans have aimed to help eliminate labor standard violations, and have focused on improving living conditions of former bonded laborers, reducing child labor by retaining children in school, and promoting occupational health and safety in the workplace (see Box below).

In addition, ADB held several social protection workshops and training seminars in 2002. A regional workshop focused on the role of labor standards—particularly those related to child labor, occupational health and safety, and gender discrimination in the workplace—in broad-based development. The Regional Workshop on Disability and Development looked at rehabilitation strategies to maximize the functional capabilities of physically challenged persons, inclusion and empowerment strategies to facilitate their active participation in communities and economies, architectural and design strategies to remove and prevent physical barriers, supporting and engaging in constructive arrangements with physically challenged persons’ organizations, and formulating strategies that provide cost-effective tech- nologies to assist the physically challenged (see http://www.adb.org/Documents/Events/2002/Disability_Development/).

ADB’s policy framework on good governance, gender and development, and social protection, and its practice of encouraging public consultation and community participation provide the mandate and the instruments to engage more effectively in combating trafficking. ADB’s partnerships with various organizations, including the International Organization for Migration, the International Labour Organization, and many bilateral agencies and nongovernment organizations, are also helping address key elements of the challenge (see boxes on page 6 and below).

Also in 2002, ADB’s social protection network was established and a social protection web site (see http://www.adb.org/SocialProtection/) was launched.

Participatory development: ADB saw progress in 2002 in its efforts to engage stakeholders in participatory decision-making processes, by enhancing the degree of horizontal communication, learning, and team-based problem solving. ADB emphasized participatory development in the reorganization and new business processes and in several workshops and functions involving staff members from the resident missions and headquarters. Staff members benefited from “just-in-time” training on projects being prepared by project and country teams (see Glossary). Awareness of the participatory process was enhanced with a special edition of ADB’s newsmagazine, ADB Review, which featured case studies and essays on social capital and participation in governance (see http://www.adb.org/Documents/Periodicals/ADB_Review/2002/vol34_2/), and an essay on the various modalities of participation.

ADB completed its evaluation of the second regional technical assistance on Capacity Building and Participatory Activities in 2002, which showed the importance of employing participatory approaches not only during project planning but also throughout project implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

Indigenous peoples: ADB continued to strengthen the implementation of its 1998 Policy on Indigenous Peoples (see http://www.adb.org/Documents/Policies/Indigenous_Peoples/) by monitoring ADB’s project compliance with this safeguard policy (see page 43). Twenty-seven of the 82 projects (33%) reviewed involved indigenous peoples, of which 3 projects required indigenous peoples development plans, 7 required indigenous peoples development frameworks, and 17 required specific actions. ADB also provided training for project implementers in DMCs to strengthen their capacity to address indigenous peoples issues.

In 2002, ADB participated in local and global discussions on safeguarding the interests of indigenous peoples and published several monographs and books dealing with issues related to indigenous peoples/ethnic minorities and poverty reduction (see http://www.adb.org/Documents/Reports/Indigenous_Peoples/). ADB also took part in an international conference to review the European Union’s Policy on Indigenous Peoples and in the International Policy Dialogue organized by the German Foundation for International Development. In Cambodia, ADB was involved in a discussion of the Government’s draft general policy guidelines for development of highland peoples.

Involuntary resettlement: ADB reviewed the compliance (see page 43) of loans processed in 2002 with its 1995 Policy on Involuntary Resettlement (see http://www.adb.org/Documents/Policies/Involuntary_Resettlement). The review encouraged early screening of projects to assess trade-offs, manage risks, and set standards for resettlement planning and implementation. Thirty-three of the 82 projects (40%) reviewed were found to have involuntary resettlement (IR) impacts that required resettlement plans, resettlement frameworks, or both. Of the 33 projects, 21 had significant IR impacts, 9 had insignificant impacts, and 3 projects required resettlement frameworks.

In 2002, ADB assisted DMCs in developing national resettlement policies and helped build the capacity of executing agencies in implementing social safeguards and resettlement management. ADB held a Regional Workshop on National Resettlement Policy Enhancement and Capacity Building in February 2002 to discuss national resettlement standards and issues on resettlement planning and implementations (see http://www.adb.org/Documents/Events/2002/RETA5935). Government agencies, civil society including NGOs, funding agencies, and multilateral financial institutions from 11 countries attended the workshop. ADB also implemented country-specific technical assistance to enhance national resettlement policy standards in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam (see http://www.adb.org/resettlement/activities.asp) and expanded its web site on resettlement (see http://www.adb.org/resettlement).

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