Strategy 2020

Frequently Asked Questions

Why was ADB’s Long-Term Strategic Framework (LTSF) reviewed?

The Asia and Pacific region is changing dramatically and ADB must also undergo change to align itself to the region’s new needs and demands. During the review of the implementation of the first medium-term strategic framework (MTS I) and preparation of the second MTS (MTS II), it was recognized that many factors not envisioned at the time of LTSF formulation in 1999 have emerged as driving forces of change in the region. ADB was in need of a new strategy to guide the organization toward a new Asia in 2020.

What is Strategy 2020?

Strategy 2020 is ADB’s new Long-Term Strategic Framework covering the period from 2008 to 2020. It is ADB’s paramount strategic document that lays out clear and consistent strategic directions and provides the framework for the planning and financing of its operations, organization, and business processes.

How was Strategy 2020 prepared?

To start the process, a panel of eminent persons was convened in June 2006 to provide insights into the region’s future and how it will affect the future role of ADB. The panel’s views were shared with ADB stakeholders in the form of a report and discussed at the Governors Seminar in ADB’s 40th Annual Meeting in May 2007 in Kyoto, Japan.

Following the Kyoto Annual Meeting, ADB underwent wide and extensive consultations with its 67 member countries, including government officials, civil society and the private sector, utilizing the panel’s report as the basis for discussion. Also, analytical work completed in-house on such subjects as: achieving inclusive growth, infrastructure needs of the region, and energy and environment, were used to prepare Strategy 2020.

What is the objective of Strategy 2020?

The objective of Strategy 2020 is to clearly establish ADB’s role and strategic directions for 2008 to 2020 and guide ADB’s operational and institutional transformation in order to enhance its relevance and effectiveness in rendering development assistance to its developing member countries (DMCs).

What are ADB’s vision and mission under Strategy 2020?

ADB’s corporate vision under Strategy 2020 will continue to be “An Asia and Pacific Region Free of Poverty” and its mission to help its DMCs reduce poverty and improve living conditions and quality of life. ADB is committed to ending poverty in the region. Poverty reduction has been ADB’s overarching goal since 1999 and an important feature of its planning and operations since its establishment. Consultation with stakeholders confirmed once again that ending poverty is ADB’s—and the region’s—most important piece of unfinished business.

How will ADB achieve its vision?

ADB can make substantive contributions toward its vision by focusing its support on three distinct but complementary development agendas of the region: inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Reducing poverty requires inclusive growth where more people become economically productive citizens and share in a society’s growing well-being. The ability to achieve and to sustain poverty reduction depends on well-managed natural environment. Further, ADB believes that the process of ending poverty in the region can be accelerated when neighboring economies work within larger and freer markets and when governments achieve common interests through common efforts through regional cooperation.

How will ADB position itself under Strategy 2020?

ADB will position itself more strategically as a partner and agent for change by promoting private sector development, good governance, gender equity, knowledge solutions, and partnerships, identified under Strategy 2020 as the region’s five key drivers of change. Each driver provides an opportunity for ADB to act more as an agent of change by stimulating growth and synergizing broader development assistance, and to be a more active and better development partner.

What operational changes can we expect under Strategy 2020?

Some key features of operational changes include

• expanding the scope of ADB’s partnerships
• promoting knowledge solutions
• accelerating private sector development
• becoming operationally selective and focused

ADB will expand the scope of its partnership and will be open to a new range of future partnership activities that can deliver aid effectively, improve development results, and improve disaster and emergency assistance. Underpinning these partnerships are likely to be the promotion of new assistance modes, greater use of DMCs’ technical and managerial skills, and closer collaboration with the private sector in project cofinancing and use of market-based investment instruments.

ADB’s knowledge services will address its clients’ immediate knowledge needs, while determining and passing on best practices. ADB will support pilot projects from which it will distill and disseminate lessons. ADB will distribute knowledge in ways that have both an immediate impact and catalytic force—for example, the knowledge of how a DMC can approach public–private partnerships to provide social services and to achieve benefits for the poor.

In support of private sector development, ADB will assume greater—but thoroughly assessed—risks and act as a catalyst for investments that the private sector might not otherwise be willing to make. It will do more to help DMCs attract direct private sector investments that support inclusive growth and improve the environment. ADB’s tools to catalyze change through greater private investments in DMCs will include direct financing, credit enhancements, risk mitigation guarantees, and innovative new financial instruments.

ADB will become more selective and focused in its operation on the understanding that ADB cannot and will not attempt to meet all needs of all DMCs. To maximize results, efficiency, and impact, ADB will employ its financial and institutional resources in five core areas: infrastructure, environment, regional cooperation and integration, finance sector development, and education. These areas are also tightly linked to ADB's three strategic development agendas of achieving inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration.

What institutional changes can we expect under Strategy 2020?

ADB’s Management is committed to establishing and sustaining institutional systems and competencies necessary for effective implementation of Strategy 2020. In its initial phase, Management intends to focus on putting four fundamental facets of ADB's institutional transformation into action:

• improving coherence in corporate strategies and policies
• enhancing human resources and skills mix
• improving organizational structure
• increasing corporate responsiveness through streamlined business processes

How can ADB’s operations be selective and focused and still be responsive to DMC needs?

Under Strategy 2020, ADB will ensure that selectivity and responsiveness work in tandem, allowing ADB to provide its DMC with the most relevant products and services in the region’s pursuit of national and regional development. In the process of partnership strategies with DMC governments, ADB will determine the correct mix of its products and services. For issues within its core operational priorities, ADB will seek to encourage cooperative action and to help establish partnership programs.

What is a corporate level results framework and how will it be used?

In light of Strategy 2020’s shift toward coherent and efficient reporting, as well as a focus on cohesive institutional strategies and policies, ADB has developed a structure of a corporate-level results framework with preliminary indicators to monitor and report on its total effectiveness. This results framework will track progress in long-term collective development outcomes, as well as in specific activities and outputs in relation to achieving ADB’s strategic priorities.

To be more effective in achieving development within the region, ADB must be able to monitor and evaluate its work in a measurable way and to take appropriate actions based on results. Management will use the results framework to examine specific but wide-ranging indicators in line with Strategy 2020’s vision and strategic direction to monitor progress, measure results, and take corrective actions where required.

Does Strategy 2020 have any set goals?

Strategy 2020 has both operational and institutional goals. For instance, ADB’s lending portfolio is set to change. By 2012, 80% of all lending operations will be in five core operational areas where ADB has comparative strength: infrastructure, environment, regional cooperation and integration, finance sector development, and education. By 2020, at least 30% our lending will be for regional projects, and 50% for private sector development and private sector operations.