Home 
Publications Online Publications Document
The Mission
Poverty is an unacceptable human condition. It is not immutable; public policy and action can, and must, eliminate poverty. This is what development is all about. Close to 900 million of the world's poor (i.e., those who survive on less than $1 a day) live in the Asian and Pacific region (Appendix1). Nearly one in three Asians is poor. Although the proportion of people below the poverty line had been declining, the trends in poverty reduction have recently worsened. Population growth is also adding to the absolute number of poor. South Asia, one of the poorest subregions in the world, now has more than half a billion poor people, of whom 450 million are in India. The People's Republic of China has 225 million poor, and about 55 million more are in Southeast Asia, (where in the wake of the Asian crisis, over 10 million have joined the ranks of the poor). Many people in the Central Asian republics have slipped into poverty with the economic disruptions of transition. The small island countries of the Pacific, despite their relatively higher per capita income, remain vulnerable because they are remote, prone to natural disasters, and have limited ability to deal with external economic shocks. Until recently, trends in poverty reduction in the region had been positive, especially in East and Southeast Asia. However, since the Asian financial crisis in 1997, declines in gross domestic product of the economies worst affected, and carry-over effects in other countries, have stalled progress. Absolute poverty has increased in the crisis-affected countries, and the poor (and particularly their children) have suffered the most. More ominously, the social consequences of the crisis are likely to be felt long after these economies return to solid growth. As an institution whose purpose is the economic development of the region, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has always been concerned with poverty reduction. Beginning with a focus on economic growth, ADB has progressively expanded its approach to encompass a wide range of social and environmental concerns. The experience gained in this process by ADB and its members has given rise to confidence unthinkable even a decade ago: that absolute poverty can be eradicated. This realization, and the knowledge that development continues to bypass so many people in the region, calls for an even sharper focus of our efforts. These considerations drive ADB to make elimination of poverty its principal raison d'être. ADB supports the International Development Targets established at a series of world summit meetings in the 1990s (e.g., reducing by half the proportion of people in extreme poverty). In November 1997, Asian and Pacific ministers agreed to accelerate implementation of the Agenda for Action on Social Development in the regional members of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The agenda's targets (e.g., eradicating absolute poverty in the region by 2010) set clear directions for governments and the international community (Appendix 1). However, these targets need review in the light of the Asian crisis. ADB will work with members to develop credible regional targets for poverty reduction. Because the vision is an Asian and Pacific region free of poverty, ADB has a clear and single-minded mission. Reduction of poverty is no longer just one of five objectives, it is ADB's overarching goal. To this end, the other strategic objectives (i.e., economic growth, human development, sound environmental management, and improving the status of women) will be pursued in ways that contribute most effectively to poverty reduction. The fundamental shift will affect every aspect and level of ADB's operations. This strategy paper sets out the ways in which these changes will be implemented. In attacking poverty, ADB builds on the region's success over the last three decades. While this success has varied between and within individual countries, the region overall has dramatically changed. In the early 1970s, more than half the population of the region was poor, average life expectancy was 48 years, and only 40 percent of the adult population was literate. Today, the percentage of poor people has decreased to nearly one third of the population, life expectancy has increased to 65 years, and 70 percent of the adults are literate. Despite an increase in total population from 1.8 billion to 3.0 billion, the number of poor people has fallen slightly from over 1 billion to under 900 million. ADB has contributed to these achievements. It has financed investments and policy reforms aimed at promoting growth and employment and, especially in the 1990s, focused on human development, gender equity, and environmental protection. In addition, ADB has supported projects that directly target the poor (e.g., for basic education, nutrition, health, and family planning services) or establish mechanisms to protect vulnerable groups (including the disabled). It has promoted research on poverty issues, led sector-focused policy dialogue on the causes and impact of poverty, and strengthened institutional capacity in government agencies. Over the years, ADB has learned much about how to address the various dimensions of poverty. For example, in the health sector, instead of merely funding equipment and civil works, ADB now invests more in training and management systems. And increasingly, emphasis is given to consulting with beneficiaries. However, much more needs to be done to involve stakeholders in project design and implementation. When trying to improve the status of women, ADB has found its interventions to be insufficiently effective because project design assumed institutional capacity that did not, in fact, exist. The paucity of female staff in project entities was often overlooked; likewise, the difficulty of recruiting or retaining women staff in rural areas in the absence of women-friendly facilities (e.g., housing, travel, security). Now, projects pertaining to women are designed with these problems in mind. In microfinance, which is a powerful means of poverty reduction, ADB's earlier reliance on subsidized credit has given way to the realization that the poor were not always the actual beneficiaries. The emphasis now is on working with nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and private sector institutions to improve outreach and delivery of microfinance services. In helping to reduce poverty in the region, ADB draws on strengths that equip it uniquely for the task. These include the exclusive focus on Asia and the Pacific; regional location; and majority shareholding of regional members (and, hence, greater ownership by them of ADB's strategic orientation). At the same time, the participation of nonregional members ensures that global perspectives are brought to bear on regional development issues. ADB undertakes grant-financed technical assistance, public sector lending, and private sector operations under a single roof, and can take advantage of synergies that result. ADB's well-defined policy on governance issues and its success in promoting subregional cooperation are of growing relevance in the fight against poverty. ADB's response to the Asian crisis, in particular measures to mitigate the impacts on the poor, also demonstrated the institution's ability to effectively address questions of social protection. While the primary responsibility for poverty reduction rests with countries themselves, as the region's premier development institution, ADB can be a powerful ally of borrowing members in their war against poverty. ADB's intellectual and financial contributions can play a crucial catalytic role in reinforcing national efforts to reduce poverty. ADB therefore rededicates itself to the eradication of poverty in the region. The Poverty Reduction Strategy embodies ADB's commitment to this massive task.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
RSS Feeds
Back
Top of page