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p. 4 of 25 BACK | NEXT Introduction Background Evolution of resident missions Current responsibilities and functions Current organization, staffing, and costs Achievements and constraints The need for change Practices of other multilateral development banks Policy framework Organizational and resource issues Recommendation

Resident Mission Policy : Background

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Current responsibilities and functions

Historically RMs were established in the context of project administration, and the functions formally assigned to them reflect this. In Board papers, the functions are classified as (i) activities assigned to the RM and (ii) items of work that are handled from headquarters, supported and/or facilitated by the RM. Item (i) includes delegated authority to sign loan and project and technical assistance (TA) agreements, project implementation functions, and internal administrative functions. Item (ii) comprises support tasks for economic and sector work, country programming, project processing, aid coordination, and cofinancing. In this approach, the RM facilitation role by definition relegates RMs to supporting headquarters-managed activities. Initially, they were assigned only to monitor projects. Their role expanded as projects were delegated to them for administration, but this was only recently formalized.

As with the policy for establishing RMs, this approach to defining the RM responsibilities has outlived its relevance. The activities actually performed by most RMs today are much broader than those assigned in their operational manuals. Recognizing this, there have been several efforts to review RM functions and to prioritize their activities. Participants in the annual RM consultations in 1997 and 1998 considered that the primary functions of RMs were (i) loan and TA administration, (ii) aid coordination, (iii) government liaison, (iv) information dissemination, and (v) nongovernment organization coordination. These remain valid, but should be updated and expanded in the context of ADB’s strategic reorientation.

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