Poverty Reduction

Capacity Development
Building national ownership in poverty reduction

Effective poverty reduction requires capacities to formulate poverty reduction programs at the national and decentralized as well as sector levels.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aim for timebound measurable results on poverty reduction for the country. Accelerating sustainable capacity development is increasingly being seen as a major need and challenge.

With the adoption of the Enhanced Poverty Reduction Strategy in 2004, ADB elevated capacity development to a thematic priority supporting country leadership and ownership in the process of capacity development for poverty reduction.

To this end, ADB supports - among others - processes of poverty oriented country strategy formulation, poverty assessments and statistics, decentralized and sector poverty orientation, and regional knowledge sharing on poverty reduction.

ADB's Capacity Development Action Plan outlines initiatives to institutionalize upstream poverty reduction support (thematic and sector strategies and road maps), improving the poverty focus in ADB supported programs and projects, and other mechanisms to enhance stakeholder participation, donor harmonization, and strengthening aid delivery modalities relevant for poverty reduction.

The ADB Institute based in Tokyo facilitates a variety of research and training on poverty reduction and MDGs in support of ADB's poverty reduction strategy.

View ADB's knowledge products and operational expertise on capacity development.