Overview

Providing the right development aid is not only about the size of the loan or the number of roads or schools built. It is about knowing the loan is improving people’s lives in a sustainable way.

It is about ensuring that the school educates children with skills to support a country’s economic future, or that when a new highway is built, it not only spurs growth and fosters trade but also brings tangible benefits to surrounding communities.

ADB is committed to ensuring that its resources are used to help countries achieve sustainable development and reduce poverty. It does this by focusing on results management in its operations, improving the capacities of its developing member countries, and contributing to the global agenda on aid effectiveness.

International commitments

Along with other development partners, ADB endorsed the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005 and its follow-up agreement, the Accra Agenda for Action in 2008. They are both founded on five core principles:

1. Country ownership of the development agenda
2. Donor alignment with country priorities and systems
3. Harmonization of donor policies, procedures and practices
4. Managing for development results
5. Mutual accountability

Progress on these agreements will be reviewed at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness to be held in Busan, Korea from 29 November to 1 December 2011.  The international development community will also determine the next phase of the aid effectiveness agenda up to the Millennium Development Goal target date of 2015, and beyond.

Managing for development results

Central to the entire aid effectiveness agenda is managing for development results (MfDR), an approach focused on development outcomes throughout the management cycle. The goal of MfDR is tangible and sustainable development.

MfDR promotes informed decision making by integrating a results focus across the four core management functions:

1. planning—defining outcomes and outputs with measurable indicators and time-bound targets, and agreeing on associated activities,
2. budgeting—allocating resources to agreed activities,
3. implementing and monitoring—implementing agreed activities and monitoring progress against targets, and
4. evaluating—assessing performance against agreed targets and identifying actions for improvement.

Regular reporting to stakeholders to increase accountability and promote learning is intrinsic to effective MfDR.

MfDR at ADB focuses on three mutually reinforcing areas:

1. improving support for country capacity in MfDR,
2. infusing a results-driven culture throughout ADB to increase institutional effectiveness, and
3. promoting effective partnerships to advance the regional and global MfDR agenda.

In 2008—to put MfDR at the heart of what it does—ADB introduced a corporate results framework, a management tool that helps monitor and improve aid delivery. The framework forms the basis of the Development Effectiveness Review, an annual report card that shows where ADB has been successful, where challenges remain and where remedial action is required.

Strengthening member countries

ADB finances a range of projects that provide training and support for planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring, and evaluation to help strengthen its member countries’ capacity to manage development and achieve outcomes.

Projects include boosting the ability of Afghanistan’s Central Statistics Office to collect and manage data to better monitor the implementation of aid to providing the Solomon Islands government with technical advice as they implement a new development strategy.