The Asian Development Bank’s Knowledge Management in Action

Today, our knowledge management is guided by Strategy 2030, with a call-to-action for ADB to solidify its role as knowledge solutions provider. Our Knowledge Management Action Plan 2021–2025 adds substance to this call. We work closely with ADB’s developing members to back our lending with knowledge. At the country level, our country knowledge plans, with each country director designated as knowledge custodian, help strategic planning, implementation, and monitoring of the knowledge operations.

Despite the region’s profound economic transformation—with many countries now middle-income, and hundreds of millions of people lifted out of poverty—many critical challenges remain. Countering these challenges would not be possible for developing Asia and the Pacific without harnessing the power of knowledge. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has been unparalleled in reminding us of this point—accelerating and diversifying trends in knowledge management. Pandemic responses show that a country and its people can be only as effective as the knowledge they harness, share, and apply. The same pertains to organizations. ADB is using a combination of culture, systems, and process changes for knowledge management to effectively address the pandemic across sectors, agencies, and countries.

This book is the story of ADB’s journey through various stages of our knowledge management process from 1966 until today. We aspire to be the most valued knowledge advisor to our developing members; a vibrant learning organization that encourages collaboration; and a platform for sharing ideas, knowledge, and experience. In 2019, we began capturing knowledge solutions in the form of brief case studies to demonstrate how we worked with our countries to address development challenges. We also started collecting stories and case studies to document how innovation helps improve the quality of our investment products. It is from these case studies, shared by ADB staff, that you will see the depth and breadth of how ADB and our developing members jointly create knowledge solutions. I invite you to delve into these knowledge solutions and journey across the rich knowledge landscape of ADB and developing Asia and the Pacific.

The journey will not stop here.

Amid the region’s ever-evolving development challenges, ADB will continue to harness and manage knowledge with its members for their green, resilient, inclusive, and sustainable development.