Regional : Enhancing Developing Member Countries' Knowledge and Awareness of ADB's Financing Modalities and Products

Public sector management / Public administration

The TA aligns with ADB''s strategic direction of strengthening the institutional capacity of DMCs to enhance their ability to address development issues and deliver projects, as articulated in Strategy 2030. The outcome of the TA will be knowledge and awareness of government officials on ADB's financing modalities applied.

To achieve the outcome, the TA plans to complete the following outputs: 1) Knowledge and awareness of government officials on ADB's lending modalities and products enhanced; and 2) Quality learning materials produced and disseminated.

Strategy 2030 articulates that ADB will strive to be stronger, better, and faster. In this regard, ADB will improve its products and instruments to provide tailored support to public and private sector clients. ADB will also strengthen its role as a knowledge provider, working closely with DMCs to identify their needs and generate relevant knowledge products and services. Further, ADB will strengthen the institutional capacity of DMCs to more effectively address development challenges and achieve results. ADB will promote development and sharing of knowledge within the organization and across the region.

ADB''s financial products include loans, grants, guarantees, and equity extended to both public and private clients. As of 2018, project lending is the most common product (82% of total approvals in terms of volume), with sovereign operations also using policy-based lending (12% of total approvals) and results-based lending (3% of total approvals). In 2018, ADB introduced new products and modalities, including project readiness financing, the small expenditure financing facility, policy-based guarantees, and the public-private partnership standby financing facility. These products seek to address identified gaps in ADB''s product offerings to better meet the financing needs of its DMCs. ADB is mainstreaming results-based lending as a regular financing instrument of ADB, which is expected to expand opportunities for scaling up RBL operations. ADB''s Board of Directors is expected to discuss the mainstreaming in September 2019.

ADB''s client DMCs are extremely diverse, in terms of levels of economic development, access to various financing sources, and capacity levels. It is important that DMCs are fully aware of ADB''s full product suite. ADB, through SPBP and regional departments, aims to widen the knowledge and awareness of DMC clients on the menu of available sovereign lending (and grant) modalities. Since 2017, SPBP has been conducting training and outreach activities for DMC and staff on ADB's financing modalities. However, using its departmental budget, SPBP has only been able to field a limited number of missions to DMCs for this purpose. Through the proposed regional TA, SPBP will be able to extend its training and outreach activities to more DMCs so that government officials become more familiar with the key features of each modality. This knowledge will allow DMCs to make more informed decisions for accessing and utilizing ADB assistance that aligns well with their development needs. SPBP will customize the outreach sessions according to the needs of DMCs, in close consultation with regional departments and resident missions.

The proposed regional TA will support the delivery of SPBP''s outreach program for an initial set of DMCs for the next 1.5 years. Depending on the progress and results of the TA, SPBP will consider expanding the scope in the future to cover additional DMCs.

Strengthening the institutional capacity of DMCs to enhance their ability to address development issues and deliver projects.

Knowledge and awareness of government officials on ADB's lending modalities applied

Knowledge and awareness of government officials on ADB's lending modalities and products enhanced

Quality learning raising materials produced and disseminated