Together We Deliver 2014: From Knowledge and Partnerships to Results

Though ADB’s projects vary widely in scope, in every instance, ADB and its partners seek fresh, often bold answers to challenges facing developing member countries. Money alone can never suffice; funding must be combined with partnerships that bring knowledge, insight, and expertise to generate the broadest possible development impact. The result, in some cases, can be systemic change.

In Papua New Guinea (PNG), for example, a widow who grows coffee in the remote eastern highlands no longer has to hide her life savings in the ashes of her fireplace. She was among the 95% of PNG’s 5 million people who, 15 years ago, had no access to financial services of any kind. Today, she has a bank account and can access microloans, which enable her to save up and secure her future.

In Bangladesh and India, more than 3 million people are safer and healthier. The two ADB projects introduced new approaches in urban governance and development that improved the living conditions of the poor in congested areas.

In Mongolia, an ADB-supported project contributed to an upswing in school enrollment and retention rates by introducing an innovative approach to improving teaching and learning. The project modernized 68 primary and secondary schools to serve as models in particular subjects, share best practices, and provide support to raise standards in other schools throughout the country.

In the People’s Republic of China multilateral collaboration helped the ADB-supported Xiaogushan hydropower plant become the first in the country to receive carbon revenue under the Clean Development Mechanism. The Xiaogushan and two other ADB-financed hydropower plants replaced polluting coal, earning a combined total of $28 million by 2013 from the sale of carbon credits.

In Pakistan, shortly after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake rocked its mountainous northeast region on 8 October 2005, ADB established the Pakistan Earthquake Fund and mobilized urgently needed additional resources from other development partners. This was later seen as one of the most successful and rapidly executed recovery efforts in an earthquake area ever.

For many people in Tajikistan, life has become easier since the completion of a cross-border road project connecting its capital, Dushanbe, with the Kyrgyz Republic. The ADB project significantly cut travel time, eased access to health services in hospitals, and improved local and international trade.

A Greater Mekong Subregion tourism project in Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), and Viet Nam showed that community-based support for regional public goods such as the Mekong River and other natural resources in the area can permeate all aspects of life.

In the Lao PDR, for instance, the project found a way to enable low-income farmers and craftspeople to benefit from new marketplaces.

In Nepal women and other people from disadvantaged groups were included in the planning of a water supply and sanitation project that benefited over 90,000 households.

About Together We Deliver

Together We Deliver is jointly produced by ADB and its developing member countries as a companion publication to the 2014 Development Effectiveness Review report.

Read more Project Results and Case Studies.