ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.
Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.
ADB supports projects in developing member countries that create economic and development impact, delivered through both public and private sector operations, advisory services, and knowledge support.
With employees from more than 60 countries, ADB is a place of real diversity.
Work with us to find fulfillment in sharing your knowledge and skills, and be a part of our vision in achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific.
ADB, UNICEF Support Rollout of Vaccines for Children in Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu Against Infectious Diseases, Cervical Cancer
The System Strengthening for Effective Coverage of New Vaccines in the Pacific Project is supporting the health ministries in immunizing 90,700 children against pneumonia, 71,600 children against rotavirus, and 84,200 adolescent girls against HPV infections in Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
News Release | 09 August 2021
Read time: 3 mins
SHARE THIS PAGE
SUVA, FIJI (9 August 2020) — The rollout of vaccines to protect children against cervical cancer, pneumonia, and rotavirus has begun in Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu.
The deployment of these three vaccines is part of the $29.7 million System Strengthening for Effective Coverage of New Vaccines in the Pacific Project, which is supporting the introduction of these vaccines in Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the vaccine project was originally established to support the procurement of rotavirus, pneumococcal conjugate, and human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines through the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The project is supporting the health ministries in immunizing 90,700 children against pneumonia, 71,600 children against rotavirus, and 84,200 adolescent girls against HPV infections across the four countries. The project is also helping update national immunization and cold chain policies, upgrade cold chain equipment and supply chain logistics, improve immunization reporting systems, and undertake other health system strengthening activities essential to reducing pneumonia, rotavirus, and HPV infections.
“This established vaccines project continues to make good progress, improving overall immunization coverage rates, supporting greater efficiency of primary health services, and raising community awareness at a time which is critical when much of the globe is being adversely affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19),” said Regional Director of ADB’s Pacific Subregional Office in Fiji Masayuki Tachiiri. “It will also help to strengthen the region’s resilience against other infectious diseases in consideration to reopening of borders and economies.”
“While the focus of the world is understandably on boosting immunization against COVID-19, we can’t afford to trade one health crisis for another,” said UNICEF Pacific Representative Sheldon Yett. “We thank ADB for its continued and strengthened partnership in the Pacific and working with UNICEF to protect children and young people from these vaccine-preventable diseases.”
In the Pacific, pneumonia and diarrhea are two of the top three causes for mortality in children under 5 years of age, and about one-third of all pneumonia deaths are due to the pneumococcus bacteria, which is usually transmitted through contact with infected children. Rotaviruses are the leading cause of severe diarrhea in children aged less than 5 years.
Cervical cancer has also been reported as one of the top three regional priorities by Pacific leaders, with over a thousand cervical cancer cases each year.
The project also recently received additional financing to support the four countries in the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines. The project provides an established platform to safely introduce COVID-19 vaccines in the countries, strengthen health systems, and raise community awareness.
ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.
Media Contact
Shute-Trembath, Sallyanne
Senior Communications Officer, Pacific Liaison and Coordination Officer
JAKARTA, INDONESIA (6 June 2023) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $44.2 million blue loan with PT ALBA Tridi Plastics Recycling Indonesia, an ALBA Group Asia company, to establish a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling facility in Central Java.
ADB and the Leading Asia's Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP) will each provide $22.1 million in funding for the project. Blue loans are financing instruments that aim to safeguard access to clean water, protect underwater environments, and invest in a sustainable water economy.
News Releases, News Release | 05 June 2023
ADB Records $11.4 Billion in Cofinancing, Focused on Resilience Against Economic Shocks
The financing partners of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) committed $11.4 billion in cofinancing of ADB projects in 2022 to help build the resilience of developing member countries and enable them to withstand economic shocks, according to the Partnership Report 2022: Driving Growth, Boosting Resilience.
News from Country Offices | 01 June 2023
ADB Helps Launch Vocational Education Project in PNG
ADB and the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea today launched a cofinanced project to improve the country’s technical and vocational education and training program.
News Releases, News from Country Offices | 30 May 2023
Annual audited project financial statements for sovereign operations provide project financial information prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and audited by an independent certified public accountant.
This document dated 22 December 2020 is provided for the ADB project 47137-003 in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
This publication provides essential information on the planning, implementation, and management of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in schools, particularly for small and isolated rural settlements in Mongolia.
В этой публикации содержится важная информация о планировании, реализации и управлении улучшенными водоснабжением, санитарией и гигиеной (ВСГ) в школах, в частности, в небольших и изолированных сельских поселках в Монголии.
Social Protection Development Project (Additional Financing): Procurement Plan
Procurement plans describe and update the procurement of major goods, works and consulting services either ongoing or expected to take place related to a project or program.
This document dated 29 November 2022 is provided for the ADB project 45233-006 in Pakistan.
Initial Poverty and Social Analysis (IPSA) provides an initial poverty and social assessment of people who may be beneficially or adversely affected by a project.
This document dated November 2019 is provided for the ADB project 53085-001 in Solomon Islands.
New Hope for Maternal and Child Health in Tajikistan
Better facilities needed. Rohila Boboeva, a gynecologist who manages the maternity ward at Rasht District Central Hospital in Tajikistan, says upgrades to facilities and equipment under the ADF-assisted Maternal and Child Health Integrated Care Project are badly needed to improve patient care, particularly during emergencies (photo by Nozim Kalandarov).
Project Result / Case Study 16 December 2019 Read time: 5 mins
Rohila Boboeva, a 33-year-old gynecologist, battles each day with overcrowding and a lack of proper tools to meet the needs of mothers and infants in the maternity ward she manages at the Rasht District Central Hospital in Tajikistan.
Some days, that battle is lost. In the first 6 months of 2019, two babies died despite the best efforts of medical staff because of limitations imposed by the hospital’s outdated facilities and lack of equipment.
Rohila says emergencies pose particularly dangerous problems. “For example, when the placenta separates from a mother’s uterus prematurely, the first 5 minutes are critical for saving the woman and her baby. Yet precious time is lost to transferring the patient downstairs from the second to the first floor because there’s neither a fully equipped surgery room in the maternity ward nor a hospital elevator.”
Urgent or not, specialized maternity treatment requires a 180-kilometer road transfer to Dushanbe, the country’s capital.
Built in the 1970s, the hospital helps deliver up to 15 babies a day. As well as caring for mothers and children after birth, the maternity ward must treat pregnant women struggling with health issues.
Expectant mother Munira Pirjonova, 22, learned how important this is. “I’m making sure this pregnancy is monitored,” she said during a 3-week stay in the ward in 2019, after losing her baby at home in the Rasht District village of Kochon because of the complications of high blood pressure during her first pregnancy.
Rohila says the ward’s 24 beds are old, unsuitable, and insufficient in number. Doorways and corridors are too narrow to accommodate patient stretchers, and such basic equipment as modern X-ray and lung ventilation machines is lacking. So are financial resources, even though the hospital is expected to serve 400,000 people across five districts.
“The doctors and nurses do their utmost,” Rohila says, “but the facilities cannot safely meet the community’s needs.”
“Some men in conservative districts stop their wives from visiting local hospitals and clinics. The communication and outreach plan will strengthen understanding and encourage the use of local services by people in our communities, especially women.”
Rohila’s hospital is not alone, a fact recognized by ADB’s approval of a $32 million ADF 12 grant to help deliver better quality health care in three districts, including Rasht, that have the highest rates of maternal and child mortality.
Underinvestment has left many of the country’s hospitals and health centers with outdated buildings and obsolete equipment. Communication between primary care providers and hospitals, staff capacity, and patient follow-up are poor, lacking, or absent. As a result, Tajikistan lags the subregional and global averages for maternal and child health indicators, as well as on progress toward the Sustainable Development Goal target for reducing child mortality rates.
The Maternal and Child Health Integrated Care Project funded by the ADF 12 grant is improving hospital and health-care center infrastructure and equipment and helping staff and oversight agencies plan and deploy human resources more effectively. It is developing a system to provide continuous medical education for doctors and midwives to improve the quality of health care on an ongoing basis.
The project includes a campaign to reach 85% of the pregnant women in the project area and change the sociocultural attitudes and behavior that can deter women from seeking timely maternal and child health care.
“Some men in conservative districts stop their wives from visiting local hospitals and clinics,” says Isfandiyor Mahmudzoda, who is managing the project for the executing agency, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection. “The communication outreach plan will strengthen understanding and encourage the use of local services by people in our communities, especially women,” he adds.
This article was originally published in Together We Deliver, a publication highlighting successful ADB projects across Asia and the Pacific that demonstrated development impacts, best practice, and innovation.
In this landlocked country of 3.4 million people, 42% of households with people with disabilities live in poverty, compared with 18% of households with persons without disabilities.
Bengaluru, capital of the southern state of Karnataka, is India’s fourth most populous and economically productive city. It is also the world’s fourth largest technology cluster.
