ADB delivered on most development targets in 2013/16: report

YOKOHAMA: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is delivering on its goal to increase development finance to the Asia and Pacific region, achieving most of its development and operational targets in the four-year period 2013/16, says a new ADB performance review.

The 2016 Development Effectiveness Review (DEfR) was released in Yokohama, Japan at the 50th Annual Meeting of the ADB's Board of Governors.

The report measures how well the ADB is executing its corporate strategy, “Strategy 2020”, and the strategic priorities of the midterm review of the strategy across 91 results indicators.

"(The) ADB is delivering on its commitment to helping the Asia and Pacific region reduce poverty and achieve more inclusive and sustainable growth," said Indu Bhushan, director general of ADB's Strategy and Policy Department.

"(The) ADB will continue streamlining its operations so that it can deliver development solutions more quickly and effectively, while continuing to scale up finance for the region."

The 2016 DEfR, the ADB's tenth annual corporate performance assessment, shows that the bank met or surpassed 62 percent of the targets for development results and operational and organisational effectiveness.

The report is the fourth and final report under the 2013/16 results framework. Among the report's main findings are that the ADB's climate change mitigation and energy projects, including renewable energy, achieved 100 percent of their intended outputs in 2016. Nearly half of all the ADB projects supported climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts.

During the 2013/16 period, the ADB financed the building and upgrading of 34,000km of roads and 1,400km of railways, the installation of 13 gigawatts of new power generation capacity, a third being renewable, and grid connection of 692,000 households. New or improved water supply reached three million households, while 5.7 million people — 40 percent of whom are women — benefited from improved availability of financial services.

Likewise, more than two million teachers were trained. Nearly three quarters of projects achieved the ADB's targets for gender mainstreaming, a measure that assesses the extent to which the projects integrate gender issues.

The ADB approved $17.5 billion in financing in 2016 from its own resources and attracted $13.9 billion in co-financing — both new highs. It also disbursed $12.48 billion, another record.

The institution also surpassed its target for public-private partnerships, supporting 58 transactions during the 2013/16 period and outperforming the target of 50.

The 2016 DEfR, while noting the rise in three-year project success rates, highlights the opportunity to increase results achievement through better project design, improved quality at project inception, and improved risk assessments for non-sovereign projects.

Project sustainability — the likelihood of sustained results from the ADB projects — has also seen improvements, but not enough to reach the 80 percent target due to various shortcomings, in particular, operations and maintenance.

Other issues include the lengthy processes for procurement, project approval, and implementation. To address these challenges, the Asian Development Bank is implementing a transitional results framework for 2017/20, as the bank continues to prepare a new corporate results framework aligned with Strategy 2030 — the ADB's new long-term strategic plan, which is currently being developed.

Efforts are being made to boost project readiness, minimise delays, improve efficiency, and raise overall success rates through a second generation of procurement reforms. Steps are also being taken to raise women's representation among international staff and optimise human resources for a stronger, better, and faster ADB.

The ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration.

Established in 1966, the ADB is celebrating 50 years of development partnership in the region. It is owned by 67 members — 48 from the region. In 2016, the bank’s assistance totaled $31.7 billion.