Keeping Poverty Alive Beyond 2020

A Personal View Eminent Persons Group Report

The recent report of the Eminent Persons Group to the ADB President entitled, “Towards a New Asian Development Bank in a New Asia,” is worth reading if only for the rosy future it paints for the peoples of Asia and the Pacific come 2020. As the Bank enters its fifth decade of existence and amid increasingly cutthroat competition from other lending institutions that threatens its “preeminence as a regional bank,” the Report prescribes new directions and approaches for the ADB. These are promoting inclusive growth; facilitating environmentally sustainable growth; and promoting regional (and global) integration.

In so doing the Bank, whose development model has created both so-called millions of beneficiaries and countless unwitting human victims and incalculable environmental harm in a number of Asia-Pacific nations, would preserve its raison d’etre; thus avoid becoming an anachronism in our rapidly-evolving and developing region.

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Four Decades of the Asian Development Bank

The Asian Development Bank had its beginnings when it held its inaugural Annual Meeting in November 1966 in Tokyo. Its next Annual Meeting was then held in Manila in April 1968. In 1966, the Bank was owned by 40 regional and 16 non-regional member countries. Currently, it is owned by 48 regional and 19 non-regional ones. Its authorized capital stock of US$1.1 billion increased to US$48 billion in 1999 then to US$50 billion in 2006. Moreover, the annual budget is US$42 million in 1966 which increased to US$7.97 billion on 2007.

From its founding up to 31 December 2005, the ADB has approved US$84.6 billion of Ordinary Capital Resources (OCR) loans. In 2005 alone, it approved loans from OCR totaling US$4.4 billion (US$4.0 billion in 2004), which included US$536 million (US$293 million in 2004) for private sector borrowers. On the other hand, outstanding loans from the Asian Development Fund (ADF), which is the largest Special Fund, amounted to US$20.2 billion as of 31 December 2005.

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Aren’t they loud enough?

Hemantha Withanage
Executive Director, NGO Forum on ADB

Around four thousand people rally against the Asian Development Bank during its 39th Annual Meeting held in Hyderabad in May 2006. They uttered “We can survive without ADB.”

Most people join the rally was for safeguarding safeguards. The civil society demanded “No to Displacement,” “Respect indigenous rights,” “Stop destructive development,” “ADB Quit India,” “ADB Out of Water and Power,” “Make ADB accountable to the People,” “Our lives and resources are more important to us than your dams. Stop taking them away from us,” “Better off without the ADB,” “ADB- compensates KJDRP affected people in Bangladesh,” “Junk ADB to stop degradation and metabolism of nature and society,” “ADB Hands off our water our health our forest, our livelihood, our environment.” The civil society even rephrased ADB as “Anti-democratic Destructive Burden.” Meanwhile Greenpeace demanded: “ADB Quit Coal” and said Climate change! Party is over.” The affected people of Mae Moh coal power plant in Thailand offered a bowl of coal to the ADB president during his meeting with the civil society.

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Accountability Mechanism: A jailbird of bureaucracy

Hemantha Withanage
Executive Director, NGO Forum on ADB

Asian Development Bank proudly presented its new accountability mechanism as the medicine for its project-related disputes in 2003. When presenting, former ADB President Tadao Chino said, “I am confident that with support from all stakeholders, the Accountability Mechanism will satisfy their demand that ADB address the complaints of project-affected people on the ground and establish a transparent process that will increase ADB’s accountability.”

Theoretically, it provides mediation through the Special Project Facilitator (SPF) and a verdict on the violation of ADB policies through the Compliance Review Panel (CRP). But after two years of its existence, has it delivered any solutions to people’s issues?

The recent CRP monitoring report on STDP, which was issued in July 2006, shows that the ADB management and the Road Development Authority have not complied with most of the remedial action proposed by the CRP report issued in July 2005. Said report was a response to the complaints made by project affected people.

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