Photo Credit: CASPIAN NEWS
As the 12 smallest Pacific island countries (PIC-12) recover from the immediate shock of the (COVID-19) pandemic, the Asian Development Bank has endorsed a new 5-year strategy aimed at building resilience against economic shocks, delivering sustainable services, and promoting inclusive and sustainable growth.
The Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu are all members of the Pacific Approach, which runs from 2021 to 2025. Fiji and Papua New Guinea, which have larger economies, have their own national partnership plans that drive ADB activities.
“ADB’s work in the Pacific has evolved due to the massive changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and this new Pacific Approach reflects those ongoing strategies while adopting a new and tailored approach to every element of our work in these countries,” said ADB Director General for the Pacific Leah Gutierrez.
“This new and tailored approach to our work is also motivated by the growing frequency and intensity of climate change and natural hazards in the region.”
The ADB will assist the PIC-12 in enhancing public financial management and health systems, as well as catastrophe risk mitigation and economic recovery, as part of the strategy's first goal of increasing resilience to shocks. The ADB will continue to fund essential energy, transportation, and urban infrastructure, as well as assist utilities in managing assets more sustainably, under the second goal of delivering sustainable services. The third goal, promoting inclusive growth, will see the ADB expand its private sector operations in the region, assisting the PIC-12 in strengthening their business environments, increasing access to finance for micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, and assisting in the development of social protection systems for the most vulnerable.
To address rising funding needs, the ADB's portfolio for the PIC-12 will rise from $568 million in 2015 to a projected $1.34 billion in 2021. The increased funding necessitates new approaches to ADB's portfolio implementation. As a result, the strategy focuses on increasing efficiency and sustainability while growing the portfolio and functioning in the particular operational contexts of tiny island developing states.
To achieve these goals, the strategy introduces new operational priorities, such as a new regional climate strategy, a growing focus on gender equality, increased procurement and contracting flexibility, and a greater focus on long-term capacity development for the public and private sectors across the region.
By taking a strategic, interdisciplinary, and whole-of-country approach to investments and sector planning, the strategy will enhance ADB's assistance for climate change and disaster risk management. By including gender considerations into project designs and fostering policy discourse on gender inclusivity, the Pacific Approach will improve gender equality in all 12 small island governments.
A new private sector plan for the region will be implemented by the ADB, with an emphasis on renewable energy, financial institutions, tourism, and fisheries. The Private Sector Development Initiative, co-financed by the Asian Development Bank and the governments of Australia and New Zealand, aims to reduce the cost of doing business by modernizing business laws, improving credit access, reforming state-owned enterprises, and providing support to women be part of the successful economy,
Importantly, the strategy takes a longer-term approach to capacity building. All ADB support in the PIC-12 will involve capacity building. Capacity supplementation—the practice of posting long-term specialists in essential sectors—will also be introduced by the ADB to guarantee that expertise is preserved beyond the lifespan of a project.
Partnership development will continue to be a top goal. The ADB will continue to work with the Australian, Japanese, and New Zealand governments, as well as the World Bank and other development partners.
The Pacific Approach for the Years 2021–2025 was developed in close collaboration with Pacific governments, development partners, civil society, and the corporate sector. It reflects the aims of Strategy 2030, the Asian Development Bank's broad vision and strategic response to Asia and the Pacific's evolving requirements, and the bank's specific focus on small island developing nations and fragile and conflict-affected countries.
The Asian Development Bank is dedicated to building a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific while continuing to fight extreme poverty. It was founded in 1966 and is owned by 68 people, 49 of them are from the region.
Reference:
EMTV Online (1 JUly 2021). “ADB Endorses New Strategy for Pacific Small Island Developing States”.
