ADB - Asian Development Bank

06/15/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/14/2021 19:10

ADB Launches Integrated Approach to Support Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations and Small Island Developing States

ADB Launches Integrated Approach to Support Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations and Small Island Developing States

News Release | 15 June 2021

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (15 June 2021) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched a new Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations and Small Island Developing States Approach (FSA) to guide its support for its most vulnerable developing member countries (DMCs).

The Approach introduces flexible processes and procedures that will allow ADB to tailor interventions to the specific challenges of fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCAS) and small island developing states (SIDS), with the goal of improving project results.

'The FSA will change the way ADB designs, implements, and monitors projects in its most fragile DMCs,' said ADB Advisor for FCAS Samuel Tumiwa. 'This will be done by expanding training for staff to work more effectively in these countries and through the introduction of tools such as fragility and resilience assessments that will provide project planners and country teams with a comprehensive overview of risks and factors that affect resilience, such as climate change, weak governance, and conflict.'

ADB is the first multilateral development bank to bring FCAS and SIDS together under a single operational approach. The FSA Action Plan, 2021-2025, comprises the following operational approaches: applying risk-informed decision-making; improving FCAS and SIDS classification criteria; assessing fragility and resilience; integrating FCAS and SIDS contexts into planning and implementation processes; developing analytics and knowledge products; strengthening ADB's capacity for operating in FCAS and SIDS; expanding partnerships and coordination with DMCs; increasing innovative private sector engagement; and adopting a communication and engagement strategy.

More than 500 stakeholders contributed to the development of the FSA through their participation in consultations from September 2020 to March 2021. Participants included government counterparts from FCAS and SIDS countries, bilateral development agencies, civil society organizations, representatives of multilateral development banks, and key ADB departments and sector and thematic groups.

Countries are classified as FCAS based on an assessment of the quality of macroeconomic management, coherence of structural policies, the degree to which policies and institutions promote equity and inclusion, quality of governance and public sector management, and performance of concessional assistance project portfolio. ADB classifies 11 countries as FCAS: Afghanistan, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, the Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, and Tuvalu.

Sixteen ADB DMCs identify themselves as SIDS: the Cook Islands, the FSM, Fiji, Kiribati, Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

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.