15 March 2004
In the past, civil society groups have lobbied donor countries to use the Asian Development Fund (ADF) replenishment negotiations as an opportunity to get the ADB committed to reforms.
The Asian Development Fund (ADF) is the largest "special fund" of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Through the ADF, loans are made on concessional terms to countries with low per capita GNP and limited capacity to repay debts. In the past, civil society groups have lobbied donor countries to use the ADF replenishment negotiation process as an opportunity to get the ADB committed to reforms aimed at improving the effectiveness of the ADF as well as the ADB in general.
Negotiations for the next replenishment of this fund (ADF IX) began the week of October 9, 2003, in Copenhagen and will continue into the fall of 2004. As part of civil society efforts to lobby donor governments to push for much needed reforms during this process, BIC, in conjunction with the Centre for Organisation Research & Education (India), Environmental Defense (USA), NGO Forum on ADB and Oxfam Community Aid Abroad (Australia) produced a report with five briefings. Each briefing highlights case study examples that demonstrate concerns with different aspects of ADB performance and proposes recommendations for making the ADB a more effective development institution.
These briefings were shared with representatives of ADB donor member government's ministries of finance prior to the most recent ADF IX negotiations meeting, held from March 9 - 11, 2004 in Lisbon, Portugal.
For more information on the ADF IX negotiations, see the ADB's website: