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People affected by the Highway 1 Project in Cambodia being harassed by a bulldozer. Photo: NGO Forum on Cambodia
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank is a major driver of economic development throughout the Asia-Pacific, especially of large-scale infrastructure projects.
Established in 1966, the bank is based in Manila and made up of 67 member countries, including 44 developing countries from the region.
The bank provides loans and equity investments to its developing member countries in different sectors, in particular for infrastructure. It also weighs in on policies and sector programs of borrowing member countries. In the development of the Country Strategies and Programs, the bank influences borrowing country governments' planning and development to a considerable extent.
Over the past two years, the bank has almost doubled its lending from a total of USD 5.7 billion in 2005, to USD 7.3 billion in 2006 and USD 10.1 billion 2007. The impacts of the bank's influence are experienced in different ways. Mainstream economists and the bank itself claim that its influence has widely contributed to poverty reduction in Asia.
But on the ground there are often other perceptions. Whereas a six-lane highway may contribute to increased flow of goods and raise a country's overall GDP - and even that is often hard to ascertain - communities who are displaced from their land due to road construction are likely to have a different perspective of the bank's development impacts. Evidence suggests that many bank projects have damaged the environment and undermined communities' rights to determine their own needs and participate in development.
Oxfam at the bank's Annual Meeting in May 2008
Oxfam Australia – together with other non-government organisations led by the NGO Forum on the ADB – was active at the bank's Annual Meeting in Madrid where the bank announced its long-term strategy for the coming decade. Find out more
Links (all open in a new window)
- Asian Development Bank
- Strategy 2020: The Long-Term Strategic Framework of the Asian Development Bank 2008–2020 (PDF)