between 2022 and 2025, committing $3.7 billion in 2022. This financing delivered essential food relief for people most in need and supported longer-term investments in more sustainable, productive, and climate-resilient food systems.

Gender equality is fundamental to an inclusive and resilient Asia and the Pacific. In 2022, 97% of our operations contributed to this agenda through financing and knowledge solutions, including by improving women’s access to quality jobs, fostering women’s entrepreneurship, and building women’s resilience to climate change. Dedicated programs and campaigns tackled gender-based violence.

2022 saw us make substantial investments in other social areas that are crucial for the region’s long-term resilience, such as providing financing to improve education quality and access and to advance affordable health care in the region. Because regional cooperation and integration can significantly help address these and other pressing development challenges, we fostered greater collaboration on issues such as health threats and mobilizing more domestic resources through tax cooperation.

In line with global calls for multilateral development banks to catalyze “billions to trillions,” we also explored ways to unlock greater resources for our DMCs. ADB signed an agreement for up to $1 billion with five leading insurers that will unlock more private sector financial institutional lending and a second exposure exchange agreement for $1.5 billion with the Inter-American Development Bank. These and other innovative measures will enable ADB to boost its lending capacity. The triennial review of our capital adequacy framework, started in 2022, will identify ways we can manage our capital resources more effectively to better support DMCs while ensuring ADB’s financial resilience.

Responding to demand from DMCs for tailored knowledge solutions, we hosted events to enable DMCs to share lessons on issues including gender equality and elderly care, and we held a major forum to consider the future of agriculture in the region. We also helped DMCs test innovative technology solutions in areas such as local-level renewable energy generation while our 300-plus new publications provide insights and guidance on an array of key development topics.

In August, ADB fully reopened its Manila headquarters after two-and-a-half years of reduced occupancy during the pandemic. I was delighted to see the ADB community once again collaborating in person and also to welcome

to discuss strategic digital transformation, including progress of the bank’s digital agenda.

The Compliance Review Committee used ADB’s Accountability Mechanism to assess the need for action in addressing complaints from stakeholders. The committee assessed three eligibility reports on complaints—two in India, and one in Nepal—and agreed with the conclusions of the Compliance Review Panel that the complaints were ineligible for compliance review. The committee also reviewed reports on compliance and monitoring of remedial actions for complaints in Georgia. The committee endorsed the approach paper for the review of the 2012 Accountability Mechanism Policy.

The Development Effectiveness Committee assessed substantive evaluations into ADB’s internal coordination and collaboration, the performance of ADB’s nonsovereign operations, and its ongoing support for the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The committee discussed sector-wide evaluations on integrated water management and ADB’s finance sector operations as well as reviewing the bank’s performance reports. It also discussed the Independent Evaluation Department’s strategic directions and knowledge management work and approved the department’s rolling program for 2023–2025.

The Human Resources Committee discussed 2023 salary and benefits proposals and the workforce analysis. It reviewed ADB’s human resources framework on performance management and the bank’s organizational review, while assessing initiatives for culture transformation, job architecture, talent acquisition, and retention. The committee also discussed the 2021 Ombudsperson Annual Report and updates by the Office of Professional Ethics and Conduct on mediation and other projects.

Meanwhile, extreme weather events and disasters caused by natural hazards resulted in the loss of lives and the displacement of millions of people. These events severely undermined agricultural production and diverted government resources away from new initiatives and toward rebuilding infrastructure and reviving economic activity.

Although the number of extremely poor people in developing Asia was estimated to have reduced back to its pre-pandemic level by the end of 2022, many households struggled to shake off the effects of the COVID-19 downturn.

With an estimated 425 million people in the region facing hunger in 2021, rapid food price inflation in 2022— exceeding 10% in 15 DMCs—put tens of millions more people at risk, especially women, and the poor and vulnerable who typically spend a large part of their income on food.

TOTAL ADB COMMITMENTS, 2022 

($ MILLION)

Rapidly responding to crisis situations in several DMCs. 

ADB provided timely responses to emerging and ongoing crises in the Asia and Pacific region. This included a combined $2.2 billion, directed through the bank’s Countercyclical Support Facility, for the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—all severely impacted by the food and energy crisis sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and in the case of Pakistan, devastating floods. Moreover, ADB disbursed $10.5 million in emergency support to Tonga following a nearby volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami, and $71.4 million for Bangladesh to meet the urgent basic needs of displaced people from Myanmar in the Cox’s Bazar district. To enable Sri Lankan enterprises to deliver critical goods during the country’s economic crisis, ADB committed $247.2 million through its Trade and Supply Chain Finance Program and via surplus loan proceeds from existing projects. ADB also committed $405 million in grants, administered through United Nations agencies, to support the basic human needs of the people of Afghanistan.

Leveraging Partnerships to Build Resilience in Developing Member Countries

Through partnerships, ADB provided significant financial and knowledge resources in 2022 to help DMCs recover from the COVID -19 pandemic and reinforce themselves against future shocks. The bank mobilized $4.3 billion in cofinancing for its sovereign investments and $7.1 billion in cofinancing for its nonsovereign investments.

Transforming for More Innovative and Responsive Solutions

In 2022, ADB furthered its efforts to evolve and be best positioned to serve its DMCs.

In October, the Board of Directors endorsed a new operating model that specifies organizational transformation to drive four key shifts: increase ADB’s capacity as the region’s climate bank; spur private sector development and mobilize more private investment; provide a wider range of high-quality development solutions; and modernize ways of working to ensure greater responsiveness, agility, and proximity to DMCs.

To ensure the bank maintains its financial resilience while meeting the needs of its DMCs, ADB continued to diversify its funding structure in 2022, raising $36.1 billion in 22 currencies. The bank issued its largest-ever sterling bond of £1 billion and returned to the Swiss franc market after 12 years. ADB also issued bonds in five new currencies and issued its highest annual volume of theme bonds at $5.8 billion, driven by health and gender bonds.

In 2022, ADB sought to identify capital management approaches that can unlock greater financial resources for DMCs while appropriately managing risk. The bank began the triennial review of its capital adequacy framework, which is being informed by analysis from the G20-commissioned independent review of capital adequacy frameworks in multilateral development banks. Meanwhile, ADB signed a second sovereign exposure agreement, worth $1.5 billion, with the Inter-American Development Bank, following an initial agreement in 2020.

To make up for learning losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, ADB initiated new research to measure the magnitude of these losses across Asia and the Pacific. This project is also testing ways to address the losses now that most schools have returned to in-person instruction. In more immediate action, ADB worked through United Nations agencies to help girls and boys in 19 provinces of Afghanistan continue learning, with grants for community-based education, training for female teachers, and provision of learning materials.

On the health front, ADB’s $9 billion Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility (APVAX) continued to scale up COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the region. As of 2022, the APVAX program in India had helped secure over 667 million vaccine doses to protect 317 million citizens. APVAX also supported vaccine rollouts in Bhutan, Cambodia, and Maldives during the year. In addition, ADB provided an equity investment to Indonesia’s largest manufacturer and distributor of medical equipment and supplies to make these products more accessible. The bank also published targeted knowledge products, including a study showcasing how digital financial services can be integrated with health innovations.

Accelerating Progress in Gender Equality

Women and girls in Asia and the Pacific have experienced significant hardships due to the protracted COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and they continue to bear the brunt of climate change impacts.

Tackling Climate Change, Building Climate and Disaster Resilience, and Enhancing Environmental Sustainability

Asia and the Pacific is more vulnerable to climate change than almost all other regions in the world, and faces increasing climate shocks that are putting development progress at risk. ADB scaled up its climate financing in 2022, helping DMCs get closer to their adaptation and mitigation goals and advancing the region’s progress toward a net-zero future.

In Bangladesh, ADB is helping vulnerable coastal towns anticipate, absorb, and recover from the effects of climate shocks through early warning systems and more resilient infrastructure. In pursuit of clean energy, the bank is assisting Viet Nam and India in scaling up the use of electric buses for public transport. During 2022, ADB invested in its first wind power project in Uzbekistan, while its first major private sector renewable energy investment in Azerbaijan will support a 230-megawatt solar power plant.

To accelerate the region’s transition to net-zero, ADB launched a number of initiatives at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The Asia and the Pacific Water Resilience Initiative will pursue innovative solutions for water security. The Blue Pacific Finance Hub will build ocean and coastal resilience in countries threatened by the impacts of climate change. The Just Transition Support Platform will assist DMCs to plan, implement, and finance energy transition. The Accelerating Climate Transitions through Green Finance in Southeast Asia program will help DMCs mobilize financing for their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement.

assistance will help prepare green and sustainable city action plans for 14 urban centers.

Through a copublication with the Asian Development Bank Institute, ADB explored the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the informal sector in Asian cities and looked at how leveraging informal services can build urban resilience.

It resulted in a memorandum of cooperation with Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to scale up ADB support for technologically advanced, sustainable, and resilient food systems in the region.

Strengthening Governance and Institutional Capacity

Stronger governance and expanded institutional capacity can help create the sound policies needed to achieve a more resilient Asia and the Pacific. ADB advanced these objectives in 2022 with investments in domestic resource mobilization, reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), planning for quality infrastructure, and support for national and subnational governments.

Under the Asia-Pacific Tax Hub, ADB completed a tax administration assessment for Bhutan, produced advice for DMCs on topics such as taxation and social protection and optimal tax policy design, and provided technical support to 16 DMCs through tailored programs that enhance international tax cooperation.

To ultimately improve delivery of public goods and services and reduce the fiscal burden on governments, ADB released a guidance note to help SOEs access commercial finance. It also assisted DMCs in developing their capital markets and supported sustainable development through bond issuances, such as Thailand’s green and social bonds, and gender bonds for Georgia and Kazakhstan.

In Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, ADB is supporting projects that include comprehensive reforms for SOEs and climate targets for these enterprises. It is also helping Samoa

to help develop a holistic secondary education curriculum. ADB innovation experts are also working to enhance public service delivery in Cambodia by customizing digital billing systems for the country’s water services, while specialists seconded to Pakistan are helping the Ministry of Climate Change develop a web-based dashboard that can foster climate resilience by tracking climate investments and managing related knowledge.

Realizing the Knowledge Management Action Plan

ADB’s knowledge work in 2022 reflected ongoing efforts to deliver tailored solutions as part of the bank’s Knowledge Management Action Plan 2021–2025. Sharpening ADB’s own knowledge capacity is an important part of the plan.

In 2022, a governance group was established to oversee the bank’s knowledge management. Meanwhile, more than 70 ADB staff were trained on basic knowledge management and over 450 personnel on concepts such as systems thinking, design thinking, and futures thinking and foresight. Significantly, ADB also advanced knowledge management processes for its climate agenda.

Embracing international best practices, ADB laid the groundwork during 2022 for aligning with the ISO standard 30401 for knowledge management. The bank will also be chairing the International Financial Institutions Community of Practice on knowledge management from 2023 to 2025.

(56% girls) to continue learning by expanding community-based education and supplying learning materials for first-graders at public schools.

In Uzbekistan, ADB provided a $500 million loan through the BRACE program to reduce the severity of socioeconomic shocks triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The financing helped the government maintain social assistance payments to more than 8.9 million vulnerable people in 2022. The loan also promoted food security by supporting the government in stabilizing domestic prices of wheat and other essential food items.

With Georgia experiencing a shortage of affordable financing for housing, especially among young and low-income families, ADB signed a nonsovereign loan with TBC Bank JSC (TBC) for the lari equivalent of $99.7 million. The loan, which follows an ADB investment in 2021 to help increase the supply of residential housing in the country, will be onlent by TBC to support mortgage and home renovation financing for at least 800,000 low- and medium-income earners. It will help strengthen Georgia’s economic resilience to future shocks through increased personal asset ownership.

Accelerating Progress in Gender Equality

ADB’s efforts to advance gender equality in Central and West Asia were highlighted by support for women’s financial inclusion and entrepreneurship, capital market financing for affordable housing loans for women, and improvements to maternal health services.

Although micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) make up nearly 97% of all business entities in Kazakhstan, only about a quarter of these are led or owned by women, who generally experience a lack of access to business financing. As a step toward achieving gender equality, ADB provided a nonsovereign loan of $15 million in local currency equivalent to microfinance organization KMF Limited Liability (KMF) for onlending to MSME borrowers. The project incorporates a target of lending to 185,000 women-led MSMEs, with KMF to also introduce new products and services tailored to the needs of women business customers.

ADB also successfully raised 14 billion Kazakhstan tenge (about $32 million) from its second gender bond issuance in the country, helping develop the local capital market and advance gender equality in housing finance. The bond proceeds were used as part of an ongoing ADB project that is expanding the lending operations of Otbasy Bank to provide affordable residential mortgage loans to women, primarily in rural areas.

Meanwhile, to improve health outcomes for Pakistani women, ADB committed a $100 million loan for upgrading secondary hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province that suffers from a high infant mortality rate and maternal mortality ratio. Among other objectives, the project will help modernize infrastructure for women’s health and provide more medical equipment for obstetrics departments. It also aims to ensure that at least 40% of doctors working at secondary health-care facilities are women. In addition, the ADB investment supports training for health-care staff on gender-based violence and gender-oriented clinical protocols. It is expected to benefit an estimated 38 million people.

Tackling Climate Change, Building Climate and Disaster Resilience, and Enhancing Environmental Sustainability

As part of its 2022 programming, ADB combined knowledge solutions with its various financing modalities in pursuit of improved climate and disaster resilience and environmental sustainability in Central and West Asia.

5-year green bond that will help GRPO refinance debt for three of the company’s hydropower plants in Georgia as well as its sole wind power plant, which is the only operational wind farm in the country. This is the first locally listed green bond issuance and the largest bond to be listed on the Georgian Stock Exchange.

ADB is similarly helping accelerate the clean energy transition in Azerbaijan. The bank committed its first major private sector renewable energy investment in the country, signing a nonsovereign loan of $21.4 million with Masdar Azerbaijan Energy Limited Liability Company. The loan provides long-term financing for a solar power plant that will generate enough clean energy to power 30,406 homes each year. The project will increase the share of renewables in an energy supply matrix dominated by fossil fuels and will spur further private sector investment in Azerbaijan’s renewables sector.

Making Cities More Livable

In 2022, ADB’s investments to create livable cities in Central and West Asia focused on delivering better water and wastewater services and improving air and water quality.

In Tajikistan, ADB committed additional grant financing of $38 million for an ongoing project that is working to improve quality of life and health outcomes in the capital Dushanbe. The project is rehabilitating and expanding climate-resilient water supply and sanitation infrastructure to provide safe and affordable drinking water to about 125,000 people and improve sewerage services for 500,000 people. This will especially benefit women, who are usually burdened with the tasks of collecting, storing, and boiling water for household use.

In Uzbekistan, ADB provided transaction advisory services for a public–private partnership (PPP) project to improve water and air quality for the 1.8 million residents of Namangan, the country’s third-largest city. The advisory services were provided for a wastewater treatment project— the first water sector PPP project in Uzbekistan—to improve the quality of water in the Syr Darya River and simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 7,694 tons per year. ADB assisted in project structuring, negotiation, and tender execution, which led to the signing of the PPP agreements for the $96 million project. This work is expected to provide a template for future PPP wastewater treatment investments for Uzbekistan and in other DMCs.

Promoting Rural Development and Food Security

ADB made significant investments across Central and West Asia to ensure food availability, shore up rural livelihoods and productivity, and foster knowledge sharing that can strengthen market linkages for agricultural producers.

Under the BRACE program, ADB provided $50 million to the Kyrgyz Republic to underpin food security, stabilize prices of basic foodstuffs, and protect the livelihoods of vulnerable rural groups—in a country where price indices for key food items, such as bread and cereals, reached 120% in April 2022. At least 7,000 farmers and agribusiness enterprises will receive loans to assist in increasing food production.

The BRACE program is also helping build the resilience of food supply in Tajikistan. ADB committed $50 million under the program in support of measures to help small-scale farmers increase food production and productivity through water- and energy-saving technologies. The ADB financing is assisting the Government of Tajikistan in procuring and maintaining strategic reserves to ensure supply of agricultural and food products for the country’s 9.7 million people.

To drive cross-border trade in rural produce, ADB provided technical assistance for strengthening international food safety standards in the agricultural value chains of Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) member countries. Building on lessons from this assistance, the bank published a report detailing the status of food safety systems in the region. The report, which addresses a knowledge gap for the region, includes recommendations for policy and regulatory reforms, investment planning, and capacity development in food safety control and management. These measures will help CAREC countries ramp up food trade and integrate into global agricultural value chains.

Strengthening Governance and Institutional Capacity

ADB is strengthening the governance and institutional capacities of Central and West Asian DMCs through reforms to public financial management, new approaches to fiscal sustainability, and further capital market development.

ADB committed $30 million in 2022 to strengthen the country’s health infrastructure and improve its resilience to infectious diseases. The project will develop a network of 6 public health laboratories and 11 clinical diagnostic laboratories in high-travel border zones of Chui and Osh oblasts, while ensuring compliance with international health regulations.

ADB also provided substantial financing to upgrade roads vital to cross-border transport and regional connectivity. This benefits landlocked Central and West Asian countries, boosting their strategic role as regional transit hubs and in linking Asia and Europe.

For example, ADB signed a $273.9 million loan to reconstruct and upgrade about 106 km of Uzbekistan’s national road in the Surkhandarya region and complete the reconstruction of about 87 km of the A380 highway, which is part of the CAREC Corridor 2 and connects Uzbekistan with Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

In Tajikistan, ADB committed additional grant financing of $43.2 million to rehabilitate 40 km of road from Okmazor to Bokhtar. The road sections link to Asian Highway 66, a vital connection between Asian and European countries. The ADB investment also supporting the development of road asset management systems.

To help reduce persistently high rates of road fatality and serious injury in Central and West Asia, ADB produced a report outlining approaches and methodologies to improve designs for new roads, upgrades, and rehabilitation projects. To share these insights with DMCs, ADB presented the report at major road forums and conducted online workshops for all CAREC countries.

contributions for 300,000 lower-paid employees and salary increases of 8.5% for 107,000 of the lowest-earning public servants, 75% of whom are women.

Striving to protect Mongolia’s poorest and most vulnerable, ADB worked with 26 civil society organizations to provide basic needs such as food and winter clothing to 4,075 people severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with women comprising 60% of recipients. The project also trained 1,670 people in alternative livelihood opportunities including baking, beekeeping, and horticulture.

Further support for Mongolian livelihoods, especially in agriculture, was confirmed when ADB signed an $18 million nonsovereign loan with the Tavan Bogd Group. To help mitigate supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the investment is assisting Tavan in the procurement of 60,000 tons of wheat and the construction of two storage warehouses and eight restaurants. The project will directly support the livelihoods of 6,000 farmers and 1,505 employees, and will create 358 new jobs, including positions for people with disabilities.

In the PRC, where the proportion of people aged 60 and above is expected to increase from 18.7% in 2020 to 35% by 2050, ADB support since 2014 has helped the city of Yichang create an effective and innovative health-care system for the elderly. Yichang’s experience as a replicable model for other cities in Asia and the Pacific was showcased at a regional forum on elderly care issues, hosted by ADB and the Asian Development Bank Institute in September.

Accelerating Progress in Gender Equality

Among its many investments in 2022 incorporating gender-specific measures, ADB supported projects in East Asia that aim to deliver better outcomes for women working in health and to involve more women in climate-resilient rural development.

With the aim of boosting health outcomes for women in the PRC, ADB committed a $319.8 million loan to strengthen public health institutions in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guizhou Province, and Shaanxi Province. The project will improve the quality of women’s health services and provide training to nearly 2,000 women working in public health. It will introduce emergency protocols and gender guidelines at participating hospitals, enabling the collection and analysis of gender-specific data on emerging infectious diseases. Once fed into the public health information system, the data will help tailor early warning, risk reduction, and management of health security risks according to gender needs, including the prevention and control of major communicable diseases.

Recognizing the central role of women workers in elderly care, ADB published the findings of a study on labor market conditions for health and elderly care workers in the PRC. The study highlights the need for a comprehensive strategy to offer decent jobs in the women-dominated sector, while ensuring quality care services are available for all people with care needs.

To expand income-earning opportunities for women living in rural areas of the PRC’s Gansu Province, ADB set key measures and gender targets under a $151.2 million commitment for economic diversification and climate change mitigation in the province. As part of broader objectives around green development and climate resilience, the project will establish farmer cooperatives, rural associations, and villagers’ enterprises in the project villages, ensuring some are led by women. It will allocate at least 300 jobs to women during project construction, operation, and maintenance, and about 6,800 women will be trained on sustainable low-carbon development.

through improved management of waterways and marine resources in Shandong Province. Planned activities— including water treatment plants, seawater desalination, a facility for biodegradable polymers, and ecosystem restoration—will deliver environmental benefits to more than 1 million people in the province.

ADB further provided a $47.4 million nonsovereign loan to the Bank of Huzhou to provide green financing that will help scale up energy efficiency and drive decarbonization in about 3,200 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. The loan will also help implement a green finance outreach campaign targeting women-led enterprises and women entrepreneurs.

The Bank of Huzhou is one of the pilot banks under an ongoing ADB technical assistance initiative to advance the green transformation of commercial banks in the PRC then share lessons with other DMCs.

Meanwhile, to strengthen the PRC’s economic and financial resilience to disasters caused by natural hazards and health emergencies, ADB released a paper that highlighted the potential of parametric insurance to enhance the country’s disaster risk financing. This knowledge work inspired the PRC’s Ministry of Water Resources to request ADB technical assistance for integrating flood risk management with a disaster risk financing mechanism in the Yangtze River basin.

ADB also provided policy advice and other knowledge inputs to help the PRC create its National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2035, which was launched at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27). Based on the national strategy, ADB and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment began collaborating to develop the first climate change adaptation plan for the Yellow River basin.

Making Cities More Livable

ADB helped create East Asian cities that are more livable and inclusive by investing in urban design that caters to all residents and by drawing on the views of youth in urban development.

In the PRC, the bank committed a $100 million loan to help transform Wuzhou in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region into a more socially inclusive city. This includes expanding the city’s parks and green spaces, creating well-lit places to walk and exercise safely, introducing more public activity spaces for the young and old, and implementing traffic-slowing features to make roadways more pedestrian-friendly. The program will construct two new care service centers and pilot a home modification initiative for older people in low-income and vulnerable households, while also promoting digital literacy for at least 10,000 older residents.

To engage local youth on Mongolia’s urban development, including through future ADB projects, the bank conducted research on the experiences, needs, and aspirations of young people in the Bayankhoshuu and Selbe areas. The research focused on issues such as non-income poverty, gender inequalities, and employment prospects.

Promoting Rural Development and Food Security

ADB worked to bolster agricultural productivity and food security in Mongolia and the PRC by providing both financial and knowledge support, while also addressing long-standing environmental sustainability challenges.

With livestock production accounting for over 80% of Mongolia’s agricultural output and playing a critical role in poverty reduction, ADB provided a $30 million loan to protect pasturelands in Central Mongolia against degradation, drought, and extreme climate events. The project is expected to benefit about 38,600 residents in 20 soums (districts), including more than 7,700 poor and vulnerable people. To complement the loan, ADB provided technical assistance, funded by the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific, to strengthen Mongolia’s food safety and traceability system and enhance the livestock sector’s regulatory framework.

ADB also supported a study to understand how COVID-19 has disrupted Mongolia’s food supply chains and impacted food security, and the solutions needed to create more resilient supply chains. The study’s findings were shared at a Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) workshop on food security and agricultural development held in Istanbul in August.

Fostering climate-resilient agriculture in the PRC, ADB committed a $166.3 million loan to encourage sustainable farming practices in the Yellow River basin. Part of a program

Fostering Regional Cooperation and Integration

ADB supported regional development in East Asia by addressing cross-border pollution and fostering greener economic cooperation, promoting sustainable and inclusive tourism, and advocating for best practices in international e-commerce.

In the PRC’s Heilongjiang Province, ADB provided a $194.8 million loan to reverse the negative impacts of industrial pollution felt within and beyond the PRC and to drive more sustainable economic cooperation in East Asia. The investment will help restore rivers and wetlands and develop economic and free-trade zones based on green building principles. It will particularly help improve water quality and discharges into the Pacific Ocean.

To promote regional tourism across CAREC countries, ADB committed a $30 million loan for the second phase of a project fostering sustainable tourism in Mongolia. The financing will help strengthen local tourism planning and build designated tourism complexes, information centers, and marketplaces in three aimags (provinces) of western Mongolia. Through the project, ADB will help about 16,300 local residents boost their tourism-related skills and incomes.

In 2022, the CAREC Institute, the China Association of Trade in Services, and the ADB–PRC Regional Knowledge Sharing Initiative organized an 18-session training program called Chinese Best Practices in Cross- Border E-Commerce. The program equipped over 3,900 participants with practical knowledge and skills in global e-commerce and discussed key issues such as emerging marketing strategies, intellectual property rights, and payment systems.

to community outbreaks of COVID-19; and $4 million for Tuvalu to cope with extreme drought.

In the Cook Islands, ADB worked with civil society organizations to distribute hygiene and medical equipment to help 32 small island communities manage the spread of COVID-19. The organizations installed wall-mounted handwashing stations, provided personal protective equipment for health clinic staff, and helped roll out the CookSafe national contact tracing system.

To address poverty in the longer term, ADB targets education as a key driver of inclusive growth in the Pacific. With the Government of PNG seeking to strengthen technical and vocational education and training (TVET), ADB committed $50 million for a project designed to support the country’s disadvantaged youth. This will help about 12,000 young people move into jobs in the growth sectors of agriculture and construction. The project will also strengthen measures to increase enrollment in TVET courses by girls, students from low-income households, and people with disabilities.

Encouraging self-employment and cottage industry as another pathway out of poverty, ADB provided technical assistance to enhance inclusive lending by government-owned banks in Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu. The assistance is helping the banks increase the number and volume of loans to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises and introduce business development services to assist these enterprises. It will also develop digital financial tools to reach sole traders and microenterprises outside major commercial centers and improve services for businesses owned or led by women, recognizing their additional impediments in getting access to finance.

Accelerating Progress in Gender Equality

During 2022, ADB expanded its efforts toward greater economic security and social well-being for Pacific women, including investments in crisis relief, prevention of gender-based violence, and women’s entrepreneurship.

Following its COVID -19 response during 2021 for poor and vulnerable groups in Palau, ADB provided a $3.5 million grant in 2022—along with $1.8 million in additional support from the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific, and the Government of Ireland—to finance a similar project in Vanuatu. The project, targeting 250 poor and vulnerable households headed by women, will establish local gardening schemes, offer advice on nutrition and diet, and provide seed grants for home-based food businesses. In addition, the investment will help finance prevention programs around gender-based violence, while an online awareness campaign to eliminate such violence will reach at least 15,000 adolescents.

To assist women in Palau to start and grow businesses, ADB committed a $30 million policy-based loan in support of the country’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its public financial management. The loan will ensure that tax system reforms include measures to remove barriers for women in formalizing their businesses, including simplified registration processes to reduce costs and save time. By encouraging women to register their businesses, their potential to access commercial finance will be enhanced. The program will also support the implementation of Palau’s new Corporations Law, the creation of a new electronic companies registry with expanded sex-disaggregated data, and the implementation of the National Infrastructure Investment Plan to deliver infrastructure services that better meet the needs of women and girls.

Tackling Climate Change, Building Climate and Disaster Resilience, and Enhancing Environmental Sustainability

The Pacific is home to some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, especially small island nations susceptible to sea-level rises and disasters triggered by

considering in particular the evolving ways people and goods move, to develop transport sector road maps and strategies that address climate issues.

Across Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu, ADB collaborated with civil society organizations under its Youth for Asia initiative to engage young people on climate issues and support their ideas for local climate solutions. This included training on tackling climate change for 329 Pacific youth, with 11 local youth climate projects implemented through small grants of up to $5,000. For example, a youth group in Kiribati was funded to develop their concept for a solar-powered water distillation facility in their local community, while people aged 14–28 participated in a project to inspire creative works on climate change in the Marshall Islands.

Making Cities More Livable

Across the Pacific, and particularly in the region’s small island developing states, improved provision of basic utility services—such as environmentally sustainable power and better waste management—is critical to make urban areas more livable.

In PNG, where only 13% of households have direct access to electricity, ADB committed $208.6 million in loans for a project to expand and enhance power services, especially in urban centers. The project will enable the national power utility to serve 56,000 new customers, contribute to the government’s objective of connecting 70% of its population to electricity by 2030, and advance reforms in the power sector.

In Tonga, ADB provided a $7.2 million grant under the Pacific Renewable Energy Investment Facility as the final phase of assistance to transform the power grid in the capital Nuku’alofa. The project will enable reliable access to

electricity by upgrading the aged and inefficient network to a higher standard of disaster resilience. The climate-resilient network, coupled with the South Pacific’s largest battery energy storage system, will expand access to renewable energy for Nuku’alofa’s population of about 25,000 people.

To address waste management challenges in urban areas of Solomon Islands, ADB provided a $3 million grant to help the government explore new approaches for the capital Honiara, where 41% of residents lack access to solid waste management collection services. The project will work in informal settlements—home to around 40% of the city’s population—to design and test waste collection methods and prepare a subsequent investment project based on this knowledge. People in informal settlements, including women burdened with the task of manual waste collection and disposal, will be closely engaged in project development.

Promoting Rural Development and Food Security

Improved transport and market connectivity between and within Pacific DMCs remained a focus of ADB’s rural development and food security initiatives throughout 2022.

With a focus on people in remote and rural areas, ADB signed a $30 million grant with the Government of Tuvalu to improve the country’s domestic shipping services, which are the only means of transport between many outer islands and the capital Funafuti. The ADB funding will help replace one of two aging passenger and cargo ships that operate to and from Funafuti and the outer islands, and provide services between Tuvalu and Fiji and Kiribati. The project will open up economic opportunities for local people, contribute to safer and more energy-efficient movement of agricultural produce, and encourage increased trade between Tuvalu and neighboring countries. The grant will also help rehabilitate port infrastructure.

To support inclusive growth in PNG, particularly in rural areas, ADB committed a $162.9 million loan to help the country upgrade its civil aviation network. The project will strengthen and upgrade runways, taxiways, terminal buildings, and other infrastructure for five airports, bringing them into compliance with national aviation safety and security standards and accommodating future traffic growth. The project will extend aviation services to rural areas by providing all-weather airstrips that will better link remote rural areas to markets and service centers.

Strengthening Governance and Institutional Capacity

Strengthening policy frameworks and public revenue management, implementing economic and fiscal reforms, streamlining state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and underpinning the delivery of public services were all part of ADB’s priorities to build resilience for the Pacific in 2022.

Following on from the vital liquidity support that helped Fiji Airways navigate the impacts of COVID-19 in 2021, ADB administered a $3 million grant to further support Fiji’s post-pandemic recovery. The grant from the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific helped strengthen the country’s capacity to safely reopen to tourists and businesspeople—who mostly come from other parts of the Pacific—through health and safety measures at Nadi International Airport to prevent COVID-19 transmission. These measures included a dedicated facility for COVID-19 testing.

In Samoa, ADB provided a $7.5 million grant and mobilized $30.9 million in cofinancing to support government reforms in areas such as foreign investment, finance sector activities, and labor standards. The reforms will bolster regional cooperation and integration by reducing barriers to foreign investment through transparent and rules-based policies that limit discretionary powers and reduce transaction and contract risks through online credit and business registries. Financial inclusion and fiduciary measures under the program will support cross-border remittances, while improved anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing activities will promote adherence to international financial standards. Additionally, the program supports enhanced labor standards that will better protect migrant workers.

To enhance fiscal resilience and sustainability across the Pacific, ADB supported the International Monetary Fund’s Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre toward strengthening capacities to conduct sound macroeconomic analysis, with a particular focus on climate change and gender issues, across all 14 DMCs in the region. This will help improve the design and implementation of prudent public financial management, revenue administration, and financial sector supervision policies, including by expanding knowledge sharing between Pacific DMCs to address both country-specific and regional issues in macro-fiscal management.

committing $10 million in financing to Bhutan and a $10 million grant to Maldives. APVAX is supporting Bhutan with the purchase of further COVID-19 vaccines, enhanced disease surveillance, and expansion of essential health-care services. In Maldives, the APVAX grant will upgrade vaccine cold-storage facilities, strengthen distribution with new speedboats and refrigerated trucks, and digitalize vaccine information management.

To protect Bangladesh’s vulnerable communities in the wake of COVID-19, ADB provided a $250 million policy-based loan—matching its $250 million commitment made in 2021— to reinforce reforms aimed at strengthening social protection coverage and enhancing financial inclusion. The program includes support for poor urban communities to access affordable rice and wheat.

ADB also committed $71.4 million in additional emergency assistance to improve living conditions for displaced people from Myanmar sheltered in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. The project includes a $41.4 million Asian Development Fund grant to expand and upgrade health facilities and improve water supply and sanitation. The assistance also includes a $30 million loan to rehabilitate a major road in Cox’s Bazar, hastening the delivery of relief and essential goods.

In Nepal, to reduce inequities in education, ADB signed a $200 million loan and provided technical assistance to support the government’s ambitious $3.6 billion education reform program. The program will accelerate recovery from learning losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and is expected to benefit about 8.1 million schoolchildren, including those from disadvantaged groups, in all seven provinces.

Accelerating Progress in Gender Equality

ADB invested in 2022 to scale up the protection of South Asia’s women and children and to create financial pathways for women entrepreneurs, particularly those operating microenterprises. The bank also focused on bolstering gender equality and social inclusion approaches in the region.

In Nepal, ADB provided a $12 million grant as well as technical assistance to support government efforts to address gender-based violence. The project will help encourage the reporting of, and hasten the response to, gender-based violence by establishing safe, confidential, and respectful environments within district and area police stations. These will include private rooms for emergency accommodation, including childcare rooms, and residential facilities for women police officers. The project will also establish longer-term rehabilitation centers to help survivors recover and ease their reintegration into society. The project will also increase awareness on prevention of gender-based violence and the availability of services, reaching up to 500,000 individuals via social media campaigns.

In Maldives, ADB committed a $7.5 million grant and provided technical assistance for the bank’s first holistic gender equality project in the country. As well as strengthening the capacity of the Maldives social service system for aged care and early childcare, the project will establish partnerships between government and civil society organizations to support prevention of gender-based and domestic violence. It will also construct shelters for survivors of violence in Addu, Hulhumale, and Raa-Ungoofaaru. Other project initiatives will see gender-responsive budgeting introduced into government systems and improved use of gender equality and social inclusion statistics.

With a view to assisting women entrepreneurs, ADB committed a $200 million loan in Bangladesh to expand access to finance for unbanked and underbanked microenterprises disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The project sets targets that, by the end of 2027, it will have supported loans for a minimum 80,000 women-led microenterprises and economically empowered at least 56,000 other women by expanding microenterprises.

decarbonizing the country’s power sector, focusing on electricity across a 10-year time horizon, and including an assessment of macroeconomic impacts. The study is informing the preparation of a proposed ADB policy-based loan for reforms to India’s power sector.

Making Cities More Livable

With rapid population growth occurring in many cities across South Asia, improving urban livability in the region requires significant investment to ensure adequate provision of essential services, especially in water supply and transport.

In Bangladesh’s fast-growing capital Dhaka, ADB committed additional financing of $140 million, and mobilized $141.5 million in cofinancing, for a project that is supporting environmentally sustainable water infrastructure and institutional development. This ongoing project is developing the Meghna River, which has good water quality and ample quantity even during the dry season, as a sustainable water source. The project will build a new supply scheme to deliver reliable water for Dhaka’s growing population, which is expected to reach 28.1 million by 2030.

With traffic congestion also seriously impacting living conditions in Dhaka, ADB provided transaction advisory services to the Roads and Highways Department and the Public–Private Partnership Authority of Bangladesh to develop a four-lane expressway stretching 13.5 km. The expressway will provide an alternative and less-congested gateway to and from Dhaka, easing access from the center of the city to residential areas and other cities. ADB assisted in project structuring, negotiations, and tender execution, which led to the signing of a public–private partnership agreement for the $260 million project.

To address demand for public transport in Chennai, ADB and the Government of India signed a $350 million loan to develop three new metro rail lines connecting the metropolitan center to expanded residential areas in the south and west of the city. With Chennai’s population expected to reach 12.5 million people by 2026, the ADB-supported project will stimulate economic growth by expanding access to public and social services such as schools, health facilities, and workplaces. It will also lower greenhouse gas emissions in the Chennai Metropolitan Area by 28,294 tons per year, improving air quality for residents.

This project in Chennai can also help the Government of India explore possibilities for transit-oriented development and land value capture, which were outlined in an ADB study on realizing the country’s potential to enhance the livability of cities through inclusive and sustainable urban mobility.

Promoting Rural Development and Food Security

Modernizing agriculture and improving the connectivity of farming communities to economic centers are central to achieving food security and improving the quality of rural life in South Asia.

As part of ADB’s efforts to enhance longer-term food security in Nepal, the bank provided support to improve the climate resilience of the country’s horticulture sector. The $70 million in financing will boost the productivity of over 30,000 farming households in five provinces, mainly through the climate-resilient development of around 10,000 hectares of fruit and nut orchards. It will provide partial grants to farmer groups and cooperatives to shoulder investment costs, while a credit guarantee fund will be established for farmers who lack the collateral to access formal rural finance. The beneficiary groups, comprising at least 30% women and 20% disadvantaged people, will be trained in climate change adaptation practices.

To ramp up food production in India through enhancedefficiency fertilizers, ADB provided a nonsovereign loan of $30 million to the Maharashtra-based Smartchem Technologies Limited. The investment supports capital expenditure, training, and research and development for fertilizers that increase agricultural productivity, reduce water and soil contamination, and improve resilience to climate change. It includes technical assistance to build the soil management skills and financial literacy of 1,800 farmers and complements earlier ADB sovereign investments to promote agribusiness networks and reduce food losses in Maharashtra.

ADB also provided a $350 million loan to support the upgrading of Maharashtra’s core road network. This will expand off-farm income opportunities for remote and rural populations, in particular women and disadvantaged groups, while also improving access to markets, health facilities, and social services.

In Bangladesh, ADB provided $143 million for a program to increase trade volumes and improve the efficiency, predictability, and security of cross-border trade among countries under South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation. The program supports reforms that will bring Bangladesh’s customs legal framework into compliance with international standards, improve cargo clearance processes, and strengthen the capacity of relevant ministries. It will also help construct integrated customs stations and land ports at three border crossing points.

Responding to a request from the Government of India, ADB funded a study on the development of a North East Economic Corridor. The northeast states form the pivot for India’s integration with other economies in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The resulting paper prioritized 19 border points, identified gaps hindering international trade, and offered recommendations for greater participation in regional value chains. Its findings are informing the preparation of ADB’s urban, transport, tourism, and infrastructure project pipelines, valued at around $2 billion.

Complementing this knowledge work, ADB committed $300 million to upgrade 312.5 km of state highways and major district roads in the northeast state of Assam. The project is expected to reduce travel times and operating costs for transport and freight operations to South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation corridors and cross-border trade centers.

In Maldives, ADB committed a nonsovereign loan of $9.1 million as the first tranche of a $20 million debt financing facility to help Dhivehi Raajjeyge Gulhun Public Limited Company (Dhiraagu) expand mobile and internet coverage—the first private sector infrastructure financing transaction in the country. The 2022 investment will support Dhiraagu in upgrading network capacity, expanding data centers, and enhancing mobile services in and outside the capital Malé. The ongoing project will connect Maldives to global telecommunications infrastructure, attracting private sector investment and enabling digital cross-border trade.

from 76% in 2019 to at least 92% by 2025. It also targets borrowing by micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises to comprise at least 30% of bank lending by 2025, up from 19% in 2018.

To expand the availability of affordable medical equipment and supplies in Indonesia, especially those needed by vulnerable and remote populations, ADB subscribed to an initial public offering to provide an equity investment of $12.3 million in rupiah equivalent to PT Jayamas Medica Industri (JMI). The investment will help JMI expand its operations by building two manufacturing facilities and a national distribution center and adding 15 branch warehouses and 25 retail stores. These new enterprises will provide permanent jobs for at least 150 people.

In the Philippines, ADB extended a $100 million loan to help modernize the country’s technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system so that it can respond effectively to an increasingly technology-and knowledge-driven jobs market. The project—which focuses on improving the quality of skilling programs, enhancing the capacity of trainers, and upgrading facilities—is expected to boost employment prospects for around 300,000 graduates, many from low-income households.

Accelerating Progress in Gender Equality

During 2022, ADB’s work to advance gender equality in Southeast Asia included a sharp focus on women’s economic participation and entrepreneurship as drivers to reverse setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Women’s participation in economic activities is a focus of ADB knowledge work in the Lao PDR. In collaboration with the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ADB released a joint report on the constraints faced by Lao women entrepreneurs in doing business. The report presented the findings of a survey in which women entrepreneurs reported that their business registration takes longer and costs more than for men. The report urges the government to train staff to overcome hidden gender biases and make it easier for women to create and run businesses. To this end, ADB and the chamber convened a national dialogue advocating for regulatory changes that support women.

To help ensure more Filipino women and girls can access appropriate skills training for well-paid employment, ADB and the Government of the Philippines launched SkillsUpNet, an employer-led scheme offering grants in priority sectors, including agribusiness, construction, animation, and tourism. Some 66 enterprises participated in the scheme during 2022, and 326 of the 597 trainees were women. Additionally, 11 women-led enterprises received business leadership coaching via SkillsUpNet.

In Timor-Leste, ADB partnered with the Superior Council of Judicial Magistrates to hold a training program for the country’s entire judiciary on laws and procedures relating to gender issues and violence against women and girls. The training covered the experiences of survivors and the social and cultural norms most relevant to gender-based violence in the country. It also addressed the challenges faced by Timor-Leste’s judges in adjudicating on cases of gender-based violence and highlighted international best practices in this area.

In Viet Nam, ADB is investing to improve the lives of women and allow them to share more equally in the country’s rising prosperity. The bank committed a $19.7 million nonsovereign loan for Hayat Kimya Vietnam Company Limited to make childcare and women’s products more affordable through the construction of a manufacturing facility for hygiene pads, wet wipes, and baby diapers. The investment will help Hayat Kimya promote gender equality in its marketing, expand awareness of the benefits of hygiene products, and initiate career development programs for women graduates and professionals.

ADB provided transaction advisory support to Electricité du Cambodge, Cambodia’s national power utility, leading to the signing of a power purchase agreement to develop a 40-megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant in Kampong Chhnang Province. The plant’s additional capacity will reduce dependency on power imports from neighboring countries and mitigate CO₂ emissions by approximately 73,800 tons each year. The $23 million project will have a very low tariff of $2.57 per megawatt-hour, demonstrating that solar energy can be a cost-effective alternative to fossil fuels.

Making Cities  More Livable

In a region where basic municipal services require substantial further investment and are threatened by climate change vulnerability, ADB committed to a range of complementary initiatives to tackle urban challenges across Southeast Asia. To improve the public transport network in Metro Manila, ADB committed $1.75 billion as the first tranche of a wider $4.3 billion investment program, the bank’s biggest infrastructure investment to date. The first phase will construct 54.6 kilometers of commuter railway connecting Metro Manila and Calamba, including 18 rail stations with special access features for women, children, older people, and people with disabilities. The new line is expected to lessen air pollution, avoid 284,425 tons of CO₂ equivalent emissions each year, and cut the journey time by half for an estimated 269,000 passengers daily.

In Timor-Leste, rapid urbanization in Dili—now home to two-thirds of the country’s population—has placed great stress on water supply and solid waste infrastructure. ADB has provided financing support to the government as well as public–private partnership (PPP) transaction advisory services to help provide safe and reliable water and solid