Asian Development Bank
Increasing the impact of the Asian Development Bank’s technical assistance program
Aiming for practical and pertinent technical assistance
Authors:
Publisher:
Asian Development Bank , 2007
How can the Asian Development Bank (ADB) increase the development effectiveness of its technical assistance (TA) operations? This paper offers concrete recommendations to do so.
Authors contend that the development effectiveness of ADB’s TA requires a comprehensive set of actions to:
- strengthen strategic planning
- improve quality-enhancement mechanisms
- increase the use of knowledge generated through TA operations
- increase country ownership
- streamline procedures
- rationalise the financial management of TA resources
Actionable proposals are put forth, they are classified into three categories:
- product reforms
- procedural reforms
- financial management improvements
To conclude, the paper identifies systemic issues that are beyond the scope of the current analysis, but which could influence the degree of success of the proposed initiatives. They include staff skills in institutional analysis and the high turnover of staff assigned to specific tasks.
