The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japanese government said Monday they would tighten their ties to fight poverty, especially in Asia.
"We still have so much to do," Shoji Nishimoto, ADB director of strategy and policy development, told a press conference after a meeting of representatives of the three bodies here.
"We must implement and execute projects (to reduce poverty in Asia) swiftly and speedily while continuing our dialogue with civic organisations and non governmental organisations (NGOs) over what we can do to help."
Nishimoto and his counterparts from the World Bank and Japan's finance ministry met to review NGO-led projects aimed at reducing Asian poverty that have been running for a year and are largely financed by funds managed by the two banks.
The Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, managed by the ADB, was established in May 2000 and the World Bank's Japan Social Development Fund began operating in June 2000.
The funds give money to NGOs which, for example, teach job skills to street children or run programmes to prevent the spread of diseases in poverty-stricken regions.
The Japanese government gave 10 billion yen (81.3 million dollars) to each of the funds.
World Bank vice president Motoo Kusakabe said the grants from the funds were considered "seed money" for community-based projects to fight poverty.
"The fund allows us to help small programmes that do not otherwise qualify for funding from their respective countries," he told the press conference. "In that way, the fund really extends a helping hand to socially disadvantaged individuals."
Individual programmes may be small, but they still help the recipients, Nishimoto said.
"We give money to projects that complement our main business -- tied loan activities," he said. "We want those small projects to create a ripple effect and synergy with other programmes."
He added that such projects could be difficult to manage, admitting some get side-tracked and fail to help the poor, making it important to maintain effective monitoring and launch new projects to help more people. |
