ADB senior Management, led by the ADB President, met with representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs) and discussed development priorities and concerns raised by CSOs, including environmental and social safeguards and engagement with civil society.

In his opening remarks, President Asakawa highlighted ADB’s continued consultation on the Safeguards Policy Review and Update and its draft operational approach to civil society engagement. These aim to increase meaningful CSO engagement in ADB policies, country partnership strategies, and projects and strengthen knowledge-sharing and dialogue among ADB, governments, the private sector, and CSOs. His remarks were followed by a dialogue between the CSO participants and President Asakawa and ADB senior Management.

Giorgio Kdiashvili from the Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information–Georgia called attention to public demonstrations on the streets of Tbilisi relating to the draft “foreign agents” law and asked about ADB’s perspective concerning engagement with civil society organizations across different countries. In response, the ADB President underscored ADB’s approach of working with all development partners, including CSOs, to improve governance, inclusion, and sustainability in all developing member countries (DMCs), including Georgia.

Sarah Isabelle Torres of the Reality of Aid Network asked how the ADB evolution roadmap will influence how ADB works and foresees its role post-Agenda 2023 amid multiple, integrated crises. In response, the ADB President highlighted ADB’s commitment to be a “better, bigger and more effective MDB” and cited several examples of ADB’s progress, such as a significantly expanded ambition to deliver $100 billion in cumulative climate finance between 2019 and 2030. He pointed to ADB’s highest-ever level of climate finance, $9.8 billion of which was approved in 2023; steps to increase ADB lending capacity by an additional $100 billion over the next decade; and implementation of the New Operating Model, involving breaking down organizational silos, decentralizing staff to be closer to ADB’s clients, and investing in technology to improve the efficiency of ADB systems.

Rayyan Hassan of the NGO Forum on ADB raised several concerns about the draft Environmental and Social Framework (ESF). In response, President Asakawa and Nianshan Zhang highlighted the comprehensive process for developing the new ESF that spans 170 consultations, engaging over 34,400 stakeholders, including 622 individuals affected by 9 projects and 1,814 participants from CSOs. The draft ESF has been available on ADB's website since September 2023, with the comment period open until 6 May 2024. The final ESF is expected to be released by July 2024. ADB welcomes feedback and remains open to organizing separate consultations with CSOs to discuss concerns related to the standards.

CSOs also raised questions about energy transition, and ADB’s climate actions. In their responses, the panelists confirmed ADB’s commitment to safeguards, accountability mechanisms, just transition, and working with civil society as development partners in its DMCs.

Content originally published at https://www.adb.org/annual-meeting/2024/events/meeting-cso-adb-management