For the last 50 years, the Philippines has graciously hosted the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its premises. Local academic institutions such as the University of the Philippines, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, and the Asian Institute of Management, on their own or in various partnerships with ADB through the years, have undertaken initiatives that contribute to ADB’s vision of a poverty-free Asia and Pacific region. These initiatives ranged from building the capacity of national and local leaders to manage complex governance structures, to exploring solutions to address the growing challenges of urbanization, climate change, and more, to undertaking research to expand the region’s knowledge base in multiple focus areas.

Combining the knowledge and experience of local academic institutions with ADB’s extensive practical knowledge from its operations can lead to the crafting of more innovative and sustainable knowledge solutions that yield bigger, better, and brighter results not just for the Philippines, but for the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.

This year, ADB has introduced the knowledge partnership agreement (KPA) as a new modality to optimize the benefits from partnerships. KPAs are non-commercial agreements that allow ADB and knowledge partners who share a common goal to jointly develop and deliver work programs.

This roundtable discussion aimed to kick start a more cohesive and productive partnership between ADB and local academic institutions in the Philippines, with the end in view of ultimately doing more to help communities lead better lives.