Back in 2008, Mongolia suffered from the highest inflation rate in Asia, reaching up to 30%. This led to lower food quality, especially for women and limited funds for education and health needs. The government, through ADB assistance, established a food stamp program to help the poor buy critical food items. This presentation shares how this program was succesfully implemented and how it helped ease the burden of those affected by the crisis.

More than a rate of return calculations, economic analysis serves as an integrated framework or tool to select and design good projects. Economic analysis has a crucial role in assessing a project’s economic benefits and costs, potential development impact, and potential risks. This presentation gives a snapshot of how economic analysis is applied in ADB operations.

Investing in communications by creatively allocating or leveraging funds for project communication activities results to conflict prevention. This report examines ADB’s Accountability Mechanism and discusses the role of communications in conflicts featuring ADB-assisted projects in Cambodia, Nepal, and Samoa as case studies.

Can Fiji overcome the challenges to its healthcare system and meet the health service demands of its people?

ADB's Frances Ng, in a session of ADB's in-house Health Talks lecture series, discussed Fiji’s health system. Using a population-centric approach, the health service demands of the Fijian population have been modelled into the future to assess and quantify infrastructure and service requirements. The results highlight clear opportunities for investments.

What can Asia's youth do to promote healthy lifestyles and fight noncommunicable diseases?

ADB's Enrique Corpus and Shruti Mehta shared lessons from an experiential learning program on the youth's role in creating a conducive environment for promoting physical activity to fight noncommunicable diseases in the region. They also shared data on the economic burden of physical inactivity, and best practices cases on how sports and play-based learning play a positive role in ADB projects. This presentation was part of Health Talks, an ADB in-house lecture series.

An increasing number of individuals are now using digital financing, yet many are still unbanked in Asia. In today's digital age, new ways to pay without using cash are now being offered, providing individuals and businesses alike much-sought for convenience and speed. This presentation gives an overview of digital payments and the policies and regulations that affect digital financial services. It also discusses how this new way of banking influences financial inclusion in Asia.

Learn how the road safety star rating is done and how it can be incorporated into ADB loan projects. Explore the tools being used such as the Star Rating Demonstrator, and the new application being developed for school communities to measure safety on roads.

The pursuit of gender equality is complex and challenging. This presentation looks into the context of pushing for gender equality in the Philippines, particularly the gains and challenges of the Philippine Commission on Women.

Social media is changing the way people and organizations communicate and consume information. This presentation shares how social media influences ADB in its communication and decision-making activities, and where ADB stands in the social media landscape.