Country Assistance and Country Sector Assistance Program Evaluations

India has one of the largest and fastest-growing urban populations in the world, but faces several issues in providing adequate infrastructure and services to its cities.  The percentage of the population living in urban areas increased from 17.3% in 1951 to 31.6% in 2011 and is projected to reach 37.0% by 2031. Indian cities suffer from increasing congestion and pressure on urban services and housing. The Government of India, through its flagship programs and fiscal transfers, encourages state governments to undertake legislative and institutional reforms and help build the capacity of urban local bodies in delivering services.

Bangladesh is celebrating 50 years of independence. Over this period, impressive development targets have been reached and, before the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Bangladesh was recording the highest rates of growth in its economic history and the highest in South Asia. The economy grew by 8.2% in 2019 and, until the pandemic, by a similar level in 2020. The high levels of poverty that Bangladesh experienced 50 years ago have fallen consistently over the last 3 decades. 

The Indonesian economy has been growing at a steady annual rate of about 5% in recent years. Indonesia has also made great progress in reducing its poverty rate, which fell below 10% in 2018, although income inequality is high and rural poverty remains a challenge. Infrastructure bottlenecks, a weak business environment, skills shortages, and low productivity and competitiveness are among the many challenges that Indonesia faces in accelerating its economic growth. Asian Development Bank (ADB) operations in Indonesia have aimed to address these development challenges and to ease some of the binding constraints on Indonesia’s growth.

Indonesia is the largest economy in Southeast Asia. The growth of its real gross domestic product has remained stable at over 5% in the past 5 years, underpinned by robust domestic demand. In a context where digital finance and financial technology are surging, the financial sector has the potential to become the engine supporting this economic growth. It is therefore important that banks, nonbank financial institutions and the private sector deepen their role in financial intermediation, supported by proper regulatory and prudential standards to assure the continued stability of the financial system.

Pakistan has endured a severe energy crisis over the past decade, with long blackouts and industries unable to operate at optimal levels because of the inadequate power supply. The share of oil-fired power plants in the energy mix for power generation in Pakistan contributes disproportionately to the high average cost of power supply, impacting on the welfare of the overall population, particularly the poor.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been the leading development partner in Pakistan, supporting the energy sector with $7 .8 billion approved and $6.2 billion committed from 2005 to 2017. ADB support across all energy subsectors has helped expand and strengthen the national power grid, build power plants, increase access to electricity, and initiate important sector reforms.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) program in Azerbaijan over 2011–2017 consisted of 47 lending and nonlending operations totaling $5.1 billion: 21 sovereign loans and guarantees, 10 nonsovereign loans, and 16 technical assistance projects.

This evaluation assesses the performance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) strategy and program for India from 2007 to 2015. Its findings are intended to feed into the design of the next country partnership strategy (CPS).

ADB provided a total of $22.1 billion to India, including $17.2 billion through sovereign loans and grants, $4.7 billion for nonsovereign operations, and $151.7 million in technical assistance grants. Most of the supported operations are in transport, energy, finance, and water and other urban infrastructure and services.

This evaluation assesses ADB’s support for Sri Lanka over 2006–2015, to inform the preparation and design of a new country partnership strategy that will guide ADB’s Sri Lanka operations from 2017 to 2021. 

For more than three decades beginning in the early 1980s, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has experienced uninterrupted growth. By 2010, the PRC had been transformed in to an upper middle-income country. It is now the world’s second largest economy, the largest exporter of merchandise and the fifth largest exporter of commercial services. Massive development challenges have accumulated along the way, most notably related to governance and fiscal imbalances, environmental degradation, and social inequalities. The government has chosen to slow down growth and address these challenges. Difficult reforms are required across many dimensions, and as the International Monetary Fund has noted, for the PRC, the main risk is failure to implement reforms to address financial risks, rebalance the economy, and tap new sources of growth.

This report is the second country assistance program evaluation for Papua New Guinea (PNG). The first evaluation covered the period 1986–2002, and was prepared in September 2003. This second evaluation covers the period January 2001–June 2014, spanning three country strategies—country assistance plan, 2001–2003; country strategy and program, 2006–2010; and country partnership strategy (CPS), 2011–2015. The report provides an assessment of the performance of ADB support to the country during the evaluation period, and discusses factors affecting performance. The report draws lessons and makes recommendations for the next country partnership strategy (CPS) for PNG.