Medium-term Strategy: Improving the Quality and Increasing the Volume of CDD in ADB

5.2 Medium-term Strategy: Improving the Quality and Increasing the Volume of CDD in ADB

187. Improving Quality. In order to improve the performance and effectiveness of CDD approaches at ADB, a combination of some of the lessons from experience elsewhere and some issues specific to ADB should be addressed, some of which have been suggested in the ADB OED (2004) evaluation (Box 6), as follows:

projects generated overly-positive expectations of the IAD approach, and resulted in rapid replication of IAD projects in World Bank, ADB, and many other agencies in the 1980s and 1990s. By the late 1990s, many IAD projects were found to have suffered serious problems, including in particular, less relevant project interventions (due to a standard package of project investments) and poor project sustainability. The finding was a bit too late as the rapid replication of IAD projects in so many countries had already resulted in substantial waste of public resources.” From comments by Qiaolun Ye, OED 1, submitted 10 April 2006.

It may also provide an opportunity to test new flexible loan instruments, such as APLs or LILs.

In this context, some of the options and lessons revealed in the Kalahi-CIDDS and MASAF examples presented earlier could be used.

x CDD design has to involve control of resources by communities. As discussed earlier and noted by ADB, 112 this is the critical means for empowerment under the CDD approach. So far, this has been applied in ADB only to a limited extent.

x Methods for participatory planning need to be adopted that allow inclusion of excluded and/or vulnerable groups (e.g., the poor, women, low castes, and ethnic minorities), and an open menu of choices for subprojects.

x Appropriate diagnostic work to understand local conditions should be undertaken and, wherever possible, existing participatory approaches and institutions should be built on when designing a CDD operation.

x Given the nature of CDD operations, greater attention to implementation arrangements and detailed operational manuals should be made. Guidance to mission leaders and project officers on terms of reference for community facilitators, guidelines on participatory planning and consultation, subproject application guidelines and assessment rules, and simple community contract agreements all need to be provided in advance. Samples of these could be prepared by RSGS for general ADB reference.

x Related to the above, for future efforts using a CDD approach in ADB, greater allocations for capacity building and “software” elements of projects have to be made from the overall project budgets or supporting grant resources. This includes expenditures on training of community groups and local governments, social mobilization and communication/awareness campaigns, project management, and M&E.

x Scaling-up of CDD operations should be done in a sequenced and a phased manner by testing alternative approaches and monitoring outcomes, as has often been suggested in the literature and seen through successful examples of CDD in other institutions.

x It is important for CDD operations in ADB to link with formal decentralization strategies of client governments. 113 Also, like the example of the Kalahi-CIDSS, mechanisms of horizontal integration, such as interministerial coordination bodies/arrangements, are also important.

x Similarly, emphasis should be given to strengthening country systems for community participation and empowerment by adopting a holistic and coordinated approach to capacity building by ADB in DMCs. This would involve strengthening the institutional environment for participation, organizational structures and processes in local governments, and CBO/NGO capacities. 114

x Participatory M&E and social accountability mechanisms, such as community scorecards, social audits or grievance redress mechanisms (such as in Kalahi-CIDSS), should be incorporated; these were little used in previous projects. 115

ADB OED (2004).

Examples of such a linkage to a broader local development framework already exist in ADB, such as RETA 6008 on Gender and Governance Issues in Local Government and TA 4707-BAN: Participation of the Urban Poor in Municipal Governance.

From comments to an earlier draft of this report by Claudia Buentjen, RSCG, received 5 April 2006.

RSCG has already developed knowledge products and promoted the use of some social accountability tools in such operations as citizen report cards, social audits, and participatory budgeting.

x Finally, partnerships should be established with the World Bank and other institutions on CDD design and implementation. This could take the form of joint learning events, staff exchange programs/joint missions, joint funding of relevant research, cofinancing of large-scale CDD operations, and country-level donor exchange and donor harmonization (such as the Decentralized Support Facility in Indonesia).