With their unique strengths and specialized knowledge of their communities and constituencies, civil society organizations (CSOs) have an essential role to play in creating a more prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific. This publication provides guidance on how CSOs can be more effectively engaged in Asian Development Bank (ADB) operations to maximize the benefits for its developing member countries. It provides advice, templates, and tips for ADB staff and country officials to use when designing, implementing, and monitoring ADB-financed operations.

Under the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s long-term corporate strategy, ADB will strengthen its collaboration with civil society organizations. The ADB’s South Asia Department is playing a leading role in delivering on ADB’s commitment to meaningful engagement with civil society. This report identifies trends in ADB’s approaches to civil society engagement in South Asia over 2015-2021. It examines ADB’s civil society engagement in South Asia in project and program design, implementation and monitoring plus strategy and policy development. The report provides analysis, lessons and recommendations for enhanced ADB and civil society engagement in South Asia.

Providing an authoritative yet accessible introduction to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), this comprehensive Companion offers a detailed examination of the ADB’s objectives, policies, development outcomes, strengths and weaknesses, areas for reform, and challenges going forward.

This publication reports the results of an exploratory study on civil society organization (CSO) engagement---particularly nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs)---in Asian Development Bank (ADB) operations. The focus is on South Asia and the starting point of inquiry is on 33 projects that illustrate the roles and forms of NGO and CBO engagement in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The report includes a section on ADB technical assistance and grant projects. Another section presents other potential areas of CSO engagement such as in project planning stages, development and evaluation of the sector and country partnership strategies, and corporate policy and strategy discussions. The concluding section puts forward challenges and areas of innovation that may be considered in collaborating with NGOs with the aim of enhancing the quality of ADB development efforts.

This revised edition offers updated information and an expanded range of tools to support ADB staff and stakeholders to implement participatory approaches effectively. The updated content reflects ADB's new business processes and highlights key opportunities for participation in policy dialogue and throughout the project cycle, and advises on methods and approaches, as well as pitfalls to avoid. In this edition, special attention is given to safeguards, gender, governance, HIV/AIDS and infrastructure, and water and sanitation. A wealth of participation resources developed by a wide range of organizations exists online; this guide includes an inventory of references for those seeking further information.

The Annual Report of Civil Society Cooperation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) details the work that ADB has done in 2009 in collaboration with civil society. This report examines how, in the new context of Strategy 2020, partnerships with civil society are playing this role as drivers of change. In the second section of Part I, the report outlines the methodology for measuring civil society participation in ADB operations. In Part II of the report, the narrative looks first at the role of civil society organizations at the policy level, and then at annual events and surveys with civil society participation. Next, it moves to examine the role of civil society in ADB operations at the project level. This section provides an in-depth analysis of the statistics of civil society articipation in ADB-funded loans, grants, and related project preparatory technical assistance, and then stand-alone technical assistance. The analysis looks at civil society participation in projects approved in 2009 by region, sector, and theme for both sets of funding instruments.

Through detailed comparative case studies of civil society engagement with two major regional international organizations in Southeast Asia this book demonstrates the potentials and limitations of civil society actors as democratizing agents in governance beyond the nation-state. Drawing on previous research on civil society, social movements, transnational activism, and democratization, Uhlin develops an analytical framework focusing on a) how national and international political opportunities shape—and are shaped by—civil society advocacy; b) how civil society activists frequently combine inside and outside strategies when targeting international organizations; and c) how civil society advocacy can have a liberalizing impact on the targeted international organizations. Drawing on rich empirical data, including more than 100 qualitative interviews with civil society activists and representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the study demonstrates how civil society actors have contributed to pushing ADB—and to a much lesser extent ASEAN—in a political liberal direction, improving transparency, strengthening accountability, and introducing mechanisms protecting people from the abuse of power. With its innovative analytical framework, broad scope covering civil society activism across Southeast Asia, and in-depth analysis of civil society attempts to influence ADB and ASEAN the book makes important contributions to research on civil society activism in Southeast Asia as well as the more general field of civil society and governance beyond the nation-state.