AS WRITTEN

World Summit on Social Development
8 March 1995
Copenhagen, Denmark

Address
by
Gunther G. Schulz Vice President, Asian Development Bank


Introduction

 Distinguished Participants, Ladies, and Gentlemen. It is a great pleasure 
for me to participate in the World Summit on Social Development. I join the 
other speakers in commending the Secretariat and the organizing committee 
for the splendid arrangements that have been made, and thank the Government 
of Denmark for its hospitality as the host for this event.

 The Asian Development Bank is pleased to have been associated with the 
efforts of our member countries in the Asia and Pacific Region, as well as 
those of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific 
(ESCAP), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and other United 
Nations (UN) organizations that have facilitated the preparations for this 
World Summit. For the Asia and Pacific region, these preparations reached a 
climax in Manila in October 1994 with the adoption of the Manila 
Declaration on the Agenda for Action on Social Development in the Region.

 The Agenda is significant in that it proposes concrete quantitative 
improvements that are desired and indicates the target years by which these 
improvements are envisioned to be achieved. It also provides for each 
member country to set its own goals or targets, in keeping with its 
national circumstances, with a view to initiating immediate action in a 
sustained effort towards their achievement.

 Our Development Objectives

 The purpose of the Asian Development Bank is to foster economic growth and 
cooperation in the Asia and Pacific region, and to contribute to the 
acceleration of economic development in our developing member countries. 
Some developing member countries have experienced phenomenal economic 
growth in the last several years. Nonetheless, more than two-thirds of the 
absolute poor of the world live in the Asia and Pacific Region. Poverty 
reduction combined with sustainable economic growth is therefore our 
fundamental objective. Furthermore, we are striving to help our member 
countries improve the status of women, promote human development, and 
protect the environment. These objectives apply to all Bank lending, 
technical assistance, economic and sector work. and to all of our 
developing member countries depending on country-specific circumstances and 
needs.

 There are strong linkages among our development objectives. The Bank 
recognizes that a dynamic economy is needed to reduce poverty and provide 
expanded employment opportunities. But economic growth in itself is not 
sufficient to realize the quantitative and qualitative changes that are 
demanded by people. Attention to social development is also needed to 
maintain a climate that will sustain economic development. These dimensions 
are also reflected through improvements in the status of women. The 
provision of basic education and health services are key elements not only 
in population planning but also in accelerating and sustaining economic 
growth. Environmental degradation, resulting in scarcity of natural 
resources, hurts the poor who are inherently dependent on common property 
resources. Poverty reduction strategies must, therefore, include explicit 
environmental protection measures as well.

 Our Development Approach

 To establish a strong link between our development objectives and our work 
program, our Board of Directors - made up of representatives from both 
developing and developed member countries - decided in 1993 that the Bank 
must aim to achieve a portfolio mix of about 50/50 between the number of 
traditional growth projects and that of other types of social projects and 
programs in areas including poverty reduction, human resource development, 
improvement of the status of women, and environmental protection. This 
project-mix approach will increase our assistance to social projects and 
programs in our developing member countries manyfold.

 Our Social Projects and Programs

 In improving the living conditions of the poor, the Bank continues to 
highlight the need to increase employment and income-generating 
opportunities and to strengthen the ability of the poor to participate in 
the development process. In addition, new project approaches, which 
simultaneously yield high returns and benefit the poor, have been designed. 
Women, small farmers, landless laborers, marginal fishermen, upland tribal 
communities and the urban poor are among the target groups of these 
projects. The Bank is also providing increased assistance to its developing 
member countries for their population programs.

 In 1994, seven loan projects that were financed by the Bank had poverty 
reduction as a secondary objective. For example, the Microcredit Project in 
Indonesia will promote microenterprise development, and strengthen the 
rural credit delivery and savings mobilization systems to generate and 
increase incomes and employment in poor regions of the country. The 
Irrigation Management Transfer Project in Nepal will help transfer the 
ownership of government operated irrigation systems to water user 
associations in poor regions of the country. In this way, the farmers will 
acquire greater control over the operation of these systems, which in turn 
will enable them to achieve higher agricultural production and incomes.

 Twelve Bank loan projects approved in 1994 had human resource development 
as their primary or secondary objective. The projects were for education, 
population and family planning, and urban development. For example, the 
Education Development Project in the Cook Islands will help Cook Islanders 
acquire skills both at the primary and secondary school level that are 
needed to obtain employment.

 Poverty reduction is also the subject of a number of studies supported by 
the Bank in 1994. These included a Review of Performance of WID and Poverty 
Reduction in Bank Financed Projects and a review of the ability for 
Addressing Poverty Reduction and WID Through Human Resources Development 
that have been initiated by the Bank's Office of Environment and Social 
Development.

 Poverty can also be alleviated through activities that generate employment 
and which enable people to acquire skills needed to be productive. The 
Microcredit Project in Indonesia is an example of one such type of 
activity, as is the Vocational Technical Education Project in Malaysia 
which is expected to be approved during 1995.

 The Asian Development Bank is committed to improving the lot of Asian 
women. Consequently, we have integrated women-in-development concerns and 
gender analyses into our country operational strategies and programs. In 
particular, we have been promoting the improvement of the status of women 
through projects designed to increase the opportunities for women to earn 
income and participate in the development process and through improved 
access to education, nutrition, and health services.

 Five loan projects approved in 1994 were focused specifically on women-in-
development. These included the Women's Health and Safe Motherhood Project 
in the Philippines, which will accelerate the rate of improvement in 
women's health by providing services that will reduce morbidity and 
mortality among women during pregnancy and preschool children. The Social 
Action Program (Sector) Project will help the Government of Pakistan 
implement a nationwide program to enhance social development, particularly 
in the areas of primary education, primary health, population welfare, and 
rural water supply.

 A number of technical assistance projects were also approved in 1994 to 
support women's affairs institutions, socioeconomic databases, group 
formation and studies on health and nutrition. A regional technical 
assistance is being implemented to assist member countries prepare for 
participation in the Fourth World Conference on Women scheduled to be held 
in Beijing in September 1995.

 In keeping with the themes emphasized in the Manila Declaration, the Asian 
Development Bank has increasingly focussed its assistance on improving 
services at the primary level through our health and education projects in 
order to reach the poor in the most cost effective manner. Moreover, we 
have begun to integrate family planning services with health and community 
development projects to ensure that these services are effectively provided 
through health care centers and hospitals.

 In this regard, the Primary Health Care project for Lao Peoples Democratic 
Republic approved in November 1994 and the Second Primary Education for 
Girls project in Pakistan scheduled for consideration in 1995 are good 
examples of our assistance for primary health care and education. The first 
project would expand access to basic curative and preventive services, 
particularly to the poor, at the village level. The second project will 
further improve the access to education for girls and enhance the quality 
and relevance of education at the primary level.

 Our Future Assistance for Social Development

 For the 1995-97 period. the Asian Development Bank plans to promote human 
resource development as a means for our developing member countries to 
sustain economic growth and to improve the standard of living of the people 
in our region. During this period, the Bank will devote greater attention 
to human resource development. In particular, population planning will 
receive increased emphasis in our country assistance work program. In 
addition, we will increase emphasis on educating women and targeting more 
development intervention to them in order to enhance their role in 
development. We will also increase our assistance to enhance the welfare of 
the poor, women, and other vulnerable groups, through the provision of 
social services including education, health care, family planning, water 
supply, sanitation and housing. These will be done through expanding these 
services and more effective targeting.

In addition, we are currently revising policies concerning involuntary 
resettlement and indigenous peoples in order to better protect vulnerable 
groups from likely adverse effects of development interventions.

 Distinguished participants, it is the Asian Development Bank's commitment 
to extend our assistance to those in need in our developing member 
countries as much as possible. I am sure that this World Summit will 
contribute to our better understanding of the challenges we are facing, and 
yield practical recommendations for future action. I wish all of you great 
success in this important endeavor.