| Project Detail |
Project Name
Strengthening Sustainability of Social Sector Infrastructure
Project Number
58323-001
Country / Economy
Regional
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Cambodia
Cook Islands
Fiji
Micronesia, Federated States of
Kyrgyz Republic
Kiribati
Lao Peoples Democratic Republic
Maldives
Mongolia
Nepal
Niue
Pakistan
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Marshall Islands
Solomon Islands
Sri Lanka
Tajikistan
Timor-Leste
Tonga
Tuvalu
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Project Status
Active
Project Type / Modality of Assistance
Technical Assistance
The TA will support enhancing sustainability of ADB-funded social infrastructure projects in Group A and Group B developing member countries (DMCs).This will be done through supporting activities for (i) strengthening climate-resilient and gender-responsive social sector infrastructure planning, (ii) improving social sectors results-based investment programming and budgeting, and (iii) strengthening social sectors infrastructure asset management. The TA will prioritize support to upstream activities or initiatives that will complement (e.g., through cost-sharing) the work under pipeline or ongoing TA projects or projects of the Human and Social Development Sector Office, Sectors Group (SG-HSD).
Project Rationale and Linkage to Country/Regional Strategy
Increasing social infrastructure investments. The first operational priority of Strategy 2030d on addressing remaining poverty and reducing inequalities is built around three interconnected pillars: (i) enhancing human capital and social protection for all, (ii) generating quality jobs, and (iii) reducing inequality in opportunities. This includes removal of the barriers that people face in accessing quality infrastructure and services, especially for the poor and vulnerable. In line with the expansion trend since 2019, ADB significantly scaled up its financial support in 2023, strengthening health, education, and social infrastructure across its DMCs.
In the health sector, ADB plans to expand health infrastructure at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels; supply chains; and information and communication technology (ICT) systems. ADBs financing for health is targeted to reach 3.00%-5.00% in 2024, up from 1.75% in 2016-2018.
In education, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused unprecedented disruptions and vastly exacerbated earlier gaps in learning. Learning poverty--measured by the proportion of 10-year-olds who cannot read and comprehend basic text is estimated to have alarmingly increased from 57% to 70% in low- and middle-income countries after the pandemic. The education sector needs growing investments to address learning recovery in the aftermath of COVID-19, and to equip students with the skills needed for future jobs markets. For example, school infrastructure needs to be made learner-friendly and safe by addressing health, hygiene, water, sanitation, and nutrition, and by promoting digital learning and sustainability features. Digital transformation in technical and vocational education and training requires a mix of infrastructure development, policy reform, and TA. ADBs financing for education is targeted to reach 6.00%-10.00% in 2024, up from 5.43% in 2016-2018.
Social protection systems remain underdeveloped in the region given the low coverage and challenges in resources and administration. Limited social protection coverage in the labor market results from a high level of informality and the related challenge of the missing middle. In addition, many social protection implementation systems are underdeveloped, lacking adequate infrastructure and implementation capacity. Though the share of ADB operations supporting social protection slipped to 8% in 2021-2023 from 14% in 2020-2022, the pipeline of social protection projects remains robust.
Gender inequalities. Subject segregation, wherein more boys study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and ICT subjects than girls, contributes to the ongoing feminization of nontechnical occupations and concentration of women in less well-paid and skilled jobs. Secondary education completion rates for girls also remain uneven across the region. In many countries, the rate of youth neither in employment nor in education or training is higher for females, indicating the gender gap in school-to-work transition. Only about 20% of women in the region are covered by pension schemes, compared to 35% of women globally; moreover, retirement regulations in many DMCs require women to retire earlier than men, resulting in lower savings and pension amounts. The possible labor displacement due to technological advancement, such as ICT and AI, may expose womens jobs to more risk. Rapid aging in some DMCs also add a care burden for women on top of their child and domestic care responsibilities, while elderly women face increasing vulnerability due to lack of pensions and social isolation. The extreme heat waves that have become more frequent because of the climate change have disproportionate impact on women; on vulnerable groups, including poor and elderly populations; and workers exposed to heat. For example, it is estimated that 60% more women lack access to cooling access compared to men.
ADBs experience in designing and implementing social sector projects suggests that DMCs social sector agencies often lack institutional and technical capacity in several areas: master planning for climate-resilient and heat-proof social infrastructure, promoting private participation in social infrastructure and service delivery, results-based sector planning and medium-term budgeting, and operation and maintenance of social infrastructure and assets. These challenges are often linked to the absence of a data-based system for evaluating asset conditions, scheduling routine preventative maintenance, and prioritizing major maintenance activities. This situation can critically undermine the sustainability of ADBs growing social infrastructure investments, reduce the productive life of infrastructure assets (and the expected returns from investing in such assets), and lead to fiscal challenges for DMCs, particularly the low- and lower-middle income ones that have constrained domestic resource mobilization space. Often, it triggers the borrow-build-borrow again cycle.
Alignment with country partnership strategies. Raising ADB financing for education and health is a corporate priority. Support to operational priority 1 of Strategy 2030 (e.g., through focus on human capital in general or on education, health, or social protection sectors in particular) is a priority under all country partnership strategies of Group A and B DMCs. |
