NEW DELHI: Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and social groups across Asia and India are all set to come together to protest against the Asian Development Bank (ADB) scheduled to hold its 39th Annual Governors' Meeting (AGM) in Hyderabad from May 3-6. The Governors are the highest level of decision makers in the ADB and the current Chair of the AGM is Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

Over 60 projects

The ADB is the third largest source of development finance in the Asia-Pacific region, next to the World Bank and the Japanese Government. In 2004, the ADB's total lending was $ 5.3 billion which was used to promote 64 projects in the public policy sectors. Private sector assistance was to the tune of $ 807.2 million. The ADB's largest borrowers in 2004 were China and India, each receiving $ 1.3 billion, about 24 per cent of the total lending.

Net impact

Describing the Hyderabad AGM as an opportunity to work with the groups in Andhra Pradesh, the People's Forum Against ADB has called movements, communities, organisations and activists in India and across Asia to rise up against neo-liberalism. Whether through World Bank or ADB projects, the net impacts on communities and societies are the same, especially on the rural and urban poor, workers, agrarian communities, Dalits, tribals, women, peasants, fishworkers, hawkers and slum dwellers, the Forum said.

The ADB is a secretive, non-transparent and unaccountable institution, the Forum has pointed out.

The evaluation of ADB projects by independent researchers, citizen's groups, NGOs and by its own Operations Evaluation Department indicates that most of the projects are poorly-designed, implemented and managed.

During its current Country Strategy and Programme period for India (2003-2006), the ADB loans, starting from $ 1.67 billion in 2003, are slated to increase to $ 2.05 billion in 2006.

The ADB does not facilitate public participation in development planning and access to information. Its projects continue to displace hundreds of thousands of people across the region with little or no compensation, it said.

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