The Experts below are selected from a list of 360 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Theo Hacking - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
the sdgs and the sustainability assessment of private sector projects theoretical conceptualisation and comparison with current practice using the case study of the Asian Development Bank
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2019Co-Authors: Theo HackingAbstract:The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are receiving increasing attention in the private sector; however ex post assessment of operational sustainability performance remains well in advance of ex ante sustainability assessment of capital projects. It is also not yet commonplace to structure emergent forms of sustainability assessment to support the SDGs explicitly. This article reviews theoretical frameworks that aim to conceptualise sustainability assessment, and then explores the potential to develop SDG-focussed forms for use at the project-level. The extent of enhancement needed to current practice is illustrated using the case study of the Asian Development Bank. This analysis reveals that sustainability is being presented as a goal of project-level assessment and there has been progress towards delivering on this by, in particular, extending the thematic coverage. Amongst the key challenges remaining are how to address trade-offs (typically unavoidable for projects) and how to connect the ...
-
the sdgs and the sustainability assessment of private sector projects theoretical conceptualisation and comparison with current practice using the case study of the Asian Development Bank
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2019Co-Authors: Theo HackingAbstract:ABSTRACTThe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are receiving increasing attention in the private sector; however ex post assessment of operational sustainability performance remains well in advan...
Susan Park - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
assessing accountability in practice the Asian Development Bank s accountability mechanism
Global Policy, 2015Co-Authors: Susan ParkAbstract:Intergovernmental Organizations (IOs) such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) were created by and for states. The ADB was established to further economic growth and cooperation in the Asia Pacific. At the behest of its powerful member states the ADB created an accountability mechanism (AM) in 1995. This mechanism was created to provide recourse to people that might be or are ‘directly materially and adversely affected’ by a Development project financed by the ADB. As with the other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), the creation of such an ‘external accountability mechanism’ recognized a legally relevant relationship between an IO and private persons. This article investigates the operations of the ADB's AM. Arguably, the ADB's AM has brought some improvement to affected people through its mediation, compliance investigations and monitoring. Yet analysis of the mechanism also demonstrates that progress is hampered by a lack of access, transparency, Developing Member Country (DMC) resistance, staff obstruction and a lack of independence in the mechanism itself.
-
institutional isomorphism and the Asian Development Bank s accountability mechanism something old something new something borrowed something blue
Pacific Review, 2014Co-Authors: Susan ParkAbstract:AbstractIn the 1990s Multilateral Development Banks created accountability mechanisms (AMs) that allowed people affected by Development projects redress. Currently undertheorized, this paper examines how and why the Asian Development Bank (ADB) created an AM, and whether the AM serves its purpose to hold the ADB to account and to provide ‘fair hearing of the views of the affected group’. This article argues that the ADB created a new AM because of institutional isomorphism, borrowing the idea of the AM from the World Bank as a result of coercive and mimetic isomorphic processes. Further, that the ADB introduced a mechanism ill-suited to the pre-existing (old) organizational culture of the ADB, which is based on consensus and hierarchical rule-following in the context of ADB operations to further economic growth while upholding state sovereignty. Despite its restructure and recent review, the mechanism's weakness was revealed through a stand-off between China and the AM over an investigation begun in 2009 ...
-
the Asian Development Bank as a global risk regulator in myanmar
Third World Quarterly, 2013Co-Authors: Adam Simpson, Susan ParkAbstract:AbstractThe Asian Development Bank (adb) is engaged in Development projects throughout the Greater Mekong Subregion, although for most of the past two decades it has boycotted Myanmar (Burma) because of donor government sanctions. Despite being criticised for its neoliberal focus and its lack of transparency and accountability, the adb’s operations compare favourably to those of the Myanmar government and many transnational corporations constructing and financing projects there. This article engages with the concept of risk, which increasingly frames how Development in fragile states like Myanmar is understood, to critically analyse the adb’s nascent re-engagement in Myanmar according to the risks this poses for five constituencies: the adb itself; donor states; the Myanmar government and military; private capital; and marginalised communities. While deeper engagement in Myanmar poses different risks for each group, critical analysis suggests that the adb must increase the genuine participation of civil s...
Paul Cammack - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
World Market Regionalism at the Asian Development Bank
Journal of Contemporary Asia, 2015Co-Authors: Paul CammackAbstract:AbstractAccounts of the “new regionalism” two decades ago identified a growing trend towards co-ordinated state action at the regional level in pursuit of both security and political economy concerns – new in terms of its “bottom-up” character, post-Cold War logic, heterogeneous focus, and relation to globalisation. More recently, proponents of “regulatory regionalism” have suggested that regional projects reshape and transform states themselves. This article identifies an emerging “world market regionalism,” within which regions are addressed in terms of their position within the world market, and regional projects are strategically oriented towards the “completion of the world market” in its dual aspect as expansion of trade and transformation of social relations of production. The focus is on the purposive transformation of the region in pursuit of global competitiveness. A detailed account is given of such a project of world market regionalism developed over the last two decades at the Asian Developme...
-
the Asian Development Bank and the global financial crisis Asian global leadership 2008 2012
Social Science Research Network, 2013Co-Authors: Paul CammackAbstract:This is the third of three linked working papers which analyse the discourse produced by the Asian Development Bank, principally in successive Asian Development Outlooks, from 1996-7 onwards. Very extensive use is made of direct quotation, in order to provide substantial illustration of the analysis offered. The papers will serve as a point of reference for more synthetic analysis to be developed elsewhere. It may be, too, that they will serve a purpose to other researchers interested in the arguments developed by the Bank over the period. An identical common introduction, setting out briefly the analytical framework adopted, appears in each of the three papers. It situates the analysis in a classical Marxist framework which interprets the production of discourse and ideas in their material context, presenting the ADB as a representative of 'Asian capital in general', committed to the Development of capitalism on a global scale, and adapting its discourse from moment to moment in accordance with the changing material context – in the global economy, and in Asia. This third paper covers the period from 2008 to 2012. At its centre is the 'global financial crisis' and the Bank's reaction to it. It is argued that, as with the earlier Asian financial crisis, while the Bank did not predict the crisis, it responded to it quickly by adapting in its discourse in order to orient Asian governments towards a new phase of the long-term objective of successful integration into the global capitalist economy. Retaining its fundamental commitment to further the Development of the world market, and to transform state-society relations and social relations of production across Asia, it now switched its focus from external to internal drivers of change, and advocated an Asian-centred leadership of global capitalist Development centred on regional integration and South-South cooperation.
-
the Asian Development Bank between the crises pursuit of competitiveness 2001 2007
Social Science Research Network, 2013Co-Authors: Paul CammackAbstract:This is the second of three linked working papers which analyse the discourse produced by the Asian Development Bank, principally in successive Asian Development Outlooks, from 1996-7 onwards. Very extensive use is made of direct quotation, in order to provide substantial illustration of the analysis offered. The papers will serve as a point of reference for more synthetic analysis to be developed elsewhere. It may be, too, that they will serve a purpose to other researchers interested in the arguments developed by the Bank over the period. An identical common introduction, setting out briefly the analytical framework adopted, appears in each of the three papers. It situates the analysis in a classical Marxist framework which interprets the production of discourse and ideas in its material context, presenting the ADB as a representative of 'Asian capital in general', committed to the Development of capitalism on a global scale, and adapting its discourse from moment to moment in accordance with the changing material context – in the global economy, and in Asia. This second paper covers the period from 2001 to 2007, a period that sees the articulation by the Bank of a programme for the transformation of production and social relations across Asia, with the objective of achieving competitiveness in the global capitalist economy. Within this programme, the expansion of trade and the attraction of foreign direct investment were seen as important because they were sources of competition and of access to advanced methods of production. At the same time, the Bank promoted reforms to financial systems, and continued to press for a wider programme of structural reform, in particular in relation to labour flexibility and social protection. As a consequence, the region was well placed when the global financial crisis broke in 2007.
-
the Asian Development Bank and the Asian financial crisis openness and inclusion 1997 2000
Social Science Research Network, 2013Co-Authors: Paul CammackAbstract:This is the first of three linked working papers which analyse the discourse produced by the Asian Development Bank, principally in successive Asian Development Outlooks, from 1996-7 onwards. Very extensive use is made of direct quotation, in order to provide substantial illustration of the analysis offered. The papers will serve as a point of reference for more synthetic analysis to be developed elsewhere. It may be, too, that they will serve a purpose to other researchers interested in the arguments developed by the Bank over the period. An identical common introduction, setting out briefly the analytical framework adopted, appears in each of the three papers. It situates the analysis in a classical Marxist framework which interprets the production of discourse and ideas in their material context, presenting the ADB as a representative of 'Asian capital in general', committed to the Development of capitalism on a global scale, and adapting its discourse from moment to moment in accordance with the changing material context – in the global economy, and in Asia. The first paper covers the period from 1996-7 to 2000. At its centre, therefore, is the 'Asian financial crisis' and the Bank's reaction to it. It is argued that while the Bank did not predict the crisis, it responded to it quickly by adapting in its discourse in order to orient Asian governments towards the long-term objective of successful integration into the global capitalist economy. With this objective in mind, it interpreted the crisis as providing evidence for the need for further structural reforms, both to further the Development of the world market, and to transform state-society relations and social relations of production across Asia.
James Raymond Vreeland - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
regional organizations and international politics japanese influence over the Asian Development Bank and the un security council
World Politics, 2013Co-Authors: James Raymond VreelandAbstract:Do regional hegemons use their power in regional organizations to advance foreign policy objectives? The authors investigate whether Japan leverages its privileged position at the Asian Development Bank (aDb) to facilitate project loans for the elected Asian members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), a platform from which it seeks to shape global affairs. Analyzing panel data of aDb loan disbursements to twenty-four developing member-countries from 1968 to 2009, the authors find that temporary uNsc membership increases aDb loans, particularly during the post-1985 period, when Japan asserted greater influence in multilateral organizations. They estimate an average increase of over 30 percent. Because of Japan’s checkered history of imperialism, the aDb provides a convenient mechanism by which the government can obfuscate favors for politically important countries. Acting through this regional organization enables Japan to reconcile a low-key approach to foreign affairs with the contradictory goal of global activism-leading without appearing unilateralist.
-
regional organizations and international politics trading Asian Development Bank loans for united nations security council votes
2011Co-Authors: Daniel Yew, Mao Lim, James Raymond VreelandAbstract:Japan has consistently sought influence over the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), a platform from which it seeks to shape global affairs. As Japan has a privileged position in the governance of another international organization - the Asian Development Bank (ADB) - we investigate whether Japan leverages its power in this financial institution to facilitate project loans for the UNSC's elected members in exchange for their favorable votes. Analyzing panel data of ADB loan disbursements to 24 developing member-countries from 1968-2002, we find evidence that temporary UNSC membership increases a typical country's share of ADB loans by approximately 25 percent.
Michael Howlett - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
combining internal and external evaluations within a multilevel evaluation framework computational text analysis of lessons from the Asian Development Bank
Evaluation, 2019Co-Authors: Nihit Goyal, Michael HowlettAbstract:Although the literature on evaluation has theorized about the distinction between internal and external evaluation, hardly any research has compared them empirically. This article examines whether ...
-
policy learning evaluation and aid effectiveness mining lessons on project and program success from the Asian Development Bank
Social Science Research Network, 2018Co-Authors: Michael Howlett, Nihit GoyalAbstract:Lesson drawing, or learning from past policies or programs, can improve current or future policies or programs and, thereby, lead to policy success. This requires various types of evaluations that identify and highlight different causal relationships in the system. However, the literature on policy evaluation has little to say about how such evaluations work in practice. For example, in the case of overseas Development assistance, although multiple studies examine factors that contribute to aid effectiveness, they do not use and build on lessons from internal evaluations of aid projects and programs. Using data on project and program evaluations from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), this paper compares the lessons from external evaluations on aid effectiveness with those of internal evaluations. It critically examines ‘lessons learned’ by the ADB in over 950 sovereign interventions across 38 countries in Asia-Pacific during 1996-2016 using relatively new ‘data science’ approach of text mining. It specifically analyzes term frequencies, proportions in evaluations of successful and unsuccessful interventions, and correlations to understand the content and content relationships of the lessons learnt. It finds that while internal evaluations validate and even go beyond several micro and meso level lessons of external evaluations – such as within country and sector variation and project characteristics of (un)successful interventions – they say less about macro level, theoretical relationships that set the context for aid effectiveness, such as per capita economic growth or the level of democracy in the borrowing country. The findings suggest the need for a multilevel evaluation framework consisting of micro, meso, and macro evaluations which pick up different factors that influence success and failure and, hence, contribute to better lesson drawing.
