The World Bank has responded positively to the Philippines’ call for the institution to closely coordinate its efforts and explore complementarities with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to more efficiently and effectively deliver development assistance and aid to countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III received the World Bank’s commitment on collaborating closely with the ADB to improve aid effectiveness during a recent meeting with Victoria Kwakwa, the bank’s vice president for East Asia and the Pacific, at this multilateral institution’s headquarters in Washington D.C.

Dominguez reiterated during the meeting his concern about the duplication of the work of the ADB and World Bank in the region, which, he said, has led small countries with limited resources to eventually incur unnecessarily high operational costs and borrowing rates in obtaining loans from the two institutions.

“As governor of both institutions, I’d like to see overheads not duplicated and how you can work together more effectively,” Dominguez told World Bank officials during the meeting.

Also present at the meeting were Mara Warwick, the World Bank country director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand; and Secretary Ernesto Pernia of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

Dominguez pointed out that small countries would have to deal with two multilateral institutions with their own economic assessments before they can secure assistance from either the World Bank or ADB.

“What’s the value added there in relation to the overhead that the members really have to eventually bear in terms of higher interest rates, among other factors?” Dominguez stressed.

Pernia said the a more effective division of labor and specialization between the two multilateral institutions “results in higher efficiency.”

Kwakwa, in response, agreed with Dominguez, saying that his concerns mirror the goals of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) and the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (2012), which both aim to improve the quality and effectiveness of aid extended to developing countries.

The Philippines, ADB and World Bank have endorsed, and adhere to, these Paris and Busan documents.

“So Secretary Dominguez, on this issue of collaboration and being more efficient as your development partners, our response is yes, we will take it forward. We will work with ADB to be more efficient,” said Kwakwa during the meeting.

Kwakwa said she will “engage ADB to see how we can move forward.”

“I think we can do better. I think we have come a long way and I think we can do better,” she said. “This is something we will keep you very much in the loop and see how we can move forward on this agenda.”

Kwakwa said the two institutions can start by discussing about coming up with a single, rather than, two economic reports for a country in need of development assistance.

“On our side, we will seek opportunities to work more closely with ADB and others who are in the field working not just in the Philippines but other countries and so on. We will think about it some more,” Kwakwa said.

Kwakwa suggested calling a meeting between the ADB and World Bank “about how we can make sure we are not duplicating efforts.”

“That would be good. That’s the way that we can start on this,” she said.

Also during the meeting, Warwick provided Dominguez and Pernia with a brief update on the Bank’s upcoming country partnership network with the Philippines, which will have a “strong focus on Mindanao” in terms of peace building and development, and will also cover disaster risk management, customs reform, and the modernization of the civil service.

Dominguez, on behalf of the Philippine government, thanked the World Bank for its financial support and valuable advice, which both reflect the institution’s “very deep” understanding of the Duterte administration’s goals to achieve inclusive growth.

“We are very happy with the engagements we have with the World Bank. For the first time in a long time, we are really truly, intensely working together,” Dominguez said.

Kwakwa said she looks forward to the Philippines accomplishing its goal of reaching high-income status by 2040 through its continuing strong partnership with the World Bank.

-oOo-