The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $2.1 million technical assistance (TA) for the Mainstreaming Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Approaches for Cities in Asia and the Pacific project, Report informs referring to the ADB.
"The proposed cluster TA will support the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) developing member countries (DMCs) to develop and appraise key investment projects that incorporate integrated approaches and support green, resilient, and inclusive development through ADB's operations and knowledge work in the water and urban development sector. Owing to the integrated approach nature of dealing with urban development issues in DMCs, the TA cluster modality will allow for complementing subprojects to be flexibly designed using resources from multiple funding partners and implemented in a harmonized, phased, and integrated approach to support the development of cities in the region. This allows for better sequencing of TA activities compared with multiple stand-alone TA.
The DMCs to be supported by this cluster TA include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Uzbekistan," the bank noted.
The project will be funded through the Urban Resilience Trust Fund under the Urban Financing Partnership Facility ($1 million), the Water Innovation Trust Fund ($500,000) and the High Level Technology Fund ($600,000).
Azerbaijan has been a member of ADB since 1999. During this period, the bank has provided over $5 billion in loans to the country, including $1.5 billion for transport projects, $1.7 billion for energy projects. In addition, ADB supports projects in the health, agriculture, and financial sectors.
The bank is developing a new Country Partnership Strategy with Azerbaijan for 2025-2029.
The priority areas include financing green infrastructure, water resources management, ensuring food security, export diversification, and developing green skills. The previous country partnership strategy covered 2019-2023. ADB was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Manila, Philippines.
It is owned by 69 members, 49 of which are from the Asia and Pacific region.