Nonlending Assistance Concept Paper Template1
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{Title}
{Title should normally be identical to the title listed in the nonlending table of a regional or country operations business plan or
an annual work plan for interregional TA.}
Concept Paper
Date: 30/03/2010
PART I.
1.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Mode of Nonlending Assistance {Double-click on appropriate box.}
Grant-financed assistance (specify source)
Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR)
Others {specify} _______________
√ Technical assistance (specify TA type)
Project preparatory
Advisory
Economic, thematic, and sector work
Institutional development
Plan formulation
√
√
2.
Implementation, operation, and management of Asian Development Bank (ADB)-financed projects
Regional
Assistance Focus
a. If TA, specify if it is sovereign (i.e., to be provided in response to a request(s) from a developing member country
government) or nonsovereign (i.e., other than sovereign TA):
Sovereign TA
b.
Sector:
Agriculture and Natural Resources
Education
Energy
Finance
Health, Nutrition and Social Protection
Subsector:
√
Nonsovereign TA
Industry and Trade
Law, Economic Management and Public Policy
Transport and Communications
Water Supply, Sanitation, and Waste Management
Multisector
Disaster Risk Reduction
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This template is generally applicable to technical assistance and grant-financed projects, except those financed by Asian
Development Fund (ADF) grants. For ADF grants, a concept paper template applicable for loan projects and available in the
ADB Portal should be used since ADF grant projects follow processing procedures similar to those applicable to ADF loan
projects. In certain cases, the project concept paper template should be used where the grant is expected to finance the
investment component of a project.
c.
Targeting classification
Targeted intervention
√
TI-Household
General intervention
√ TI-Geographic
TI-MDG
d. Key thematic area(s)
Sustainable economic growth
Inclusive social development
Governance
Gender and development
√
Environmental sustainability
Regional cooperation
Private sector development
Capacity Development
Subtheme
3.
Coverage
Country
Sub regional
4.
Responsible Department and Division:
5.
Responsible Officer(s):
PART II.
√
Interregional2
Internal policy development
DESCRIPTION OF ASSISTANCE
1. The Proposed Assistance
a. Link to country/regional strategy.
2

The Asia-Pacific region is one of the most vulnerable to natural hazards with more than 80 per cent of the
casualties from major disasters in the world since the year 2000 being in the Asia-Pacific region. The
2009 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) highlights the intensively
concentrated nature of disaster risk, uneven distribution and its’ increasing trend and emphasizes the
need to adopt an approach built on partnerships between various stakeholders at local, national, regional
and global level. Such partnership can dramatically reduce the cost of risk reduction, minimize overlap
and maximize utilization of scare resources.

Regional partners, donors and governments agree on the need for better coordination efforts and
increased transparency as to who is doing what and where in the field of disaster risk reduction (DRR).
However, few resources have been allocated to support regional-level DRR. ADB is currently financing
one of the few regional-level programs in Asia-Pacific (RETA 6511 - Regional Stocktaking and Mapping
of DRR Interventions for Asia and the Pacific). The project being implemented under the auspices of the
ISDR Asia Partnership (IAP) would result in setting up systems at a regional level to share information
among the partners on who is doing what and where and would ultimately contribute to increased
coherence in regional level programming for DRR.

The initiative is specifically developing the following outputs:

Inventory of regional initiatives ( projects being implemented in more than two countries) on
hazard, vulnerability and risk assessment

Web- Portal for regional projects on DRR (online database on DRR projects implemented at a
regional level falling under the above category ?in Asia and the Pacific and knowledge maps to
visualize the database)
TA to countries in more than one ADB department. See footnote 4 in para. 4 of Operations Manual section D12/OP (Technical
Assistance).
2

That project is starting to identify some impediments that are hindering the effective and sustainable
growth of regional developments such as? Suggest to provide definition and exmaples. Some of the
issues identified being:
 Information sharing on initiatives related to hazard, vulnerability and risk reduction, findings of
which ultimately guides the stakeholders in their decisions on investments and risk reduction
related interventions. The 2009 TA is currently developing an online inventory of initiatives
undertaken at a regional level focusing on the above. However, it is recognized that this inventory
needs to be expanded to include risk assessment initiatives carried out at all levels more
importantly at national and sub-national level suggest to explain what is meant by sub -national
level. Providing information on such initiatives would add great value to the work of various
national and regional partners interested in supporting countries for safer development.
 The online portal of DRR interventions currently being developed under the 2009 TA and with a
scope to include projects implemented at a regional level.is envisaged to answer queries on ‘who
is doing, what and where’ This point ( what the 2009 TA is doing) is repeated more than 3 times,
please edit to avoid repetition. However, it has been discussed and recognized by the IAP partners
the need to expand the scope of the portal to include DRR projects being implemented at national
levels and sub - national level? linked to sub-regional DRR frameworks (such as ADMER work
programme, RFA Priorities of the Pacific etc), which would eventually better support the intergovernmental organizations such as ASEAN, SAARC, SOPAC, UN Agencies and other regional
organizations in guiding their member countries in achieving the agreed frameworks on risk
reduction.
 Though the investment on DRR has increased over the years, there exists no methodology in the
region to track DRR investments, either nationally or regionally. This is particularly a challenge
because of the cross-sectoral nature of risk reduction initiatives, which essentially contributes to
‘safer development’ and thus particularly makes it difficult to delineate it from any sectoral
investment with a long term objective of sustainable development. Though some countries in the
region have already initiated the process of reporting their investment on DRR either as a
percentage of their Gross Domestic Product or a fixed figure, there is still lack of understanding as
well as absence of methodologies on how to track such investments.
1. Include main components of the methodology of stock taking and mapping at the
national and sub nationallevels including:
i.Definitions of different levels refereed to ( regional, sub regional, national, sub
national)
ii.Criteria for mapping projects/programmes
iii. Definition of DRR investment (working definition to be provided by ISDR)
2. Specify the purpose of the study from regional/IAP perspective: Joint work
planning prioritization of investment, and linkages to the Global initiatives ( see point 5
below)
3. Include the following in the project design:
i.
The mechanisms for engaging the governments ( for the study, for maintaining and
updating the portal)
ii. Sustainability of the project, maintenance, updating, ownership of the portal, staff
requirements
iii. Monitoring mechanism during the study
4. Get IAP feedback on the concept note, on the project design
5. Provide the background and linkages to the ISDR global initiatives on DRR investment
tracking ( multi stakeholder consultation, a study dated 2008, On goin institutional Scoping
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study
b. Impact.



Stakeholders better informed on initiatives on risk assessment at regional, national and sub
national level
System on ‘who is doing what and where’ with increased coverage and better linkage with subregional DRR frameworks and thus able to guide regional stakeholders in activities to support
their member countries
Improved understanding on ‘how to’ track resource on investment related to DRR
c. Outcome.



Better design of DRR interventions at region, national and sub-national level based on priorities
identified by risk assessments at regional , national and sub- national levels
Improved decision making in support to implementation of DRR by intergovernmental
organizations such as ASEAN ,SAARC, SOPAC, UN Agencies and regional organisations
Methodology developed on resource tracking for DRR investment
d. Expected outputs and time frame.


Updated online inventory for Asia and the Pacific on initiatives on risk assessment at regional,
national and sub-national level
Online DRR regional project portal expanded to include national and sub national projects and
linked with sub regional DRR frameworks
Methodology developed on resource tracking for DRR investment

Time Frame: 2 years

e. Potential issues and risks.


Stakeholders involved in undertaking initiatives on risk assessment have strong interest in collaboration.

The lack of participation of the regional organizations will affect the quality and comprehensiveness of the online
DRR portal
f.
Plans for disseminating results.
National stakeholders share information on methodology related to resource tracking
Internal
Announcement in ADB Today
Article in ADB Review
Seminar, workshop, brown bag
External
Publication of articles in external journals or books
Posting article on adb.org
Media plan to be drafted (includes news releases, op-eds, or press briefings, interviews, or tours)
√
Presentation at external conferences
√
Others IAP Meeting, ADPC, ISDR, Preventionweb, other IAP partners web
Proposed Executing/Implementing Agency or Agencies
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3. Stakeholder Participation and Consultation:
The Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Project Portal (beta version), developed under the on-going ADB RETA
No.6511, was presented and discussed with the regional UN agencies, senior DRR officials of Asian
Government, regional organizations, regional offices of NGOs, in the IAP Meeting held on 24-26 March 2010
at Bangkok. Also, in-depth discussion was held with the technical experts of the Regional Stocktaking and
Mapping of DRR Interventions for Asia and the Pacific Project Steering Committee on 27 th March 2010. The
participants welcomed the system and expressed desire to link it with the existing similar national and sub –
national initiatives. It was also expressed to enlarge the usage of the current outputs and the portal to
incorporate national projects and increase the use by regional and sub-regional IGOs such as ASEAN,
SAARC and SOPAC for use within their existing programmes and frameworks such as AADMER and
SAARC DKM portal as well as by regional organizations and regional offices of UN Agencies.
Most of the countries invest in DRR and there is a need to understand and develop standard methodology to
estimate and measure the investment. Countries are required to report resources invested in DRR as part of
the HFA monitoring process. A number of countries, including Vietnam (through UNDP) expressed interest to
participate in the development of a methodology to track DRR investments. The third component of this TA
will be undertaken in close collaboration with various agencies including a number of UNDP country offices.
4.
Financing Plan {Indicate possible financing sources and amount of assistance, cost estimates, and financing
arrangements. Check more than one category, if applicable.}
JFPR: ${amount}
Technical Assistance Special Fund: ${amount}
Japan Special Fund: ${amount}
Other: {specify}
If cofinancing is required, indicate amount and sources sought: $____, from ____________.
{If known, provide cost estimates and financing arrangements in the table below. If not known, delete the table
below.}
Source
ADB Financing a
Government Financing b
Other Financing
Total Cost
Amount ($)
Source:
{a ADB’s resources consist of Technical Assistance Special Fund and Japan Special Fund.}
{b For nonsovereign TA, government financing is not applicable and may be deleted.}
PART III.
TIMETABLE FOR ASSISTANCE DESIGN, PROCESSING, AND IMPLEMENTATION
1. Year included in a regional or country operations business plan or an annual work plan of interregional TA:
{Year}
2. Expected date of submission for approval: {Date}
3. Period and duration of assistance: {Insert period (from which month, year to which month, year) and duration
(number of months).}
{For PPTA, add [4] otherwise delete}
4. Expected Year of Ensuing Loan/Grant: {year}
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