Appendix C Regional Conference on Community-Driven Development 31 January 2012 Auditorium Zones C and D ADB Headquarters, Manila, Philippines Welcome

Remarks Xianbin Yao, Director General Regional and Sustainable Development Department, ADB

Secretary Dinky Soliman, dear friends and colleagues, it is my pleasure to welcome you all to this one-day Regional Conference on Community Driven Development or CDD. We, at ADB, are honored to have you here today and pleased to share knowledge on CDD based on four country studies conducted under an ongoing regional technical assistance, as well as the lessons on CDD scaling up in Asia and the Pacific. CDD is a topic that certainly inspires us and encourages us to carry the work we do. We, at ADB as well as World Bank, are very much concerned with how we can effectively support community development and reduce poverty. Supporting communitylevel development is a humbling experience. We have come a long way learning from experiences, and distilling the lessons from mistakes we made in the past. By listening to you and understanding the key lessons from the CDD case studies that will be shared today, we will be able to learn more on how we can do our work better and use resources more appropriately. I would like to share with you a couple of observations - one is personal and the other is corporate. Ive been working in the bank for more than 20 years. My first full-time job was in agriculture sector where I worked on agriculture and irrigation projects. Community-based development for irrigation projects was a very important topic back then. During project preparation, we certainly increased farmers so-called free labor or labor contribution in the project cost and we conducted some consultations. Clearly, on paper, all these looked very good. But some years after the project was completed, the infrastructures constructed and investments made were gone due to lack of maintenance. I call this situation development alienation and this is the kind of lesson we must learn from. In the field of development economics, the debate is about state versus market, yet little is said of community. It was only two years ago that this field observed and celebrated the winning of a Nobel Prize for community-focused development by Professor Elinor Ostrom, a political scientist from Indiana University. Professor Ostrom observed that not only market and state make development work but also communities. A lot actually depends on communities which places CDD at the heart of development. Communities therefore should not be alienated from our development work. ADB has a corporate strategy called Strategy 2020 that focuses on inclusive growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional cooperation. Inclusive growth ensures that the poor not only benefit from economic growth, but also actively participate in the growth process. Communities, again, is at the heart of the agenda. We have a lot to learn on how we can do it better and how CDD programs can become an important vehicle to deliver infrastructure-related services such as energy for all, water for all, full access to transport services, and of course, all the important aspects of the daunting agenda we are facing. There are still about 800 million people in the region without

Appendix C access to energy, and hundreds of millions still suffer from lack of sanitation. All these challenge the way we do development. It is important that we humbly work with communities, and support and empower them rather than dominate and alienate them. With the help of those who have been in the field of CDD for many years and have the lessons to share, this important forum will allow us to learn more and do things better to achieve inclusive growth through CDD. Through the CDD Learning Network that will be launched today, we will have the chance to become members of this network and sustain the momentum of knowledge-sharing among developing countries in the region. I encourage you to take advantage of the intensive learning and networking opportunities that this important event will offer. To kick off this event, we are very much privileged to have Secretary Dinky Soliman who will deliver a keynote speech. Secretary Soliman is the Secretary of Department of Social Welfare and Development in the government of the Philippines. She is the National Project Director of KALAHI-CIDSS, the Philippine governments flagship program for poverty reduction which adopts a CDD approach. She also spearheads the CCT program or Conditional Cash Transfer program, a five-year poverty reduction program of the Philippine government. She is a leader of the Civil Society community and a practitioner of community development, community organizing, and people empowerment for over thirty years. She is a recipient of the Ten Outstanding Women in National Service Award in the field of Agrarian Reform and Community Development. Secretary Soliman is a graduate of the University of the Philippines and Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University. In all, Secretary Soliman, Dinky, as we call her fondly, is a totally committed development practitioner, a highly respected civil servant, and of course, a very dear friend of ADB Family. Colleagues, please join me in welcoming Secretary Soliman.