Does ADB finance disaster relief and humanitarian assistance?
ADB does not provide emergency and relief financing. Rather, the policy emphasizes longer-term activities for rehabilitating high-priority physical and social infrastructure; revitalizing basic services, particularly education and health care; and jump-starting economic productivity. This includes retroactive financing of emergency and relief activities carried out by governments. During the transition phase, the policy emphasizes on partnering with specialized (relief) agencies like the UNDP, WFP, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations High Commission for Refugees, International Red Cross, bilaterals and local NGOs to revitalize basic services, provide emergency medicines and immunizations, provide basic infrastructure and livelihood training, etc. Concurrently, planning and design of the longer-term reconstruction is carried out based on the premise to Build – Back – Better.
