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Asian Development Bank (ADB)

The work of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is aimed at improving the welfare of the people in Asia and the Pacific, particularly the 1.9 billion who live on less than $2 a day. ADB is a multilateral development financial institution owned by 66 members, 47 from the region and 19 from other parts of the globe. ADB's vision is a region free of poverty. Its mission is to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their citizens.


ADB's main instruments for providing help to its developing member countries are:

  • policy dialogue;
  • loans;
  • technical assistance;
  • grants;
  • guarantees; and
  • equity investments.

ADB's annual lending volume is typically about $6 billion, with technical assistance usually totaling about $180 million a year.


For more information about ADB, please click here.

HIV/AIDS

Many infrastructure projects, including those financed by ADB, create conditions that can potentially facilitate the spread of HIV/AIDS and require appropriate mitigating efforts. ADB's work on HIV/AIDS includes a particular focus on mobility.


As an inherent component of ADB's comprehensive development approach, ADB supports its partners in the region to prevent and control HIV/AIDS at both regional and country levels.

At the regional level, ADB aims to:

  • complement individual country actions with coordinated inter-country actions addressing common sources of infection risk that countries share;
  • facilitate information exchange and sharing of experiences and innovative approaches; and
  • support operations research activities to develop tools and approaches for HIV/AIDS prevention and control.

For more information on what ADB is doing in the field of HIV/AIDS, please click here.

ADB in the GMS

ADB prepares subregional cooperation strategies and programs (RCSPs) to ensure coherence and strategic prioritization for the five subregions covered by ADB's regional departments, with annual updates (RCSPUs). On the basis of priorities established, ADB assists developing member countries in financing regional cooperation through technical assistance grants and projects loans.


In 1992, with ADB's assistance, the six countries of the GMS entered into a program of subregional economic cooperation, designed to enhance economic relations among the countries. The program has contributed to the development of infrastructure to enable the development and sharing of the resource base, and promote the freer flow of goods and people in the subregion. It has also led to the international recognition of the subregion as a growth area.


The RCSP 2004-2008 for the GMS emphasizes the need to take precautions against the negative impacts associated with these developments, such as communicable disease transmission, environmental degradation, and illegal trafficking. It is recognized that many of these issues disproportionately affect vulnerable groups such as women, children, and ethnic minorities.


For more information on what ADB is doing in the GMS, please click here.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

The basic mission of UNESCO is to contribute to sustainable human development in a culture of peace, underpinned by tolerance, democracy and human rights, through programs and projects in UNESCO's fields of competence - education, the natural and social sciences, culture and communication and information.


UNESCO Bangkok is the regional Bureau for Education for Asia and the Pacific. In carrying out this mission to serve the 44 Member States in Asia and the Pacific, UNESCO Bangkok takes into account the immense size of the region, including almost two thirds of the world's population, and its diversity and cultural pluralism, with its great potential and its persistent problems.


UNESCO Bangkok seeks to give coherence and synergy to its overall program by specifying a set of challenges around its projects and activities are organized. Six broad areas, each having both global and regional dimensions, have been identified:

  • poverty reduction;
  • globalization;
  • information and communication technology;
  • sustainable development;
  • control of HIV/AIDS; and
  • establishment of a culture of peace.

As the cluster office for South-East Asia, the UNESCO office in Bangkok is also the principal coordinator of all UNESCO activities, across sectors, in the Mekong region - directly in Thailand, Myanmar and Lao PDR and indirectly in support of UNESCO country offices in Viet Nam and Cambodia.


For more information about UNESCO Bangkok, please click here.

HIV/AIDS

UNESCO's Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, based in Bangkok, Thailand, has developed a multisectoral regional strategy for its response to HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS Co-ordination and School Health Unit works with the Education, Culture, Social and Human Sciences Sectors as well as the Information Programmes and Services Unit to strengthen and expand UNESCO's response to HIV/AIDS - both regionally as well as at the country level.


Capacity building, information collection and sharing, and advocacy are three key cross-cutting strategies in expanding UNESCO's work to address HIV/AIDS in the region.


For more information on what UNESCO Bangkok is doing in the field of HIV/AIDS, please click here.

Ethnic minority groups

Under the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, unanimously adopted in November 2001 by UNESCO's Member States, UNESCO has a unique mandate to work with ethnic minorities and indigenous people in order to promote human rights and ensure the preservation and promotion of the fruitful diversity of cultures. In order to implement informed and effective programs that effectively address the imminent threat HIV/AIDS poses to ethnic minority groups, UNESCO emphasizes the role of research and capacity building to work with ethnic minorities and to support sustainable, locally-managed projects.


For more information on what UNESCO Bangkok is doing to address HIV/AIDS and trafficking issues among ethnic minorities, please click here