Asian Development Bank’s extended mission at the Central Bank Building in Apia has become a country office.
This is part of the ADB’s expansion of its presence in the sub region.
The office in Samoa will be led by Senior Country Coordination Officer for ADB, Tuala Maria Melei.
The expansion, which was recently approved by ADB.’s Board of Directors, involves the conversion of four extended missions—in Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu—into country offices.
It also includes the establishment of seven new country offices in the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, and Tuvalu.
“Engaging full-time staff in our 11 smallest Pacific member countries is consistent with the recent scaling up of ADB operations in the Pacific,” said A.D.B. Principal Operations Coordination Specialist for the Pacific, Paul Curry.
“The new country offices will increase ADB’s responsiveness to the development needs of the sub region and will better support aid coordination and aid effectiveness.”
Across the Pacific, ADB is significantly scaling up financing to help developing member countries achieve sustainable economic and social development, while enhancing climate and disaster resilience. ADB’s overall assistance to the Pacific has doubled every 5 years since 2005, and now stands at $2.9 billion. Total assistance is expected to surpass $4 billion by 2020.
The new country offices will allow ADB to have more regular contact and substantive communication with government and development partners, enhance donor coordination, and improve project implementation. ADB will have staff posted in each Pacific developing member country by the end of 2019.
The country offices will serve as extensions of ADB’s two Pacific regional offices in Fiji and Australia.
Photo supplied. Caption: Senior Country Coordination Officer for ADB in Samoa, Tuala Maria Melei.