Countries increasingly see the value of investing in development programmes that promise social outcomes beyond what economic growth can deliver.

The rapid growth in much of developing Asia has reduced income poverty and moved many countries to middle-income status. To continue advancing, however, the region must tackle the increasingly complex challenges of, among others, slowing economic growth, rising inequality, runaway climate change, and weak governance.

ONGOING EVALUATION. This paper sets out an approach for an independent evaluation of ADB support for Sri Lanka.

Most countries benefiting from the Asian Development Fund (ADF) have seen moderate rates of economic growth and reduction of income poverty in the recent decade. But continuing challenges in fragile and conflict affected situations, substantial income and non-income disparities, environmental degradation, in addition to persistent pockets of extreme poverty, call for renewed and more effective development efforts in these countries.