The Asian Development Bank’s annual meeting is often a placid affair, offering bankers and stakeholders a chance to highlight accomplishments and discuss future challenges. The 57th edition of the ADB meeting was a bit different, however. The ADB came under withering criticism from non-governmental activists from across Eurasia who allege that the bank’s development policies and practices buttress authoritarian regimes.
Perhaps it was apt that this year’s four-day gathering, which wrapped up on May 5, was held in Georgia, a nation where a considerable majority of citizens are looking West and hoping to join the European Union, but whose Georgian Dream-dominated government has embraced illiberal policies, including pushing legislation that would deny basic rights to members of the LGBTQ community. The capital Tbilisi has been the scene of mass protests against a different government bill that critics say would muzzle the country’s NGO sector and independent press.
The theme of this year’s ADB meeting was “Bridge to the Future,” and the roughly 3,000 participants spent much of the gathering exploring ways to expand trade via the so-called Middle Corridor route that crosses Central Asia and the Caucasus. The Bank’s managing director, Woochong Um, also said another aim was to “showcase the growing partnership between Georgia and the ADB” and “emphasize Georgia’s commitment to regional development.” The ADB is operated by 68 shareholding states, the largest of which is the United States.
While Georgian Dream may indeed want to expand trade, a coalition of NGOs denounced the bank’s “detrimental impact on communities, environments, and civic spaces.” The activists contend the bank is ignoring its commitments to meet standards for Environmental and Social Safeguarding” (ESF). “The bank’s Draft ESF released in October 2023 fails to meet [the highest] standards,” according to a statement issued May 1 by the NGO coalition.
The coalition also took the ADB to task for largely turning a blind eye to laws adopted by Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and which soon may be implemented also in Georgia, that give authorities sweeping powers to hamper watchdog activities undertaken by non-profit organizations and news outlets.
Manana Kochladze, an activist affiliated with the CEE Bankwatch Network, said the “foreign agents” laws undermined the ADB’s sustainable development goals in a variety of areas, including “climate resilience.”
“The laws have a chilling effect not only on media outlets and civil society organizations but also drastically worsen the investment climate, increase corruption [and] deteriorate governance indicators,” Kochladze said.
A coalition of rights and watchdog NGOs in Kyrgyzstan issued a separate appeal, calling on the ADB to take a clear stand on foreign agents laws, such as that implemented in April in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz activists said the ADB should develop a new consultative mechanism “to discuss and review policy and legislation impacting civil society space and media freedom.”
The statement added that the ADB should feel obligated to “raise concerns over shrinking civic space with the government of Kyrgyzstan to ensure that space for civil society and independent media remains open in the Kyrgyz Republic.”
