ADB

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development finance institution headquartered in Manila, Philippines. It was established in 1966 with 31 founding members and has since grown to 68 members, of which roughly two-thirds are from the Asia-Pacific region and the remainder are non-regional members, including the United States and several European states.

ADB's stated mission is to promote social and economic development in Asia and the Pacific through loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments. Its operations cover infrastructure (transport, energy, water), education, health, climate finance, regional cooperation, and public sector management. The Bank lends to both sovereign borrowers (governments) and, through its nonsovereign operations, to private sector clients.

Governance follows a weighted shareholding model similar to the World Bank. The Board of Governors is the highest decision-making body, with each member state represented. Day-to-day operations are supervised by a resident Board of Directors. Voting power is tied to capital subscription, and Japan and the United States have historically held the largest shares; by long-standing convention, the President of ADB has always been Japanese. Takehiko Nakao served from 2013 to 2020, followed by Masatsugu Asakawa, and Masato Kanda took office in 2025.

ADB operates two main financing windows: ordinary capital resources (OCR) for market-based lending, and the Asian Development Fund (ADF), which provides grants to the poorest member countries. In 2017, the Bank merged its concessional lending operations into OCR to expand lending capacity.

ADB is often discussed alongside the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), established in 2016 under Chinese leadership; the two institutions cofinance some projects but are also seen as reflecting differing regional influence. For Model UN and IR research, ADB is a key actor in debates on infrastructure finance, climate adaptation in the Pacific, and South-South cooperation.