Description

The Asian Development Bank’s Facility for Pilot and Demonstration Activity was designed to validate new approaches, strategies, methodologies, and technologies for improved water resources management and water services delivery. Launched in 2002, it is the first small-grant facility that provides quick funding to government clients and other development partners for water projects, with the intention of replicating and/or scaling up successful innovative practices. This publication outlines how the Facility works as a financing mechanism for small water pilot projects and highlights its achievements through case studies, and how its replication can provide small solutions to Asia’s big water problems and to the challenges other sectors face as well.

Contents

• Foreword
• Introduction: The Facility for Pilot and Demonstration Activity 
• Enhancing Policy: Rationalizing Water Tariffs 
• Improving Institutions: Turning Dispute into Dialogue 
• Increasing Awareness: Clean River Program 
• Testing Technology: Peri-Urban Sanitation Solutions 
• Empowering Everyone: Gender Equality in Irrigation 
• Value for Money: Replicability of the PDA Facility 

Acknowledgments Like a pilot and demonstration activity, this publication is the result of a short, but
dynamic, process.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) staff Hubert Jenny, Ian Makin, Kenichi Yokoyama,
Ma. Theresa Villareal, Rudolf Frauendorfer, Sri Wening Handayani, and Wouter
Lincklaen Arriens, as activity officers of pilot and demonstration activities (PDAs)
featured in this publication, provided the initial working materials.
PDA partners, including the Fuzhou Project Management Office, Fuzhou Municipal
Government (People’s Republic of China); the Department of Agriculture Development
Office, Department of Women Development, and International Development Enterprises
(Nepal); the National Water Resources Board (the Philippines); the Department of
Water Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Thailand); and the
Hanoi People’s Committee, EAST Viet Nam, and the Bremen Overseas Research and
Development Association (Viet Nam) were rich sources of photographs and anecdotes.
Xianbin Yao, Gil-Hong Kim, and other colleagues in ADB’s Regional and Sustainable
Development Department, provided the much-needed editorial direction and guidance.
From its initial conceptualization, to writing the manuscript, and to the numerous
and quick revisions, this publication has benefited from the ideas, comments, and
suggestions of Melissa

Foreword Development solutions come in large and small forms, depending on situations
and the nature of problems. The Facility for Pilot and Demonstration Activity (PDA)
of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a small-grant program that has become
a source of innovation and inspiration for many countries and communities in Asia
and the Pacific to improve the delivery of water service or the management of water
resources. By offering rapid response, working out local solutions, and focusing on
tangible results on the ground, the facility also becomes an integral part of the ADB
Water Financing Program.
This publication puts together impact stories on the water pilot projects funded by the
PDA Facility.
The stories show that a small amount of financing can go a long way. It can help
enhance policy for tariff setting; bring various groups of stakeholders to the negotiation
table and resolve conflicts; mobilize communities for sanitation, hygiene, and river
cleanups; assess technology options and test their applications; and empower women
and disadvantaged farmers through better access to improved irrigation services.
The stories also reveal that innovative ideas can be low cost and readily available.
Proposals for funding from the PDA Facility have been increasing every year since
the facility was introduced in 2002. Many of these proposals, from national and local
governments and agencies, nongovernment organizations, and research and academic
institutions rise up to the challenge of bringing innovation to the table.
It has been almost a decade since the PDA Facility was first launched. To date, a total of
60 pilot projects have been implemented. We hope to continue with this facility in the
years to come.
We humbly dedicate this impact story publication to the many pilot communities
that hosted a PDA. We are grateful to the donors of the Water Financing Partnership
Facility and the Cooperation Fund for the Water Sector for supporting the PDA Facility.
With this publication, we invite donor agencies, financing institutions, and other
development partners to see the value and usefulness of the small grants program not
only in water, but in the energy, transport, health, education, and other sectors as well.
Ultimately, we hope that this publication provides inspiration to development work in
Asia and the Pacific.
Xianbin Yao
Director General
Regional and Sustainable Development Department
concurrently Chief Compliance Officer
Asian Development Bank