MANILA, PHILIPPINES (14 July 2026) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is implementing new and adaptable tools for crisis response aimed at assisting its member nations in Asia and the Pacific. These measures are designed to safeguard populations, maintain essential services, and address shocks related to energy supply and food prices.
“The ongoing conflicts in the Middle East are exerting significant pressure on governments and citizens throughout the region, leading to increased costs for fuel, food, and borrowing,” remarked ADB President Masato Kanda. “The ADB is acting swiftly to prevent these shocks from escalating into more severe crises. Our new tools will facilitate prompt support, provide governments with greater flexibility, and focus on essential priorities: protecting citizens, ensuring stability, and reinforcing our energy and food systems.”
Today, ADB’s Board of Directors approved a policy document titled Enhancing ADB’s Crisis Response Modalities to Address Energy Supply and Food Price Shocks, which revises three existing financing mechanisms: the countercyclical support facility, contingent disaster financing, and emergency assistance loans. These updates aim to enhance ADB’s capacity to tackle supply shocks that could intensify over time, spread through fuel and food supply chains, elevate inflation, stress public finances, and disrupt vital services.
The countercyclical support facility will now explicitly address shocks related to energy supply and food prices. This enhancement allows ADB to provide swift budgetary assistance to member countries experiencing severe economic challenges due to rising energy and food costs, shortages, disruptions in imports, or fiscal pressures. This facility can support targeted social protection initiatives, crucial public expenditures, the continuity of public services, and strategies that bolster energy and food security, while continuing to uphold standards for sound macroeconomic management and debt sustainability.
Additionally, ADB is expanding its contingent disaster financing to include emergencies related to energy and food. This tool enables ADB to collaborate with member nations to implement proactive reform measures that enhance resilience and preparedness for disasters. Such financing can be accessed quickly when specific conditions are met, based on either an official emergency declaration or clear economic indicators, such as significant increases in fuel and food import costs, deteriorating current account balances, or notable inflation in energy and food sectors. This framework is designed to provide greater flexibility for nations facing fragility, conflict, or those that are small island developing states.
The emergency assistance loan will also be updated to encompass energy-related crises in addition to its current coverage of food-related emergencies. This adjustment enables ADB to respond to urgent needs even in situations where physical infrastructure remains intact but where lives, livelihoods, or essential services are still at risk. ADB will conduct rapid impact assessments to determine immediate requirements, including disruptions to energy and food supplies, rising costs of service delivery, and threats to health, transportation, education, water, utilities, and other public services.
The Asian Development Bank is a prominent multilateral development institution dedicated to fostering sustainable, inclusive, and resilient growth throughout Asia and the Pacific. By collaborating with its members and partners to tackle complex challenges, ADB leverages innovative financial mechanisms and strategic alliances to transform lives, develop quality infrastructure, and protect the environment. Established in 1966, ADB has 69 member countries, with 50 of them located within the region.
