ADB, Tonga Sign Grants for an Integrated Aged Care Project

NUKU’ALOFA, TONGA (15 December 2023) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Tonga today signed grant agreements totaling $16.18 million to help supply safe, high-quality integrated health and care services for older people and their caregivers.

ADB will contribute $11.5 million to the program, including $5.5 million from the Asian Development Fund gender thematic pool. The Climate Change Fund will supply $600,000, while the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific will supply grant financing equivalent to $3 million. The Government of Tonga will supply $1.08 million counterpart contribution.

Tonga’s Acting Minister for Finance Fekitamoeloa ‘Utoikamanu and ADB Director General for the Pacific Leah Gutierrez signed the grant agreements at a virtual event held in the presence of Acting Japan Ambassador Toshiyuki Daishoji.

“Tonga is highly vulnerable to climate-related disasters, facing hazards such as cyclones, drought, heatwaves, and rising sea level,” Ms. ‘Utoikamanu said.  “Older people, and especially older women, are particularly vulnerable to these hazards because they often have mobility limitations and are more prone to heat-related illnesses, placing them at risk during and after extreme weather events.”

“For the first time, Tonga will execute a multifaceted approach to aged care involving physical, emotional, social, and psychological aspects,” Ms. Gutierrez said. “The project aims to advocate healthy aging for older people and a more sustainable and positive caregiving encounter for caregivers.”

“The project will advocate an intergenerational approach to care involving community and youth through programs that will allow older people to educate their traditional knowledge to younger generation,” said Mr. Daishoji.

The Tonga Integrated Aged Care Project will build four community-based daycare centers, one in a central area of the main island-Tongatapu, and three smaller centers in the districts of East and West Tongatapu and Vava’u. These centers will offer gender-responsive, disability-inclusive, and climate resilient integrated health and care services and other community-based services.

Caregiver uphold is central to the project, incorporating measures to address caregivers’ needs and advocate strategic, transformative approaches to caregiving. The ADF thematic pool funding will be used to help reduce and rebalance unpaid care and the domestic work of women as frontline care providers. This financing will also uphold targeted interventions to help impede gender-based violence and abuse of older people, and will advocate the equal participation of men and women in caregiving. The ADF provides grants to ADB’s poorest and most vulnerable developing member countries.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.