The president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has unveiled a sweeping vision to consolidate the bank’s successes of the past five years, hone its operations and exploit opportunities and the urgency created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a speech to start his second term, Adesina said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything globally. It has thrown Africa’s growth back.
“Now, we must help Africa build back boldly, but smartly, paying greater attention to quality growth, especially in the areas of health, climate and the environment.”
Strategic pillars
Adesina described four strategic pillars – institution, people, delivery and sustainability – that will drive five top-level goals which include maintaining financial sustainability and deepening quality and impact.
He said the new framework will enhance and complement the bank’s “High-5” priorities which have guided its mission since 2015, and which align with other continental and global developmental frameworks.
“UNDP has shown that achieving the High-5s would lead to the achievement of 90% of the SDGs and the Agenda 2063 of the African Union,” Adesina said.
He added: “We will build on the great successes we have had in agriculture, by scaling up technologies to reach tens of millions of farmers and supporting Africa to build competitive agricultural value chains. We will add value to what we produce in Africa, and provide creative and high-tech opportunities for massive youth engagement in agriculture and agribusiness.”
A significant element of the programme will entail strengthening the bank, a development that is partly responsive to the challenges spurred by the ongoing pandemic but also an element of the institution’s longer-term efforts to meet Africa’s development needs.
“The future beckons the bank to be more agile and more selective; to scale up what’s working already and reinforce its own institutional and human capacity,” said Adesina. “Our bank must ensure its own long-term financial sustainability to drive Africa’s growth further, deeper and faster in the years to come.”
Swift action
The bank responded swiftly to COVID-19 and its twin health and economic crises, setting up a response facility of up to US$10 billion to extend flexible and targeted support to AfDB member countries.
The pandemic has also pointed up the need for a greater strategic focus on Africa’s health-care systems.
The bank, Adesina said, “will pay increased attention to supporting Africa with quality health-care infrastructure, and building on its comparative advantage in infrastructure”.
Adesina unveiled the High 5 priorities in his inaugural speech in 2015. They are: Light Up and Power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialise Africa; Integrate Africa and Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa.
Under the High-5s, 18 million Africans have gained access to electricity, 60 million have new access to water, and 141 million people have benefited from improved agricultural technologies for food production.
“When you first elected me five years ago, I had a vision,” Adesina said. “Five years later, I have yet a vision to build on our collective achievements over the next five years. A vision to build a much stronger and resilient African Development Bank Group with the leadership and capacity to deliver greater-quality impacts for the people of Africa while remaining financially strong and sustainable.”
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