African Development Bank calls for strengthening the role of multilateral development banks in addition to financing | African Development Bank

On the occasion of its annual meetings, to be held in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt from May 22 to 26, 2023, the African Development Bank Group intends to highlight the role multilateral development banks could play in building a new development architecture that goes beyond the financial.

The importance of this topic stems from the fact that multilateralism is currently facing significant challenges, including responding to climate change, conflict, social vulnerability and pandemics. International organizations must maximize their resources by engaging governments, the private sector and other stakeholders in bringing about meaningful change. If this does not happen, less developed economies could become more vulnerable.

From a development finance perspective, reducing the current level of concentration of policy instruments and promoting inclusion and better coordination between multilateral development banks is an essential issue to be discussed at the annual meetings. The African Development Bank has built knowledge capital on global development priorities. In practice, it engages in numerous bilateral and multilateral development finance mechanisms.

Therefore, the discussions on this issue should emphasize how roles can be divided between the different development actors in Africa.

The other problem is the demand for African countries to be better represented in development finance structures.

Participants will also be able to voice their views on promoting greater transparency and global coordination among creditors to promote an orderly restructuring of sovereign debt in Africa. In this regard, the African Development Bank is open about its desire to lead the way. To achieve this, the Bank, as a leading multilateral development institution, must continue to demonstrate its ability to improve its institutional capacities, promote transparency and accountability and improve its coordination with regional and national institutions to better respond to emerging challenges . There is no doubt that reforms are needed to better respond to existing challenges and to enable African countries to benefit from financing tailored to their needs.

From this perspective, the president of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, and the US candidate for the presidency of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, called for a renewed partnership when the nominee visited the headquarters of the pan-African institution in Abidjan on March 6 . 2023. At that meeting, Mr. Banga stressed the need for the World Bank Group to develop a strong partnership with the African Development Bank Group to deliver transformative outcomes.

The two leaders discussed how the private sector could play an important role in mobilizing vital capital to ensure meaningful economic development. This includes not only private sector capital, but also the capacity for innovation, which is so necessary to meet the many challenges of the world. This ties in with the theme of the African Development Bank Group’s annual meetings in 2023: “Mobilizing Private Sector Financing for Climate and Green Growth in Africa.”