The African Development Bank Group team meets with Swiss envoys from West Africa to discuss Africa’s development agenda | African Development Bank

Meeting of Swiss ambassadors in the Ivorian trading capital Abidjan invited a senior management team from the African Development Bank Group to discuss development and cooperation.

The envoys held a working lunch on Friday, January 20, hosted by the Swiss Assistant Secretary of State for Sub-Saharan Africa, Siri Walt. Ambassador Walt is the head of the Africa Division of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.

Kevin Urama, acting chief economist of the African Development Bank Group, Daniel Schroth, director for renewable energy and energy efficiency, and Joseph Ribeiro, deputy director general for West Africa, were joined by Laura Rutishauser, senior adviser to the executive director for Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland.

The Bank team places Swiss ambassadors in the West Africa sub-region for a lively discussion on current issues affecting Africa at large, and the region in particular.

Urama, asked if Africa’s growing population was a dividend or a challenge, quickly replied, “Whether it is a challenge or a dividend depends on the country. Africa’s economies are currently labor intensive due to low technology inputs,’ he noted.

“The youth population is therefore a huge asset for driving economic productivity in key sectors. But when they are excluded from key productive sectors, they are stripped of their rights and become unruly,” he said. He added: “African youth population is enthusiastic about innovation and can push innovations to boost productivity and growth in different countries, but where there is no capital to support their innovations, they become orphaned and less productive. Including youth in key sectors such as agriculture, energy and country governance could help countries reap their demographic dividend.

Urama continued, explaining, “We need to think about planning… to match population growth with economic growth rates. When population growth exceeds GDP growth, poverty deepens.”

Urama is also the bank’s acting vice president for economic governance and knowledge management.

Ribeiro said some of the most successful African Development Bank-led projects in West Africa and across the continent were those that prioritized women and agriculture. He said the bank has committed $178 million to build food resilience and fight malnutrition in phase 2 of the P2RS (Program to Build Resilience to Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Sahel) program.

Ribeiro said security was one of the biggest challenges. Institutionally, the sub-region is currently home to three de facto governments that came to power through a military coup: Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea. He said that since the end of July 2022, the bank has resumed programs in these countries.

“When you do work for the people, it’s the same people who get the help they need, regardless of the political events,” he explained. He stressed that the Bank takes all necessary measures to ensure effective fiduciary accountability over the implementation of projects.

Africa is not on track to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 7 on universal access to energy, Schroth said. He noted that due to COVID-19, for the first time in recent years, the number of people without access to energy has actually increased. He added that the continent’s lack of access to energy is delaying the achievement of other development goals.

“Given the crucial role of energy for development overall, the African Development Bank has placed energy at the top of its agenda for the continent,” said Schroth.

He also spoke about one of the bank’s most important initiatives, Desert to Power, which covers the 11 countries of the Sahel. He said: “We are working with the governments in these countries on roadmaps and a first set of priority projects to make the region’s solar potential sixteen, but significant capital is needed to achieve the initiative’s objectives.”

Ambassador Anne Lugon-Moulin, Ambassador of Switzerland to Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, underlined Switzerland’s positive relationship with the African Development Bank as the continent’s leading development agency.

Switzerland is a member of the African Development Bank, which it joined in September 1982. Since 1973 it has been a shareholder in the African Development Fund, the group’s concession window for low-income countries. Switzerland is the 11th largest shareholder of the African Development Fund and has cumulatively contributed more than $2 billion Swiss francs to date.

Rutishauser said the African Development Bank was a priority multilateral institution for Switzerland, which increased its contribution to the most recent replenishment of the African Development Fund in December 2022 and to its new climate change window. “This shows our strong partnership,” she said.

Urama also provided highlights from the Bank’s new report – Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook report – first published in Abidjan on Thursday, January 19.