20100706
REUTERS

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has welcomed the G-20's recent commitment to ensure a robust replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the Group.


At their 26-27 June 2010 summit in Toronto, Canada, G-20 leaders recognized the key role multilateral development institutions are playing during this difficult period and the need to provide them with additional support.
"We will fulfill our commitment to ensure an ambitious replenishment for the concessional lending facilities of the MDBs, especially the International Development Association and the African Development Fund," the leaders said in declaration at the end of the summit..
Reacting to the declaration, the AfDB Vice President in charge of Country Programs and Policies, Aloysius Ordu, welcomed the G-20 commitment and promised that funds from the replenishment would be put to good use.
"This commitment, also reflected in discussions with our partners, indicates that despite the problems being experienced in many donor countries, there is an appreciation of the effectiveness of the ADF in delivering assistance to the children, women and men in the poorest countries of Africa, Mr Ordu said..
"We, at the African Development Bank, stand ready to redouble our efforts to increase the amount of financial and technical assistance that supports development, achieves results on the ground and improves people's daily lives," he added.
"Our partners can be assured that 100% of every dollar invested in the ADF will help meet the commitments they made in Gleneagles to double aid to Africa and to make progress towards the MDGs," Mr.. Ordu said.
The 12th ADF replenishment comes at a critical time for the African continent, which has been hard hit by the global financial and economic crisis. Many countries in the region have lost gains made over the last decade, with average economic growth falling by half to 2.5%. Although an emerging rebound holds long-term growth prospects, Africa remains the only continent with the biggest development funding gaps five years to the 2015 Millennium Development Goals deadline.
The 2008-2009 global economic and financial crises have further challenged countries that receive ADF support, especially fragile states. This situation implies that considerable resources have to be mobilized to restore economic growth to pre-crisis levels, bridge infrastructure gaps, pursue regional integration, invest in climate change adaptation and mitigation, and achieve the MDGs.
The deployment of ADF-11 resources responded expeditiously to the needs of its clients, and has achieved unprecedented levels of commitments, particularly in its core strategic priority areas of infrastructure, governance, support to fragile states and regional integration. Both commitments and disbursements have doubled compared to ADF-10, demonstrating the ADF's capacity, flexibility and commitment to Africa's development.
Under ADF-12, the Fund would maintain its track record of success while building its capacity to deliver and measure development impacts in ADF client countries. It will continue to contribute to development results on the ground.
The AfDB President, Donald Kaberuka has underscored the fact that the institution has put in place a robust Results Management Framework to consolidate these gains and make them sustainable.
"The AfDB now has such a framework that systematically attempts to measure the results of our operations on the ground. It is generating early, strong, growing evidence that ADF operations exiting the portfolio are contributing significantly to development outcomes, such as the 17 million persons who have been connected to the electricity networks and 2 million persons who were able to access clean water," Mr. Kaberuka said.
The ADF promotes economic and social development in 38 low-income African countries through the provision of concessional loans and grants (including to the private sector) to finance projects and programmes, as well as technical assistance for studies and capacity-building activities.
The Fund is replenished every three years by 26 donor countries. The 11th replenishment for its 2008-2010 operations was concluded in December 2007 at a record USD 8.9 billion.