The strategic vision of the African Development Bank (AfDB) for the next ten years plans to build “a prosperous Africa”, with “special attention” to economic recovery, the lessons of the pandemic and climate change.
According to the final communiqué of the annual meetings of the ADB, to which Lusa had access, the governors of the bank, representatives of each of the 81 member states, supported the vision for the period 2023-2032 of “building a prosperous Africa based on growth”, inclusive and sustainable development”.
The statement says the vision pays particular attention to economic growth and recovery on the continent, lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and a just energy transition.
“Selectivity, fragility and insecurity, gender, women and youth, economic governance and sustainability” of the bank in the long term are other priorities of the strategic vision listed in the statement.
The governors acknowledge the “enormous challenges posed by the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which resulted in serious disruptions to the development trajectories” of African countries, ” aggravating inequalities, especially for young people and women”, deepening poverty, increasing food insecurity and increasing unemployment”.
Request AfDB’s “active participation” in the conference of the parties on climate change (COP27) to be held in Egypt later in the year, particularly given the focus of the meeting on Africa and its continued financial and political support to countries Africans. to face the challenges associated with climate change.
Call on AfDB to promote access to sustainable and affordable energy to enable 640 million Africans to have access to electricity and encourage it to collaborate with the African Union, regional economic communities and other multilateral development banks, as well as international financial institutions and multilateral development partners to seek sustainable solutions to increase climate finance and climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts.
The governors, finance ministers and central bank governors of its 81 member states also express strong support for two demands the AfDB has made.
That the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) reallocated to Africa can be distributed through the bank and that the African Development Fund, the concession arm of the AfDB, can use the capital market to take advantage of every dollar it receives almost four times.
SDRs, issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help offset the fiscal impacts of covid-19, have only benefited Africa by US$33 billion, out of a total of US$650 billion.
Some developed countries have agreed to reallocate part of the SDRs to which they were entitled, something that has not yet materialized, and the AfDB has called on them to do so through the institution.
The annual meetings of the AfDB took place during the week in Accra and ended on Friday with the announcement that the next edition, in 2023, will be in Egypt and with a common call for Africa to be compensated for climate change caused by others.
The AfDB is a multilateral financial institution dedicated to financing development, whose shareholders are African governments and other non-regional countries, such as Portugal.
Source: Observadora
