Speaking on Tuesday, October 20, 2009, in Helsinki, Finland, within the framework of the eleventh replenishment of the African Development Fund's (ADF-11) mid-term review, the African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Donald Kaberuka, said the review came at a very critical time for the African continent, pointing out that what began as a financial crisis at the global economy's epicenter had translated into an economic crisis for many countries on the continent. He underscored that in several ADF eligible members, particularly fragile states, the risk was real, pointing out that gains painfully made over the years had been eroded. In countries that had made steady progress with the support of the ADF, and other partners, the threat of slippage was substantial.

He highlighted the Bank's achievements under ADF-11. He pointed out that the fund had attained unprecedented levels of commitments, but also higher disbursements. Both have doubled compared to ADF-10 due to the financial crisis and the increase, he said, had not been at the detriment of selectivity. Finally, the President recalled that AfDB "agreed to put in place a robust Results Management Framework. We now have 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."

Contacts

Antoinette Batumubwira