The President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, received a delegation from WWF International, led by its Director-General, James Leape, in Tunis on Tuesday July 12, 2011.
The objective of the meeting was to discuss collaboration between the two institutions, following initial talks held during the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) held in Lisbon, Portugal, in June 2011.
Mr Kaberuka invited WWF to Tunis to explore partnerships on issues such as climate adaptation, mitigation, biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as the proposed Green Fund for Africa.
The two parties agreed to deepen the partnerships and enhance synergies to jointly promote the green economy and sustainable development in Africa. Mr Kaberuka expressed the Bank's willingness to learn from the wealth of expertise of WWF.
"The Bank is fully committed to the promotion of environmentally sustainable development", he said.
Quoting WWF's long standing collaboration with other development banks, Mr. Leape explained that with more than 1,000 staff in 18 African countries, his organization had extensive development knowledge and network going all the way from the heads of government to local communities.
"Close collaboration with other regions such as China and Brazil would also offer an opportunity to promote South-South knowledge sharing on Green Growth, climate financing and forest management", said Mr Leape.
He added: "The Bank's Regional Integration Strategy Papers would also provide a basis to further explore concrete regional collaboration".
Mr Kaberuka and Mr. Leape also agreed to work closely, and provide a platform for collaborative engagements, in areas such as Congo Basin, East Africa Region and trans-national water management in the run-up to the Rio Meeting in 2012.
The delegation also met the AfDB Secretary General, Cecilia Akitomide, and Vice President, Bobby Pittman, with whom it shared perspectives on their cooperation with the Bank. Mr Pittman hosted the Climate Investment Funds event in Cape Town on 24 and 25 June, 2011.
The discussions were held in the presence of Mrs. Kazumi Ikeda-Larhed, Partnerships and Cooperation (ORRU) Unit Head; Mbarack Diop, Chief, Safeguard policy; and Water Engineer and Principal Safeguard specialist, Aimée Bella-Corbin from the Compliance and Quality Assurance and Results department (ORQR).
During its visit, the delegation reviewed various areas of cooperation with a number of Bank departments under the coordination of the Partnerships and Cooperation (ORRU) Unit.
Other members of the WWF delegation were: Mr. Timothy Geer, Director, Public sector partnerships, Laurent Somé, Director External Relations and Partnership and Ms. Hawa Sow, Senior Policy Advisor.
