The African Development Bank (AfDB) held a workshop on decentralization and transport projects with its development partners in East Africa in Nairobi on 21 and 22 March, where it was agreed to strengthen aid coordination to improve the efficiency of transport projects in the region.

Development partners and executing agencies discussed ways to leverage the AfDB's decentralization to improve the performance of the AfDB's transport portfolio in the region. "Such coordination, through improved sector dialogue with the countries in the region and development partners, would lead to reinforced synergies, avoiding duplication in transport projects," said Amadou Oumarou, transport manager at the AfDB.

The AfDB acting Vice President for infrastructure, private sector and regional integration, Gilbert Mbesherubusa, underlined the importance and the urgency of implementing the action plan. He told participants that the AfDB will take innovative approaches to its responsibilities to enhance the performance of the transport sector's portfolio.

Gabriel Negatu, director of the newly-established AfDB Regional Centre for East Africa, focused on the bank's decentralization process.

The workshop covered a series of topics on development projects such as quality at entry and readiness for implementation, quality of project supervision, portfolio management, quality at exit and lessons learned, sector dialogue and donor coordination, decentralization and coordination with headquarters...

All AfDB transport task managers working in the AfDB's East Africa field offices together with other specialists based in the Nairobi hub for East Africa participated in the workshop, which was also attended by several senior officials from executing agencies of AfDB-funded transport projects from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, as well as representatives of other development partners such as the European Union and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency.

Contacts

Chawki Chahed