The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the French Development Agency (AFD) signed an Exchange of Letters on September 13, 2013, in Tunis.

The Exchange of Letters was signed by the AfDB President, Donald Kaberuka, and the AFD Director General, Anne Paugam. The AfDB Executive Director for France, Belgium and Spain, François Kruger, was in attendance.

Under the Agreement, the Bank and AFD, have charted out a road map over the next three years and have identified areas of joint collaboration in agriculture and food security; infrastructure; energy; climate change; social and environmental safeguards; human development; transport and urban development. The road map also lays out robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

President Kaberuka acknowledged AFD's role as a key development partner involved in the transformation of Africa and underscored the need for enhanced co-financing opportunities through both the public and private sectors. "AFD is for the AfDB a privileged partner. Both institutions have a lot of strengths which we need to put together. We appreciate AFD expertise and experience in the area of decentralization and especially its work with municipalities, which the AfDB needs to learn from."

The AFD Director General emphasized the quality of partnership with the AfDB and reiterated Africa's place as a priority for the French government. "I can see, that we have a concrete collaboration which is growing further," she said.

The French delegation held discussions with Bank senior officials and experts of sector departments during which the deepening of partnerships and issues of strategic importance were highlighted. These issues included debt sustainability, fragility and new development financing.

Over the past 10 years, AFD has co-financed a total of 255 projects with the Bank. There are currently 34 ongoing projects in various sectors including water. AFD has significantly increased its support of infrastructure co-financing over the past four years.