Fifty years ago, the African Development Fund was founded on one fundamental principle: To promote economic and social development in the lives of people in low-income and fragile African countries. Today, the Fund remains a staunch partner of these countries, touching the lives of millions of people across the continent.
A people-first approach remains at the core of the Fund's priorities. As it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, the African Development Bank Group is launching 50 Voices, 50 Stories: a series which highlights the Fund's life-changing impact in 37 beneficiary countries.
The campaign will feature narratives from local populations, government officials, and development partners. They will share with how societies, communities, and individuals thrive when development interventions take root.
This campaign will complement broader celebratory activities at the African Development Bank Group Annual Meetings in Accra, Ghana, in May.
Since its creation in 1972, the Fund has been an important source of concessionary resources and technical support to low-income African countries, including fragile states. It has invested $45 billion in 2,750 operations across more than 40 countries.
In the past five years alone, it helped connect 15.5 million people to electricity, supported 74 million Africans with improved agriculture and food security, built or rehabilitated 8,700 km of roads, enabled 50 million people to gain access to transport, and 42 million people to access better water and sanitation.
Present during major crises
The Fund supported its beneficiary countries through the 2008-09 global financial crisis, the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and through frequent and intense droughts, floods, and other natural disasters.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the African Development Fund demonstrated its ability to respond rapidly and at scale, reprioritizing its operations and putting in place agile, targeted programs to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic through the Covid-19 Response Facility.
To address the root causes of poverty and conflict, the Fund is investing in building up a deep understanding of the drivers of conflict and fragility across Africa, and now integrates resilience objectives across its portfolio.
As the Fund's beneficiary countries continue to bear the brunt of the most devastating impacts of Covid-19, rising debt, climate change, and more recently the prospect of a food crisis triggered by the conflict in Ukraine, the African Development Fund will continue to play a fundamental role in the lives of people in these countries.
For more information on the African Development Fund, click here.
