United States' nominee for World Bank Group President, Ajay Banga began his global tour on Monday, with his first stop in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, where he met the African Development Bank Group President Dr Akinwumi Adesina, senior management and Board of Directors.
Banga spoke about the need for the World Bank Group to develop a strong partnership with the African Development Bank Group that would help deliver transformative results.
The candidate for the World Bank top job pointed out three major issues affecting many parts of the world, which he said were of significant concern to him. These include inequality, tension between humanity and nature, and the tendency to apply short-term solutions to long-term problems which only delivers poor results. He said the challenges facing the world got complicated due to the Covid 19 pandemic, environmental degradation, and the impact of the Russia-Ukraine War.
The former CEO of Mastercard emphasized on the role of technology in helping to tackle challenges facing the world. He also spoke on the role of the private sector in mobilizing much-needed capital resources for significant economic development. This applies not only to private sector capital, but also to private sector ingenuity and innovation, which according to Banga, are needed to tackle the many challenges facing the world.
Banga's call for a regenerated partnership resonated very well with Dr. Adesina's views. Adesina stressed the need for a new way of working between the World Bank and the African Development Bank. "It is more than financial. It's more about how we work to optimize resources by engaging governments, the private sector and other stakeholders to deliver meaningful change."
Adesina said climate change remains the most serious existential threat to humanity. "It is decimating lives, displacing people, creating refugees and deepening poverty."
"It is what I call the triangle of disaster. You have increasing poverty, rising youth unemployment and environmental degradation," said Adesina and warned, "this is breeding ground for terrorism."
The African Development Bank head called for a global security council on environment and biodiversity--which he said are not getting the attention they deserve compared to other global challenges such as war.
Adesina called for a new way of measuring the wealth of nations instead of basing it on Gross Domestic Product. "This does not consider important factors such as a country's contribution to carbon emission and impact on biodiversity."
"Globally, there is need for greater responsibility to tackle the impact of climate change, environmental degradation, and protect biodiversity," the African Development Bank head said.
He underlined the need for increased economic opportunities, particularly in rural areas where infrastructure investment is crucial. He told the meeting that the recently held Dakar 2 Food Summit, which was attended by thirty-four heads of state and government who committed on country food and agriculture delivery compacts, has to date identified close to 52 billion dollars of intended support to agriculture and food security from developing partners for the next three-year period.
Adesina called for a similar approach to solving the problem of lack of energy in Africa "where more than 600 million people lack access to energy. This can be resolved through initiatives such as the African Development Bank led Desert to Power initiative, which aims to deliver green electricity to more than 200 million people across eleven countries" by using solar capacity.
On 23 February, President Joe Biden announced Ajay Banga as the United States' nominee for President of the World Bank Group. The institution's current president, David Malpass, recently announced his intention to step down by the end of June 2023.
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Emeka Anuforo, Communication and External Relations Department, [email protected]
