LAGOS LAUNCHES MAIDEN SDGs WEEK

 

By Temitope Musowo

The Lagos State Government has launched the first edition of the Sustainable Development Goals Week as part of efforts to inspire citizens’ commitment, advocacy and action towards promoting and accelerating the realisation of the SDGs.

According to the Special Adviser to the Governor on Sustainable Development Goals and Investment, Mrs. Solape Hammond, the endeavour is a symbol of the State’s strong leadership, vision and commitment towards greater development.

Restating the Governor’s spirited resolve to address the development needs of Lagosians, particularly in the face of the ongoing pandemic, Hammond said, “The outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has heightened the call for renewed dedication to sustainable development by governments at various levels, which Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has taken as a great priority and infused in the State’s development agenda codenamed T.H.E.M.E.S”.

“While the pandemic has significantly exacerbated some of the problems Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are set to solve, it has also triggered the necessity for more concerted actions in addressing many developmental issues troubling our world”, she asserted.

Hammond disclosed that the event, in commemoration of the United Nations’ Global Goals Week, will run till the end of September 2020 and will mobilise collaborative efforts to connect SDG actors and cross-sector stakeholders with a view to identifying solutions, reviewing progress, amplifying awareness, collaborating and reaffirming the commitment towards accelerating efforts to achieve the 17 SDGs and the 2030 agenda. 

She explained that the State Government is setting lofty precedence in the country, and perhaps in Africa, by effectively mobilising individual action towards the attainment of the SDGs, adding that the present administration would continue to drive, extract and utilise available platforms towards improving the living standards of the people.

In his remark, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on SDGs, Mr. Lekan Fatodu, said the focus is to double up efforts and galvanise more actions towards the attainment of the global goals, saying that “The Sustainable Development Goal Week is a proactive and a ground-breaking initiative to implement joint efforts towards meeting the targets and indicators of the SDGs”. 

While applauding the unalloyed contributions of prominent individuals, Corporate Institutions and Non-Governmental Organisations, the Governor’s aide revealed that the initiative will further bring to fore the need for urgent and a collective effort towards finding sustainable solutions to current and impending challenges facing humanity.

The SDGs week will feature sustainable development-related activities that are intrinsically linked in their purpose to fast-track efforts towards progress in realising the SDGs. Some of the planned activities include the Open Goals Adoption by top State functionaries and prominent Lagos residents, the Neighbourhood Outreach Campaign to enlighten citizens on their roles in achieving the Goals and an SDGs discourse with CSOs and related youth groups.  

The highlight of the week will be the distribution of support items and relief materials donated by corporate organisations and well-meaning Lagosians to vulnerable people in some communities and the disbursement of exercise books to primary schools in rural communities.

African Development Bank’s Second Virtual Business Opportunities Seminar (e-BOS)

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

Event location: 

virtual

What:	Second Virtual Business Opportunities Seminar
Who:	The African Development Bank Resource Mobilization and Partnerships Department
When:	Tuesday, 13 October 8:00 to 14:00 GMT; and Wednesday 14 October 11:00 to 17:00 GMT.
Where:	Virtual (Via Zoom)

 

The Resource Mobilization and Partnerships Department (FIRM) of the African Development Bank will hold its second virtual Business Opportunities Seminar (e-BOS) from 8:00 a.m. to 14:00 p.m. GMT on Tuesday, October 13, and  from 11:00 a.m. to 17:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 14.

The two-day webinar will offer individual and consulting firms, civil contractors, manufacturers, suppliers, and diplomatic commercial attachés from the Bank Group’s regional and non-regional members an opportunity to learn more about how to provide goods and services to the institution or otherwise partner with it. The inaugural e-BOS held 28 April, 2020 drew participation from nearly 300 global partners.  

The webinar will provide an overview of Bank Group policies and operations; procurement rules and procedures; and ongoing and future country activities. The e-BOS will also deliver Business-to-Business meetings with key Bank Group departments.

Interpretation will be provided in both English and French.

DRC: African Development Bank approves an envelope of nearly $ 142 million to support the fight against the Covid 19 pandemic

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

24-Sep-2020

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank approved, on September 23 in Abidjan, financial support of 100 million Unit of Account (approximately $ 142 million) to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, under the Program d budget support in response to the Covid-19 crisis (PABRC).

This envelope, which includes a loan and an African Development Fund (ADF) grant of $ 43.6 million and $ 60.6 million respectively as well as a grant from the Transition Support Facility (TAF) of $ 37.8 million is important support in a difficult context where the economic performance indicators of the DRC have been disrupted by the pandemic. This support will above all make it possible to mitigate the economic impact of the virus in order to promote the country's recovery.

According to Solomane Koné, acting director general of the Bank for Central Africa, “the Democratic Republic of the Congo is in a relatively peaceful phase of political transition and is facing challenges, including that of reviving economic growth and fighting against poverty. The country needs strong and coordinated support from partners. This support will help strengthen the economic and social resilience of populations in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. "

The envelope, which comes from the Covid-19 Rapid Response Facility (CRF) set up by the Bank and endowed with a $ 10 billion fund, is intended to support the DRC in its response against new coronavirus. The provinces of Kinshasa, North Kivu, Kongo Central, Haut Katanga, South Kivu, Ituri and Lualaba which group together most of the cases of contamination, will benefit from a greater deployment of the response system against Covid-19.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has so far recorded 271 victims of the virus, according to the WHO, and this central African country has suffered the economic repercussions of the pandemic which has spared no country on the continent.

As part of this operation, the African Development Bank has joined forces with development partners such as the IMF, the World Bank and the French Development Agency, to take concerted action against the pandemic.

Last June, the Bank mobilized $ 13 million for the six member countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) and the DRC. The objective was to provide health kits, screening kits and medical ambulances. It was also planned to train community agents and sensitize the populations.

Africa offers Asian business an abundance of investment opportunities, webinar participants learn

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

23-Sep-2020

The African Development Bank today held a workshop to convey the continent’s immense investment and partnership opportunities to Asian business leaders, particularly as the continent seems poised to return to economic growth in 2021 following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two-hour virtual event, held in English, Korean, and Chinese, offered participants an opportunity to learn more about the Bank and its operations. The webinar comes on the heels of the recently launched African Economic Outlook 2020 -Asia Supplement, which revised growth projections and outlook for Africa for 2020 and 2021.  

“I take this opportunity to strongly encourage Asian private sector entities gathered here today, to partner with the Bank to take advantage of the multiple investment opportunities that exist on the continent,” said Samuel Higenyi Mugoya, the Bank’s Director for Syndication, Co-financing and Client Solutions Department, which co-organized the event, together with the Bank’s Asia External Representation Office.

In introducing the Bank, Takashi Hanajiri, Head of the Asia External Representation Office, provided an overview of the Bank and its history and components before providing a summary of its flagship Africa Investment Forum(link is external) initiative and the opportunities it offers. Referring to the AIF event held in Johannesburg in 2019, he said “So far the largest deal was a LNG project in Mozambique with a total cost of $24.6 billion,” adding, “many Asian institutions, both public and private, are sponsoring the project.” 

Following a discussion of the Bank’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hanajiri concluded on a positive note, noting “Africa’s growth will rebound to 3% in 2021 from -3.4% in 2020.”

Bank staff presented on the Bank’s non-sovereign operations and financial product offerings. Other sessions covered Africa’s immense potential in energy, particularly renewable energy, as well as agriculture, which remains the continent’s most important economic sector.

Director Mugoya praised Asian countries’ ongoing support for the Bank and Africa’s development. “There are four Asian member countries in the Bank, namely China, India, Japan, and Korea, that have been long-standing and strategic partners for almost 40 years. The Asian member countries have consistently contributed to the Bank’s capital requirements and supported the African Development Fund’s successive replenishments.” The African Development Fund is the Bank’s concessional window.

The webinar, which drew around 300 participants, closed with a question and answer session. Queries addressed such issues as the Bank’s representation in India, trade financing offerings and access to financing for women. Participating corporations and institutions included Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, Export-Import Bank of India, JICA, Korea Eximbank, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), and Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation (KIND).

Africa’s huge and highly diverse continent has the second-largest population in the world and the second-largest land mass after Asia, offering tremendous investment opportunities for the Asian private sector. The Bank views Africa’s private sector as a critical engine of economic growth and development but Asian companies often lack information about the business climate.

Until the COVID-19 pandemic, Africa was the second-fastest growing continent outside Asia. Over the past decade, the continent has experienced the longest period of unbroken growth in per capita incomes since the 1960s.

In Niger, the African Development Bank is supporting the creation of a pool of skilled labor for emerging sectors of the economyemail sharing button

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

23-Sep-2020

The Support Project for the Development of Vocational and Technical Education and Training ( PADEFPT ) is being implemented between 2011 and 2020 in Niger. It has made it possible, through increased access to quality vocational and technical education and training, to provide the country with a pool of qualified labor for the revitalization of the economy.

This project is designed to respond to new socio-economic opportunities linked to the exploitation of uranium and oil deposits and the launch of major projects, notably the Kandadji dam, the railway and the dry port. The PADEFPT was financed by the African Development Bank, through a grant of $ 23.8 million and a loan of $ 10.5 million, from the Bank's concessional rate lending window, the African Fund for development, totaling 34.3 million US dollars.

The PADEFPT has thus made it possible to train a quality technical workforce to support emerging industrial sectors and Niger's economic growth. This has contributed in particular to strengthening and boosting the development of targeted industrial sectors such as civil engineering, electronic and electrotechnical engineering, mechanical engineering and petrochemical engineering.

Increased access of girls to education

The project specifically focused on the extension and rehabilitation of 52 vocational and technical education and training establishments (VETT), the construction of 37 others and the acquisition of furniture and computer equipment for their equipment. Latest generation equipment was also acquired for the workshops, laboratories and classrooms of the targeted establishments. The project enabled girls to gain access to TVET (55%) and learners were provided with access encouragement kits and support kits after passing exams.

In addition, 673 teachers in the middle cycle of vocational and technical education, including 116 women, have benefited from training of trainers sessions. The development of skills and the development of curricula according to the Competency-Based Approach (APC), formed the framework for strengthening skills.

In terms of institutional capacity building, 50 executives including 11 women benefited from training in strategic planning to strengthen the capacities of executives of the Ministry of Vocational and Technical Education (MEP / T). The training in results-based management concerned 35 managers, including five women and eight regional directors. Also, 164 managers trained, including eight women and eight regional directors of the MEP / T in seven establishments in the four target regions of the project, received training in the gender approach.

Efficient pedagogical supervision

"PADEFPT's support has made it possible to provide the MEP / T and the Nigerien administration with a pool of executives capable of designing and carrying out activities with a view to continuous improvement of the quality of training", underlined the drafting team of the project completion report, led by Alfred Régis Ouédraogo, social development specialist at the African Development Bank.

The report welcomes in particular the continuation of in-service training for teachers in pedagogy, effective pedagogical supervision, capacities in the development and revision of curricula, the inclusion of the gender dimension in TVET and the creation of training modules. pedagogical training.

"The project has made it possible to strengthen the institutional capacities of the MEP / T, the Higher Council of EFPT and training establishments in workshop and laboratory equipment, to raise the level of practical and pedagogical skills of teaching staff and 'supervision, and also to revise and elaborate the curricula which have been developed and introduced in the training course ”, concludes this document recently published by the African Development Bank.

African Development Bank COVID-19 response grant is saving lives in South Sudan

 AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

22-Sep-2020

A $4 million COVID-19 response grant from the African Development Bank has boosted South Sudan’s capacity to respond to the health crisis created by the pandemic.

As at 18 September 2020, South Sudan had 2,599 confirmed cases, 49 deaths and 1,290 recoveries.

In response to the pandemic, in June 2020, the Bank rolled out the grant under its COVID-19 Response Facility to strengthen the joint efforts by the government, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners to fight the disease in the country.

“Through the AfDB-Government of South Sudan project, 376 healthcare workers have been trained in COVID-19 case management; surveillance is being scaled up and coordination strengthened at the sub-national level. The country has received critical supplies to support its COVID-19 response,” said Dr. Olushayo Olu, WHO Representative for South Sudan.

South Sudan received critical health supplies, including personal protective equipment, 51 oxygen concentrators, 20 pulse oximeters, 13 patient monitors, and infection, prevention and control equipment a few weeks after the Bank approved the grant. Seventeen health facilities will be renovated and equipped for case management.

The project is enhancing local capacity for case management and augmenting surveillance and detection of COVID-19 cases. It is also strengthening South Sudan’s ability to respond, particularly at the sub-national level.

Following the training of health workers, there is now more robust surveillance, sample collection, testing and contact tracing. At least 84% of contacts are reached on follow-up.

“The training reinforced my confidence and triggered the need to keep updating my knowledge on COVID-19 to help the people of South Sudan,” said Dr. Majok Philips Matiop, the lead case manager on home isolation.

Preliminary preparations for the establishment of an oxygen generation plant, including assessment of existing plants across the country, have been conducted. WHO is expected to provide technical expertise in-country. Also, discussions are ongoing to establish a port health office at Juba International Airport.

The Bank’s Country Manager for South Sudan, Benedict Kanu, said the intervention was timely.

“The pandemic revealed major gaps in healthcare services, including inadequate personal protective equipment in many African countries, including South Sudan. The Bank’s support will help to improve the country’s national health system and make it more able to respond to COVID-19 and future health emergencies,” he said.

South Sudan has also experienced a locust invasion that has threatened food security. In April 2020, the country and others in the Horn of Africa region received a grant of $1.5 million in emergency relief to spur locust control efforts.

Expediting Japanese private sector engagements in Africa

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

Event location: 

Online

What:	Webinar for the Japanese Private Sector on Doing Business in Africa
Who:	African Development Bank
When:	Tuesday, 29 September 2020, 08.00 to 10.00 GMT;  17.00–19.00 in Tokyo time
Where:	Virtual. Click here(link is external) to register.

(Click here(link is external) to submit your questions by 28 September 2020.)

 

The private sector plays a critical role in driving economic growth and can help African countries achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many Asian companies are willing to do business in Africa but often lack information about its business environment.

The webinar will discuss the purpose and activities of the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance (EPSA) Initiative with representatives of Japanese companies, including trading houses, manufacturers, and financial institutions, as well as engineering, procurement and construction contractors.

Participants will also learn about the Bank’s Non-Sovereign Operations. The African Development Bank and the Government of Japan agreed on a joint target of $3.5 billion under the EPSA4, during the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) in Tokyo in August 2019.

The webinar will deepen understanding of the Bank’s role and the Japanese private sector’s involvement in doing business in Africa. The Bank will provide useful information on how the Japanese private sector can proactively be involved in development projects. The webinar will be conducted in English and Japanese.

Mauritania: African Development Bank extends $2.1 million for rollout of Disaster Risk Financing

 AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

18-Sep-2020

The African Development Bank’s Board on Wednesday approved a grant of $2.1 million to boost the country’s resilience against climate related shocks and food insecurity. The funds, sourced from the African Development Fund, will go to provide technical and institutional support to strengthen Mauritania’s capacity to assess climate-related risk.

The Bank is extending the funding under its Africa Disaster Risk Financing (ADRIFI) program to enable the country to take out a drought risk index-based insurance policy that is expected to cushion Mauritania’s economy against the impacts of drought-related shocks, at a moment when the country is also reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The African Development Bank is pleased that ADRiFi Mauritania will provide efficient and timely first-response delivery to targeted beneficiaries in communities that will be affected by disasters, and will strengthen resilience to drought-linked disasters in Mauritania,” said Atsuko Toda, Bank Director for Agriculture, Finance and Rural Development.

Mauritania, a Saharan-Sahelian country, experiences irregular rainfall pattern and repeated drought, which has a profound effect on food production and incomes. In 2017, 28% of the total population were food insecure.

The project will have three components: development of climate risk management solutions; supporting access to disaster risk transfer mechanisms; and programme management and coordination.

Advancing climate risk management solutions will be done in two ways: building in-country capacity to understand drought risk and implement contingency plans; and collecting more precise agro-climatic data for use in calibration of index-based insurance.  Technical staff and policymakers will receive capacity building training that will help the country model its drought-related disaster risk more effectively.

Under component two, ADRIFI will provide funding for payment of 50% of the insurance policy premium for years 2020 and 2021 as well as support resource mobilization to establish a food crisis response mechanism.

The final component concerns overall coordination and monitoring of activities which will be carried out by the country’s Food Security Commission (CSA).

Mauritania’s risk insurance policy will be held by African Risk Capacity agency, a partner of the Bank  on the ADRiFi programme.

ADRIFI in addition to providing African countries assistance in paying risk premiums, enhances the management of natural disaster risk by strengthening national capacities. Madagascar, Zimbabwe and Gambia have ADRiFi programmes.

ARC Agency was established in 2012 as a Specialized Agency of the African Union to help Member States improve their capacity to better plan, prepare and respond to weather-related disasters. ARC Ltd is a mutual insurance facility providing risk transfer services to Member States through risk pooling and access to reinsurance markets; it is owned by Member States with active insurance policies, as well as KfW Development Bank and the UK Department of International Development (DfiD), as capital contributors.

Africa needs urgent trade finance boost in the wake of COVID-19, report finds

 AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

18-Sep-2020

There is an urgent need for financing to reenergize Africa’s trade in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest trade finance report released jointly by the African Development Bank and the African Export-Import Bank.

According to the report, only 40% of Africa’s trade is bank-intermediated – a far lower share than the global average of 80%. The trade finance gap also remains unacceptably high at $81 billion in 2019.

The report found that these are some of the structural challenges that hinder banks’ ability to effectively intermediate Africa’s trade with the world. It also highlighted the critical role of development finance institutions in supporting the industry.

The study also found that unintended regulatory bottlenecks were one of the key constraints driving these patterns.

The report, titled Trade Finance in Africa: Trends Over the Past Decade and Opportunities Ahead, builds on two previous studies released in 2014 and 2017. It is based on a survey of over 600 unique commercial banks in 49 countries across Africa for 2011-19. 

The report set out as a benchmark for trade finance in Africa before the COVID-19 crisis, and recommends policy responses to the industry in the wake of the pandemic. “With the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, the need for financing to reenergize the region’s trade is urgent.”

“The good news is that development finance institutions (DFIs), including the African Development Bank, are playing a more active role in supporting the trade finance industry in Africa,” it says. 

More than half of banks engaged in trade finance activities between 2015 and 2019 received support from DFIs to expand their transactions. Yet, DFI support is skewed towards particular sub-regions and financial intermediaries – mainly foreign-owned private banks, according to the report.

The report made recommendations to boost trade finance supply in Africa, including raising awareness about the impact of stringent regulatory requirements on sector intermediaries and addressing geographical and institutional disparities in DFI support to the sector.

Stefan Nalletamby, the African Development Bank’s Director of the Financial Sector Development Department, noted that the report series had become the main reference document for the industry on the continent. 

“It reflects the Bank’s increasing thought leadership role on this important subject. We hope that the findings of this report will motivate policymakers and industry experts to devise and implement strategies to make trade finance more accessible to African traders, especially SMEs in fragile states and low-income countries,” he said.

Nutrition experts discuss ways to advance nutrition and gender at the African Green Revolution Forum

 AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

15-Sep-2020

A panel of gender, nutrition and food specialists explored food access challenges that vulnerable groups such as women and children face in Africa’s urban areas, at the African Green Revolution Forum held last week. 

The online discussion had an added urgency in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to organizers of Africa’s largest agriculture conference. 

African Development Bank Director for Agriculture and Agro-Industry Dr. Martin Fregene, Bank Coordinator of the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative Esther Dassanou joined representatives from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Harvest Plus and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as other experts, for the panel sessions, held Wednesday, 9 September. 

The first of two sessions looked at the role of nutrition and gender in Africa’s food systems, the role of partnerships in making food accessible to vulnerable populations, the importance of building strong food systems, providing local governments with new financial instruments, and tools to support local food systems.

In his remarks to the digital audience, Fregene talked about the Bank’s contribution to address food access on the continent, such as the TAAT program, which provides quality seed to farmers for better crop yields, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, a partnership with the World Bank group, which supports  sustainable agriculture that benefits poor and vulnerable smallholder farmers in developing countries, particularly women.

Fregene said small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a pivotal role in the food systems value chain and mentioned the Bank’s instruments to help SMEs address challenges such as financing and infrastructure. 
“SMEs require robust supply chains and high productivity for them to be able to deliver food at the volume and the price that urban poor can afford. That means increased productivity of the farmers – and that means also better inputs, good seeds, certified seeds,” he said. 

Arun Baral, representing HarvestPlus, stressed the importance of providing women with tools and technologies, such as bio-fortified seeds and gardening techniques, to create sustainable and nutritious food ecosystems in their communities.

In the second half of the session, attendees agreed that women face overwhelming challenges in accessing financial support.

In his keynote address to the audience, Peter Macdougall, Assistant Deputy Minister of Global Affairs Canada, mentioned the importance of gender-based finance in the agriculture sector to bring sustainability in Africa. 
“Women financing is an imperative for us at the Ministry because we know that women make up 42% of the overall agriculture sector,” he said.

AFAWA Coordinator Dassanou said there was a vast financing gap. 
“Today, in the continent, there are financial institutions that specifically target women entrepreneurs. However, they are nowhere near the levels that we want to see,” she said.

The second session’s panelists agreed that one of the solutions to fast-track the growth of financial support for women-led and owned enterprises, particularly in agribusiness, is to establish databases to encourage banks to lend money to women.

The second session panelists agreed that prioritizing data-led research to fast-track financial support for women, would help recognize women as a key part of the envisioned agricultural transformation.

The African Green Revolution Forum was held online for the first time 8-11 September.

Despite COVID-19 pandemic, Africa still a prime investment destination, participants affirm at AfDB webinar for Asian audiences

 AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

14-Sep-2020

Participants at a webinar to present the African Development Bank’s African Economic Outlook Supplement to Asian audiences on Monday have endorsed the report as critical for post-COVID-19 Africa.

The supplement revises the growth projections and outlook for Africa for 2020 and 2021 and highlights the impact of COVID–19 on Africa’s socio-economic landscape. It recommends policy responses to safely reopen economies and accelerate growth recovery.

“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, investment opportunities still abound in Africa,” said Tetsushi Sonobe, the Dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). “Global markets are shifting to South Asia and Africa. In a sense, Africa is not very far for Asian investors who might be interested in the investment opportunities on the continent.”

Around 350 participants attended the virtual event, which was co-hosted by the Asia External Representation Office of the African Development Bank. The audience included government officials, representatives from the African diplomatic corps in Asia, development professionals, representatives of civil society, academics and think tanks, students, journalists, and the general public

Sonobe observed that Africa’s GDP growth is projected to quickly rebound in 2021 following steady growth before COVID-19.

Sonobe identified some of the potential opportunities highlighted in the African Economic Outlook Supplement: “A large market with a very talented youthful population; a three-trillion-dollar market opportunity through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreements; greater manufacturing potential as low-cost manufacturing opportunities continue to move to Africa; improved business environment; and improving  macroeconomic governance.”

Khaled Sherif, the African Development Bank’s Vice President for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery said despite the pandemic affecting all African economies, its magnitude will vary considerably from country to country, depending on the economic characteristics and initial conditions of the countries.

“This urges us to avoid the one-size-fits-all solution to address the effects of COVID-19 in Africa. For that, the AEO Supplement notes that the continent will need the support and expertise of all. This is an opportunity to enrich the debate on what appropriate measures are needed to support African countries to recover from the pandemic, drawing particularly from Asian experience,” Sherif said.

The webinar noted that the policy recommendations of the African Economic Outlook Supplement could be regarded as important opportunities for investments. Participants also observed that although Africa is human-resource-rich, Africa will need to work on closing its infrastructure gap – an issue the African Development Bank has made one of its top priorities.

The African Economic Outlook Supplement underlines the urgency to build the resilience of Africa’s healthcare systems and economies to improve countries’ preparedness for future shocks. This means that African countries will need to rethink their current development strategies and priorities, which have clearly shown their limitations.

“Policymakers must seize the new and real opportunities for participation in global value chains, particularly with Asia and within Africa and build the infrastructure needed to encourage large-scale teleworking, e-health, and distance learning architectures for a rapid, resilient, and sustainable recovery in a post-COVID-19 digital world,” said Chuku Chuku, Officer in Charge of the Bank’s Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting Division.

“The pandemic notwithstanding, Africa is open to business and we look forward to working with our Asian partners.”

Released annually since 2003, the African Economic Outlook provides compelling up-to-date evidence and analytics to inform and support African decision-makers.

8th UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joins AfDB President Adesina, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and other global leaders to launch Global Center on Adaptation's regional office in Africa

 AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

Event location: Online

WHAT:	Launch of GCA Africa, the Global Center on Adaptation’s regional office and work program
WHO:	The Global Center on Adaptation and the African Development Bank
WHEN:	Wednesday, 16 September 2020 at 12.00 GMT
WHERE:	Online

 

Ban Ki-moon, Chair of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) and 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations will join African Development Bank Group President Akinwumi Adesina, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and African leaders from across the continent for the launch of GCA Africa on Wednesday, 16 September 2020 at 12.00 GMT.

GCA Africa, hosted at the African Development Bank headquarters in Abidjan, will work closely with its partners from all sectors to align initiatives with global programs, coordinate projects across the continent, and deliver accelerated action for communities affected by climate change across Africa.

With headquarters in the Netherlands and regional offices in China and Bangladesh, the GCA acts as a solutions broker to accelerate, innovate and scale adaptation action for a climate-resilient world. It is co-chaired by Ban Ki-moon and Feike Sijbesma, Honorary Chairman of Royal DSM. African Development Bank President Adesina and Kristalina Georgieva both serve as members of the Board.

The launch event will be followed by a Partnership Forum – an open dialogue with stakeholders from across the continent to advance Africa’s adaptation priority actions and to discuss how GCA Africa can support and ensure better coordination for greater impact.

 

Confirmed speakers include:

• Ban Ki-moon, Chair of the Global Center on Adaptation and 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations
• Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations
• Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of Gabon and Chair of the African Adaptation Initiative
• Akinwumi Adesina, President, African Development Bank
• Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
• Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation
• Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission

 

The media are invited to join the ceremony by clicking on the following live stream links:

Zoom	https://afdb.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5-0K0hlpQiaKL5MW30Wqew(link is external)
Vimeo	https://vimeo.com/455522557(link is external)
YouTube	https://youtu.be/pwDVifZ2Hvs(link is external)
Chaîne YouTube	https://www.youtube.com/c/AfDBGroup/(link is external)
Page Facebook	https://www.facebook.com/AfDBGroup(link is external)
TV de la BAD Android	https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.afdbtv(link is external)
TV de la BAD iOS	https://apps.apple.com/us/app/afdb-tv/id1500047879?ls=1(link is external)