AfDB NEWS & EVENTS
The African Development Bank has become, thanks to its many actions with transformative effects, a trusted partner of the Sahel countries facing enormous challenges. Support for the Sahel region responds to the priorities set by the Bank for this region, which relies on its significant opportunities to help realize its development potential.
Over the years, the Bank has broadened its scope and adapted its intervention to the needs of the region. The priority areas of the Bank's engagement in the Sahel are as follows: resilience and the fight against fragilities, infrastructure development, food security, youth employment, women's empowerment, adaptation to climate change, aid to refugees, governance, integration region and fight against the coronavirus.
The Bank Group has thus provided sustained and diversified support in recent years to development programs in Sahelian countries. As of September 30, 2020, its portfolio in the G5 Sahel countries comprised 105 projects for total commitments of $ 3.2 billion.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bank has helped these countries mitigate the health, social and economic consequences, and supported their economic recovery plans. Thus, the Bank granted targeted emergency budget support of US $ 285 million as well as a grant of US $ 20 million to Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad.
The African Development Bank is a founding member of the Sahel Alliance, with the World Bank, the European Union, the United Nations Development Program, France and Germany. The Sahel Alliance, which receives decisive support from the Bank, pursues the objective of providing an appropriate and effective response in six priority sectors, in particular: "education and youth employment", "agriculture, rural development, food security" , “Energy and climate”, “internal security”.
The Bank's contributions relate in particular to the financing of the Priority Investment Program (PIP) drawn up by the Executive Secretariat of the G5 Sahel.
In September 2019, the President of the Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, launched, during the summit of the heads of state of the G5 Sahel in Ouagadougou, the initiative “Desert to power” (from the desert to energy), which aims to produce 1.1 gigawatts of solar power by 2030 to provide electricity to 250 million people in nine Sahelian countries.
As part of supporting fragile states, the African Development Bank is supporting the implementation of important transformative programs. In Niger, the Bank is contributing US $ 130 million to the flagship Kandadji dam construction program, for which it is the lead partner for technical and financial partners. With a global cost of approximately US $ 1.2 billion, Kandadji is an integrated and strategic program of national and cross-border scope. The program will transform the lives of more than three million direct beneficiaries and contribute to a marked improvement in the living conditions for ten million people.
In Mali, the Bank is financing the Support Project for the Socio-Economic Reinsertion of the Populations of Northern Mali (PARSEP-NM) , plans to reach 635,000 people, for a total investment of 8.5 billion CFA francs.
The economy of the Sahel is regularly confronted with the effects of climate change with droughts and floods which undermine the means of subsistence of the populations and further accentuate the already precarious living conditions. This situation fuels community conflicts, migration, and is the bedrock of terrorism, maritime piracy and trafficking of all kinds. Young people, faced with inactivity, are particularly exposed to these scourges. To help the countries of the region face these challenges, the Bank has allocated more than $ 2.1 billion over the past ten years to support the activities of the Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), including the G5 Sahel countries.
Through the strategy to combat fragility and strengthen resilience in Africa and the Transition Support Facility (TAF) as a financing instrument, the Bank will continue to make the Sahel a priority, by increasing its assistance to countries fragile areas. It is about strengthening their resilience, laying the foundations for lasting peace, and achieving the dual strategic objective of inclusive and green growth and the reduction of extreme poverty. The Bank works for a prosperous, stable and resilient Sahel.
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