Zimbabwe: Chitungwiza residents look forward to healthier lives as $1 million ZimFund project tackles sewage woes

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

13-May-2020

For Lovelin Chapfika, the excitement of purchasing a house in a residential area outside the Zimbabwean capital quickly turned to disappointment when she discovered her new neighbourhood experienced frequent sewage blockages and overflows.

Living in Chitungwiza Unit C extension, about 25 km south of Harare, has not been easy for the mother of three and her family since they arrived in 2013. The lowest point was when they contracted typhoid due to sewage contamination and were admitted to hospital.

“The situation is terrible, more so, during the rainy season as sewage floods the house. I found out that this problem has existed way before we bought the house. I suspect this is why the owner sold it,” Chapfika said.

In order to strengthen sanitation services in Chitungwiza to prevent recurrence of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid, the African Development Bank’s ZimFund has allocated $1.087 million towards addressing these sewage problems.

Chitungwiza’s water and sewerage infrastructure was constructed over 50 years ago and was designed to cater for only about a third of its current 500,000 population. The system, thus is overwhelmed, resulting in overspills of effluent.

Exposure to waterborne diseases not only poses a threat to the local residents, but to those in Harare. An estimated 150,000 Chitungwiza residents commute to Harare daily – perfect carriers for the disease in and out of the capital city. And given that the Manyame River passes through Chitungwiza before emptying into Lake Chivero, Harare’s primary water source, any pollution entering the river system from Chitungwiza ultimately affects the water quality downstream.

The ZimFund support aims to address the municipality’s perennial overspill at several trunk sewer hotspots. The intervention will concentrate on the  upgrading and rerouting of the outfall sewer to run along the new Chitungwiza highway, and diverting and upgrading trunk sewers within the Seke areas of Luciano and Gomba.

The funds will also be used to reconnect the collector to the outflow sewers to prevent the  frequent spillages caused by some houses being constructed on top of trunk and small sewers. It will also provide utility vehicles in each of the three districts -- Seke, Zengeza and St. Mary’s -- to deal with blockages in a timely manner.

It will also provide technical assistance, including the inspection technology; operation and maintenance tools; the construction of manholes; and sanitation and hygiene education through the Chitungwiza Health Department.

The project is expected to start in July 2020 with a completion target of December 2020, provided that the COVID-19 pandemic does not derail its implementation. It’s hoped the intervention will help residents like Lovelin Chapfika lead safer, healthier lives.

“This is the best news I have heard during this COVID-19 pandemic. We look forward to living in a habitable environment with a functional sewerage system. Thanks to ZimFund for supporting us,” she said.

Chitungwiza Municipality is already a beneficiary of ZimFund’s Urgent Water Supply and Sanitation Rehabilitation project (UWSSRP) Phase I and Phase II. The first phase included the rehabilitation of Zengeza’s Conventional Sewage Treatment Works with a capacity of 35 million litres a day. Four sets of sewage treatment ponds and five trickling filters were installed.

In 2010, the Bank, through the African Water Facility grant, supported the rehabilitation of water distribution and sewage systems in Chitungwiza by rehabilitating three sewage pumps. Apart from water and sanitation, the Bank also supports other sectors such as agriculture, transport, social welfare, private enterprise, and the financial and energy sectors in Zimbabwe.

African Development Bank Donates Nearly $ 7 Million to Implement the Single Market for African Air Transport

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

12-May-2020

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank approved, last February 4 in Abidjan, a donation of nearly 7 million US dollars to the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) for the implementation of the Market unique of African air transport (MUTAA).

With this support of 6.85 million US dollars (5 million Units of Account, UA), the African Development Fund, concessional loan window of the African Development Bank Group bears 89.5% of the cost overall of the project, estimated at 7.65 million US dollars (UA 5.58 million), the rest (10.4%) being co-financed by AFCAC.

AFCAC will thus be able to set up the appropriate institutional and regulatory framework and raise awareness of the successful implementation of MUTAA.

The 36-month project includes three components: institutional strengthening of AFCAC to provide the implementing agency and other stakeholder institutions (regional economic communities, states and airlines) with the knowledge and the skills necessary to establish MUTAA on a lasting basis; support for the sustainable development of air transport in Africa by strengthening safety, security and environmental protection; project management, monitoring and evaluation.

The MUTAA should improve the access of Africans (more than 1.2 billion people) to air transport, thus promoting regional integration and stimulating trade and tourism between the countries of the continent.

The African Development Bank has considerable experience in the air transport sector, acquired from projects carried out in various regional member countries as well as with regional economic communities and international aviation stakeholders, including the Organization of international civil aviation, with which it financed the improvement of the political and regulatory frameworks of civil aviation.

The high-level meetings of the African Union Commission and the champion head of state of MUTAA, the President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbé, have constantly called on the Bank and other development partners to provide support to AFCAC to successful implementation of MUTAA. The Bank is a party to the MUTAA Priority Action Plan. This institutional support project will position the Bank so that it can leverage the proven benefits of knowledge brokering, catalytic financing, policy advocacy and sound project management to advance implementation MUTAA.

This project is the first multilateral support granted to AFCAC.

MUTAA is considered a crucial logistical infrastructure and a facilitator for the proper functioning of the African Continental Free Trade Area (ZLECA), supplemented by the Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons and Goods and the African Passport. The AU Vision 2063 sets the ambitious goal of bringing growth in intra-African trade from 10% in 2012 to around 50% by 2045, through further integration. MUTAA was created in January 2018 as the first flagship project of the AU Agenda 2063.

The project is in line with the main objectives of the Bank's Ten-Year Strategy (2013-2022) and responds to two of the Bank's five strategic priorities, the “High 5”: “Integrating Africa” and “Improving the quality of life African populations ”.

Djibouti: African Development Bank contributes nearly $ 25 million to geothermal project

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

11-May-2020

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank approved, on January 15, additional funding of 3.22 million US dollars for the geothermal exploitation project in the Lake Assal region of Djibouti.

This financing is in addition to the earlier US $ 6.83 million and previous US $ 14.68 million approved by the Bank's Board of Directors in June 2013 and May 2018 respectively, bringing its total contribution to $ 24.73 million. U.S. dollars.

The project for which this additional funding is intended aims to improve the quality of life of the Djiboutian population through the increase of green energy production capacity, the reduction of oil imports, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. tight.

Its objective is to explore the geothermal steam field of Lake Assal, located in the center of the country, and to confirm the characteristics of the geothermal resource. In a three-phase program, exploration of the field in question will first be carried out to confirm the characteristics of the geothermal resource; next will be the development of the geothermal field and the construction of a power plant with a capacity of 20 megawatts (MW); and finally the extension of the capacity of this plant to 50 MW.  

This project is also part of a geothermal energy development program and will help build the first such plant in Djibouti. It will ultimately increase the green energy production capacity of this country in the Horn of Africa, increase access to electricity, thanks to a more reliable and more efficient source of energy. affordable. It will also reduce Djibouti's oil imports and greenhouse gas emissions. By improving its access to electrical energy, it will contribute to improving the quality of life of the Djiboutian population.

This additional financing from the Bank will allow the cleaning of well number 2 and make more tests for all the wells in order to collect reliable data, intended for a feasibility study, with an acceptable risk profile for commercial exploitation. .

Bank support is aligned with the current Djibouti Country Strategy Document (CSP) and the Djibouti Vision 2035. It is also in line with the New Pact for Energy in Africa, and responds to the strategic priorities of the Bank, the “High 5”, in particular “Enlighten Africa and supply it with energy. "

Somalia’s internal revenue mobilization galvanised by UA 5.5 million grant from African Development Bank

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

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Rebuild of the Tax Training Institute building, Mogadishu, Somalia

The Federal Republic of Somalia (FGS) revenue mobilization strategy received a boost with a UA 5.5 million grant from the African Development Bank. The strategy aims to ramp up revenue collection through enhanced tax revenue and a more efficient collection system. 

The grant, through the Bank’s Economic and Financial Governance Institutional Support Project (EFGISP) phase 2, offers support for Somalia’s state-building efforts. 

Somalia’s suite of implementing policies and reforms to underpin the next generation of public financial management, include the National Development Plan (2017-2019), the New Partnership for Somalia (NPS) of 2017 and measures to address public financial management and the public procurement.

These planned reforms will enable the country to finance an increased share of its budget and expand the delivery of social services. Somalia is also now focused on increasing revenue collection levels from the current 1.9 % of GDP, to 2.5%. In addition, training in debt management, budget preparation, and financial governance will be conducted as part of ongoing efforts to enable Somalia’s re-engagement with the international community.

The project has already led to the refurbishment of dilapidated buildings in seven locations.  These include five revenue collection centers in the districts of Hoddan, Howlwadag, Wadajir, Yaqshid, and Hamar Weyne, a taxation-training institute, and a fiscal police station.

 “The Bank’s contribution to strengthening our revenue mobilization and institution building is evident through these investments, which will enhance our capacity to collect domestic revenue,” Minister of Finance Abdirahman Dualeh Beileh said.

EFGISP Phase 2 aims to build on previous Bank supported financial governance reform interventions in Somalia and complement the interventions of other development partners in the sector. Under the previous phase, the Bank supported implementation of two projects targeted at enhancing fiscal policy and ensuring public financial management become transparent and more effective.

The EFGISP phase 2 aligns with the Somali government’s efforts to build effective and efficient institutions, will cover support for reforms in public financial management, and strengthen policy planning and implementation capacities.  Implementation and rollout of these new policies and laws will require significant technical and financial assistance to strengthen institutional capacity at the level of the Ministry of Finance and other Ministries.

Somalia has had a turbulent past characterized by unrest, insecurity and famine. Since the 2016 elections, Somalia has strived to fulfil core state functions, including management of the economy and delivery of public services.

Nnenna Nwabufo, Ag. Director-General of the African Development Bank Regional Office for Eastern Africa said the new intervention would lead to more fiscal space to finance public service provisions.

“Enhanced debt management will accelerate the country’s re-engagement with international creditors; strengthened public financial management will ensure those funds are spent efficiently and effectively,” she said. “The ultimate result is increased resources available to finance the provision of public goods and services, investments in development programs, enabling recovery and reducing poverty.”

Making Finance Work for Africa hosts webinar series on impact of COVID-19 crisis on African economies and the financial sector

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

09-May-2020

The Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A) partnership, a unique platform for African financial sector development research, advocacy, knowledge management and networking, has launched a special webinar series on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on African economies and the financial sector.

The series offers a platform to discuss concerted actions to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on African economies and the financial sector.

The first webinar, held on 14 April, had policymakers and CEOs of financial institutions and other stakeholders, discuss the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the African financial sector. The 90-minute session focused on major issues affecting financial institutions, such as lack of credit, rising non-performing loans, deteriorating service quality, and worsening business conditions.

Representatives from Cofina Group, UBA and Standard Bank, amongst others, warned that current regulatory responses only addressed immediate needs. They advocated for long-term solutions to scale up domestic capital markets and accelerate the digital transformation of African financial services. The panelists also offered immediate additional policy responses to strengthen the resilience of African financial systems.

During the 28 April session, development finance institutions discussed their programmes to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the African financial sector. These included mechanisms and facilities to help commercial banks and other financial institutions manage the adverse effects of the crisis. The panelists included representatives from the African Development Bank, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Agence française de développement (AFD), Proparco, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the West African Development Bank (BOAD).

Stefan Nalletamby, Director, Financial Sector Development at the African Development Bank, said the Bank stood ready to support African countries and specifically the financial sector during this critical time.

“The African Development Bank is committed to supporting its financial sector clients to ride out this crisis. Our response is designed to be flexible and respond to our clients’ needs, with a streamlined approval process to ensure that we can disburse quickly.” The Bank has committed up to $10 billion through a COVID-19 Crisis Response Facility to help African countries and businesses address the pandemic, of which $1.35 billion is earmarked for the private sector.

All panelists agreed that they shared “a development responsibility” amongst all DFI partners, as discussions anchored on the importance of global solidarity in combatting this “human” crisis. Future editions of the webinar will cover a broad range of topics, exploring financial options available to help cushion countries in the wake of the crisis.

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For more details on the webinar series and to listen to recordings click: https://www.mfw4a.org/news-events(link is external). The next session, scheduled for May 19, will explore the impact of COVID on African capital markets, as well as the role of capital markets in the recovery post-crisis.

On UN Global Compact Forum, panelists urge robust multi-stakeholder response to the coronavirus pandemic

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

08-May-2020

The African Development Bank is ready to be a partner in coordinated international responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and can offer expertise on the ground in Africa, an emerging and critical battleground in defeating the worldwide crisis. This was the top line message Acting Senior Vice President Bajabulile Swazi Tshabalala delivered during a United Nations Global Compact virtual panel titled Global Cooperation for Crisis Response to discuss strategies and recommendations for mounting a global response.

In her opening statement, the acting SVP drove home the imperative for close cooperation at every level. “No country is exempt or immune from the health and economic consequences which are unraveling. COVID-19 affects us all whether we are in a developed or developing countries,” she said

Tshabalala was joined on the panel by Dr. David Nabarro, Special Envoy on COVID-19 for the Director-General of the World Health Organization; Ellen Dorsey, Executive Director of Wallace Global Fund, a philanthropic organization; and Paul Polman, Co-Founder & Chair of IMAGINE Foundation, which advocates for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Dan Thomas, Communications Chief at UN Global Compact moderated. The virtual panel event was held on Tuesday 5 May.

Panelists stressed that humanity will need to accommodate itself to a new normal in which “the virus is here to stay and what all of us are going to have to do is live with the virus as an ever-present threat in our lives and in our communities,” as Envoy Nabarro stated. Polman advised the audience to take the dual approach of being “physically distanced but also socially more connected” going forward.

One theme that surfaced during the panel, as well as in the recent African Development Institute’s virtual forum, is the extent to which the pandemic has exposed high levels of inequality across and within the world’s countries. Evidence for this came from the observation that industrialized countries have spent $10 trillion in economic stimulus while many developing economies cannot mount such a response. Polman urged, let us “start to think about not restarting the global economy but redesigning the global economy.”    

Dorsey pointed out that while the pandemic represents a crisis of unprecedented scale, other challenges must continue to be faced. It also provides an opportunity to reset. “Intersecting crises require systemic not merely palliative responses. If ever there was a moment in which we are shaken out of our complacency and called to act with audacious intent and collaboration, its now.”  Addressing the issues of resilience, Polman pointed out that societies built on a multi-stakeholder models tend to do better in these sorts of crises. “

Members of the panel observed that Africa seemed less hard hit than other regions by the health impacts of the pandemic, to which SVP Tshabalala responded, “from an economic point of view, we may be worst affected economically.”  She went on to point to estimates that Africa will require $110-$150 billion in stimulus to provide social and economic relief to its economies in the wake of the pandemic.

The Bank has been in the forefront of helping Africa, which is scrambling to protect its economies, health systems and livelihoods of its people. The primary channel for the Bank’s intervention is its Covid-19 Response Facility, a $10 billion  facility that will “provide cost-effective and targeted emergency budget support through a fast-tracked approval process to provide immediate relief to countries to address the crisis, additional resources for public health interventions, social protection programmes and to protect their economies at a time of global volatility and uncertainty.”

The UN Global Compact is a voluntary initiative based on CEO commitments to implement universal sustainability principles and to take steps to support UN goals. The UN Global Compact in March issued an appeal(link is external) for all companies to take collective action to stem the outbreak through implementing ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. Businesses are also being called upon to stand together to facilitate business continuity for a fast recovery.  The panel was one its Special Academy series. 

Malawi: African Development Bank-managed water and sanitation project helping to curb COVID-19 wins Prince Talal International Prize for Human Development

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

06-May-2020

Légende : Les membres du comité du prix international Prince Talal pour le développement humain faisant l’annonce des lauréats lors d’une cérémonie virtuelle.

An African Development Bank-financed and supervised water and sanitation project, now helping to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Malawi, has won the prestigious Prince Talal International Prize for Human Development.

The Integrated Urban Water and Sanitation Project for Mzimba Town project, co-financed by the OPEC Fund for International Development and the Malawian Government, won the award in the ‘governments and social foundations’ category.

“This prestigious award is especially relevant to current global efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and the urgent need for enhanced hygiene practices,” said Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group.

“I applaud the recognition of this project by the Prize Committee of the Prince Talal International Prize for Human Development. The recognition is timely given that the project is rapidly expanding access to water supply and sanitation to communities, while promoting good hygiene practices such as hand washing with soap. Hand washing is one of the most effective ways to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” Dr. Adesina said.

The Arab Gulf Program for Development’s Prize Committee announced the winners in the water and sanitation services category for 2019 at a virtual meeting last week.

The prize money of $200,000 will go to a project implemented by government agencies, public institutions or social businesses approved by the Mzimba Town scheme.

The African Development Bank co-financed and supervised the Mzimba Town project, with significant funding from the OPEC Fund. Malawi’s Northern Region Water Board implemented the project.

The major works were completed 12 months ahead of the December 2020 completion date. It has increased the community’s access to potable water from 65% to 95%, raised access to improved sanitation from 45% to 97% and created around 1,000 jobs. 

Components of the project, including a community-led ‘Total Sanitation’ initiative, have helped to reduce diarrheal cases from 35% to 3%. Some 10 potable water kiosks were established in nearby rural villages, helping to curb attacks on women trekking for water, often at night. 

“We used to collect drinking water from streams that were a two-hour walk away. It was unsafe and contributed to waterborne diseases,” said Maggie Hunga, Vice Chairperson of the Hunga Communal Water Point. 

It has also safeguarded the education and security of young girls who no longer need to fetch water before school, she added.

The construction of primary school sanitation facilities, including secured toilets as part of the project, has provided privacy and comfort to the pupils, especially girls. At Mzimba Prison, authorities have reported a reduction in skin diseases due to potable water supply and improved hygiene practices. 

“We had a system that was on its knees…now we provide access to potable water to 95% of our customers, 22 hours a day,” said Engineer Tutus Mtegha, CEO of the Northern Region Water Board.