“Nothing can dampen our collective intention to provide better opportunities for all – Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank
The first World Summit of Public Development Banks on Thursday showed a concerted effort to accelerate efforts to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including addressing fragility.
The General Finance Summit, part of the Paris Peace Forum in 2020, brought together some 450 public development banks to build a new coalition to better address the COVID-19 crisis by funding SDGs sharp.
The summit is convened by Agence francaise de développement, in partnership with the African Development Bank, under the auspices of French President Emmanuel Macron, with the participation of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“By coming together today and bringing to life this unprecedented coalition, in addition to its diversity, and its liaison role with all financial role players, reminds us that it is possible to have general, consistent and joint responses to major global challenges. build, “Macron said.
He praised public development banks for playing a key role in reducing the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on livelihoods.
Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank Group, called on the public session to work with public development banks to fill the $ 2.5 billion private gap needed to reach the SDGs by 2030.
“Nothing can stop our collective intention to provide better opportunities for all, create hope for millions of young people, end extreme poverty and provide a better, safer and healthier future for all,” said Adesina, co-chair of the session.
He also cited various interventions by the Bank, including a $ 10 billion COVID-19 response facility and a $ 3 billion COVID-19 social bond, noting that it helped save livelihoods.
To promote the recovery of Africa, the African Development Bank’s priority for the post-COVID-19 era is to work with multilateral banks, public investment institutions and commercial creditors to equip the continent with critical resources to address any potential exogenous to withstand shocks.
“Let’s do joint financing, let’s have a financing coalition, complementarity financing and financing consolidation,” Adesina said.
Remy Rioux, head of Agence francaise de développement, said the summit showed the passion of development banks to achieve inclusive growth and the SDGs.
“We want to do more; we want to do better, we want to do it with the private sector; with civil society and with local authorities to exploit the full potential of the regions (we serve),” he said.
Several world leaders and heads of state virtually addressed the summit. These include Senegalese President Macky Sall, President of Costa Rica Carlos Alvarado Quesada, former Prime Minister of Latvia Valdis Dombrovskis, and Alok Sharma, former British Foreign Secretary.
There have also been messages of solidarity from other multilateral financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, recognizing the crucial role of public development banks.
“But the road to recovery is going to be steep and we will need massive investments in human and fiscal capital; what will be the quality of these investments will determine our future, and your public development banks will play an important role in helping the recovery. and also to overcome the vulnerabilities we had before the pandemic when we experienced low productivity, low growth, great inequality and a looming climate crisis, “said Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF.
The African Development Bank has increased its support for fragile states through its high five priorities, with financial commitments increasing by 51% between 2014 and 2019, compared to the previous five years. Some 345 operations worth $ 6.45 billion have been approved for countries where fragility still exists.
In 2019, for example, the Bank launched the Desert to Power initiative, an energy integration program covering 11 countries and 250 million people in the Sahel region. The goal is to install 1.1 gigawatts of solar power by 2030, generate economic opportunities for local communities and develop overall socio-economic resilience.
Contact:
Kwasi Kpodo, Department of Communications and External Relations, African Development Bank. Email: w.kpodo@afdb.org