Global Development: Views from the Center
September 27, 2006
Why An African Development Bank?
Posted by Sheila Herrling at 02:54 PM
I arrived in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire in February, 1994 to begin what was to be an almost 5 year tenure in the Office of the U.S. Executive Director to the African Development Bank. It was a tenure that would see the Bank, under President Babacar Ndiaye, driven to the brink of collapse and a Bank, under President Omar Kabbaj, reestablish its financial standing and regain some (though not much) program and institutional credibility. Now, under new President Donald Kaberuka, the Bank is at a real crossroads. In many respects, it ought to feel intense pressure to justify its existence. The question is how?
On September 3, CGD released a new report, Building Africa's Development Bank which puts forward guiding principles for the Bank to reestablish itself as a premier, results-based development institution with a comparative advantage distinguishing if from other donors. And, particularly, from the World Bank. Indeed, if the AfDB were to design a strategy for operationalizing these principles, it could well teach the World Bank a thing or two.
The report puts forward six recommendations to Bank management and shareholders In launch events both in Tunis and here in Washington, the recommendations received broad support. Questions move very quickly to the “hows”:
1. How to ramp up staff and programs in infrastructure with the uncertainties around the Bank’s location?
2. How to provide sufficient oversight with a non-resident Board?
3. How to lead on issues without lending?
4. How to get the other donors to provide the required space to the AfDB to take the lead on infrastructure?
5. How to better measure the AfDB's impact, which will undoubtedly require investments in building statistics capacity and institutions in member countries?
President Kaberuka is establishing a High-Level Advisory Panel to help his management team navigate the next phase of the Bank’s recovery. But, often times the best ideas – those most practical, workable, visionary – come from hardworking, creative practitioners within the development community and the everyday people that the international financial institutions are supposed to serve.
We would love to hear your comments on CGD’s report and your ideas for how the AfDB could begin thinking about the “hows” above.
September 11, 2006
They Liked the AfDB Report in Tunis, but will it Play in Washington?
Posted by Todd Moss at 05:21 PM
Dennis de Tray and I launched the latest CGD report for new leaders of international agencies on September 7th in Tunis, the current headquarters of the African Development Bank. "Building Africa's Development Bank: Six recommendations for the AfDB and its shareholders" reports the main findings of the AfDB Working Group which CGD convened this spring and summer.
The report provides strategic advice to the Bank as it tries to complete its rebuilding process. (The Bank nearly collapsed in the mid-1990s, but is now financially sound. The task now is to rebuild operational credibility.) Together with working group member Papa Ndiaye, we presented the report to AfDB president Donald Kaberuka and his management team, to the board of directors, and at a public forum which drew 150 people, mostly Bank staff.
The recommendations are, we think, quite bold, and they affect every one of the Bank's stakeholders: management, staff, the board, shareholders, and especially African countries. So we were pleasantly surprised at how warmly the report was received, even by those who disagreed with parts. All parties seemed eager to vigorously debate the future of the Bank--an excellent sign in itself. As President Kaberuka, who this month will complete his first year in office, moves forward with his reform efforts, we hope that the CGD working group report will prove to be a useful input.
Couldn't join us in Tunis? We will present the working group's recommendations this Thursday at CGD with special guest commentary from Willene Johnson, Callisto Madavo, and Jeannine B. Scott. Please join us.