AfDB President calls for bold, innovative, practical solutions to tackle poverty in Africa

President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has called for bold reforms from development partners to tackle climate change, global financial shocks and growing food insecurity that are threatening Africa, the world’s fastest-growing continent and hampering achievement of global development goals. He said “we need bolder resolve, innovative and practical solutions, and stronger coordinated action at scale,” he said during a meeting of multilateral development bank (MDB) heads with the G20 Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty. The MDB leaders met on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group’s ongoing annual meetings in Washington DC.

Adesina who is leading the Bank’s delegation participating in key sessions of the Bretton Wood institutions’ meetings, will highlight his priority concerns for Africa: combatting hunger and eliminating malnutrition, providing electricity to 300 million people by 2030, scaling up infrastructure for agricultural and industrial transformation, combatting climate change, and supporting some of the world’s most fragile nations by mobilising additional resources for the African Development Fund – the  Bank Group’s concessional lending arm.

“Our strength lies in consolidating our collaboration, mobilising resources at speed and scale, and deploying them where they are needed most,” Adesina said. High on Adesina’s agenda is the opportunity to consolidate partnerships with partner multilateral development banks such as the World Bank. The two institutions are working on co-hosting an Africa Energy Summit in Tanzania in January 2025 to accelerate Mission 300, a joint initiative to connect 300 million people in Africa to electricity by 2030. At that summit, African leaders are expected to endorse an Africa Energy Compact. Dr. Adesina is accompanied by a team of the institution’s senior management team  including the Bank’s Senior Vice President Marie Laure Akin-Olugbade, Hassatou N’Sele, Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Kariuki, Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth, Beth Dunford, Vice President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Chief Economist and Vice President, Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, Kevin Urama, as well as Nnenna Nwabufo, Vice President for the Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Complex.

Also in Washington, Adesina will participate in a meeting of heads of MDBs, hold bilateral meetings with development partners and host a meeting of the Africa Investment Forum’s founding partners. The 2024 Africa Investment Forum which will take place in Morocco in December, offers bountiful opportunities for international investors. The forum has attracted over $180 billion in investment interest in Africa over the last five years across various sectors including agribusiness, energy, roads and transport, health, and digital technology.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen spoke on the Evolution of MDBs and their significant achievements in the development agenda for Africa and the world.  She highlighted the increase in May of the Bank’s callable capital, the Mission 300 joint initiative with the World Bank and the African Development Bank’s work on addressing fragility in various parts of the continent. “Outside of crisis contexts, countries are increasingly addressing the underlying drivers of fragility and conflict, such as in the case of an African Development Bank loan to the Democratic Republic of Congo to invest in increasing agricultural productivity in communities that had been displaced,” Yellen said.

Next week, Adesina will travel to Des Moines, Iowa, where he will take part in the 2024 Borlaug Dialogue and World Food Prize. A number of African Heads of State and Government are expected in Iowa for high-level meetings around global food security and agricultural innovation.