African Development Bank advocates for strengthening the role of multilateral development banks beyond financing

African Development Bank advocates for strengthening the role of multilateral development banks beyond financing

On the occasion of its Annual Meetings, to be held from 22 to 26 May 2023 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) plans to highlight the role that multilateral development banks could play in building a new development architecture beyond the financial.

The importance of this subject stems from the fact that multilateralism is currently facing significant challenges, including in responding to climate change, conflict, social fragility, and pandemics. International organizations should maximize their resources by engaging governments, the private sector, and other stakeholders to bring about meaningful change. If this is not done, less-developed economies could become more vulnerable.

From a development-financing perspective, a vital issue to be addressed at the Annual Meetings is reducing the current level of concentration of policy instruments and promoting inclusion and better coordination among multilateral development banks. The African Development Bank has built knowledge capital on global development priorities. On the ground, it deals with many bilateral and multilateral development financing mechanisms.

Therefore, the discussions addressing this issue should emphasize how roles could be shared among the various development actors in Africa.

The other issue is the demand for African countries to be better represented in development financing structures.

Participants will also be