The African Development Bank has reiterated its commitment to promote mutual reliance on the continent in procurement diagnostic tools and social environment safeguards.

The AfDB’s senior vice-president, Swazi Tshabalala, said this at  the Annual Development Effectiveness Report held on the sidelines of the 2024 AfDB Annual Meetings in Nairobi.

Ms Tshabalala said the bank would continue to adapt its operational model, simplify its business processes, and further collaborate with other multilateral development banks to promote mutual reliance.

Ms Tshabalala said, “The report provides supportive development results of AfDB’s global finance projects, which demonstrate its increased efforts in normalising and catalysing other sources of finance from the private sector.

“These development results represent a collective achievement delivered in collaboration and partnership with other international development banks and development partners, and of course, our client partners.

“In this year’s report, we have incorporated innovative tools and methods like satellite imaging to better capture and analyse the development impact of our investments.”

“For instance, using high-resolution impact mapping, we were able to assess the impact of Bank-financed water and sanitation projects on the living conditions of residents in 28 urban areas in Kenya,’’ she explained.

Ms Tshabalala said the report also provided the supportive development results of our global finance projects, which allowed us to demonstrate the bank’s increased efforts in normalising and catalysing other sources of finance.

The vice-president said that the bank group had earned its triple-A award despite the pandemic’s lingering challenges and geopolitical tensions.

“The bank generated a historically high net income and approved projects to the value of 10 billion dollars, the second-highest funding level. The bank will also support member countries or regional member countries in establishing appropriate platforms for business coordination at the country level.

“The AfDB is recognised for its leadership in financial innovations, implementing many of the recommendations of the G20 Capital Adequacy Framework,” she said.

Ms Tshabalala said this was coming at a time when the bank inaugurated a 10-year strategy (2024-2033) that addressed the continent’s current complex hurdles.

She said it also boldly outlined the bank’s determination to support Africa in overcoming multiple challenges.

(NAN)