WHAT: 15TH REPLENISHMENT OF THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT FUND (ADF)

WHO: AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT FUND, DONOR GOVERNMENTS

WHEN: 4-5 DECEMBER 2019

WHERE: AFRICAN PRIDE IRENE COUNTRY LODGE, CENTURION, SOUTH AFRICA

Representatives of donor governments will meet 4-5 December in Centurion, South Africa, to conclude the 15th Replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF) with a financing package for Africa’s low-income countries for the period 2020-2022.

Representatives of beneficiary member countries will also participate in the deliberations, focusing on the needs and priorities of ADF countries and measures and resources to address them.

Over the past 45 years, the African Development Fund has played a central role in providing concessional resources to low-income African countries while demonstrating clear value for money to both donors and recipients. The Fund has also provided catalytic financing and policy advice to help countries deliver essential services that help accelerate growth and protect vulnerable communities.

The results associated with its operations have changed the lives of millions of Africans, making the ADF a trusted and strategic partner for all its stakeholders.

The Strategic Pillars of ADF-15 include (i) providing quality and sustainable infrastructure to support economic transformation and promote regional integration; and (ii) delivering human, governance and institutional capacity to promote inclusive growth and decent job creation.

ADF will scale up support to the most vulnerable and to those countries facing fragility and it will aim to tackle the root causes of fragility and strengthen resilience of its eligible countries by systematically using a fragility lens in its operations design.

It will also give a special attention to cross-cutting issues such as gender mainstreaming, climate change, governance, private sector development and job creation.

Journalists are invited to cover the opening plenary of the meetings on Wednesday, 4 December 2019 at 8 am.

About the ADF

The African Development Fund (ADF) is the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group. Established in 1972, it became operational in 1974. Administered by the African Development Bank, it comprises, to date, 32 contributing countries and benefits 37 countries. The 37 ADF-eligible countries include those that are increasing their economic capacities and heading toward becoming the new emerging markets—as well as those that remain fragile and need special assistance for basic levels of service delivery. The ADF has the challenge of having more than half of its client countries facing situations of fragility where even stable economies remain highly vulnerable to internal or external shocks.