ADF 11

The African Development Fund (ADF) is the part of the Bank Group that provides concessional loans and grants to Africa’s poorest countries. Established in 1972, the ADF aims to reduce poverty through programs and projects that boost economic growth and improve people’s living conditions.

In December 2007, the ADF successfully concluded its 11th Resource Replenishment (ADF-11) with a record level of UA 5.9 billion for the Fund’s activities in the 2008-2010 period. For this period, Bank Management and the donor countries, represented by the ADF Deputies, agreed on a focused set of strategic and operational priorities centered around infrastructure, governance, regional integration, and support for fragile states.

The ADF-11 Mid-Term Review (MTR) was held in Helsinki, Finland on October 20 and 21, 2009.  The meetings provided a platform for representatives of donor countries (the ADF Deputies) as well as observers from selected Regional Member Countries to review the achievements of the Fund over the past 18 months, particularly in its core priority areas of Infrastructure, Governance, support for Fragile States and Regional Integration.  Progress in implementing the operational and policy program of ADF-11 was highlighted with a special focus on presenting the results achieved in terms of development outcomes.  In addition, participants discussed progress in such key matters as institutional reforms, harmonization and alignment of assistance, debt relief and debt sustainability.  

At the conclusion of the meeting, participants broadly endorsed the continued implementation by management of the commitments and priorities of the ADF 11 framework and acknowledged the progress achieved at mid-term.  Deputies encouraged management to sustain and accelerate the improvements made to date in delivery capacity, quality at entry, effectiveness and results.  The MTR papers below present additional detail on the range of topics discussed.  The meetings also served as the initial forum for the ADF-12 replenishment process.  The next meeting on ADF-12 will be held in Cape Town in February 2010. Read more about the event