Tunis, Tuesday, November 20^th ,2007 - In the framework of its outreach activities, the Director of the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU) presented the Bank’s Independent Review Mechanism to thirty parliamentarians from nine African countries: Liberia, Mauritius, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Ghana, Tanzania Ethiopia and Malawi who are receiving training organized by the Bank Governance Division and Joint African Institute during a seminar organized by the Joint Africa Institute on November 19-23, 2007 in Tunis.

Tunis, 16 November 2007 – Mozambique and the African Development Bank (AfDB) are celebrating a thirty-year partnership that has registered over a billion dollars in development-related assistance to the country.  The first Bank project in Mozambique – a road linking the districts of Nampevo and Alto-Molocue - was approved in 1977.  "That road paved the way for several other interventions by the Bank in the country," said the institutions Regional Representative in Maputo, Alice Hamer.

The African Development Bank Group has released its 2007 African Development Report in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Released within the framework of the African Economic Conference taking place from November 15-17, the report highlights that increased interest in the continent’s resources is largely driven by global economic growth, especially in Asia, and related demand for fossil fuels and minerals. This situation, the report continues, raises questions on how the continent can best leverage its resources for its own development given the complexities and trade-offs.

Africa is enjoying a relatively consistent and modest annual growth rate of about six per cent, yet it is also in a situation where growth is not satisfactorily being translated into poverty reduction, said ECA Executive-Secretary, Abdoulie Janneh, on Thursday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the opening of the African Economic Conference.  Jointly organised by the African Development Bank Group and the Economic Commission for Africa, the conference highlighted the role of the intelligentsia in addressing development issues in Africa.

This, she said, was the best approach to ensuring that country-specific strategies were designed to develop the two sectors before development partners were invited.

She said even when African countries were seeking donor assistance, it should be done in a coherent manner that would make affected countries optimize the benefits of assistance to be rendered.

She said any capacity development programme designed for the two sectors must also be such that could mobilize the energies and resources of the people and the countries in a sustainable manner.