The African Development Bank is undergoing reforms. African
Development Bank Group Vice-President Joseph Eichenberger shares
his views on it.
Question (Q): The bank is currently being reformed. How far have
you gone with this process?
Answer (A): I would say that we have gone quite far, but also
not far enough. We have traveled a long way and there remains a
long way yet to travel.
Positive change is underway in a whole host of critical areas in
the bank, and a solid foundation has been laid for a higher degree
of success for the bank and Africa in the future. But any
institutional reform process, be it in the African Development Bank
or a private sector company, or a government agency, can't be a
static thing.
Healthy reform is a dynamic thing that needs to adapt as
circumstances change, as new opportunities arise and as
unanticipated challenges appear. In our case, we now have in place
a new structure, we are improving internal processes, and we have a
very significant recruitment drive underway. All of this is
necessary and healthy.
The challenge for us going forward will largely revolve around
the very hard work of implementation - ensuring synergy among the
different elements of reform, ensuring that everyone in the bank is
involved and contributing. Responsibility starts with top
management, but it includes everybody. I am hugely optimistic about
all of it.
Q: What type of changes are we expecting from the ongoing
decentralization??
A: Successful decentralization is critical. We, therefore,
expect a great deal from it. But, perhaps more importantly, the
regional member countries that look to us for assistance and
support expect a great deal. We expect and are confident that we
will have a range of essential improvements.
We expect higher quality in the services we provide on the
ground. We expect a more visible and more engaged bank, with
excellent people having the freedom to make those day-to-day
decisions that can make the difference between a program moving
well and a program moving poorly.
It will help make the bank a more influential and dynamic
participant in the larger donor community.
Deeper engagement with the private sector is a central part of
our strategy going forward.
Q: How is the decentralization matching with alignment and
development effectiveness?
A: Alignment between decentralization and our larger strategy
occurs through two key channels. The first is delivering results.
African countries and all of our shareholders are demanding
demonstrable results; they are right to do so, and it is our
responsibility to deliver them.
That means services and operations that they value are provided
on a timely basis and with the highest quality and tracked
effectively so that we know what we are accomplishing.
We have a large, complex and often challenging portfolio that we
have to manage more actively, and this means more than just
missions from Tunis. It means good people, effectively engaged.
The second major piece of the picture is having the greater
focus and selectivity that we will need to accomplish this.
This means a selective pipeline of operations, in areas where
our skills match country priorities, coordinated with and
complementary to the work of others, and producing demonstrable
excellence.
An effective field presence is critical to achieving this. So
field offices are a critical instrument for alignment between our
aspirations and commitments on the one hand, and the actual results
we produce on the other.
Q: What is the strategic vision of the African Development Bank
Group?
A: At the highest level, it is for the bank to be a significant
and valued contributor to widening the scope of opportunity in
Africa. Investing in the inherent dignity and promise of the
African people.
Helping to build the basic drivers of equitable and inclusive
growth and development.
I suspect that there is no disagreement about this. As you know,
President Kaberuka has appointed a high level panel of deeply
experienced, deeply committed people to provide some advice on the
Bank's longer-term strategic directions.
That work is well underway and will be very important as we
prepare a new medium-term strategy for the bank, to be delivered
later this year.
It will be a vehicle to engage all of our member countries and
will include, very importantly, a distillation of some of the
larger themes the president has been articulating. Sharper focus on
the drivers of growth and opportunity, including basic
infrastructure, deeper regional integration, a more attractive
climate for private investment - these are all areas where we are
well positioned to make a greater contribution.
And these of course are the priorities that African countries
themselves have been articulating to the bank.
Q: Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about fragile
states. What is the Bank's definition of fragile states?
A: It is a sad reality that Africa is home to many fragile
states. And the reality for a pan-African institution like the bank
is that we must find ways to work effectively in all countries in
Africa, including middle-income countries, the poorest countries,
countries that are on the road to renewal, stable countries and
fragile countries.
We have been working very hard to do that. Our perspective is
that fragility occurs across a kind of continuum, with different
circumstances from country to country.
There are some in a state of marked deterioration, where key
trends are negative. Elsewhere, there are circumstances of active
conflict, with a breakdown in the government's capacity to perform
basic functions - a crisis situation.
There are still other countries emerging from conflict, having
resolved key political differences and committed to stability,
renewal and creating new opportunities for their people.
Finally, there are countries that have moved out of this
post-crisis stage, where trends are clearly positive and conditions
are improving for sustained growth and development. In broad terms
I would say that this categorization covers most circumstances of
fragility in Africa, and the picture is complex and varied. In each
of these four cases - marked deterioration, active conflict, post
crisis, and renewal - there are different challenges requiring
different kinds of engagement by the bank.
But engagement is essential, even as the specifics differ from
case to case. We are working on a more detailed new strategy for
deeper engagement in fragile states, which we will present to our
Board later this month.
(China Daily May 15, 2007)
