African Development Fund Ranked Among the World’s Leading Providers of Development Assistance

The African Development Fund has been ranked second among 49 international agencies for the quality of its development assistance, underscoring its relevance to the continent’s most vulnerable countries.

The African Development Fund is the concessional arm of the African Development Bank Group. According to the fifth edition of the Quality of Official Development Assistance report, published on Tuesday, the Fund is serving its constituency well by focusing on poverty and the least-aided countries.

The report singles out the African Development Fund and its peers for being adept at ensuring that development reaches the intended recipients. (See infographic below for full list of agencies).

“For country providers and policymakers, there is a clear and consistent message: using the multilateral system can support development effectiveness,” the report notes. “…Multilaterals are particularly well-placed to help countries respond to COVID-19, with global reach, broad mandates and expertise, an array of financing instruments, and knowledge of local contexts.”

The assessment also highlights the importance of further strengthening systems for learning from experience and evaluations. The publication is a product of the Centre for Global Development. It assesses the bilateral programs of 29 member countries of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the 20 largest multilateral agencies that provide official development assistance.

As the African Development Bank and its partners fight to save lives and livelihoods, the report is an encouraging sign that the African Development Fund is investing its resources where they are most needed.

Simon Mizrahi, Director of Delivery, Performance and Results at the African Development Bank, said: “The timing of this report could not have been better. As the African Development Bank strives to support its regional member countries through an unprecedented health and economic crisis, the assessment by the Centre for Global Development will help guide our interventions.

“This report confirms that the Bank is on the right track by focusing on producing timely development assistance data, and ensuring that we strengthen the learning loop to continuously improve our offering to the Bank’s regional member countries. Every day we get better, and every day we go further to support countries across the continent to increase resilience and deliver a better quality of life to their people.”

The report examines 17 indicators that are common among all the agencies. The authors point out that the African Development Fund’s solid 2021 ranking forms part of a track record, dating back to 2010. That squares with the key role that the Fund has played in helping African countries respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The African Development Fund is made up of 32 contributing states. It benefits 37 countries, including fragile states that need special support to ensure basic service delivery.

The Quality of Official Development Assistance is a tool developed by the Centre for Global Development and the Brookings Institution to measure which donors provide “higher quality aid” and how they can improve. It provides an assessment of efforts to comply with development commitments.