NEWS

Nevertheless, the issue of evaluating public policies is neither a new idea, nor a novel practice. It becomes increasingly essential, however, to determine whether the evaluation task is properly conducted. We need to discuss whether the way evaluations are undertaken produces an accumulation of knowledge that is accessible to decision makers, or whether the context in which development policies are implemented severely reduces the usefulness of past experiences for designing future projects.
Can we learn from our own and others’ experiences in the field of development? If so, how can evaluation contribute and how is it that we seem unable to translate these experiences into practice? If not, what are the factors hampering the learning process?

Conference Center Pierre Mendès-France Ministère de l’Economie, des Finances et de l’Industrie , Paris 

Il existe une forte convergence des thématiques touchant au développement des pays de l’Asie centrale et du Caucase qui ont acquis leur indépendance il y a près de vingt ans, après l’éclatement de l’Union soviétique. Leurs trajectoires politiques et économiques présentent cependant des divergences significatives.

Les pays du sud Caucase aspirent plus spécifiquement à un arrimage européen, et les grands enjeux de développement de la région s’articulent autour d’une consolidation des reformes conduites dans le sens d’un rapprochement aux standards européens, y compris en termes de transparence et de conformité environnementale et sociale. Dans ce contexte, l’arrivée d’un bailleur de fonds comme l’Agence Française de Développement revêt un sens particulier.

De son coté le Bangladesh est confronté à de fortes problématiques énergétiques, de transport, d’eau et d’assainissement, et plus généralement environnementales.

Les six pays relèvent du mandat de l’AFD visant à la promotion d’une croissance verte et solidaire et sont intéressés par le savoir-faire de l’Agence notamment dans le domaine des infrastructures urbaines et plus particulièrement des transports. Les secteurs de l’eau, de l’assainissement et du traitement des déchets nécessiteront en particulier de lourds investissements dans les années à venir. L’expertise de l’Agence est également attendue en appui du secteur privé et sur les problématiques de restructuration des secteurs agricoles.

The meeting will begin with a speech by the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of AFD, Didier Mercier, followed by a presentation of  “Agribusiness for Africa’s Prosperity” made by Kandeh K. Yumkella, and then the reactions of agribusiness experts. This session will be followed by a debate with the public.

The aim of this meeting is to debate with a French audience made up of directors of large corporate groups, civil society involved in agribusiness, foundations and donors, as well as with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.

This session will provide an opportunity to debate the topic of agribusiness, explain the activities of the different stakeholders in this sector and gather the different partners working together on this topic, which lies between agriculture and business activities.

This debate will be held on Thursday 10 November from 2 pm to 6 pm at AFD’s headquarters, 5 rue Roland Barthes, Paris 12e.

Register for the debate

The publication

The book looks at ways in which Africa can migrate from an agriculture-led growth strategy towards a development strategy for the agribusiness sector where demand is market-led. It shows that efforts must focus on increasing added value and on improving productivity throughout agricultural value chains; it suggests that attention must be directed towards all stakeholders in the value chains, suppliers, producers, processors and distributors on local, regional and international markets.

Consult the publication online :

  Find out more about agribusiness

Yves Boudot spent 27 years of his career in about ten African countries. He was appointed Director of AFD’s Sub-Saharan Africa Department a few weeks ago.

Is it right to say that Africa is the priority continent for AFD?

Africa is the main priority for France’s cooperation policy.* AFD is in charge of implementing this vision. This priority given to financing development in Sub-Saharan Africa aims to provide solutions to the major issues and challenges posed by the emergence of the continent. This priority is also the result of the very history of France’s official development assistance and of our Institution. It is in Sub-Saharan Africa that AFD’s operational, financial and emotional roots are implanted. This is what makes AFD stand out in the landscape of donors and also constitutes its main area of expertise and its core value. Sub-Saharan Africa concentrates nearly 40% of AFD’s total activity and 60% of the State budgetary effort.

How should we view the situation in Africa today?

We should try to avoid the tendency we have to generalize as soon as we talk about this continent. For far too long now, generalities about the situation in Africa and its future have made us vacillate unequivocally between a pessimistic or fatalistic vision and a blind optimism. Sub-Saharan Africa is diverse and complex with widely varying situations. However, one thing that is sure today is that Sub-Saharan Africa is at the forefront of the global issues and challenges both today and for the coming decades. This is perhaps how the situation actually stands in Africa today. The unprecedented population dynamics, the strong and resilient economic growth in recent years, the natural resources potential that we are constantly talking about, but which has so far been developed very little, and the continued progress towards peace and democracy have definitely made us change the way we look at the continent. South Africa is a striking example. Who could have foreseen, back in 1990 when Nelson Mandela came out of prison, that twenty years later this country would be the economic power that it is on the way to becoming?

What are the main challenges that Sub-Saharan African countries need to face?

There are major challenges. Africa will need to feed almost a billion more people by 2050. Its population growth rate is estimated at some 15 million more people a year. Its agriculture will need to feed cities that will continue to grow at a fast pace and also to provide rural areas with a livelihood. By 2050, two billion Africans will need access to water, energy, education or health, whereas today’s production and distribution capacities cannot meet demand. Finally, economic growth in Africa, which is well above the current growth of our economies, will first and foremost need to be synonymous with large-scale job creation for the continent’s youth and with tax resources for States. The emergence of a formal private sector is one of the major challenges for Sub-Saharan Africa.

What are AFD’s main strategic directions in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Once again, they depend on the economic and social situation of the countries we support. They consequently first depend on the demand and needs of the beneficiaries of our financing, but also on States’ capacity to borrow in order to finance their investments. AFD’s activity in Sub-Saharan Africa is today guided by three main areas defined by the French Government: financing major infrastructure, developing more productive agriculture and supporting more inclusive growth. The first therefore involves supporting the development of major infrastructure and providing communities in cities and rural areas with access to essential services. They concern access to energy, transport, water, irrigation, education and health. A recent World Bank study highlighted the lack of this infrastructure, the high cost of access to it and the substantial additional amounts required to remedy the current situation over the next ten years. Energy and transport are objectively speaking the two main priorities. These two sectors require heavy investments. They must be implemented by coordinating the efforts of donors, private partners and States. For example, there is considerable hydropower potential and projects, which are necessarily regional, are implemented over the long term. We must now focus our efforts on this sector. Since the end of the 1970s, rail transport has been abandoned for roads and yet on the main trade corridors and to transport raw materials from the mining industry it is the means of transport that best meets needs. The second priority area for the coming years is to develop subsistence farming and agri-food industries. The sector accounts for 13% of GDP in Sub-Saharan Africa and concerns almost 70% of the working population. It helps create value, stabilize communities in rural areas and combat desertification. Africa’s agriculture needs to be more productive in order to guarantee food security for cities and rural areas and create export surplus. These challenges are core to the way movements take place between Africa’s growing cities and rural areas. Finally, everyone is aware that for nearly ten years now, the continent’s economic growth rates have been well above those of our own economies. This steady growth is largely driven by the upward trend for commodity prices, notably mining and oil products. It is, moreover, often unequal from one country to another. It is essential to promote the development of more inclusive growth led by a formal private sector in high employment generating sectors. AFD is consequently pursuing its efforts to promote the development of a banking and financial system oriented towards the development of this private sector.

Do we have geographical priorities?

In terms of the distribution of the French State’s budgetary effort, the 14 priority countries for French cooperation** are a strong focus for AFD’s activity. However, AFD now works in all Sub-Saharan African countries where it adapts its action and tailors its tools to the needs expressed and to our ability to meet them. The real priority would be to come up with a different geographical approach to Sub-Saharan Africa. We must first look at things from a regional perspective, particularly for major infrastructure projects, while pursuing national actions in other sectors. The scale of the challenges that we have just mentioned and the critical size of the economic blocs are such that a regional approach is inevitably essential. This is true when it comes to financing major energy or transport infrastructure projects, but also for the development of coherent and integrated economic areas that create dynamism and emulation, in synergy with the regional Unions that are gradually emerging.

* This priority is set out in the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs’ Framework Document for Cooperation for 2011.

** The 14 priority countries in Sub-Saharan Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

The Heart and Cancer Centre and its diagnosis centres spread out across Kenya, have been established as a high level reference centre for cardiology and oncology both in Kenya and in the East African Region. Heart pathologies and cancer are becoming increasingly common, but dedicated medical facilities for these illnesses did not yet exist: as such, the Heart and Cancer Centre will be a key facility within the Kenyan health system. In particular, the Heart and Cancer Centre will offer (i) high quality medical services for patients with cancer or heart illnesses and (ii) high level training and research facilities on these pathologies. The development of the Heart and Cancer Centre costs $50.4 M for which the Aga Khan University Hospital received $35.3 M in the form of a soft loan from AFD. 

The French Development Agency, the main actor of France’s bilateral development aid, has been present in Kenya since 1997 and has been supporting the country in its effort to promote sustainable economic and social development. Health care improvement and accessibility is one of the bilateral cooperation priorities for Kenya and France. 

Le projet vise à construire une ligne de « Bus Rapid Transit » le long de la linha verde, une ancienne autoroute requalifiée en « boulevard urbain ». Il permettra de préserver un corridor écologique au cœur de l’agglomération, sur les rives du Barigüi, en réaménageant des espaces naturels et en réintégrant la flore locale.

Avec 1,7 million d’habitants, la municipalité de Curitiba, capitale de l’Etat du Paraná, a opté depuis les années 1960 pour un plan d’urbanisme particulièrement novateur qui comprend notamment un métro de surface constitué de bus articulés se succédant chaque minute.

Aujourd’hui, plus de 2 millions de personnes utilisent ces bus chaque jour. Ce système de transport très performant, avec un billet unique, est aujourd’hui relayé sur le continent latino-américain, notamment en Colombie avec le Transmilenio.

Cette première signature de l’AFD au Brésil ouvre la voie à d’autres financements en faveur de collectivités brésiliennes autour du thème de la ville durable. Conformément à son mandat dans les pays émergents, l’AFD intervient au Brésil pour financer des politiques publiques qui promeuvent une croissance plus sobre en ressources naturelles, plus économe en gaz à effet de serre et plus équitable, tout en favorisant le lien avec l’expertise française. Présente dans le pays depuis 2007, l’Agence concentre ses actions dans les secteurs du développement urbain, des transports publics, de l’énergie, de l’eau et l’assainissement.

Vidéo : "Curitiba, une ville durable"