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Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the West African Development Bank (BOAD) have decided to strengthen their operational partnership by signing a new framework agreement. A new stage in their rich and long relationship for over 40 years, it is renewing the commitment of the two institutions to work together to support countries and people in the West Africa region.
The priority of this new partnership will be to develop climate finance in the WAEMU zone to bring BOAD members effectively in line with the Paris Agreement. The new agreement between AFD and BOAD also covers the post-Covid-19 recovery plans, energy, urban development, financial engineering, agriculture, food security and private sector mobilization for sustainable development.
Capacity building will also be one of the main focuses of the agreement. This will include staff training through AFD’s Development Campus, project impact measurement and assistance to contracting authorities.
With this new agreement, BOAD and AFD will be able to conduct exchanges of expertise and experts and joint missions, studies, seminars, workshops and forums. They will also be supported by the IDFC club, which they are both members of, and the Climate Action in Financial Institutions initiative. In addition, they will be able to co-finance projects.
“I welcome the further strengthening of our partnership, which has now been raised to a high strategic level and is part of a common commitment to our rapidly-growing region. It also recognizes BOAD as the key institution for providing appropriate answers to questions related to the health, economic and climate crises and those related to financing for regional development as a whole”, said Mr. Serge Ekue, President of BOAD.
“This new agreement between BOAD and AFD marks a new stage in the longstanding financial, technical and strategic partnership that the two institutions have enjoyed for over forty years. By giving priority to the theme of climate finance and alignment with the Paris Agreement, it is fully in keeping with the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals and part of the move towards a systematic questioning of the economic, social and environmental impacts of our financing", added François Jacquier-Pelissier, Director of Agence Française de Développement (AFD) in Togo.
The two institutions, which have been cooperating for 40 years now, had signed an initial partnership agreement in 2014.
On the sidelines of this new signing, BOAD has confirmed that it is enthusiastic about taking part in the Finance in Common Summit, alongside the world’s 449 other development banks. It congratulates AFD for this major initiative and thanks it for inviting it.