From Africa Recovery, Vol.12#4 (April 1999), Briefs page

Replenishment agreed for African Development Fund

The African Development Fund (ADF), the soft-loan window of the African Development Bank (ADB), will soon receive $3.38 bn in fresh resources. The Fund's 53 regional members and 23 non-regional members quickly reached agreement to replenish the Fund, for the eighth time since its 1973 inception, at a consultative meeting held in Bonn, Germany, on 13-15 January 1999.

The consultations leading up to the decision, which normally take 18-24 months, were concluded in seven months -- evidence of donors' renewed confidence in the Fund's impact on the fight against poverty in Africa, declared a press release by the ADB.

The ADF was established to provide special loans to promote the economic and social development of the ADB's 53 African members, favouring projects that focus on poverty reduction, agricultural development, rural rehabilitation, human resource development, good governance, economic integration and private sector development.

Meanwhile, representatives of 39 donor countries agreed last November on new funding for the World Bank's soft-loan window, the International Development Association (IDA). As a result, IDA will be able to provide concessional lending of $20.5 bn to poor countries between 1 July 1999 and 30 June 2002. Donor countries are providing $11.6 bn in new contributions, with the rest coming mainly from repayments of earlier IDA credits and from the World Bank itself.

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