BUSINESS REPORTER
For the first time since 2019, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) will hold physical annual meetings with this year’s edition to be hosted by Accra, Ghana next month.
The 2020 and 2021 editions were held virtually due to the menacing Covid-19 pandemic which meant that physical meetings were not possible as countries embarked on lockdown measures to stem the spread of the virus.
The May 23 to 27 annual meetings will be held in a hybrid format with participants present in Accra and online.
The physical sessions, including statutory meetings of governors of the Bank and knowledge events, will take place at the Accra International Conference Centre, AfDB said in a statement.
The last the AfDB had physical sessions of the annual meetings was in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in 2019.
The theme for the 2022 meetings is, Achieving Climate Resilience and a Just Energy Transition for Africa. The meetings will offer the bank’s governors a forum to share the climate change and energy transition challenges that their countries face.
They also present an opportunity to showcase policy responses to tackle these challenges.
The governors, who represent the institution’s 54 African and 27 non-regional member countries, will hold a high-level dialogue with AfDB’s president Akinwumi Adesina and his senior management team.
The discussions will focus on how to boost funding for climate adaptation and related matters. Climate adaptation finance currently accounts for only 10% of global climate finance. Overall, only about 19% of total international adaptation finance is programmed in Africa, with the continent receiving only 3% of global climate finance flows, AfDB said.
This year’s theme aligns with preparations for the United Nations’ global climate summit (COP27), scheduled for Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022. It will highlight Africa’s need for increased investment and other forms of financing to accelerate climate adaptation efforts.
The 2022 African Development Bank Group Annual Meetings will be the 57th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Bank Group and the 48th Annual Meeting of the African Development Fund, the concessional arm of AfDB.
Finance and Economic Development minister Mthuli Ncube is the governor of the bank group representing Zimbabwe. The ministry’s permanent secretary George Guvamatanga is the alternate governor.
