In April 2011, the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group launched its new Urban Development Strategy. The Strategy is anchored on three pillars: infrastructure delivery, governance and private sector development.
The infrastructure development pillar emphasises delivery and expansion of basic infrastructure services, which includes water supply, sanitation, drainage and solid waste management services, and building capacity for maintenance of public infrastructure assets.
The Bank Group has since the 1960s allocated some 15-20% of its total cumulative operations financing directly or indirectly to urban development.
Most of the Bank‘s support for water supply and sanitation projects in major cities is currently in the form of traditional project loans or grants (in eligible countries). The Bank will continue to use all its private sector instruments (loans, guarantees and equity) to support private investments in water supply, sanitation and other urban services.
In water and sanitation schemes, where the ability to pay might be too low to ensure that a purely private scheme is financially viable, the Bank will explore the use of modified build-own-transfer (BOT) models. The Bank can help provide concessional financing to a water/wastewater treatment project and use its guarantee instrument to facilitate the mobilisation of commercial debt.
The AfDB’s target for 2010-2015 is to spend one-half of water and sanitation lending for urban systems.
Read the full strategy document:
The Bank Groups’s urban development strategy : transforming Africa’s cities and towns into engines of economic growth and social development. 22 p.
Source: AfDB, 29 Apr 2011
