African Development Bank mobilizes $1.6 billion for infrastructure through African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)
9 February 2007
Civil society concerned about regional bank's emphasis on large-scale energy projects
In an interview with the Pan African News Agency (PANA Press), the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) principal industrial engineer Dr. Ini Urua affirmed that the Bank is ready to invest $1.6 billion for infrastructure projects aimed at regional integration. According to Dr. Urua, cross-border energy projects such as electricity interconnections between Kenya and Zambia would be given top priority under the Infrastructure Short-Term Infrastructure Plan (I-STAP) – an initiative led by the Bank under the auspices of the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
Since the AfDB took the lead on the I-STAP in 2002, it has invested $800 million in regional infrastructure projects under the initiative, a relatively low sum when compared to the ambitious scope of the plan. The anticipated doubling of this amount seems to signal the Bank’s commitment to being an active player in the sector.
As an illustration, an article in Mining Weekly last week described the central role that the AfDB is taking on the Westcor project, a joint-venture power pool between the power companies of the DRC, Angola, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, that would rely heavily on a controversial 3500 MW hydroelectric dam planned at the Inga site in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As manager of the I-STAP and host of the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA), an initiative backed by the G-8 countries, the AfDB has taken on greater responsibility for coordinating and financing large infrastructure projects in Africa. This is generating concern among some civil society groups who worry that the institution does not have a track record of effectively monitoring or mitigating the negative impacts of projects it supports.
Affected communities often bear the heavy environmental and social costs associated with the construction of large-scale projects such as major dams and highways, while the intended benefits of these investments frequently pass them by. Without sufficient capacity to assess and prevent likely impacts or to adequately supervise project implementation, the African Development Bank appears, to many, poorly placed to lead infrastructure development on the continent.
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