Civil Society’s Key Demands to the African Development Bank

The African Development Bank (AfDB) held its Annual Meetings on May 27–31, 2024, in Nairobi, Kenya, under the theme ‘Africa’s Transformation, the African Development Bank Group, and the Reform of the Global Financial Architecture.’ About 5,000 delegates, including representatives from civil society organizations (CSOs) working in Africa, attended the event.

On the sidelines of the meetings, on May 27-28, the AfDB CSO Working Group held a two-day workshop. The objective was to build civil society capacity on AfDB policies and engage strategically with the AfDB board and management on issues such as accountability, the updated Integrated Safeguards Systems (ISS) and its implementation rollout, CSO engagement at the Annual Meetings, and inclusive consultations on the energy policy review. Also some AfDB staff attended the workshop and showed great interest in working with civil society. However, on the first day of the Annual Meetings, about 15 civil society representatives were prevented from attending the opening ceremony. Kenyan state security forces harassed 15 members of the AfDB CSOs Working Group, confiscated their badges, and expelled them from the venue. AfDB Board members and senior management were immediately alerted, but they did not manage to return the badges to allow the group to attend the events. The Working Group is very concerned about this incident and calls on the AfDB to improve its civil society engagement practices, to ensure free, safe and meaningful participation at all levels.

In view of the outcomes from the Annual Meetings, the AfDB CSO Working Group also calls on the AfDB to urgently prioritize the following demands:

1. Ensure the inclusion of civil society voices in the AfDB annual meetings, bringing back the CSO Forum (similarly to what is done by other development banks) while ensuring democratic, free and safe space participation. Civil society organizations work with communities to create awareness and offer capacity to tackle the challenges that they face. Engaging CSOs will foster accountability, collaboration, and inclusion in the bank’s policies, strategies, and project implementation.

2. Adopt a multi-stakeholder approach in the review of the AfDB Energy Policy. Civil society organizations should be involved in the review process and implementation of the energy policy. The policy should align to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, uphold the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and have safeguards to ensure a socially just energy transition for all Africans.

3. Deploy mechanisms to ensure clean energy access goes to communities and not just industries. The bank should  ensure the energy policy includes a framework for a benefit-sharing clause on public-private partnerships for non-sovereign grants and loans on technology and skills transfer for communities and local stakeholders.

4. Provide an update on the review of the Disclosure and Access to Information policy.

5. Allocate adequate resources for the implementation of the updated ISS. We hope that the AfDB Board and management’s discourse following the operationalization of the updated ISS will include serious consideration of the additional budgetary and capacity requirements that will be needed to adequately implement the safeguards. Without additional resources, any advances in the new policy will not be realized at the project level, perpetuating dangerous compliance gaps and potentially leaving marginalized groups unable to benefit from projects and in risk of harm.

6. The AfDB should meaningfully engage with persons with disabilities and organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) throughout the project cycle so that their concerns and needs are fully integrated in project design, implementation, and monitoring.

7. The Directive on Identifying, Assessing, and Protecting Vulnerable People in the Context of Bank Operations, that is currently under drafting, should raise the standards and performance on prevention, mitigation, and response to Sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment (SEAH) and gender-based violence. (GBV) in AfDB projects. The directive should offer guidance with examples and references to staff on how to design, implement, and monitor projects that respond to SEAH/GBV risks and impacts. The Bank should provide an update on the status of the directive.

8. Prioritize community-led development and human rights-based approaches, ensuring communities and human rights defenders can safely engage with the Bank and speak out without fearing threats or attacks.

9. Despite the mission of the Bank, AfDB projects can cause unintended harm, which can threaten the livelihoods of African communities. AfDB management should constructively respond to cases filed to the Independent Recourse Mechanism and work with clients to address the harms.  When AfDB projects cause harm to communities, the AfDB must commit to ensuring that these harms are fully remediated. We encourage the Bank to develop, through public consultation, a remedy framework that outlines how remedy will be resourced and provided.