Photos: AfDB\Wikimedia Commons
The African Development Bank leadership election offers an opportunity for the institution to shift away from inherited Bretton Woods conventions toward “business in an African style,” wrote a global development consultancy CEO in a column for Semafor.
“As the AfDB prepares for new leadership, what is needed to take the bank to its next level is a bold shift in how the bank works,” said Hannah Ryder, the founder and CEO of Development Reimagined. She proposes “a new model — one rooted in African priorities, tastes, and strategies” that involves three transformative steps: eliminating differential access to financing instruments based on income thresholds, changing how the AfDB assesses debt sustainability, and prioritizing cross-border projects over national ones. “It’s time the AfDB wore its own fabric,” Ryder said, “not a tailored suit borrowed from elsewhere.”
