President Samia Suluhu Hassan has this afternoon addressed fellow leaders at the ongoing International Development Association (IDA21) Heads of State Summit which started today in Nairobi, Kenya.
She shared Tanzania’s insights at the high-level gathering that has been hosted by Kenya’s President William Ruto.
Replenishment of the World Bank’s IDA
It is expected that at this highly attended event, African leaders will collectively call for an ambitious replenishment of the World Bank’s IDA. IDA is WB’s concessional lending arm.
It is also anticipated that there will be a call for a transformative IDA21 financing package to accelerate development across the continent in the subsequent 3 year period- 2024-2026.
An early draft known as the “Nairobi IDA Communique” outlines some urgent priorities for IDA’s next funding cycle of 2024-2016.
This draft will be considered at the summit. The issues that African heads of state have outlined as urgent include: building human capital, creating jobs, enhancing energy and digital access, building climate resilience, and promoting sustainable growth.
In the draft, they appreciate the donors for contributing $23.5 billion to the current IDA20 cycle but also argue that this level of financing is inadequate to meet the massive investment needs.
They therefore propose that IDA partners step up and ensure a robust replenishment for IDA21.
The third summit
This particular summit is a follow up to other previous IDA meetings in Abidjan in 2021 and Dakar in 2022 where African leaders collectively called for an ambitious IDA20 replenishment from donors.
Previously, Kenya’s President Ruto has held the view that the IDA deployment should be redesigned to prioritise the needs of the borrower over predetermined agendas set by donor countries and put further emphasis on a partnership approach.