• The Global Transparency Resource
• Importance of Transparency
• IFI's Introduced
  • AfDB - African Development Bank
  • ADB - Asian Development Bank
  • BIS - Bank for International Settlements
  • BSTDB - Black Sea Trade and Development Bank
  • CDB - Caribbean Development Bank
  • CEB - Council of Europe Development Bank
  • EBRD - European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
  • ECB - European Central Bank
  • EIB - European Investment Bank
  • IADB - Inter-American Development Bank
  • IFC - International Finance Corporation
  • IMF - International Monetary Fund
  • IsDB - Islamic Development Bank
  • OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
  • WB - World Bank
  • WTO - World Trade Organisation

AfDB - African Development Bank (Tunis, Tunisia)

The African Development Bank was developed to assist in the economic and social development of the countries of Africa. It does this in large part by loaning money to its member countries in order to allow them to carry out development projects. Most countries in Africa are members with the bank being operated as partnership between the member nations and the Western nations who actually provide most of the money.

The main role of the African Development Bank is to help the development of countries in Africa by making loans and equity investments in various projects and programs. This is not strictly about providing economic growth the bank also makes loans and investments with the intention of helping with social development. In this respect they make investments in education programs, poverty reduction programs and programs to help improve the health of the people of Africa. The money that the bank loans for these purposes comes in part from the member countries of the bank however the majority is money donated by more developed nations.

In addition to its role as an investor and a lender the African Development Bank also provides technical assistance on development projects. Having money to institute a program is of little value if you haven't got the required expertise to carry it out. Unfortunately this is exactly the case with many of the member countries of the bank. Therefore the bank can provide technical assistance in the planning stage as well as in the execution stage of the project. This helps to ensure that the money is not wasted on projects that are unlikely to be successful.

The development of Africa is not going to be achieved solely on the basis of the money that is loaned or invested by the African Development Bank. The bank is well aware of this so they also play an important role in attracting private investment to the region. The banks role in this respect is mainly as a promoter to help convince investors of the value of investing in Africa. It also helps to attract investors by providing part of the money that is required for a project if the investors will bring the rest of the required money.

Another role that the African Development Bank plays which is becoming increasingly important is in coordinating the development projects of the various countries involved. Over the years it has become obvious that closer integration of the economies of the countries of the region was necessary in order to be successful in development. In particular it makes little sense to duplicate the work that is being done. There is little value to building a power plant in one country for example and then building another one in a neighboring country when they could both just share one. This sort of duplication of activity has wasted a lot of money over the years which is why it has become necessary t to coordinate activities.