Côte d’Ivoire: Government seeks Bank’s support for $5.8 bln tourism plan

Ivorian Minister of Tourism Siandou Fofana on 25 April 2019 presented a strategy document aimed at making Côte d’Ivoire Africa’s fifth biggest tourism destination from 2025 to the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) , and sought its support to implement the plan.

The document entitled “Sublime Côte d’Ivoire”, was presented to the Bank’s Vice-President responsible for Private sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization, Pierre Guislain, at the headquarters in Abidjan.

“We have come to share this new vision for Côte d’Ivoire with the Bank and to secure your help and financial support. We need your help to pool resources to carry this project out,” Minister Fofana said, adding that the strategy will rest on nine new flagship projects and would require a $5.8‑billion investment.

“One of these is the ‘Abidjan Business City’, which will be a central point for holding conventions in Côte d’Ivoire. We do not currently have a conference centre and we do not have a hall with the capacity to accommodate 5,000 people. There is, therefore, a need to move quickly in that regard,” he said.

“We will also have a ‘beautiful beach for all’, with a 550-km coastline that has yet to be exploited. In addition, we will build a 100-hectare leisure park to be a place of entertainment for the sub-region, and develop press trips and seven flagship tourist areas,” Fofana added.

Projects envisaged under the strategy include strengthening of the tourism code, establishing additional tourist attractions with a land reserve of 6,000 hectares, the creation of a bank of tourism-sector projects and redesigning of a tourism ‘one-stop shop’. The government also plans to strengthen security and health care, develop the aviation sector and increase airport passenger flow to three million, and train and certify 230,000 sector professionals.

“All this will drive employment and our intention is to create 375,000 new jobs. From 2025, we plan to welcome four to five million tourists, (there were 3.08 million in 2016 and 3.47 million in 2017), to make this sector the fourth economic pillar of the country and to make Côte d’Ivoire the fifth biggest tourism power on the continent and the joint leader in African business tourism,” said Fofana.

Bank Vice-President Guislain commended Côte d’Ivoire’s “progress” in the tourism sector, saying it was essential for investors.

He briefed the delegation on the Bank’s financing instruments for the public and private sectors, highlighting the existence of private investment funds and the Bank’s priority focus on supporting bankable projects for partners with sufficient financial capacity.

“We are glad to have been visited by you and to have learnt about your strategy. This is important. Business tourism needs to be consolidated and your ambitions are good. The African Development Bank has a strong partnership with Côte d’Ivoire, the host country of our headquarters. The Bank finances many infrastructure projects (energy and roads) that are essential to the development of tourism. We also financed the expansion of Air Côte d’Ivoire, whose development is essential for tourism to flourish in the country,” Guislain said.

Mondelēz International Launches Cocoa Life in Brazil to Help Combat Climate Change and Ensure Sustainable Cocoa Supply

Mondelēz International today announced the expansion of its global cocoa sustainability initiative, Cocoa Life, in Brazil.

Cocoa Life aims to create empowered and thriving cocoa farming communities, by helping farmers to become more profitable and sustainable while safeguarding the future of chocolate. Around the world, the initiative is already making progress in five key cocoa origin countries: Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, India and Dominican Republic.

Mondelēz International Launches Cocoa Life in Brazil to Help Combat Climate Change

Mondelēz International has been supporting cocoa production in Brazil since 2014 and will build on this work, and on the learnings from other origins, to fully deploy the Cocoa Life program. In Pará, the company will invest around $200,000 per year over the next three years to empower cocoa farmers and to nurture thriving and independent cocoa communities.

In Bahia, where farmers face a myriad of challenges related to crop management, Cocoa Life will provide guidance on the latest techniques in farm rejuvenation and good agricultural practices to improve yields and the quality of the cocoa produced as well as to mitigate environmental impact. The cocoa beans produced with Cocoa Life support will be part of Mondelēz International supply chain network for its Lactachocolate portfolio.

“We are thrilled about adding Brazil to our Cocoa Life initiative. Brazil is not only a cocoa-growing country but it’s also an important chocolate manufacturing hub, home to one of our local heritage brands, Lacta, one of the country’s favorites and top-selling chocolate brand,” says Christine Montenegro McGrath, Chief of Sustainability & Well-being. “Cocoa Life has already made a significant impact in West African cocoa farming communities and we expect it will do the same in Brazil. In addition, the program will also look at contributing to the preservation of the Amazon rainforest and to the community development.”

The Cocoa Life launch in Brazil is the result of a collaboration with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and its “Forest Cocoa” project, which was created to foster low-carbon family-based farming, generate social and economic benefits and engage farmers to commit to zero deforestation targets and an agroforestry-based restoration of degraded areas.

“The partnership with Cocoa Life brings a new perspective to expand our efforts. Indeed, the Pará region, which had one of the highest rates of deforestation in Brazil, has the potential to become an example of sustainable development and restoration in the Amazon Rainforest,” says Rodrigo Freire, Vice Coordinator of Restoration for TNC in Brazil. “Over the past five years, we have supported the planting of 450 hectares of cocoa agroforestry-system in the Amazon, benefitting over 120 families in the São Félix do Xingu and Tucumã municipalities in southeastern Pará. Our goal is to reach 1,000 families in the next five years.”

African Development Bank and Canada share commitment to women’s empowerment on the continent

Canada is the fourth largest contributor to the Bank among non-regional members, and the sixth largest donor to the African Development Fund (ADF)

Canada’s Minister of International Development, Marie-Claude Bibeau and the President of the African Development Bank Akinwumi Adesina

On her first visit to the West African nation of Cote d’Ivoire, Canada’s Minister of International Development, Marie-Claude Bibeau and the President of the African Development Bank Akinwumi Adesina (www.AfDB.org), shared a common vision and commitment to the advancement of women and girls on the continent.

Both officials met at the Bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, following the Minister’s visit to a Bank-financed rural agriculture project in Abengourou, Côte d’Ivoire earlier in the day. Bibeau, Adesina and other senior management members exchanged views on wide ranging issues including gender empowerment issues, renewable energy, agriculture, and innovative financing mechanisms.

Canada is the fourth largest contributor to the Bank among non-regional members, and the sixth largest donor to the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional arm of the Bank Group.

The advancement of women and girls is a priority area for the Canadian government in keeping with its Feminist International Assistance Policy (https://bit.ly/2rV5eAG).

The Minister emphasized the need to involve African women in decision-making processes.

According to Bibeau “If we want to end poverty, women in Africa must be able to develop their full potential,” she said. She also expressed the hope that women would no longer be perceived as “mere beneficiaries” but as “agents of change.”

“This is the approach we are taking in Canada. We are working to ensure that 15% of our department’s budget is allocated to transformative projects for women,” Bibeau said.

The Gender Strategy is a central part of the Bank’s ambitious vision for Africa, based on the reality that gender equality is integral to Africa’s economic and social development. The vision includes creating opportunities for women, disadvantaged and marginalised people and communities so they can fully participate in and benefit from the development of their communities and nations.

Commending Adesina for exemplary leadership, Bibeau acknowledged that “change will not come overnight, but our collective actions will make a significant difference.” The Bank recorded exceptional results for 2017 with approvals of US $8.7 billion and over $7 billion of disbursements, the highest performance since its creation in 1964.

From 2010 to 2017, the Bank’s operations have positively impacted the lives of millions of Africans. 83 million Africans have benefited from improved access to transport, and 49 million have gained access   to clean water and sanitation. Nine million African women have been connected to electricity and the living conditions of 29 million more women have been significantly enhanced as a result of improvements in agriculture.

Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina called for greater mobilization of resources in favor of women.

“We need to change the current system, and introduce a mechanism for rating and classifying financial institutions. Those who put the issue of gender at the center of their concerns should be at the forefront of this ranking,” he said.

According to Adesina, “the Bank plans to raise a US$ 300-million guarantee fund for the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative.”  AFAWA is expected to leverage close to USD$ 3 billion over 10 years to empower female entrepreneurs through capacity building development, access to funding, and policy, legal and regulatory reforms to support enterprises led by women.

The initiative provides significant support for the advancement of Africa’s Gender agenda.  The Bank is helping build women’s market programs in countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Through four commercial banks, at least 200,000 women owned businesses are expected to be impacted through financing, growth in revenues and through coaching and mentoring programs.

Adesina said he hoped Canada would champion the initiative, launched during the Bank’s 2016 Annual Meetings.

The Canadian Minister and the African Development Bank President also discussed closer cooperation between Canada and Africa, and Canada’s participation in the first Africa Investment Forum scheduled for November 2018 in South Africa.

Canada joined the African Development Bank in 1982. The country has supported all the general capital increases of the Bank and all the replenishments of the African Development Fund (ADF). Canada also participates in a number of multi-donor trust funds and other initiatives managed by the Bank.

The African Development Bank Group is one of Canada’s leading partners in supporting sustainable economic growth in Africa. Other Bank Group priority areas of focus include environment and renewable energy, inclusive governance, peace and security.

Ten Countries Join Global Financing Facility to Save the Lives of Millions of Women, Children and Adolescents

The Global Financing Facility in support of Every Woman Every Child (GFF) announced today at its board meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, that ten new countries joined the GFF, a country-led model of development finance that brings together multiple sources of financing in a synergistic way to support countries’ priorities.

The new funding will help countries reach those who do not yet have access to quality services and accelerate progress on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition

The new GFF countries are Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malawi and Rwanda.

“The GFF is a broad partnership that has demonstrated in countries that the concept developed two years ago works: women, children and adolescents are benefitting from the new model of financing that the GFF has developed—leading to high demand from countries that are interested in becoming part of the GFF,” saidFerozuddin Feroz, Minister of Public Health of Afghanistan, one of the new GFF countries.

The GFF is expanding beyond the 16 existing GFF countries[1] with the support of the governments of Canada, Norway and the United Kingdom; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and MSD for Mothers. The Gates Foundation recently announced a US$200 million pledge to the replenishment of the GFF Trust Fund, a multidonor trust fund that is hosted by the World Bank Group and that supports the work of the broader GFF partnership.

“We are pleased to announce that ten more countries supported by GFF will align partners around a country-driven investment case to save lives and improve the health and well-being of millions,” said Mariam Claeson, Director of the GFF. “With more resources the GFF can reach even more women, children and young people at the most critical periods of their lives: birth, the early years and adolescence.”

In September 2017 at the United Nations General Assembly, the GFF launched its replenishment, with the goal of raising US$2 billion to respond to countries’ interest in joining the GFF. With US$2 billion, the GFF can reach a total of 50 countries during the next five years. Each dollar invested in the GFF Trust Fund, is catalytic and links to several sources of funding—domestic government resources, financing from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), aligned external financing, and private sector resources. This approach enables the estimated financing gap of US$33 billion per year to be closed.

Although countries have made considerable progress during the past 25 years in improving the health and wellbeing of women, children and adolescents, too many are still dying and suffering from preventable conditions—in considerable part because of a large financing gap. This new funding will help countries reach those who do not yet have access to quality services and accelerate progress on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition. The 50 countries the GFF could expand to in the next five years account for 96% of the US$33 billion annual financing gap and 5.2 million maternal and child deaths each year.

The World Bank Group and the United Nations launched the GFF at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa in July 2015 in support of Every Woman Every Child, and as part of a global conversation about how to finance the Sustainable Development Goals.

The GFF employs a country-driven model: each of the new countries will define its approach through a process led by the government that involves a broad range of stakeholders.