Liberia: AfDB’s President to Speak at 2023 OPEC Fund Development Forum
Press release
The President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, will join other global leaders to speak at the 2023 OPEC Fund Development Forum in Vienna, Austria, on 20 June 2023.
Under the theme, "Driving Resilience & Equity, the 2023 conference, a follow-up to the inaugural event held last year, will explore current challenges and opportunities for delivering transformative and sustainable development.
It will also provide a platform for networking and knowledge exchange between decision-makers and representatives of international organizations, businesses, and civil society.
Dr. Adesina’s panel will explore the evolving landscape of development finance and its implications for global development from the perspective of Multilateral Development Banks. Other panelists will include Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser, Chairman of the Islamic Development Bank Group, Rémy Rioux, CEO of Agence Française de Développement and OPEC Fund Director General Abdulhamid Alkhalifa.
Frannie Leautier, expert chair of the Independent Review of Multilateral Development Banks’ Capital Adequacy Frameworks, will open the conversation. More than 300participants are expected to attend in person, including representatives of 50 international development organizations.
The OPEC Fund for International Development is a globally mandated development finance institution providing financing exclusively from OPEC member countries to non-member countries. Since 1976, the Fund has committed more than $22 billion of its resources for more than 4,000 projects in over 125 countries worldwide, with a total project value of close to $190 billion.
The OPEC Fund and the African Development Bank have been partners since 1976. To date, they have co-financed nearly 90 energy, transport and water projects, with the Fund contributing more than $1 billion to projects valued at over $15 billion.
In November 2022, the two institutions agreed to expand their partnership to support sustainable economic and social development in Africa. Enhanced cooperation is expected to take the form of co-financing public and private sector projects, joint diagnostic and analytical work, and sharing knowledge and best practices.