AfDB - Djibouti Partnership

Boats docked on a port in Djibouti. The African Development Bank's new strategy aims to support the country's goal of creating a more diversified economy that will generate more jobs. Photo by: Olivier Roux / CC BY-NC Djibouti continues to face major challenges in the form of high poverty and unemployment rates. The country has an undiversified economy which makes it relatively exposed to economic and environmental shocks. In light of these, the overall objective of the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) new Country Strategy Paper (CSP) is to support the country's goal of creating a more diversified economy that will generate more jobs. While the main objective is to promote inclusive and diversified growth through support to the energy and health sectors as well as private sector-related institutions. The new CSP will adopt a private sector-focused approach, prioritizing energy sector investments and supporting policy and institutional reform to create an enabling environment for private sector development. These priorities are reflected in the CSP’s two strategic pillars, which are: 1. Development of socio-economic infrastructure in the energy and health sectors 2. Support for good governance through institutional capacity building The latest CSP will draw on the Djiboutian Government’s new 2015–2019 Accelerated Growth and Employment Promotion Strategy (SCAPE) and the new strategic guidelines of the AfDB’s 2013–2023 Ten-Year Strategy. The 2016–2020 CSP differs from previous CSPs in that it focuses more closely on advisory and institutional capacity building actions, scales up the local job content in project design, and its formulation is based on a series of analytical briefs that are intended to help to inform advisory activities and support AfDB and Djiboutian Government investments. The indicative funding made available by the African Development Fund (ADF) for the 2016–2020 CSP period will consist of US$8.4 million in unused funding from the previous CSP, US$21 million under the ADF’s 14th replenishment, and US$7 million during the first year of the 15th replenishment—totalling US$36 million.* The AfDB has also identified a range of other resources that can be mobilized for Djibouti, such as the ADF regional envelope. Depending on the country’s debt capacity, all of the Bank’s non-sovereign instruments will also be mobilized. Additional resources will be identified in the form of grants to help build a more enabling environment for business. The Bank will also play a leadership role in mobilizing private sector resources through public-private partnerships and co-financing with development partners. *Funding amounts converted from UA using official April AfDB exchange rate of 1 UA = US$ 1.39425. Contact Tel: (254) 20 2712925/ (254) 20 2712926/ (254) 20 2712928 Fax: (254) 20 2712938 Email: