The official nominees for the African Development Bank presidency are in — and one of them is a woman.
Cristina Duarte is Cape Verde’s official nominee to the race. Her candidacy is strongly backed by President Jorge Carlos Fonseca and Prime Minister José Maria Neves, who in 2014 touted the country’s finance and planning minister as a “reformist” and among those behind the country’s “successful economic reforms,” according to newspaper Financial Afrik.
Her candidacy offers a breath of fresh air at the bank, which has never had a woman president in its 50-year history. But her chances of winning depend on how well she can convince the bank’s members — regional and otherwise — to support her in the May elections. Unlike in multilateral financial institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, where the president has always been American and Japanese, respectively, the selection for AfDB’s next chief is an unpredictable — and some suggest a more exciting — process.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
