On his return, former AfDB official proposes reforms

What do you think of an African school of excellence? Kordje Bedoumra, Chad’s candidate to the African Development Bank presidency, proposed this as part of his vision for Africa to train and produce more engineers like him, a civil engineer who worked his way up the institution’s corporate ladder before returning to his home country in 2012 to serve as minister of planning, economy and international cooperation, and now as minister of finance and budget. The goal behind the school — which the former AfDB official envisions to be spread out across Africa’s geographic regions, and for which he suggests the bank’s involvement in its design, funding and creation — is twofold: contribute to the continent’s development needs, particularly in the areas where it has huge deficits such as electricity, transport and ICT; and address the needs of Africa’s labor market, in turn cutting the number of its unemployed youth. The latter forms a huge part of Bedoumra’s vision for Africa. With young people in Africa expected to reach 2 billion by 2050, it is crucial to find ways to provide them with quality jobs — or risk putting African countries’ long-term stability on the line. There is a widespread notion that most disenfranchised young people in the region who join or are easily recruited by extremist groups are those who have difficulty finding decent employment. “My strong conviction is that decent employment for youth and women across the continent is one, if not the best response to the indoctrination attempts which our young people are often victims of,” he said. Bedoumra places huge emphasis on developing the continent’s private sector, particularly small and medium enterprises and industries, for job creation. But specifically for young people and women, agroindustry, rural development and ICT are key areas of focus, and the former AfDB official is proposing the bank set up an investment fund for SMEs and SMIs in addition to growing the size of its African Guarantee Fund for SMEs. AfDB as an ‘intellectual’ bank But in understanding and finding solutions to the continent’s development problems, including providing jobs to young people, Bedoumra also underscores the critical role of research. Of particular importance is applied research, such as in the areas of agriculture and health, with the focus being on the “diffusion and dissemination of the results of the researches across the continent.” He also looks to research for the bank and its member countries to have a better grasp of how to avoid or prevent conflicts, which threaten the continent’s peace and stability. The bank, he suggested, should carry out studies on the factors and causes of conflict and use those in developing action plans. In an interview with Financial Afrik, Bedoumra said that coming from a region marred with conflict and insecurity is an asset for his candidacy, as he has “strong understanding of these realities” and therefore is fit to find and outline “effective solutions to help resolve these problems.” “Member countries of the institution are legitimate to expect the AfDB to be more innovative, less bureaucratic, and results-oriented, to support them more effectively in transforming African population’s life.” --— Bedoumra on his vision for AfDB. The bank should also harness the expertise of Africa’s diaspora, many of whom are scientists and engineers, and establish an African Diaspora Mobilization Fund to engage business starters, innovators and scientists. Bedoumra himself was once part of the diaspora, but came back when Chadian President Idriss Deby called upon him to serve in his administration. All these seem to support the presidential candidate’s argument for the bank, through its department of research and knowledge management, to become Africa’s “strong intellectual arm.” Africa as a competitive market Like many of the contenders for the AfDB presidency, Bedoumra also highlights regional integration as part of his strategic vision for the bank. But he puts particular emphasis on “acceleration” or speeding up this goal. To do this, the former AfDB director on infrastructure in the continent’s north, east and southern regions notes regional integration will be the “preferential option” in the design and implementation of bank programs and projects. He also proposes working closely with regional economic communities, and together sign a “contract on a common obligation to deliver on economic integration.” Some of Africa’s more known regional economic communities are the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Economic Community of West African States, the East African Community, Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the Southern African Development Community. Knowledge sharing and inter-African cooperation between countries are also key drivers for regional integration, he argued, but did not go into specifics on how he plans to have these play out in practice. Human resource as key to bank success Over the past decade, the AfDB was able to regain and consistently maintain its triple-A rating, received a boost in capital and successfully negotiated the renewal of the Nigeria Trust Fund. It also recently introduced the Africa50 Fund, which aims to finance the continent’s infrastructure needs, among others. Further, AfDB was able to successfully move its headquarters back to Abidjan, Ivory Coast — although it lost a number of key important staff in the process. Bedoumra is keen to build on these achievements by making the bank more innovative and results-oriented, and less bureaucratic. “My strong conviction is that decent employment for youth and women across the continent is one, if not the best response to the indoctrination attempts which our young people are often victims of.” --— Bedoumra on his vision for AfDB. “We are aware of operational challenges, including the administrative burden, which is a bottleneck in the design and the implementation [of] projects, coupled with the insufficient benefit of decentralization,” he said. If elected, he aims to convene a meeting with the bank’s member countries and board of directors to work on a road map containing his vision as well as the bank’s 10-year strategy for the period 2013-2022. And he says adjustment, where necessary, will be implemented, be it on human resources and recruitment, the organization’s structure, operations, budgeting and the ongoing decentralization process. But he stressed that the bank’s main asset remains its human resources, and has pledged to focus his efforts on “cultivating and maintaining a climate of trust and mutual respect, promoting collaboration and open dialogue, respect for diversity and internal gender balance.” The African Development Bank has never had a president from Chad, or the Central African region. Could Bedoumra be the first? Let us know by leaving a comment below. Read more international development news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive the latest from the world’s leading donors and decision-makers — emailed to you FREE every business day.