The Foreign Secretary and African Development Bank President Adesina met and shared a platform at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh at the Accelerating Adaptation in Africa event on 8 November 2022. At the event the Foreign Secretary announced the UK's £200 million contribution to the Climate Action Window of the African Development Fund.

In addition the Minister for Development and Africa, the Rt. Hon. Andrew Mitchell spoke to President Adesina on 29 November 2022 about the UK's partnerships with the Bank, including our support for the African Development Fund, and our guarantee that is allowing the Bank to provide up to $2 billion of climate finance to African countries. The Foreign Secretary announced the UK contribution to the Fund on 7 December 2022 during his visit to Kenya.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is a long-standing and strategic partner of the UK. We welcome the Bank's target to provide 40% of its finance for climate change, and at least 50% of this for adaptation. We are currently the largest donor to the African Development Fund, which provides such finance to the poorest countries across the Continent. At COP26 we announced our Room to Run Guarantee that will allow the Bank to provide up to US$2 billion of additional financing for climate change over the next four years, to countries such as Egypt and South Africa.

The policy commitments undertaken by the African Development Bank (AfDB) as part of the seventh General Capital Increase have been published as part of the Bank's Annual Report (Appendix 10, page 81 https://www.afdb.org/en/annualreport). This includes an update on progress against these commitments with the Bank assessing that 79 percent have been completed.

The policy commitments undertaken by the Bank as part of the fifteenth replenishment of the African Development Fund were published by the Bank as part of its report to Deputies on the replenishment (Annex 1, page 76 https://adf.afdb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ADF-15-Deputies-Report-.pdf). The UK made a portion of its funding to the fifteenth replenishment of the African Development Fund contingent on the achievement of a selected sub-set of these policy commitments, covering the following areas:

• Provision of sustainable and quality infrastructure;
• Governance and institutional strengthening, including on domestic resource mobilisation and debt management;
• Support for fragile states;
• Climate change;
• Gender and private sector; and
• AfDB organisational and development effectiveness, including on safeguards.

We will publish the UK's detailed assessment of the Bank's progress against these commitments as part of the next Annual Review of the Fund in line with our normal approach to publishing programme performance assessments.

The UK provides funding to the African Development Bank (AfDB) through a number of different channels. We are currently contributing to a General Capital Increase (GCI) that was agreed by shareholders in 2019. We also provide funding to the Bank's concessional financing arm, the African Development Fund (ADF), which supports the poorest 37 countries in Africa. In addition, at COP26, the Prime Minister announced that the UK is providing a Room to Run guarantee to the Bank that will enable it to provide up to $2 billion of additional financing over four years to support countries across Africa to tackle climate change.

In terms of performance, the UK and other shareholders secured from the Bank under seven reform objectives. As of May 2022, 79 percent of these were assessed as being on track. For the ADF, the UK and other donors secured 92 policy commitments from the Bank, 62 of which were due by the November 2021 Mid-Term Review. The Bank met 93 percent of these commitments despite the challenges posed by the pandemic in 2020. The ADF has scored an "A" (i.e. meeting expectations) in each Annual Review over the last three years, whilst the GCI has scored two "A"s and a "B" (i.e. moderately did not meet expectations) over the last three years.

The AfDB has also performed well in a number of recent external reviews. In 2020, an ICAI assessment of UK support to the AfDB rated the Bank's relevance and alignment with UK priorities as green and its effectiveness in delivering these as green/amber. ICAI found that the Bank was "highly cost effective relative to other comparable multilateral banks". Earlier this month, the AfDB came first in the 2022 Aid Transparency Index, via Publish What You Fund. And last year the AfDF was ranked 2nd out of 49 development organisations in the Centre for Global Development assessment based on the quality of its development assistance.

Over the 2023-24 to 2025-26 financial years, the UK is expected to contribute £23.6 million to the African Development Bank's 7th General Capital Increase. Our funding to the African Development Fund (ADF) over this period will be determined by our pledge to the 16th replenishment. Pledges for this replenishment, which will run from January 2023 to December 2025, are expected to be made in October or November 2022. Negotiations for this replenishment are currently underway and Ministers will decide on our pledge in due course. Over these financial years, we will also contribute around £61.7 million to the ADF under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative.

The above figures are core multilateral contributions to the African Development Bank. In addition to these core contributions, the FCDO also provides some bilateral funding to trust funds that are managed by the Bank, including Africa Disaster Risks Financing.

At COP26, the Prime Minister announced that the UK is providing a Room to Run guarantee to the Bank that will enable it to provide up to $2 billion of additional financing over four years to support countries across Africa to tackle climate change.

Between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2022, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) provided £54.6 million for the African Development Bank General Capital Increases and £653 million to the African Development Fund (ADF). FCDO also provided £42.5 million to the ADF under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).

The above figures are core multilateral contributions to the African Development Bank. In addition to these core contributions, the FCDO has provided some bilateral funding to trust funds that are managed by the Bank, including Africa Disaster Risks Financing (ADRIFI).

At COP26, the PM announced that the UK is providing a Room to Run guarantee to the Bank that will enable it to provide up to $2bn of additional financing over four years to support countries across Africa to tackle climate change.

In 2022-23, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) provided £23.5 million to the African Development Bank as part of its 7th General Capital Increase (GCI7). We have provided £20.1 million to the African Development Fund (ADF), the Bank's concessional arm, under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative. We are also due to provide further funding to the 15th replenishment of the ADF later this financial year.

In 2021-22 the FCDO provided £35.4 million to GCI7 and £177.1 million to ADF15.

The above figures are core multilateral contributions to the African Development Bank. In addition to these core contributions, the FCDO has provided some bilateral funding to trust funds that are managed by the Bank, including Africa Disaster Risks Financing. In addition, at COP26, the PM announced that the UK is providing a Room to Run guarantee to the Bank that will enable it to provide up to $2 billion of additional financing over four years to support countries across Africa to tackle climate change.

We do not earmark our core multilateral funding to the Bank to particular projects.

As part of the process of agreeing funding for the African Development Bank's 7th General Capital Increase and 15th Replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF15), the Bank agreed a number of policy commitments and results targets with the UK and other shareholders. We monitor progress on delivering these commitments closely through the Board of Directors and meetings of African Development Fund donors.

In 2019, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office also made part of its funding to ADF15 contingent on meeting certain performance targets. These targets have now been met.

In November 2021, the Prime Minister announced that the UK would provide a guarantee to the African Development Bank that would unlock up to $2 billion of additional climate finance for Africa.

Since November, the FCDO has been working with the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) and Credit Rating Agencies to finalise the financial structure of the guarantee. The impact of the guarantee remains the same, with the guarantee expected to unlock up to $2 billion of climate finance for Africa. In the final structure, the FCDO will provide $1.6 billion of cover and ATI will provide $400 million of cover.