By signing an ambitious partnership agreement in Frankfurt on 4 April, AFD and the German organisation KfW have officialised their joint aim of strengthening the longstanding collaboration between the two overseas development groups.
Signed by AFD CEO Rémy Rioux and Joachim Nagel, a member of the KfW Executive Board, this “Memorandum of Understanding” comes at a time when Franco-German relations are being reinforced and constitutes a new focus of cooperation between the two groups.
The partnership sealed between AFD and KfW provides for closer collaboration on several levels, concerning strategy, operations, knowledge-sharing and joint communication. It sets out a certain number of non-exclusive priorities such as collaborations and joint strategic reflections on the effectiveness of foreign aid, the international climate agenda, the environment and the reinforcement of the European cooperation system. It also covers specific intervention zones such as Africa and the Sahel in particular, but also our near neighbours in the Caucasus and Balkans, where our two countries are facing the same challenges.
This new agreement also establishes thematic and sectoral priorities, including the implementation of the Paris Agreement, the search for appropriate responses to the challenges posed by migration, the reduction of inequalities and the promotion of gender equality, in addition to the development of the private sector and youth employment.
As AFD and KfW are also financial institutions, they remain vectors of innovation and will now be able to collaborate on using public policy loans and mobilising the private sector to fund projects related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The partnership between AFD and KfW is not new, since the first co-funding arrangements date back to the early 1970s. Over the last ten years, AFD and KfW have funded 55 projects together for a total of €6 billion, established a permanent staff exchange scheme between Paris and Frankfurt, developed the use of the European grant and loan-blending facilities, participated in the creation of the Practitioners’ Network for European Development Cooperation and, finally, worked closely together on the International Development Finance Club (IDFC).
Original source: AfDB
Published on 04 April 2019
