Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, October 18, 2019 – The Board of Governors (BOG) of the World Federation of Development Financing Institutions (WFDFI) held its 2019 Meeting on October 18, 2019, in Washington DC, USA, on the sidelines of the 2019 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The meeting was presided over by Mr. Thabo Thamane, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) and Chairman of the Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AADFI) and the WFDFI since January 1, 2019, as per the decision of the BOG during its meeting held on October 23, 2019, in Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus.
The BOG members present at the meeting included Mr. Joseph Alfred Amihere, Secretary-General of the AADFI/WFDFI – also Proxy of Mr. Octavio B. Peralta, Secretary-General of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP) and Mr. Edgardo Alvarez, Secretary-General of the Latin American Association of Development Financing Institutions (ALIDE) – and Mr. Nuri Birtek, Secretary-General of the Association of National Development Finance Institutions in Member Countries of the Islamic Development (ADFIMI).
Also present at the meeting were Mr. Ricardo Palma, WFDFI Adviser, as well as two Special Invitees, namely Mr. Rémy Rioux, Chairperson of the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) and CEO of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and Mr. Patrick Dlamini, Honorary Chairman of the AADFI and CEO of the Development Bank of Southern African (DBSA) in South Africa.
The main objective of the 2019 WFDFI BOG Meeting was to set the WFDFI agenda for the next three years. In that regard, Mr. Thamane, as the new WFDFI Chairman, had the opportunity to share his 2019-2021 Vision and Agenda for the Federation with the members of the BOG namely (1) Building Capacity on Green Finance and Green Projects; (2) Individual and Collective Action to Finance Climate Change; (3) Canvassing for Engagements with GFC and similar organizations; and (4) Leveraging on the Collective Funding Capacity of the WFDFI Regional Associations.
The WFDFI Governors were unanimous on the vision and agenda of the WFDFI for the next three years as elaborated and analyzed by the Chairman. They expressed their support for the actions to be taken for the implementation of the agenda and encouraged the Chairman to move forward.
It is important to note that the 2019 WFDFI BOG Meeting provided a unique opportunity for the WFDFI and the IDFC to invite each other, for the first time, to participate in their respective meetings. Therefore, the WFDFI participated in the Annual Meeting of the IDFC held on October 20, 2019, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Rémy Rioux, Chairperson of IDFC and CEO of AFD, to advance IDFC’s activities as a platform for advocacy, mobilization, and action for low carbon, climate resilience, and sustainable development.
The major conclusions of the meetings between the WFDFI and the IDFC were two-folds: (1) issue a joint IDFC-WFDFI Communiqué calling for the organization of a Summit of Development Banks ahead of the COP26 in 2020, under UN sponsorship to support the SDGs decade of action launched by the UN Secretary-General; and (2) prepare and sign an MOU between the two organizations for a collaboration, among others, to research into development banks and their alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
About the WFDFI
The World Federation of Development Financing Institutions (WFDFI) was established in June 1979 in Zurich, Switzerland, on the occasion of a UN meeting on development financing, by the AADFI, the ADFIAP, the ALIDE and the KfW Development Bank of Germany. The ADFIMI, after its creation joined the World Federation at a later time. The WFDFI is the international organization that represents the development banking system worldwide, as a unified force which aims to promote development banking more efficiently by bringing about a closer working cooperation among the DFIs of the world. It upholds the primacy of its commitment to the development of the regional associations as well as individual member-DFIs, varied and diverse may they and their programs be. More particularly, WFDFI supports not only the traditional role of development banking but also the more aggressive thrust of diversification now gaining foothold in most DFIs in order to ensure the continued impact of DFIs in the economic development of their respective areas. Furthermore, the Federation aims to promote the interests of its members in a wider context of the worldwide environment besides working for its interests vis-à-vis multilateral agencies.
About IDFC
The International Development Finance Club (IDFC), created in 2011, is the leading group of 26 national and regional development banks from all over the world, with a majority of them active in the emerging markets. IDFC is the largest provider of public development and climate finance globally, with US$ 4 trillion in combined assets and annual commitments above US$ 600 billion, including US$ 150 billion of climate finance. IDFC members have the unique function of supporting domestic policies while transferring international priorities into their constituencies. IDFC members are aligned with and work together to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement agendas. Through IDFC, and in close partnership with other development bank networks, members join forces as a platform to promote and leverage sustainable development investment worldwide.
IDFC is chaired since October 2017 by the Agence Française de Développement (French Development Agency) where the IDFC Secretariat is hosted in Paris, France. To learn more about IDFC please visit our website or follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn.
