The African Development Bank’s (AfDB or “Bank”) Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization Complex (PIVP) and Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV), co-hosted a knowledge-sharing event entitled « Learning from Action » on 30 October, to discuss ways to boost private sector involvement in Africa’s development.
Over 80 Bank staff attended the internal event at the Bank’s Abidjan headquarters both in person and remotely. It was opened by Pierre Guislain, AfDB Vice President, Private Sector, Infrastructure & Industrialization and the Evaluator General, Roland Michelitsch, who leads IDEV.
To further the Bank’s strategic role in promoting private sector growth in Africa, IDEV has shared lessons learned from across the continent to help the Bank maximize effective private sector development. The findings of several IDEV-conducted evaluations are aimed at informing the design and implementation of private sector-led development interventions.
During the event, evaluators from IDEV shared their lessons and recommendations for improving the Bank’s work. The Q&A sessions provided an opportunity for the participants to exchange ideas on the issues that emerged from the selected evaluations and reflect on how best to apply this to the work of the Bank’s Private Sector Development Complex.
“It is really important for us to learn from what we have done so far in the past, what has worked, what hasn’t worked, what we can build on, and what we should change,”VP Guislain said at the event.
A panel discussion, Moderated by Tim Turner, Bank Chief Risk Officer, included VP Guislain, Michelitsch, Mmakgoshi Lekhethe, Executive Director, AfDB and Kodeidja Diallo, Director, Non-Sovereign Operation & Private Sector Support Department, AfDB.
During the discussion, Michelitsch noted that “in most development institutions the evaluation feedback loop does not work well – we are not always good at changing the way we do business. In part this is because the incentives are too much about quantity rather than quality. For the private sector, this can result in both poor development results and significant losses.”
The session was organized around the following themes (click on links for IDEV presentations)
- Highlights and insights from the recent evaluations related to private sector-led development: Learning from results (presentation)
- How can the Bank help create an enabling environment for Private Sector Development in the Regional Member Countries? (presentation)
- How can the Bank best use its instruments to stimulate Private Sector Development? (presentation)
During another panel discussion at the end of the event, Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbade, the Director General for the West Africa Regional and Development Business Delivery Office (RDGW) said the session had provided “precious lessons that we now need to convert into action and to use in our day-to-day work”.
Similarly, Diallo noted, “today we started a journey – a journey that is timely – to ensure that there is a feedback loop between evaluations, recommendations, and the Bank’s operations.”
For more information on IDEV’s evaluations of the private sector please click here:More information
Click here for access to the IDEV Flickr album for the event: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJjS8i