The AfDB President Donald Kaberuka will on Friday, April 9, 2010 attend the Heads of Multilateral Development Banks Meeting in Luxembourg. The Chief Executive Officers of the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will also attend the high-level meeting.

The agenda of the meeting will include among others: the review of prevailing world macroeconomic outlook, the progress on respective negotiations for MDBs' capital increases including the replenishment of their soft windows, various post crisis challenges including notably climate change, post Copenhagen (Cop15) and the MDBs' future evolution of activities in the specific areas. The recent appointment of AfDB President Donald Kaberuka to the High Level Advisory Group on climate change makes this meeting more significant for the Bank, as it will help inform his active participation in this Panel.

The meeting will further deal with compliance issues relating to anti-money laundering, off-shore financial centres, anti fraud, corruption as well tax and development issues. The format of the presentations and discussions will enable the MDBs to learn from each other's current experiences, challenges and best practices. In this regard, the MDBs are expected to sign a Cross-Debarment Agreement for mutual enforcement of debarment decisions.

On the subject of climate change, after a lead IMF presentation, each MDB would provide, starting with the World Bank, its perspective on the main challenges in the post-crisis framework, while focusing on climate change post-Copenhagen, as well as other key issues relevant for joint MDB activity. The establishment and administration of a Green Fund Mechanism would feature prominently in the discussions of the Chief Executives. They are also expected to briefly review their respective responsibilities in the G20 mutual assessment process with special reference to their respective regions.

The AfDB President will be accompanied by Messrs. Graham Stegmann, Special Adviser to the President, Kalidou Gadio, General Counsel.

Contact

Felix Njoku