The African Development Fund (AfDF) has provided a grant of US$11.48 million to the secretariat of the regional institution to strengthen its governance and provide institutional support.
The approval of this grant is part of the “regional public goods financing” component of the Fund housed at the African Development Bank (AfDB). The resources will contribute to the African Union Institutional Capacity Building Project, a programme designed to improve the capacity of the AU Commission to drive Agenda 2063.
The latter is the regional institution’s vision for “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, led by its own citizens and a dynamic force on the world stage”.
It includes programmes to stimulate the continent’s economic growth and development and lead to its rapid transformation.
The funds allocated will cover three main components: institutional strengthening; policy planning, coordination and service delivery; and project management. In addition, the project includes important environmental and social safeguards as well as gender considerations.
In 2017, the AU Commission launched a major institutional reform process to make the institution more agile, efficient and financially self-sustainable. The project will pursue these reforms by modernising its systems and improving its planning, coordination and service delivery capacities.
Part of the funds will be allocated to the AU Commission’s disaster risk reduction practices and climate change adaptation mechanisms. Support to women will include the development of the Commission’s gender and youth mainstreaming guidelines and scorecard and related activities, in addition to support to the institutional reform of the African Union.
The total cost of the project is USD 12.6 million, including an in-kind contribution from the African Union. The success of the project should encourage other development institutions to make similar contributions.
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