AfDB renews commitment to support a socially inclusive, sustainable recovery in Morocco

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has renewed its commitment to support a socially inclusive and ecologically sustainable recovery in Morocco, said the Bank country manager for Morocco Brice Mikponhoue.

Speaking at the opening of a remotely-held seminar on social and environmental safeguards that frame AfDB’s operations in the Kingdom, Mikponhoue said that this joint event has strengthened the excellent partnership binding the bank and its Moroccan partners, and shared resolved to further support this dynamic, by adopting the best practices in this area.

 

For his part, director of the Safeguards and Compliance Department at the African Development Bank Issa Maman-Sani stressed that it is necessary to consolidate the social and environmental monitoring of projects, in particular in this context of crisis.

“We share the same goal, that of helping to foster the bases of sustainable development beneficial to populations,” he was quoted as saying in a statement from the Bank.

The debates at the seminar were “interactive” and “fruitful” and allowed to meet the expectations of Moroccan public institutions which underlined “the need to further deepen the knowledge of safeguard mechanisms and tools” in order to “structure a new generation of projects prioritizing social and environmental dimensions, for the benefit of the populations”, the statement said.

The Bank’s pundits, for their part, insisted on the importance of safeguards and their respective objectives, explaining that they help to better anticipate certain operational risks, while guaranteeing the environmental and social sustainability of the Bank’s operations, which are the prerequisites for inclusive and sustainable growth.

They recalled the deployment of a set of instruments within the framework of the Integrated Safeguards System, with the goal of promoting the well-being of African populations, in line with the Bank’s five strategic priorities.

The seminar, organized in partnership with Moroccan authorities, from June 1 to 3, primarily seeks to strengthen the inclusion of social and environmental measures in the operational management of projects.

 

The total commitment of the African Development Bank in Morocco amounts to more than ten billion euros, covering the sectors of health, energy, water, transport, human development, agriculture and the financial sector.