The African Development Bank (AfDB) identified its management of human resources as one of its weaknesses yesterday as part of its first annual effectiveness review.
While highlighting some of the strengths of its contribution to development in the region, it said there was still room for improvement in its operations management.
The bank has acknowledged “shortcomings in human resource management, [the need] to improve staff retention and bring down our vacancy rate”, with amounts to 13% compared with a target of 5%.
“One of the principal challenges has been high staff turnover,” the report said. Moreover, the bank has pledged “to revamp our corporate policies in a number of areas, including policy-based operations, energy and private sector development.”
The report is based on the examination of 133 bank operations worth $2.9 billion between 2008 and 2010. It says that three quarters of the operations (76%) had “reached or surpassed” their goal. As of the end of last year, then bank portfolio consisted at 817 development projects valued at $34.4 billion, it said.
“In 2010, only 77% of our operations were rated satisfactory, still well short of our 2012 target of 95%,” the report says. The diagnostic comes just over a year after the bank’s shareholders agreed a 200% capital increase to support its work in the wake of the financial crisis.
AfDB president Donald Kaberuka told Emerging Markets that African countries had seen “our effectiveness, our innovation, our swiftness of response during the crisis.
“This is all evidence if ever it was needed of the strength of its institution. Our work on infrastructure is responding exactly to the needs of Africa today.”
The continent’s lowest performance score was registered in terms of integration, which is one of the areas that have been targeted by AfDB. In order to boost economic integration, the bank said it directed more than a quarter of its resources to low income countries into regional operations designed to build infrastructure networks.
Infrastructure remains another major concern. “When we plan a highway from city A to B, maybe we need to plan also for feeder roads leading villagers to the highway, so the benefits of being linked goes to a wider set of the population,” Désiré Vencatachellum, director of development research at AfDB, told Emerging Markets.
The bank’s strategy is also being refined, in response to the demands of several African countries. “We are fine-tuning our private sector strategy and rethinking towards being more targeted towards previously disadvantaged groups for more inclusive type of private-sector involvement, targeting the rural sector,” he said.
The report has identified governance as one of the “Africa’s Achilles’ heels”. The continent has made modest improvements over the past five years, particularly in economic and financial governance, but it still ranks lowest of all regions on the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators.
Africa is also the most conflict-ridden continent. “The resurgence of violence in countries such as Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire demonstrates that many underlying causes of conflict have yet to be resolved,” the report says.