The 57th Annual Meetings of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank and the 48th Meetings of the Board of Governors of the African Development Fund, the concessional arm of the Bank Group, will take place in Accra, Ghana from 23 to 27 May 2022.
This year’s meetings, which will be in a hybrid format, mark a return to in-person sessions following virtual meetings over the past two years. The physical sessions, including statutory meetings of Governors of the Bank and knowledge events, will take place at the Accra International Conference Centre.
The theme of the 2022 Annual Meetings is “Achieving Climate Resilience and a Just Energy Transition for Africa”. During the event, leaders of the Bank Group’s regional member countries will discuss the nature of the support they need from global development partners, as well as the estimated cost of building resilience and a just energy transition for their economies.
The theme of the 2022 Annual Meetings aligns with the 27th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) slated for Egypt in November this year.
Africa is the continent most vulnerable to climate change, despite its negligible contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. The surface temperature of the continent has already risen faster than the world average. Similarly, over 600 million Africans, the most of whom live in rural regions, lack access to electricity, and 900 million do not have access to clean cooking facilities. Apart from deforestation, four out of every five Africans cook with solid biomass, resulting in an estimated 600,000 fatalities per year due to indoor air pollution.
The Annual Meetings are the Bank Group’s most important event, attracting around 3,000 delegates and attendees yearly. The meetings allow the organization to take stock of progress with its shareholders. They also provide a unique forum for representatives of governments, businesses, civil society, think tanks, academia, and the media, to discuss key issues concerning Africa’s development.
