Ofid, Badea sign pact to bolster cooperation

VIENNA / WAM

The Opec Fund for International Development (Ofid), and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea), signed a new agreement to strengthen cooperation in common partner countries.
During past four decades, the Opec Fund and Badea have collaborated on 240 development operations in sub-Saharan Africa. The two institutions have between them contributed equally to development financing of around $4.3 billion. These operations have supported many sectors and countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Recent success in the health and education sectors in Burkina Faso, for example, was highlighted in the previous edition of the Opec Fund Quarterly magazine in the
article Building Burkina Faso.
Africa remains at the heart of Opec Fund’s work. The Opec Fund’s Director-General Dr Abdulhamid Alkhalifa met Badea counterpart Director-General Dr Sidi Ould Tah on a mission to Khartoum, Sudan, to discuss reinforcing the two institutions’ partnership.
The talks culminated in the signing of the Cooperation Framework Agreement defining the guiding principles of more effective cooperation across common partner countries. The Opec Fund and Badea are eyeing even more public and private sector development opportunities in the region.
The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the 85th Meeting of the Coordination Group* Heads of Operations – another important driver of development cooperation, established to optimise the use of resources and the development impact of financed operations in common partner countries.
The meeting included discussions about the Arab Development Portal – a Coordination Group initiative in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme to provide up-to-date development-related data and statistics concerning the Arab world. Cooperation with other development partners was also discussed.
Ofid was established in January 1976 by the then 13 member countries of Opec; including the United Arab Emirates.