AfDB approves framework for Somalia Infrastructure Fund

For the past two decades, Somalia’s political and economic situation has severely affected all sectors in the country, including infrastructure.

The Somalia Infrastructure Fund was approved on 3 October 2016 and is part of a comprehensive, coherent and coordinated multi-partner initiative to assist Somalia in consolidating peace and moving along a path of long-term development. The Somali New Deal COMPACT, endorsed in September 2013 in Brussels by the Federal Government of Somalia and its international partners, sets out a commitment to implement a strategy that brings together development, humanitarian, diplomatic and peace-keeping stakeholders around common goals. It established a new financial architecture for intermediating economic construction and development finance assistance to Somalia. This enabled the establishment of a Somali Development and Reconstruction Facility, which will house three separate Multi Partner Trust Funds administered by the AfDB, World Bank and United Nations.

The Somalia Infrastructure Fund will primarily focus on infrastructure rehabilitation and development in the country, with specific investments in Energy, Water & Sanitation, Transport and ICT sectors, along with related institutional capacity-building. These investments are crucial for rebuilding Somalia’s economy and will help create employment opportunities and establish a conducive environment for peace and state-building in the country.

The Bank’s comparative advantages in infrastructure, particularly its ability to intermediate development finance and convene dialogue on policy and institutional issues, positions itself well for scaling-up the provision of infrastructure services in Somalia.

Over the last two years, the Bank has made significant progress towards establishing the Fund. Infrastructure needs assessments have been completed and validated for all the Energy, Water & Sanitation, Transport and ICT sectors. Findings from these assessments have now been consolidated and discussed with the Somali Authorities and other stakeholders to develop an initial (five-year) pipeline of projects (of about US$ 350 million) to be financed through the Fund. This pipeline of projects will also form the core of projects under the Infrastructure Pillar of Somalia’s new National Development Plan, 2017-2019.

Initial seed financing for the Fund has been provided by the UK’s Department for International Development and the Islamic Development Bank. The Bank intends to scale up its resource mobilisation campaign for the Fund, by convening a Donor Roundtable meeting in November 2016, and a subsequent Infrastructure Investment Conference in early 2017.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/africa-middle-east/28102016/afdb-approves-framework-for-somalia-infrastructure-fund/