• Co-Organizers
  • Government of Japan
  • United Nations (OSAA)
  • UNDP
  • World Bank
• The Yokohama Declaration
  • 1.0 Introduction
  • 2.0 Recent Trends and Challenges
  • 3.0 Boosting Economic Growth
  • 4.0 Achieving the MDGs
  • 5.0 Consolidation of Peace and Good Governance
  • 6.0 Addressing Environmental Issues and Climate Change
  • 7.0 A Broadened Partnership
  • 8.0 The Way Forward
• The Yokohama Action Plan
• Follow-up Mechanism
• Chair's Summary
• Japan's Initiatives
• The road to Yokohama 2008

World Bank Assistance

"Accelerating progress"

The Bank is the largest provider of development assistance to Africa, with a record $5.8 billion in credits, grants, and guarantees in fiscal 2007. In total, the Bank approved 93 projects, up more than 20 percent from fiscal 2006. It also continued its nonlending activities, completing 194 analytic and advisory services. Sixteen African countries benefited from the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative in fiscal 2007, and another 17 will become eligible when they reach their completion points under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative (see Debt Relief).

Over the past two years, the Bank’s strategy for assisting Africa has been implemented under the Africa Action Plan. The plan—based on accelerating shared growth, building capable states, sharpening the focus on results, and strengthening the development partnership—has already had positive impacts. For example, in fiscal 2007, Ghana and Tanzania were ranked among the top 10 countries reforming the climate for doing business; with Bank Group support, Madagascar moved up eight places in the global rankings for ease of starting a business. Such successes result primarily from strengthened commitment by African countries to reforms, as well as from strengthened collaboration among IDA, IFC, and MIGA in private sector development, infrastructure, and skills development.

Nearly 40 percent of Africa’s population lives in landlocked countries, many of which are also resource rich. The continent is also highly segmented geographically, and it has the highest density of countries of any developing region. Regional projects are therefore needed to close the infrastructure gap. The West Africa gas pipeline and the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System—both of which are public-private partnerships supported by the Bank Group—are landmarks in regional approaches to relieving infrastructure bottlenecks. The Multi-Country AIDS Project for Africa, another Bank-supported regional program, operates in 31 African countries. It has reached 173 million people with prevention messages and has helped prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS among 1.5 million women.

[From the World Bank's Web site]