AfDB

In terms of senior leadership accountability, the responsibility within AfDB for sustainability issues lies with the board of directors. Further, the DFI publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Moreover, AfDB has set targets for the impact it has identified as published in the results measurement framework 2016-2025.

AfDB discloses the aggregate amount it devotes to adaptation and mitigation finance while specifying what the latter entails. It also discloses related time-bound targets, such as an aggregate climate finance target of $25 billion for the period 2020-2025. By means of the Operational Safeguard (OS) on biodiversity, AfDB monitors borrowers on nature and biodiversity topics and requires them to have a biodiversity strategy in place.

AfDB has publicly available policy statements committing it to respect human rights, the health and safety of workers, to prohibit bribery and corruption, and to protect personal data. It also has a channel accessible to all workers, external individuals, and communities to raise human rights and bribery and corruption complaints. Furthermore, AfDB discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category as well as the amount of finance it directs towards low-income developing countries in Africa.

In terms of senior leadership, there is no evidence that AfDB links the remuneration of its executive or management teams to sustainability performance criteria, and women are underrepresented on the board of directors where only five out of twenty-two board members are women. It also has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions and to disclose the actions taken to address any pay gaps. Although AfDB has its OSs to monitor clients on social and environmental (E&S) topics, it could disclose evidence for all its financing activities. Furthermore, the DFI can improve its performance by disclosing a related escalation criteria framework and how the E&S monitoring has been applied in practice.

While AfDB is committed to aligning financial flows and investment with the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement, it has an opportunity to disclose a target to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050 and absolute interim targets for its financing activities. Moreover, AfDB has an opportunity to disclose the key sectors and companies it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change, specifically on the alignment with the Paris Agreement. On climate solutions, it could align its climate finance with internationally recognised frameworks while disclosing progress against the 2020-2025 targets. While AfDB discloses that the objective of the OS on biodiversity is to reduce the negative impacts on biodiversity and nature, it does not provide evidence of a commitment to minimise biodiversity’s negative impacts for all its financing activities.

AfDB has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities. In relation to diversity, DFI could disclose the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group. To conclude, AfDB can improve its performance by publishing the amount of finance directed towards women-owned businesses, and small- and medium-sized enterprises.