African Development Bank ranks first on Global Aid Transparency Index

Publish What You Fund, the global campaign for aid and development
transparency, has named the African Development Bank the most transparent organisation in the world.

The Bank’s Sovereign Portfolio now ranks first out of 50 global development institutions in
Publish What You Fund’s 2022 Aid Transparency Index, released Wednesday with a top score
of 98.5.

African Development Bank Group President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said: “I am elated to learn
of this outstanding recognition from Publish What You Fund. It is a testament to the relentless
efforts of the more than 2,000 personnel across our organization who work tirelessly to
accelerate Africa’s progress.

Maintaining razor-sharp focus, they consistently deliver top quality under the highest levels of
scrutiny. I am incredibly proud of them. I commend Publish What You Fund for their important
mission, combining robust research and technical expertise with targeted advocacy and
engagement to make aid and development efforts more transparent and effective.”

Senior Vice President Swazi Tshabalala said: “I am absolutely delighted with this score in an
index that plays a key role in helping promote openness and greater transparency among
international agencies. The Bank has worked hard over the years to improve the disclosure of
its aid flows by providing consistent, high-quality, and easily accessible data. Our top ranking
has significant human and financial resource implications, as this is the only way to conduct
our development business.”

The African Development Bank achieved the highest score in the Aid Transparency Index’s
ten-year history and moved into the top spot from its fourth-place ranking in 2020. The Index is
the only independent measure of aid transparency among the world’s major development
agencies.

The Bank has remained consistently in the ‘very good’ category since 2014. It has consistently
demonstrated its commitment to increased transparency and its extraordinary progress over
the past 10 years in providing high-quality information and becoming more transparent.
Publish What You Fund’s ‘very good’ status is the highest of the five categories used to assess
organizations’ transparency. The ranking is based on several criteria. They include finance and
budgets, basic information data, organizational planning and performance.

The African Development Bank’s non-sovereign portfolio was assessed for the first time and
separately in the 2022 Index. The Bank is the second most transparent development finance
institution dealing with non-sovereign operations. Its non-sovereign portfolio is ranked 12th
among the 50 global development institutions under comparison.

The past year has been complex and challenging for development transparency. To help fulfill
development needs and ambitious global objectives such as the UN Sustainable Development
Goals and the Bank’s High 5 operational priorities, more and better development finance than
ever is required. This is especially so when large volumes of funding are being assigned to
combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

Publish What You Fund Chief Executive Gary Foster said: “We congratulate the African
Development Bank’s sovereign portfolio for achieving 1st place in the 2022 Aid Transparency
Index. For many years now, the AfDB has engaged in understanding the demands of the
Index, and they have then re-engineered their approach to disclosure, accordingly, publishing
more comprehensive, higher quality data. This has been made possible because the efforts of
their technical staff are matched by commitment to aid transparency from the highest levels of
the organization.”

For the African Development Bank, transparency is more than a watchword: it contributes to
continued accountability as well as accurate access to relevant Bank information.
Stakeholders can, for instance, find out how the Bank is helping Africa meet its energy and
infrastructure needs through the institution’s MapAfrica platform. In addition, the African
Development Bank has designed a project data portal to present easily accessible data.