Donors of the African Development Fund (ADF) on Thursday agreed to commit $7.6 billion to speed up growth in Africa’s poorest nations and help lift millions out of poverty.

This fifteenth replenishment of the ADF (ADF-15), up 32 percent from the previous cycle, sends a strong signal of trust in the Fund, which is the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group.

The Fund comprises 32 contributing states and benefits 37 countries – including those experiencing higher growth rates, headed towards new emerging markets, and fragile states needing special support for basic service delivery. The Fund’s resources are replenished every three years.

ADF-15 will support Africa’s most vulnerable countries by tackling the root causes of fragility, strengthening resilience, and mainstreaming cross-cutting issues. These include gender, climate change, governance, private sector development, and decent job creation.

“What a great pledge we’ve achieved with your support… Together we’ve exceeded the target set for this replenishment. What a great and successful replenishment story that is, “said Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank.

Over the past 45 years, the ADF has played an important role in the development journey of African low-income countries.

 In just nine years, the ADF has made a difference and positively impacted the lives of millions by:

• Improving access to electricity for 10.9 million people;
• Providing agriculture infrastructure and inputs for 90 million people—including 43 million women;
• Improving access to markets and connections between countries to 66.6 million people;
• Contributing to the continent’s regional integration agenda by rehabilitating more than 2,300 km of cross-border roads;
• Improving access to water and sanitation for 35.8 million people.

ADF-15 covers the period 2020-2022 and will build on successes of the fourteenth replenishment by being more selective and focused.

ADF-15 will focus on two Strategic Pillars: quality and sustainable infrastructure aimed at strengthening regional integration; and human governance and institutional capacity development for increased decent job creation and inclusive growth.

 In pursuing these strategic priorities, ADF-15 will pay special attention to gender equality, climate change, private sector, and good governance promotion.

 In his closing remarks, Patrick Dlamini CEO of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, DBSA, who spoke on behalf of South Africa’s Finance minister Tito Mboweni, said the deliberations and outcome demonstrated the confidence member countries place in the African Development Bank Group as “the cornerstone institution underpinning African development.”

“There is no better vehicle than the ADF,” he said. “Going forward, an ambitious programme of development lies ahead.”

ADF-15 will address root causes of vulnerability by systematically applying a fragility lens in all its operations. This will be specifically targeted at regions such as the Sahel, which will see a 23% increase in resources from the ADF over the next period.

ADF-15 comes at a time of tremendous opportunities and challenges for ADF countries and the world.

During the next three years, the Fund will scale up its interventions with bold and profoundly transformative projects such as Desert to Power stretching across the Sahel region. This flagship programme, aims at transforming the Sahel into the world’s largest solar production zone with up to 10,000 MW of solar generation capacity and 250 million people connected to electricity.

As part of the initiative, the Yeleen Rural Electrification Project in Burkina Faso is set to provide access to electricity to 150,000 households, while the Djermaya Project in Chad will generate 10% of Chad’s power capacity.

“You will see a new spring in our step…we will be bold and decisive. We will stretch ourselves, and we will do more with your support,” Adesina said.

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Uber said it received almost 6,000 reports of sexual assault in the United States in 2017 and 2018.

While the number of cases rose in 2018, the rate of incidents dropped by 16%, as the number of journeys was higher.

The data was published in a report which Uber said showed its commitment to “improving safety for Uber and the entire industry”.

Uber is facing growing scrutiny around the world, and recently lost its licence to operate in London.

The report showed 5,981 sexual assault incidents were reported out of the 2.3bn US trips over the two-year period.

ome 99.9% of the total journeys were concluded without safety issues, it said.

Passengers – as opposed to drivers – accounted for nearly half of those accused of sexual assault, the report added.

Uber said the report was the first comprehensive safety review of its ride-hailing business.

“Voluntarily publishing a report that discusses these difficult safety issues is not easy,” said Tony West, chief legal officer at Uber.

“Most companies don’t talk about issues like sexual violence because doing so risks inviting negative headlines and public criticism. But we feel it’s time for a new approach.”

The company told the BBC there were currently no concrete plans to release safety reports for any non-US markets.

This is a hugely significant document that for the first time details the extent to which the gig economy puts people in harm’s way.

Uber described it as a complex project that was two years in the making, with much of that time spent auditing the data ensure to accuracy.

It should be noted that, knowing it would provoke grim headlines, the firm opted to release this data voluntarily.

The firm has committed to releasing the report every two years.

Now that Uber has proven it can produce this data in a digestible form, it must keep doing so at regular intervals and, eventually, for all its markets around the world.

That’s not an easy undertaking, but the company can afford it.

Continual publication of the report would bring focus and urgency: is Uber’s record on safety getting better or worse? Why might that be? Are certain regions safer than others? What can we learn from that?

Attention must also turn to the other gig economy firms out there. Lyft – which is facing a lawsuit over sexual assault filed just this week – has no excuses now that its bigger rival has acted.

Uber said 3,045 sexual assault reports were made in 2018 compared with 2,936 in 2017.

Last year, 1.3 billion trips were completed in the US, up from one billion in 2017.

The head of the US National Sexual Violence Resource Center, Karen Baker, welcomed the report, saying it “provides an opportunity to shed light on how this information-sharing emboldens our work for a safer future”.

Passenger safety, in particular sexual violence, have been major challenges for Uber and its US rival Lyft, as well as China’s Didi.

In November, London’s transport regulator announced that Uber would not be granted a new licence to operate after repeated safety issues.

The firm has appealed against the ruling and continues to operate during the process.

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