RESOURCE LAUNCH: AfDB: Finance Development for people and not profit!
WoMin is thrilled to launch a new pamphlet, AfDB Finance Development for People not Profit! The African Development Bank (AfDB), the largest development finance institution in Africa, claims to promote the economic and social development of African countries and improve the living conditions of African people. In reality, as evidenced by the destructive extractive and infrastructure projects the bank finances, the AfDB is promoting and implementing a neocolonial profit-driven development model which benefits the traditional global North and parts of the emerging South at the expense of African countries. From Batchenga, Cameroon to Damouyah, Kansa, and Tahiré in the Republic of Guinea, women and their communities are rising to denounce the abuses and injustices they suffer because of ‘development’ projects sponsored by the AfDB.
This resource explores why women and communities dealing with AfDB-financed dirty projects are demanding justice and reparations in their fight for development that puts people first instead of profit. On December 4, the International Day of Banks, this pamphlet is a vital tool to critique and challenge a model of development propped up by international financial institutions (IFIs) and multilateral banks such as the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as the AfDB.
Download in English, French, Kiswahili and Portuguese
Across the continent, very few voices are raised or heard on the disastrous impacts and effects of the African Development Bank’s financing on the lives of communities and women living in these communities. Countless communities have been dispossessed, repressed, experience high degrees of violence, loss of livelihoods and environmental degradation due to projects that are supposedly geared towards positive ‘development. It is therefore urgent not only to amplify the voices of those directly affected by these projects but also to make visible the real human, economic, social and environmental costs of these development projects promoted by the AfDB, and which are anchored in a capitalist and imperialist development model inspired by Western countries, and which does not respond to the needs and aspirations of African communities and women.
This pamphlet was developed in collaboration with Coalition pour l’Abolition de la Dette Illegitimate (CADTM) Afrique) and Lumiere Synergie pour le Développement (LSD).
