Over 200 AfDB employees trained on CRFA tool; partners with Swiss Agency

"These are the final users of the CRFA and we need to ensure they feel comfortable with its related process, methodology, and usage,” RDTS Director Yero Baldeh said.

More than 200 employees of the African Development Bank have been trained on the new Country Resilience and Fragility Assessment (CRFA) tool, thanks to a continued partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) which has provided technical support.

Jointly organized by Transition States Coordination Office (RDTS) and the Human Resources Management Department, the training benefited Bank fragility experts, country managers, country economists, and statisticians, and other sectoral units and key corporate functions.

The CRFA tool, approved by the Bank’s Board of Directors in September 2018, provides a new framework for robust quantitative analysis on the capacities and pressures experienced by states and regions across Africa. It evaluates security, justice, inclusive politics, economic and social inclusiveness, social cohesion, regional spillover effects, as well as climate and environmental impacts in all 54 member countries. 

"These are the final users of the CRFA and we need to ensure they feel comfortable with its related process, methodology, and usage,” RDTS Director Yero Baldeh said.

In its 2014-2019 Fragility Strategy, the Bank Group does not define any state as inherently fragile. It rather considers fragile situations across social, economic, political, and security dimensions with a dual emphasis on pressures, and the capacity of countries to manage those pressures. 

The new CRFA tool serves as a resource for Bank staff, Regional Member Countries and partners to provide operational guidance and identify entry points for strengthening capacities to promote resilience across the continent. Through improved analysis and strong partnerships, the Bank will help countries to address early instances of fragility and actively manage risks to promote sustainable and inclusive growth.

In addition to providing technical support around the new tool, the SDC also organized the third edition of the Africa Resilience Forum in Abidjan. The event represented an important information sharing platform for the continent, bringing together some 500 people for knowledge exchange, lessons learned and best practices.

The training program will help Bank staff to integrate the CRFA into targeted Bank operations and policy.  “From the very beginning, our ambition was to ensure that the new tool benefits all partners [and] that it can enrich the Bank's collaboration with other development partners for better complementarity in the field,” Principal Fragility and Policy Officer Riadh Ben Messaoud said.

For the Bank Group, the CRFA adds value to its ongoing dialogue with its RMCs. The CRFA findings will also inform key Bank documents, including Country Strategy Papers and Regional Integration Strategy Papers, as well as project design and implementation to ensure the Bank's operations are more targeted towards resilience outcomes.