SOLUTIONS

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the ADB/African Union Climdev program, for
example, which is intended to strengthen the
capacity of regional weather centers (located in a
number of African countries) to strengthen and
share information both between centers and with
African countries. On the other hand the East
Africa RISP has a strong focus on development of
shared water resources, which are an area of focus
for these CSPs, but the proposed Inter-regional
early warning systems for Flood Prevention and
water basin management is not mentioned in any
of the CSPs.
Governance Pillar
The Governance Pillar is cross cutting. Its three
re-enforcing pillars, improved “public sector and
economic governance, sector governance, and
an improved business climate … form the basis
of the vision of transparent and accountable
governments able to meet the twin objectives of
the TLS for inclusive growth and transition to
green growth”. 39 The Strategy/action plan itself
emphasizes the links between sound governance
and sound sector development. Extractive industry
and natural resource governance is a building block.
The strategy also emphasizes the need for improved
policy, regulatory and legal reforms to reverse
land degradation, establish pollution standards
for Africa’s rivers, strengthen transboundary
cooperation, improve regulatory oversight and
build climate information systems to inform
transparent decision making. Sound, transparent,
accountable governance systems are key to ADB’s
inclusive growth approach, which emphasizes voice
and social and spatial as well as economic inclusion.
Most CSPs reviewed have a more limited
approach to governance, emphasizing financial
management at the macro-level. 40 Accountable
financial management could usefully go the
next step and include specific goals for public
expenditure allocation to programs that would
address inclusion and green growth (support
to education, or to soil fertility enhancement,
Regional Integration Programs in DRC: Inclusive Green Growth Potential
The DRC CSP 2013-17 includes an interesting analysis of the costs of lack of regional
integration, with African countries’ share in DRC exports representing less than 10% of
DRC’s trade. The discussion of barriers covers not only poor physical infrastructure but also
red tape and inefficiency. On average, cross-border procedures take 44 days for exports and
63 days for imports, i.e. respectively 12 and 15 days longer than the average for the other sub-
Saharan African countries. The average costs by container are about USD 3,500 - well above
the average for the other countries of the continent. Given the well-known risks to safety of
smaller traders (eg between DRC and other Central African countries) CSP implementation
could also usefully explicitly address this area, important to inclusive growth. The Bank
continues also to play the lead role in developing DRC’s hydro-electric energy resources,
specifically Inga 3, and will support development of the electricity network of the Great Lakes
countries. It also aims to support development of navigation on the Congo river.
The DRC CSP is consistent with the Central Africa RISP (2011-15) which aims to develop
regional infrastructure and institutional capacity. The RISP aims also to safeguard the
integrity of the Congo Basin’s forests, water resources and ecosystems, recognizing their
national, regional and global importance. Included in the DRC CSP are the Congo Basin
Forest Ecosystems fund, which supports community based sustainable forest management
initiatives, and the Forest Investment Program, one of the initiatives under the Climate
Investment Fun, which also has a strong community focus.
39 Governance Strategic Framework and Action Plan (GAP II) 2014-18
ADB 2013.
40 The ADB One Results Agenda also emphasizes this aspect of governance,
though the GAC strategy includes improved management of natural
resources in its own results framework.
eVALUatiOn Matters