The ADFIAP Board, meeting on November 13, 2012 in Johannesburg, South Africa, has endorsed the following Association-wide definition of development financing to the General Assembly which will meet in May next year during the 36th ADFIAP Annual Meeting in Thailand: “Development financing is providing access to financial and support services for the underserved, the strategic and priority areas of a country in order to achieve sustainable growth of the economy and thereby assure a more equitable distribution of the benefits of progress and a better quality of life for its people.”
Underserved areas are those where financial institutions are not sufficient, unable or unwilling to service the needs of the real sector. Strategic are areas of development or projects identified by the government and/or the private sector necessary for the country’s progress and prosperity while priority areas are specific projects that, by their very nature, should first be attended to for the benefit of particular communities or sectors.
The crafting of the ADFIAP definition of development financing is borne out of the emergence of different development banking models in the ADFIAP membership that has started to seemingly blur the role and mandate of the development financing function as well as varied understanding on what constituted development financing. The definition also establishes a niche which ADFIAP, moving forward, aspires to achieve consistent with its desire to uphold sustainable development in the region and make a difference in peoples’ lives.