PMR - Professional Management Review

The Development Bank of Southern Africa is a leading Development Finance Institution (DFI) in Africa South of the Sahara, playing the roles of Financier, Advisor, Partner, Implementer and Integrator. The Bank maximizes its contribution to sustainable development in the region by mobilizing finance, knowledge and human capital to support government and other development role-players in improving the quality of life of people in the region, through funding infrastructure projects; accelerating the sustainable reduction of poverty and dependency; and promoting broad-based economic growth and regional economic integration.

The DBSA has a range of projects and initiatives that it finances and supports (as per its five roles), and these are indicated in detail in its annually-reviewed Balanced Scorecard. Most of the projects and programmes relate to the development of socio-economic infrastructure, mainly in poorly-resourced municipalities.

The DBSA’s selection of projects in the SADC region also relates to building foundations for sustainable development through the provision of basic infrastructure such as transport facilities, telecommunications, and agriculture.

At the heart of all that the DBSA does is the desire to push the frontiers of knowledge. Knowledge is an enterprise- wide function within the Bank. Key to the DBSA’s work in the area of knowledge is the pivotal role played by the Vulindlela Academy in enhancing the human intellectual capital through targeted high-level skills training. Through this training centre, the DBSA offers needs-based training to municipalities and other clients and stakeholders. In future, the organisation envisages this function to grow in the quest of meeting skills challenges facing this country. The DBSA’s courses are already accredited with relevant authorities. The organisation is also known for some of its premier publications; including the Development Report, Infrastructure barometer, etc. Whilst some of its knowledge products tended to be biased towards SA, in the near future, the organisation will be publishing authoritative research, spanning right through the SADC region – living true to its regional mandate. The DBSA has also set up data and information repository in the form of LGNet, which has been very helpful, mainly to its targeted clients; the municipalities.

There are, however, four key strategic flagship programmes that give expression to the mission of the Bank.

These are:

Siyenza Manje: This is a multi-stakeholder targeted intervention aimed at providing much-needed human resources to ensure institutional capacity for poorly re- • sourced municipalities around the country. The DBSA recruits and deploys experienced engineers, project managers, financial managers, and other experts who help municipalities establish working systems and processes to effectively deliver basic services. Stakeholders here include, among others, the Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG), the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), and National Treasury.
Sustainable Communities: The idea of sustainable development communities emerged out of the DBSA’s lessons learnt from its practical experience in working with communities. A key essential lesson that has emerged over the past years has been that single sector interventions cannot bring about sustainable development. Rather, what is required is to forge a comprehensive and coherent development programme that mobilizes resources from different sector organisations. The sustainable development programme is about this; it is about a forward-looking approach to development, characterised by the desire to include communities in the developmental challenges of the current generation without compromising those of the future generations. A key objective in this programme is the creation of economic opportunities within poor communities.
2010 FIFA World Cup project: With its technical expertise in areas such as project management, etc, the DBSA is immensely involved in some technical aspects of the work around the 2010 FIFA World Cup to be hosted by SA. Apart from that, the organisation is financing some of the major projects. For instance, it has contributed some funding to the Green Point Stadium, which will take centre stage in Cape Town’s participation in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
ASGISA/JIPSA: There is broad consensus that in order to grow the country’s economy beyond 6% annual average, issues around skills requires priority. Hence the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa) was launched in 2006 as part of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (Asgisa) which aims to increase growth and halve poverty in South Africa by 2014. Jipsa identified a number of skills that were lacking in the country, including health management skills. The DBSA has also initiated dialogues within the organisation around this issue, seeking novel and innovative ways to address the skills challenges.

on integrating the region’s economy for Africa’s global competitiveness

In its pursuance to contribute towards the regional economic communities, the Bank has followed a multi-pronged approach in its work with other African countries through:

Advocacy – assisting countries to sensitise the different National Departments to align development programmes to that of Nepad principles.
Capacity building programmes at REC level, eg scoping and profiling of the Regional infrastructure programme, SADC’s RISDP & COMESA
Assisting the sponsors of the regional integration infrastructure programme/projects with capacity to embark on the finalisation of the Terms of Reference as well as a process of obtaining expertise to complete the required studies and transaction advisory roles.
Playing an advisory role through human intellectual resources that are available both to operational units to assist in making informed regional investment decisions, as well as to SADC clients and other DFI’s, should advice be required in areas of infrastructure policy-, programming-, implementation- and operation, in support of sustainable best practice. Knowledge is also available for both public and private sector projects, meaning that the DBSA can offer comprehensive solutions to the region’s development needs. General DBSA endorsement of inclusive, transparent, participatory planning processes, assisted through providing effective advice, often contributes significantly to the success of the projects it supports, and has enabled the DBSA to build a cohesive network of key players in the region.

If necessary, the DBSA is able to grant technical and project preparation assistance by way of a joint Project Preparation Facility, managed jointly by operational and advisory units.

working with the South African Government to assist in closing in on the disparity that exists between the rich and poor

In its social, economic and institutional context, infrastructure development applies to those elements that constitute ways to address basic human needs and therefore has great potential in reducing the disparity between the rich and the poor. The DBSA’s Vision 2014 clearly indicates that infrastructure development is central to the alleviation of poverty.

The defined roles of the DBSA as a financier, advisor and partner, with the newly added positions as integrator and implementer, means working mostly with the government across all tiers and roping in the Private Sector and other partners in the fight against poverty. In this regard, the Bank has, in partnership with government, designed development interventions to address social and economic infrastructure and to promote local economic development. This is reflected mostly in the “Sustainable Communities Programme” where spatial planning of unsustainable communities was redesigned to afford increased levels of social and economic activity in both rural and urban contexts.

Besides the Siyenza Manje Programme mentioned earlier, other programmes where the DBSA has partnered with government include; the provision of strategic and operational support to the 2010 Infrastructure Project; the ASGISA initiative; and the implementation of the Nepad short-term Action Plan for Infrastructure. This is in addition to other operational projects and programmes that would often result in impact of a multi-sectoral development nature, within the country and in the region.

on promoting international investment in the region

In addition to being a financier of projects in the region, the DBSA also plays an integral role as advisor, partner, integrator and implementer to its partners and sponsors of key infrastructure projects in the region. To this end, DBSA is increasingly partnering with project sponsors at the very early stage of originating projects and bringing them to financial bankability. This is done to ensure projects are generally aligned to DBSA’s objective of maximising development impact of the projects it finances. In addition to the various financial products (debt, equity, guarantees, etc) that the DBSA offers, it also provides technical assistance grants and extensive knowledge products which serve to promote international investment in the region.

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web: www.dbsa.org