The African Development Bank Group plays a key role in spurring regional sustainable development. Its vice-president, Arunma Oteh, shares her views on the growth of the bank in a recent interview with China Daily.

Q: The African Development Bank Group has been reorganised to better position itself to achieve its mandates. How has your bank group been impacted by the reorganisation?

A: The president, the Board of Directors and the shareholders have essentially been focusing on how they can transform our bank group to ensure that we are able to scale up support whether it be with respect to volume or the quality of assistance that we provide Africa.

These are crucial times for the bank because there is concerted interest in moving Africa's agenda forward; most African countries are making progress whether it be with respect to sustained economic growth, macro-economic stability or improved governance.

Clearly the stage is set for us as an institution given our achievements as a triple "A" rated, premier institution for Africa's development. We have also been working very closely with the board to develop a human resource strategy.

Secondly, we have been very much focused on enhancing the bank's capacity to deliver its development mandate.

We have basically renewed 50 percent of the management team, bringing in talent in terms of technical expertise, having a much more diverse workforce, given the business case for our institution.

Also important are the changes that our administration department is introducing to ensure that we have the tools to adequately respond to Africa's needs.

Beyond providing financing to our client countries and being the preferred vehicle for funds from donor countries, we are in the business of selling credibility.

Also, decentralization is a key element of the president's strategy given the importance of being close to our clients.

We would not be able to do this without leveraging information and communications technology (ICT) as ICT facilitates connectivity across our 22 offices.

So these are the things that I would say, in terms of impact, whether it is with respect to human resources, ICT, language services or administration, especially since upgrading your corporate services function is at the heart of a transformation to scale up the Bank's response to Africa's needs.

Q: Diversity within an organisation like your bank strengthens it. However, some people hold the view that the focus on diversity could be a good recipe for incompetence. What is your take on this?

A: Diversity and competence or quality are not mutually exclusive. In fact, a more diverse workforce strengthens our capacity to be more responsive to our clients and stakeholders.

All organizations around the world today have realized that having a diverse workforce enhances performance whether it be with respect to age, gender, geographical representation.

We believe, and the president has said this often, that there is clearly a business case for the bank to foster diversity.

Development is fostered by broadening participation which in turn enhances creativity, cooperation and innovation.

We are an organisation that brings together 77 nations around the world to support Africa's development efforts. Our workforce must reflect this diversity.

Q: What are the burning issues and how are you dealing with them?

A: I have already mentioned that having a human resource framework that is aligned to the current business environment and our business strategy is extremely critical.

Also important is to ensure that we have sufficient capacity to respond to the huge demands of the continent.

We recently completed the recruitment and promotion process for management and leading expert positions. We are currently working on filling all the vacancies at the support and non-managerial professional levels.

Also critical is the need to ensure that we create an environment that fosters excellence, encourages a focus on development effectiveness and links reward and recognition to each staff member's contribution.

We believe that a good performance management system does enable us to do this. For this reason, we are also upgrading performance management system.

(China Daily May 14, 2007)