OREANDA-NEWS. February 02, 2016. The 2016 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank will take place from Monday, May 23 to Friday, May 27, 2016 at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka, Zambia.

The theme of this year’s meetings is “Energy and Climate Change”, and draws on one of the Bank’s “High 5” priority areas, namely to “Light up and Power Africa”. It also reflects the Bank’s New Deal on Energy and the key resolutions from the recent UN climate talks (COP21) on global warming.

The 2016 Annual Meetings theme is aligned with two of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): SDG 7 to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” and SDG 13 to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”.

The Bank’s Annual Meetings are its largest annual event, and its biggest window on the world.  They bring together some 5,000 delegates and participants, and feature some 40 official events in addition to the Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors, which constitutes the core purpose of the Meetings. 

The Bank’s Governors are the Finance, Trade or Development Ministers from its 54 Regional and 26 Non-Regional Member Countries).  The Meetings represent the definitive forum for representatives of Government, business, civil society and media – from Africa and beyond – to debate the social and economic development of the continent.