Challenge
In 2018, following a business-wide re-organization, AfDB sought a way to better manage the deliverables and commitments required by its Corporate Services Unit, which encompasses HR, IT, Procurement, Business Continuity, and Medical Services). Twenty strategic initiatives had been agreed to by the Board of Directors, and AfDB needed a way to plan, execute, manage, and report on them. Some of these initiatives were far overdue, having been in place for four or more years, but never executed. Others, such as digital transformation of the bank into a “smart bank,” were newly identified as strategically important and required by the business.
While an in-house tool had been developed for project delivery, AfDB needed to focus on aligning its initiatives to its overall strategy, not just project management. “We’d agree with our Board on what initiatives we’d deliver, but there was never a visual roadmap. So, we never knew how we were performing against the bank’s overarching goals,” said Odoma Ogbadu, Senior Compensation Officer, African Development Bank.
