The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) and other partners will launch a new initiative, on 9th September 2021, on integrating natural capital into financing for development in Africa.
This initiative, called the “Natural Capital for African Development Finance (NC4-ADF) Programme”, is supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through its dedicated agency (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ).
Also, supporting the initiative is the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the MAVA Foundation, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) as well as the Economics for Nature (E4N) partnership, which aims to put natural capital at the heart of economies.
Dr. Rabah Arezki, Chief Economist and Vice President of the African Development Bank Group in charge of Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, will at the launch of the program deliver a keynote address on the overall theme of the webinar and its relevance to a post-Covid-19 green recovery in Africa.
Furthermore, Government representatives from Nigeria, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique, whose countries are participating in the programme will take part in the event, which will bring together senior representatives of the programme’s partner institutions as well as those from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the African Union (AU) Commission, among others.
Meanwhile, during this meeting, the various participants including Ministers and Heads of international institutions, will discuss ways to establish a common vision that takes into account natural capital, particularly in the development projects and programmes of multilateral development institutions.
Additionally, the participants will discuss best practices for integrating natural capital into the financing for development architecture.
In addition, some other topic of discussion will also be how to get credit rating agencies to integrate green growth and natural capital considerations into the sovereign and credit ratings of African countries.
Vanessa Ushie, Director of the Policy Analysis Division at the African Natural Resources Centre of the African Development Bank disclosed that “The integration of natural capital into development finance is critical to the post-Covid-19 recovery”.
Also, the AfDB recognizes that nature-based approaches are essential to address biodiversity and climate emergencies. Furthermore, the Bank is working with other stakeholders to integrate natural capital into infrastructure financing, investment, and economic policies in Africa.
Furthermore, the natural capital, which includes soils or carbon storage resources such as water and fisheries, accounts for between 30% and 50% of the total wealth of African countries.
Although, this is taken into account in economic measures such as the calculation of GDP and other macroeconomic indicators, most international development institutions have little regard for natural capital in development finance projects.
However, in the face of climate change, this capital has essential assets to promote inclusive and green growth.
Meanwhile, the results of an infrastructure pilot project conducted using natural capital approaches in Tanzania, with support from the African Development Bank and Germany, will be presented in this webinar.
Furthermore, the NC4-ADF Programme, is expected to run from 2020 to 2022. And it aims to integrate natural capital approaches into financing development in Africa.
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