A conclusive message arose from the third instance of the Finance in Common (FiC) summit hosted on October 18 to 20, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, that a common vision and cooperation between development banks is needed to realise Africa and the world’s climate adaptation goals.

“What is good for Africa is good for the world, and it has never been more true than with the climate crisis,” said Global Centre on Adaptation (CGA) CEO Patrick Verkooijen.

He explained that Africa was in the eye of the storm, in terms of the global fallout from the Ukraine war and climate impacts.

Nine of the ten most climate-vulnerable countries are in Africa, Verkooijen stated, adding that the world would, in turn, feel the fallout of Africa not adapting to climate change, because the impacts could not be contained.

Verkooijen noted that concrete delivery on climate adaptation following conferences such as the FiC, GCA’s own Africa Adaptation Summit hosted in September and the upcoming COP27, is the only solution to mitigate another global crisis.

Further, he highlighted that climate finance spend in Africa currently averaged about $11-billion a year, which left a growing “adaptation finance” gap of more than $40-billion a year, which needed to be addressed.

“The adaptation agenda is also one of economic growth, job creation, prosperity and smart economics to capture these dividends. We need to dramatically increase financial flows into Africa and unlock new sources of financing,” Verkooijen mentioned.

He believed that Africa, through CGA and the African Development Bank’s (AfDB’s) Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme (AAAP), had by far the world’s largest “adaptation enterprise”, with its aim of mobilising $25-billion over five years, to accelerate and scale climate adaptation action across the continent.

The AfDB alone had committed to mobilise $12.5-billion worth of financing for the AAAP.

Verkooijen said more than $3-billion worth of projects in Africa have been developed in respect of climate adaptation in the last year under this programme.

However, he pointed out that, to narrow Africa’s climate financing gap, more partners and investments would have to come on board, to set in motion a resilient transformation across the continent, that is in everyone’s interest globally.

From a global climate adaptation perspective, Caribbean Development Bank president Gene Leon said all public banks ought to recognise their joint mandate of promoting the development of the world and admit that the challenges of the world are bigger than any one entity or one country can solve on its own.

“The time has come for public and private development banks to advocate as one to meet goals, which involves advocating for things that matter, for markets, for diversity,” he asserted.

Council of Europe Development Bank governor council Carlo Monticelli noted that public development banks were at the forefront of receiving social tensions that arise in times of crisis, social shocks and the influence of migrants and, therefore, should be open to considering new partners and gathering new insights from smaller institutions.

He believed public development banks should embrace new ways of cooperating with communities, for example, including through art as a catalyser of human innovation.

“We are experiencing overlapping crises, including the Ukraine war that has led to food and energy impacts, while we are still living in the shadow of Covid-19 and its impacts on economic activity and societies. We are experiencing global crises, which requires a global response, and therefore platforms to enhance cooperation,” Monticelli stated.

European Long-Term Investors Association president Laurent Zylberg agreed, adding that different crises sometimes required a common answer, since it concerns all of the world’s society.

Bancoldex CEO Javier Fayardo echoed this sentiment, saying that development banks needed to act with one mentality, with innovation and technology at the heart of new solutions.

“We cannot think the way we were thinking at the start of this century. There is often a divide between what public banks can do and what private banks should do. Cooperation in this regard is something worth pursuing.”

West African Development Bank president Serge Ekué remarked that although Africa’s contribution to climate change had been minimal, the impact on the region was significant.

He emphasised the importance of concise and consistent messages being sent to investors, and creating sound frameworks for climate adaptation, noting that development financiers would otherwise look elsewhere for bankable opportunities.

Development Bank of Rwanda CEO Kampeta Sayinzoga said development banks shared the same motivation, but lacked a harmonised set of metrics. She was confident that a harmonised set of indicators being monitored could help with resource mobilisation.

Association of African Development Finance Institutions chairperson Thabo Thamane said public development banks in Africa had the advantage of being close to the opportunities and having an understanding of local conditions.

Therefore, he suggested that governments attract more development financing by taking bold structural reforms and improving digital connectivity, while maintaining stable and competitive exchange rates as far as possible.

“For us to transition as African public development banks, we need the world to trust us. We are close to the heartbeat of the projects in Africa,” he added.

Moreover, other speakers such as Islamic Development Bank chairperson Muhammad Sulaiman Al Jasser and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank president Jin Liqun agreed that, during times of transformation, it was important to remain mindful of the economic and social consequences for vulnerable stakeholders.

They agreed with the other speakers that a global financial system, which encompasses both traditional and new, innovative financing instruments, was needed to realise climate adaptation.

“We need global schemes that protect the most vulnerable and speak to a shared vision,” added European Investment Bank president Werner Hoyer.

International Development Finance Club president Rémy Rioux noted that it should be imperative for public development banks to strengthen economies when all seems to crumble, and to finance what no other actor was willing to finance and to leave no one behind.

International Fund for Agriculture Development president Alvaro Lario weighed in by stating that the world could not continue drifting from crisis to crisis, especially not when food systems are failing, and famine looms in many African countries.

He believed investment into small- and medium-sized enterprises was key, as were measuring impacts of investments and implementing practical policy changes that could stimulate more investment in rural economies.

He added that all development banks could work together for a world that was more just and inclusive.

The speakers participating in the FiC mostly conceded that development banks were well positioned to tackle the challenges facing the world, if more cooperation and trust were to be embedded in their approaches to development.