1. Introduction

The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance (The Nelson Mandela School) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) hosted a webinar titled Trade Facilitation, Climate Finance, and Strengthening Africa’s Development Finance Institutions on 31 August 2022. This webinar was part of The School’s African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and Transformative Industrialisation Webinar Series. The policy recommendations below are based on suggestions from researchers and practitioners who participated in the webinar, and insights from the Africa Delivery Exchange (ADX) event held by the Tony Blair Institute and The Nelson Mandela School in September 2022. The primary focus of the event was to build a coherent narrative for Africa on climate change in preparation for COP27. Climate finance was one of the four thematic areas that were discussed extensively, and some of the commentary and insights presented are included in this policy brief.

The Nelson Mandela School has established a climate change research programme that explores the impact of climate change on Africa’s development. It specifically focuses on agricultural adaptation measures and food security, developing renewable energy regional value chains, green industrialisation, and trade and climate change. The School’s Climate Finance and Africa research is part of its research programme on the Role of African Development Banks in Green Structural Transformation and Developmental Regionalism. This research programme is led by Professor Nimrod Zalk, who has published extensively on the topic. His article, titled African development banks need scale, urgently. Here’s how it can be done argues that “the scaling up and consolidation of African development banks offers the most promising route to attract long-term private finance to achieve [Africa’s] sustainable development goals and structural transformation.”1 The School’s research on climate finance primarily focuses on strengthening African development banks’ capacity to play a more active role in closing the continent’s climate finance gap.

The first part of this brief provides a detailed overview of climate finance in Africa and the role of the continent’s development finance institutions (DFIs). The second section outlines key policy recommendations for consideration.

1 Nimrod Zalk. (2021, 26 November). African development banks need scale, urgently. Here’s how it can be done. The Conversation https://theconversation.com/african-development-banks-need-scale-urgently-heres-how-it-can-bedone-172178