African Development Bank Launches ‘Africa NDC Hub’ At UN Climate Summit

Africa Day, held last month within COP23 in Bonn, Germany, served as the springboard for the official launch of ‘Africa NDC Hub’, the African Platform for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) designed to fight climate change. So far, the hub has 10 partners signed up to the initiative, including a number of United Nations’ agencies apart from The African Development Bank (AfDB).

As well as the official launch of the African NDC Hub, the day saw

a Ministerial dialogue featuring several African heads of State and debates by experts as COP23 celebrated the theme of ‘Africa Day’ at the UN Climate Summit in Germany.

The initiative from the AfDB, whose stated mission is promote sustainable economic growth and reduce poverty in Africa, is intended to help the 54 African countries fulfil their commitments under the Paris Agreement, and in so doing effectively to put their respective “NDCs into action” without neglecting their own development priorities.

“This platform is a response to requests made by various African countries,” stated Amadou Hott, AfDB’s vice president for electricity, energy, climate change and green growth, as he unveiled the new initiative to a gathering of Heads of State, ministers, policy makers and representatives of civil society, among others, from across the continent.

He added: “It should be seen as an opportunity to accelerate investment in climate action in Africa through NDCs.” The official asserted that it will facilitate “better coordination among partners to provide a collective and effective response”, for and by the whole of Africa.”

This platform was also touted as a “catalyst for concessional funding” for climate-related projects in Africa which will, in turn, help raise private finance. The initiative is viewed as timely, given that according to recent studies US$4 billion will be required to implement the NDCs.

While all 54 African countries signed the Paris Agreement, 43 have ratified it and 53 (the exception being Libya) have submitted their NDCs, 85% of which are conditional upon financial aid from abroad, while only 15% are on the basis of domestic budgets.

Africa is already the poor orphan when it comes to world climate funding, capturing less than 5% of the total. As such the announcement of this new platform was warmly welcomed.

To date, Africa NDC Hub has 10 partners other than AfDB. These include the African Union Commission (AUC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the International Institute for the Environment and Development (IIED).

In addition, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, are on board.

Founded in 1964, the AfDB Group’s constituent institutions are The African Development Bank (ADB), The African Development Fund (ADF) and The Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). Shareholders comprise 54 African countries (regional member countries) and 27 non-African countries (non-regional member countries).

Separately, the 6th Annual African Financial Markets Initiative (AFMI) workshop on local currency bond markets and financial sector development will take place from 22-24 November 2017 in Dakar, Senegal, with over thirty countries being represented. 

The AFMI will present recent developments on African Financial Markets Database and hear updates on the African Domestic Bond Fund. And, the AfDB indicated that private sector participants there will also discuss the “importance of developing the institutional investor base for vibrant domestic debt markets in Africa.”

For more information on the AfDB see:  www.afdb.org/en