Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, March 21, 2017 – The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved on March 15, 2017, the conversion of the Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF) – established in 2014 with €4.725 million from the Government of Germany – to a multi-donor trust fund. This conversion brings two new partners to the Fund, the governments of Italy and Flanders (Belgium), who are contributing €4.7 million and €2 million, respectively. It further opens the door to new partnerships with other donors interested in supporting African countries in their transition to low-carbon, climate resilient development and green growth.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the founding donor of the ACCF, expressed pride that the Fund, which was established with the vision of eventually attracting other donors, has achieved this milestone, demonstrating the success of the initiative. BMZ further showed its gratitude to the German Development Agency (GIZ) for executing the agreement on its behalf.
Anthony Nyong, Director of AfDB’s Climate Change and Green Growth Department, remarked, “the ACCF plays an important role in supporting African countries to scale up their access to climate finance to advance the ambitious targets they have set in their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). The contributions of Italy and Flanders are testament to the good work that the Fund has done so far, and the potential that exists to scale it up. The partnership with our donors will be instrumental in scaling up the Bank’s climate finance to advance climate resilient, low carbon development across the continent.”
Only 3% of the global climate finance currently flows to Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a recent study by the Climate Policy Initiative, despite the fact that region is the most vulnerable to climate change. Simon Calcoen of the Flanders Department of Foreign Affairs stated that “the government of Flanders is convinced that the ACCF is key to resolving the current tension between unmet climate needs in Africa and available international climate finance.”
About the Africa Climate Change Fund
The ACCF was established in April 2014 with a €4.725 million contribution from Germany with the objective to scale up climate smart development in African countries by increasing the mobilization of international climate finance. The ACCF currently has eight projects under implementation which are supporting six African countries – Mali, Swaziland, Kenya, Cabo Verde, Zanzibar (Tanzania) and Cote d’Ivoire – to strengthen the capacity of their institutions to access and manage climate finance and to develop impactful projects and programs that will attract climate finance from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and other sources. Two regional projects are supporting access to updated climate information and building resilience into transboundary infrastructure projects. The ACCF is also actively engaged in promoting coordination, partnerships, knowledge exchange and south-south learning around climate finance readiness, and has co-convened outreach events on this topic. Moving forward, the ACCF plans to launch a new call for proposals in the coming weeks to attract new and innovative projects in support of African countries’ INDCs.