The President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has canvassed the need for all stakeholders across African countries to support the bank’s vision on Africa’s climate risk financing.
The AfDB boss gave the charge Wednesday during a high-level session of the 53rd African Development Bank Group Annual Meetings held with the bank’s Board of Governors on “Climate and Disaster Risk Financing” in Busan, Korea.
At the meetings, Adesina also announced fresh plans by the continental development institution to tackle the menace of rising climate and disaster in African countries through risk financing as support for African Risk Capacity (ARC) and the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Programme (ADRiFi), pledging the bank’s support for ARC operations while encouraging other stakeholders to show similar commitment..
The AfDB boss said: “It must not be only about the African Development Bank. We want more stakeholders to join and more partnerships to make sure that the financing mechanism is there.
“The future of Africa depends on the actions we take today. And we have to have a sense of urgency. If we pump in the alliance and partnerships needed; countries will be able to insure themselves of risks”, Adesina added.
He noted that it was difficult to integrate countries that are fragile, adding that the bank can only integrate countries that are secured and immunize them for genuine integration.
According to him, while Africa contributes no more than 2-3 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, the continent continued to suffer disproportionately from the negative impacts of climate change as characterized by high frequency of droughts, amongst others.
“Africa has been shortchanged by the climate financing architecture. Therefore, we need instruments that will help mitigate climate risks”, the AfDB boss canvassed.
The ARC Chairperson, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, reiterated the challenges of climate change in the continent, particularly its vulnerability to droughts, floods, tropical cyclones and outbreak and epidemics.
Nigeria’s former finance minister explained that ARC was about African countries taking charge of their own issues and finding ways to finance their response efforts and broader resilience and development.
“We cannot remain a continent that is reliant on the generosity of the broader development community”, she said.
Okonjo-Iweala explained the role the ADRiFi would play in promoting disaster risk financing on the continent and how countries can access both capacity building and premium financing as part of their long-term resilience building efforts.
It would be recalled that the AfDB and ARC formalized their partnership in March 2017, to strengthen their technical collaboration towards enhancing the risk management infrastructure and policy across Africa while supporting countries in building resilience against climate shocks.
The bank proposed the ADRiFi programme, which will run from 2018-2022, following requests from regional member countries for premium financing support, as a comprehensive, sustainable solution for risk transfer within the broader context of disaster risk management.
The high-level session, being part of the 53rd African Development Bank Group Annual Meetings underway in Korea, provided a platform for African Ministers of Finance, the Economy and Planning, who form its Board of Governors, to extend ongoing discussions between the Bank and regional member countries on the importance of disaster risk financing solutions in building resilience and protecting development gains.
