African Development Fund grants $4.3m to strengthen integration of natural capital into decision-making in 13 African countries

The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund, the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group, has approved a grant of $4.23 million to implement the second phase of a project to integrate natural capital into development financing in Africa.

The project covers thirteen countries: Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

With in-kind contributions from partner institutions such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the German public agency for international cooperation on sustainable development (GIZ), the African Union Development Agency—New Partnership for Africa’s Development, the Economic Commission for Africa and the United Nations Environment Programme, the project aims to foster an environment conducive to better utilization of natural capital and its integration into political and financial decision-making processes.

The various participating countries will also play a part in contributions to the project. The project is scheduled for implementation between October 2026 and September 2029 and is expected to generate outputs in the areas of policy, statistics, institutions, and knowledge that will contribute to better integration of natural capital into development planning.

The strategy aims to strengthen policy-making systems, statistical systems, institutional frameworks, and knowledge-generation mechanisms needed by the regional member countries participating in the project and the African Development Bank Group to assess natural capital and incorporate it into public policy-making.

The project will achieve this through an integrated set of measures, including policy support, technical assistance, assessments of statistical readiness, biodiversity financing tools, pilot projects to assess green wealth, capacity building, and peer learning.

“This project is intended to contribute to development that is resilient to the effects of climate change, nature-friendly, and inclusive, by enabling African countries to better identify, measure, and manage their natural wealth, while strengthening the evidence base that informs development financing, dialogue on sovereign policies, and the mobilization of green investments,” said Innocent Onah, Chief Natural Resources Officer at the African Development Bank Group.

He added: “In the long term, this could lead to tangible improvements in the development of the target countries in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) growth, increased foreign direct investment inflows, economic development, poverty reduction, improved employment, economic competitiveness, and financial and economic risk ratings.