aDubai: The African Development Fund, theconcessional window of the African Development Bank Group, has approved a grant of $4.23 million to implement the second phase of a project focused on integrating natural capital into development financing in Africa. According to African Press Organization, the project involves 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 contributions from partner institutions such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), GIZ, the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa's Development, the Economic Commission for Africa, and the United Nations Environment Programme, the initiative seeks to promote the effective use of natural capital in political and financial decision-making processes. The participating countries will also contribute to the project. The project is slated for implementation from October 2026 to Septembe r 2029 and aims to deliver outcomes in policy formulation, statistical enhancements, institutional development, and knowledge creation that will facilitate the integration of natural capital into development planning. The strategy's objective is to fortify policy-making systems, statistical frameworks, institutional structures, and knowledge-generation capabilities needed by the regional member countries and the African Development Bank Group. This will help in evaluating natural capital and incorporating it into public policy-making. The project will employ an integrated approach, including policy support, technical assistance, statistical readiness assessments, biodiversity financing tools, pilot projects to evaluate 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 stre ngthening 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. In the long term, Onah noted that this initiative could lead to significant improvements in the development of the target countries, potentially impacting GDP growth, foreign direct investment inflows, economic development, poverty reduction, employment, economic competitiveness, and financial and economic risk ratings.
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