By Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has hinted that the setting up of the African Development Fund’s Climate Action Window is to mobilise up to $13 billion to provide 20 million farmers with climate-smart agricultural technologies and 20 million farmers and pastoralists with weather-indexed insurance.
The African Development Fund is the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group that supports eligible African countries in strengthening their economic capacity, reducing poverty, and spurring economic and social development. ADF-contributing countries are currently discussing their next financial replenishment.
Dr, Adesina made this known when addressing the opening plenary of the 2022 Civil Society Forum in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan.
According to him, the scheme will also revive one million hectares of degraded land and provide renewable energy for about 9.5 million people.
The President of the AfDB group told the gathering that Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are indispensable partners in the Bank’s effort to build Africa’s resilience to climate change.
“We will need you, CSOs, to strongly advocate for and support the 16th replenishment of Fund, as it holds great promise for supporting the most vulnerable in the face of climate change devastation,” Dr. Adesina reiterated.
He is of the view that COP27 must help refocus attention on Africa’s needs and priorities.
The President of the AfDB group, however, commended African CSOs for their contribution toward strengthening the Continent’s resilience and adaptation to climate change.
The two-day forum was held under the theme “Engaging civil society for climate resilience and just energy transition.”
The forum took an open dialogue approach to enable civil society actors, to share their views and proposals ahead of the global climate summit, COP27, slated for mid-November in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El Sheikh.
Meanwhile, the bank’s Vice President in-charge of Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Dr. Beth Dunford, reiterated civil society’s role as a vital link between the bank and African communities.
“We are in it together to build climate resilience and bring about a just energy transition that enhances transparency and accountability,” he said.
On his part, the Bank’s Vice President in charge of Power, Energy, Climate, and Green Growth, Dr. Kevin Kariuki, projects that for Africa to meet its needs for socio-economic development, it must double its energy consumption by 2040.
For this to happen, “the Bank is committed to engaging in permanent and constructive dialogue with all African climate change stakeholders, including CSOs, to deliver tangible results and ensure a successful COP27 for Egypt, and for Africa,” Kariuki said.
President of the Panafrican Farmers Organization, Kolyang Palebele, called for the integration of resilience into national development plans and challenged African governments to operationalize the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Growth and Transformation of Agriculture in Africa for Shared Prosperity. “The time is critical.
We must react quickly to the shocks of climate change that are affecting the African people,” he added.