Financing Change in Africa - Podcast series

African Development Bank and Climate Investment Funds strive for a climate-smart Africa

Mafalda Duarte, Head of the CIF, and Gareth Phillips, the climate and environmental finance manager at the African Development Bank, give background on the Climate Investment Funds and its portfolio of projects implemented in partnership with the Bank.

Since 2010, the African Development Bank has played a vital role as a CIF implementing entity, advancing a growing portfolio of renewable energy, forestry, and resilience projects in Africa. The Bank has invested more than $2.8 billion in projects on the continent.

Giant solar plant  lighting up Morocco from the desert

In this episode we feature the $5.4 billion Clean Technology Fund (CTF), one of two multi-donor trust funds under the Climate Investment Funds. Danny Morris, CTF’s clean energy lead coordinator discusses the Fund, its achievements in Africa and its future. We also talk to Fatima Hamdouch, Director of Strategic Steering at the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy, about the conditions that led to the successful development of the world’s largest solar plant, which is lighting up Morocco.

Geothermal Energy: a high risk but worthy investment

This episode presents the Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program in Low-Income Countries (SREP) funded by the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF). The SCF is one of the CIF’s two funds, which are channelled through five multilateral development banks. The SREP has been financing the scaling up of renewable energy solutions to increase energy access and economic opportunities. Jimmy Pannet, a CIF energy specialist, discusses the SREP.

Covid-19 has affected energy consumption in Kenya, according to Paul Ngugi, regional manager for the Geothermal Development Company. The country has almost 2,800 MW installed capacity but a peak demand of just under 2,000 MW. Given this surplus, Kenya needs to build energy demand by investing in increasing consumers, preferably industrial users.

Building community resilience in Africa

Lorie Rufo, the Climate Change Specialist for the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience, presents the program’s operations that are building community resilience in Mozambique, Niger, and Zambia. The program has also provided support to Ethiopia, the Gambia, Madagascar, Malawi, and Uganda to prepare national climate resilience investment plans. Mozambique – one of the countries most affected by climate change in Africa – has benefitted from climate resilience funding for its Sustainable Land & Water Resources Management Project. Cesar Tique, an agriculture, rural development, and climate change specialist at the African Development Bank in Mozambique, tells us how the project has helped build community resilience.

Restoring critical African forests

Ines Angulo, Coordinator of CIF’s Forest Investment Project (FIP), says Africa has had the highest annual rate of net forest loss of any continent over the last decade, at 3.9 million hectares. Forest loss has been increasing steadily since 1990. Learn how the FIP is working with African countries to manage this loss and provide sustainable livelihoods to communities that depend on forests.

Global Forest Watch indicates that forests once covered a third of Ghana’s 24 million-hectare landmass. From 2001 to 2020, Ghana lost 1.31Mha of tree cover, equivalent to a19% decrease in tree cover since 2000, and to 676Mt of CO₂e emissions. Natural African tropical forests absorb approximately 600 kg of carbon per hectare per year. The FIP has been working in Ghana with stakeholders to reduce deforestation The FIP has been working in Ghana with stakeholders to reduce deforestation and ensure that communities benefit from forest resources.

Valerie Fumey Nassah, manager of the Forestry Commission of Ghana’s plantation unit, discusses project achievements and lessons learned.

Energy access: why women are catalysts for change

Climate change affects men and women differently. The Covid-19 crisis has led to income loss and increased poverty in many countries. Sheila Oparaocha, international coordinator and program manager for ENERGIA,  explains why access to energy is critical for women and for the achievement of the SDGs.

Anne Kuriakose, a senior social development specialist at the CIF, explains how the Fund is pursuing gender equality goals.

Energy Shift: How can Africa ensure a just transition?

The 2019 report of the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources’ (UNU-INRA) on Africa’s stranded assets warned that the continent must forgo burning 90% of its known coal reserves, 34% of its gas, and 26% of its oil. How can Africa avoid stranded assets, stranded workers, and stranded communities and also develop as it implements the terms of the Paris Agreement?

Mike Ward of Rhodes University in South Africa, and Creating Sustainable Value   explores the opportunities and challenges that Africa faces in moving its just transition forward, and the lessons South Africa offers other countries. 

Solar-powered boreholes liberate Zambia’s Kafue Basin from overreliance on wild fruits

In 2014, the SCF funded the Strengthening climate resilience project in the Kafue sub-basin in Zambia. Engineer Indie Dinala, the project manager, discusses how farmers in the Kafue sub-basin, who formerly depended on wild fruits and tubers during drought, have benefited from the $38 million project. Solar-powered irrigation has enabled farmers to cultivate crops even during droughts. In addition, a climate-proofed road was built to enable transport of farm produce to markets. Thus, the adaptation measures have not only created resilience but also improved nutrition and livelihoods.