Finance in Common Summit Spring Meeting: Joint Declaration of African Public Development Banks

We the undersigned African Public Development Banks gathered today for the Spring meetings of the Finance in Common Summit, commit to supporting African heads of state and international organizations to finance the needed transitions and transformation of African economies. In the context of the Covid-19 crisis recovery, our efforts will center on achieving sustainable, resilient and equitable development.

There are 95 public development banks on the African continent. We operate at subnational, national and regional levels, and we invest $24 billion every year.

As expressed at the first Finance in Common Summit in November 2020, we are willing and ready to enhance cooperation among us to build a financial system consistent with the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

In dealing with the crosscutting issues of climate and private sector involvement, we, as public development banks, are uniquely positioned to provide effective financing support. This includes mobilizing private investment and domestic savings. We are increasingly doing so, collectively, and today, we reaffirm our commitment to do more.

However, we still face some major obstacles in developing the required instruments to help us fully tackle the impacts of climate change and further strengthen the African private sector, notably to effectively manage risks.

We call on heads of state and international organizations to support our role in the African financial system and to provide us with the necessary means and incentives. These incentives are: a clearer mandate for climate and delivery on the UN Sustainable Development Goals; additional capacity building; greater access to concessional resources as well as reinforcement of our capital bases; taking advantage of the expected issuance of special drawing rights by the International Monetary Fund.

African countries are facing a huge investment gap. At the same time, they must address their debt service payments, which weigh significantly on their ability to finance their development programs. African countries should be enabled to face this debt challenge in order to help preserve financial stability on the continent.

We also welcome the measures adopted by our international partners to strengthen cooperation and partnership with us to 'finance in common', and to better support Africa's development agenda.

All regions of the world have developed their economies by relying strongly on their local resources. Strengthening African financial institutions is a prerequisite for the success of all international measures taken to provide financing to African economies. Reinforcing African public institutions will lead to the emergence and strengthening of a robust local private sector, and consequently mobilize national, regional and international investments.

Signed by:

Association of African Development Finance Institutions

African Development Bank; West African Development Bank; Trade Development Bank Group; Development Bank of Southern Africa (members of the International Development Finance Club), and African Export-Import Bank.

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