Agence française de développement (AFD) and the World Bank Group strengthen strategic partnership to address global challenges

Paris, April 30, 2024 - The Agence française de développement (AFD) and the World Bank Group have reaffirmed their commitment to collaboration through the signing of a Strategic Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This landmark agreement underscores their shared vision of fostering sustainable and inclusive growth to tackle poverty, inequality, and climate change. Signed by President Ajay Banga and by CEO Rémy Rioux, the MoU for 2024-2026 enables both public development banks (PDBs) to deliver more innovative and impactful collaboration by leveraging on their $30 billion joint portfolio.

The MoU highlights AFD and World Bank Group' shared objectives, including increasing climate co-benefits, supporting fragile and vulnerable states, and promoting climate action and financial systems' resilience. Through joint initiatives, they aim to mobilize resources including through cofinancing and expertise to scale up more effective responses to global challenges, and confirm their intention to strengthen their partnership in the following areas:

• Fragile and Vulnerable States: Both AFD and World Bank Group's teams have agreed to deepen their strategic partnership in countries facing fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV), including supporting private sector development through IFC and Proparco.
• Support for climate action: Both AFD and World Bank Group's teams will collaborate through regular dialogue between relevant stakeholders on public policies, long-term country strategies as well as carbon markets. They will enhance their cooperation to support a large emerging country in its transition towards sustainable long-term growth.
• Financial systems and the Finance in Common (FiCS) initiative: Both AFD and World Bank Group's teams will develop their collaboration on private capital mobilization and public financial management for climate action. They will also enhance their collaboration in the area of sustainable and transition finance standards and support efforts by public development banks fostered by FiCS to accelerate progress towards the SDGs by 2030, as discussed at the leadership level at the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris in June 2023. Recognizing the role that PDBs could play in financing a green and just transition, the Parties will publish the first Handbook on PDBs.
• Access to electricity: The AFD and the World Bank Group will closely collaborate to support the objective of enabling 250 million people to gain access to sustainable electricity in Africa by 2030.
• Innovative operational modalities: The AFD and the World Bank Group are willing to collaborate on the newly launched World Bank Group's Global Collaborative Co-financing Platform to mobilize a larger pool of relevant partners and reach the objective to deliver collectively better partnerships. AFD will be the first bilateral partner to join the platform in 2024.

The MoU also emphasizes knowledge sharing, research, and staff exchanges to ensure effective collaboration between the two organizations.

The MoU is effective immediately and will initially span three years, with provisions for renewal. Both PDBs are committed to regular dialogue and collaboration to monitor progress and adjust activities as needed since they focus on client-oriented solutions.

This agreement is the continuation of a close and fruitful collaboration: a joint portfolio of $30 billion in direct and parallel co-financing, including $20 billion since the signing of an innovative co-financing framework agreement in 2018. The two PDBs have worked together in many areas including on renewable energy, energy access, and food security in Eastern and Southern Africa and West and Central Africa; on sustainable cities focusing on low-carbon investments and nature-based solutions, water and sanitation, transport and digitalization; on health, social protection and social sustainability including in response to the Covid-19 pandemic; on the transformation of financial systems with special attention to financial inclusion (AFD and World Bank Group are on the Executive Committee of the CGAP). Although Africa remains a priority where the largest number of projects have been co-financed, the partnership has reached a global footprint since 2018 for instance in the Balkans.

Through this milestone co-financing framework agreement mechanism, which was renewed on the 12th of March 2024, the benefits and value-added at the project level extend far beyond larger financing volumes as each PDB brings specific skills and know-how to their collaboration. The recently published report, Scaling Up Global Partnerships: The AFD Group and the World Bank Group, launched at the occasion of the latest Spring Meetings, illustrates examples of this successful cooperation that spurs socioeconomic progress, fosters stability and security in fragile settings, strengths human capital, and combats the climate crisis and reinforces the resilience of financial systems.

The signing of the MoU is a testimony to the deep ties that have been established between the two PDBs. The strength of the partnership rests on not only the scale of collaboration but also the trust and effectiveness of their working relationship on the ground at the country level and between headquarters. By scaling up their collaborative financing, the two PDBs can serve as a global standard for partnerships in support of the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement.

"The scope of today's challenges is too broad for any one institution to tackle on its own-partnerships are critical if we want to make a difference. Strengthening our work with the Agence française de développement means we can pool our many valuable resources-financing, knowledge, people, and more-for even greater impact in our shared efforts to end poverty and maintain a livable planet", World Bank Group President Ajay Banga said.

Rémy Rioux, Chief Executive Officer of AFD, commented: "I am delighted to sign this Strategic Partnership Memorandum of Understanding with President Banga today, renewing the cooperation between the World Bank Group and the AFD Group. Over the last few years, our teams have deepened their partnership, with AFD becoming the World Bank Group's first partner in the number of projects and more than 20 billion co-financed since 2018. Partnering with the World Bank Group bolstered investments for greater impact, benefiting vulnerable populations and the global commons. Together with other PDBS, from multilateral to national, within the Finance in Common movement, let's align finance with SDGs!"

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AFD Press Office: Pia de Saint Martin I [email protected] I +33 6 29 66 06 15

About Agence française de développement (AFD):

AFD Group contributes to the implementation of France's policies for sustainable development and international solidarity. The Group includes Agence française de développement (AFD), which finances the public sector, NGOs, research and training; its subsidiary Proparco, which is dedicated to the private sector; and Expertise France, a technical cooperation agency. The Group finances, supports and accelerates the transitions needed for a fairer, more resilient world. With our partners, we are building shared solutions with and for the people in more than 150 countries, as well as in 11 French Overseas Departments and Territories. As part of the commitment of France and the French people to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, our teams are at work on 4,200 projects in the field. Our objective is to reconcile economic development with the preservation of common goods, from peace, the climate and biodiversity to health, education and gender equality. Towards a world in common.