Catalysing Sustainable Finance for the African Regional Infrastructure Agenda

The document examines the challenges African countries face in accessing sustainable finance for regional infrastructure, noting a significant financing deficit and a lack of bankable projects. It highlights the disparity between climate mitigation and adaptation finance, arguing that adaptation is more critical for Africa's vulnerability. The brief analyzes the ASEAN regional approach—specifically its sustainability taxonomies and the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility—as a model for Africa. It evaluates current AU initiatives, such as the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa and the Green Infrastructure Corridor for Intra-African Trade, and recommends integrating sustainability more deeply into AfCFTA protocols to attract investment and enhance climate resilience.

• Africa faces a substantial infrastructure financing gap, with an annual deficit of nearly $100 billion and an estimated $411 billion required specifically for transport infrastructure to enable effective trade under the AfCFTA.
• The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) has struggled with project implementation; of the 329 original projects for which data exists, only 23% are operational and 40% have not reached financial closure.
• While Africa is highly vulnerable to climate change, sustainable finance is skewed toward mitigation. In 2019/2020, sub-Saharan Africa received $7.3 billion in international adaptation finance, which was nearly half of what was actually needed.
• African countries face systemic barriers to accessing sustainable finance, including a lack of in-house expertise to develop required sustainability frameworks, scarce qualitative and quantitative climate expertise for risk studies, and underdeveloped capital markets.
• The ASEAN region provides a successful model for sustainable finance through the use of regional sustainability frameworks and the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility (ACGF), which provides early-stage project advisory and de-risking to create bankable green pipelines.
• The proposed Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa aims to catalyze $10 billion in investment opportunities by allocating $500 million for early-stage project development and preparation.
• The Green Infrastructure Corridor for Intra-African Trade, piloting in the Central Corridor (Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, DRC, and Uganda), seeks to develop a 'green label' for projects to signal trusted standards to investors.

APA

Markowitz, C. (2022). Catalysing Sustainable Finance for the African Regional Infrastructure Agenda. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/SAIIA_PI_136_-Catalysing_Sustainable_Finance_African_Regional-.pdf

Chicago

Markowitz, Chelsea. Catalysing Sustainable Finance for the African Regional Infrastructure Agenda. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2022. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/SAIIA_PI_136_-Catalysing_Sustainable_Finance_African_Regional-.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Markowitz |first1=Chelsea |title=Catalysing Sustainable Finance for the African Regional Infrastructure Agenda |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=August 2022 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/SAIIA_PI_136_-Catalysing_Sustainable_Finance_African_Regional-.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{markowitz2022catalysing, author = {Markowitz, Chelsea}, title = {{Catalysing Sustainable Finance for the African Regional Infrastructure Agenda}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2022}, month = aug, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/SAIIA_PI_136_-Catalysing_Sustainable_Finance_African_Regional-.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }