Catalysing Sustainable Finance for the African Regional Infrastructure Agenda

This policy brief examines the challenges and opportunities for securing sustainable finance to support Africa's regional infrastructure agenda, specifically within the framework of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). It highlights the gap between Africa's high climate vulnerability and its low access to sustainable finance, proposing lessons from the ASEAN region to improve project bankability and regulatory harmonisation.

• Africa faces a significant infrastructure financing gap, with an annual deficit of nearly $100 billion. Specifically, an estimated $411 billion in transport infrastructure is needed to enable effective trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
• The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) has struggled to attract finance for regional projects. Of the 329 original PIDA projects for which data exists, only 23% are operational and 40% have not reached financial closure.
• African countries face systemic barriers to accessing sustainable finance, including a lack of in-house expertise to develop required sustainability frameworks, a scarcity of qualitative and quantitative climate expertise for risk studies, and underdeveloped capital markets with low credit ratings.
• There is a mismatch between global sustainable finance flows and African needs; most international finance targets climate mitigation (reducing emissions), whereas Africa's high vulnerability makes adaptation finance more critical. In 2019/2020, sub-Saharan Africa received $7.3 billion in international adaptation finance, which was nearly half of what was required.
• The African continent's participation in the global green bond market is minimal, representing only 0.4% of the market. Only 12 green bonds have been issued in African countries as of the report's data, with only two issued by sovereigns and two by municipal governments.
• The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) provides a successful model for regional sustainable finance through the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) and the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility (ACGF). These initiatives use regional taxonomies and standards to reduce regulatory complexity and provide early-stage project advisory to create bankable green pipelines.
• New African initiatives, such as the proposed Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa and the Green Infrastructure Corridor for Intra-African Trade, aim to catalyze investment. The Alliance targets $500 million for early-stage project development to unlock $10 billion in investment opportunities.

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} }