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FSD Africa's 2022 Impact Report details the agency's efforts to deepen African capital markets and transition toward a green economy. Key achievements include mobilising £1.9 billion in long-term capital, supporting the issuance of pioneering gender bonds in Tanzania and Morocco, and expanding green finance initiatives. The report highlights the agency's 'green strategy' target to have 70% of its portfolio be green by 2025, alongside specific interventions in geothermal risk transfer, carbon markets, and COVID-19 emergency job protection in Ethiopia.

The methodology identifies four risk profiles based on income and electricity access: rural poor, urban poor, lower-middle income, and middle-income. It utilizes three forecasting scenarios—Current trends, SDG7.1 (universal electricity access), and a combined SDG7.1 and SDG1.1 (universal electricity and extreme poverty reduction to 3% or less)—to analyze vulnerability to heat. The analysis covers 54 high-impact countries and 22 additional countries with extreme heat hazards, incorporating data on population growth, urbanization, and informal settlements.

The report highlights the critical link between sustainable cooling and the achievement of SDG3 (good health and well-being), emphasizing that vaccine efficacy and patient care depend on reliable cold chains and temperature-controlled environments. It identifies significant gaps in cold chain equipment and electricity access in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Gavi-eligible nations. The document advocates for a combination of passive design, nature-based solutions, and energy-efficient appliances, such as super-efficient refrigerators and solar direct drive technology, to ensure health service resilience in a warming world.

The policy brief examines the severe fiscal constraints facing African countries during COVID-19 recovery, noting that while advanced economies mobilised about 6% of GDP, African countries mobilised barely 1%. It highlights the inadequacy of current debt relief mechanisms like the DSSI and the Common Framework, and the high cost of borrowing from international capital markets due to unfair credit ratings. The author proposes five policy priorities: establishing national donor coordination frameworks, reallocating public investment to de-risk private projects, extending the DSSI for two years with partial debt cancellation, creating a transparent multilateral framework for debt resolution involving commercial creditors, and exploring the establishment of independent, publicly owned credit rating agencies.

The livestock sector's growth poses a significant risk to climate goals, potentially consuming 80% of the remaining GHG budget by 2050 if current trends continue. While global meat production is rising—projected to reach 374 million tonnes by 2030—there is a growing market for Alternative Protein (AP) products, valued at USD 14 bn and expected to exceed USD 162 bn within a decade. However, the transition is hindered by substantial government subsidies, with nearly 90% of global farming subsidies (USD 540 bn annually) supporting beef, milk, and rice. The document emphasizes that while total veganism offers the highest emission reductions, flexitarian and vegetarian diets can also significantly lower emissions. It calls for government policy reforms to redirect subsidies away from industrial agriculture and for businesses to move beyond 'meaningless' net zero targets toward actual reductions in animal numbers in supply chains.

The Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2021 reports that annual climate finance reached USD 632 billion in 2019/2020, though growth has slowed. The report highlights a massive investment gap, noting that an increase of at least 590% is needed to meet 2030 climate objectives. Mitigation remains the dominant focus, particularly in renewable energy and low-carbon transport, while adaptation finance continues to lag, relying almost entirely on public sources. Geographically, investments are heavily concentrated in East Asia & Pacific, Western Europe, and North America, with China accounting for an estimated 81% of investments in its region.

The study evaluates food security for smallholders and workers in biofuel projects in Mozambique, Malawi, and Eswatini, finding that sugarcane production improved food security while jatropha production had no statistically significant positive effect.

The IEJ criticizes the South African National Treasury's 'fiscal consolidation' approach, arguing that budget cuts during a recession are procyclical and retard economic recovery. The document asserts that there is significant fiscal space due to tax overruns and IMF funding, which should be used for a Universal Basic Income Grant (UBIG) and job creation initiatives. It warns that prioritizing debt reduction over public expenditure has led to real declines in spending for education and social grants, which undermines human capital and socio-economic rights.

The document examines how Sub-Saharan Africa can utilize the energy transition to foster industrialization. It proposes strategies including the creation of green industrial policies, the development of domestic manufacturing capabilities for clean technologies through research and skills transfer, and the strategic use of natural gas and critical minerals to bridge energy access gaps and move up the global value chain.

A keynote speech delivered by Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi of the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) at the Youth Connekt Africa Summit, advocating for increased regional labor mobility to address youth unemployment and skills gaps in Africa.

Recourse urges Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to stop all direct and indirect fossil fuel financing and to commit to ambitious climate finance targets at COP26. The statement argues that current pledges, such as the MDBs' $175 billion commitment by 2025, are inadequate. It specifically criticizes the World Bank for promoting gas as a transition fuel through Development Policy Finance, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for a portfolio where fossil fuel spending nearly doubles renewable energy spending, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for approving nearly $5 billion in gas project financing since the Paris Agreement. Recourse also calls for the World Bank to match the African Development Bank's pledge of 75 million new off-grid connections by 2025 to address energy deficits in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2020, IDFC members committed $185 billion in green finance, representing 20% of their total new commitments. While total green finance declined by 6% due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cumulative commitments since 2015 surpassed $1 trillion. Climate finance dominated at $178.5 billion, with adaptation finance growing by 42% to $27.5 billion. For the first time, the report separately tracked biodiversity finance, which totaled $14 billion. The majority of climate and biodiversity finance was provided by non-OECD institutions and directed toward the East Asia and Pacific region.

The document examines the failure of grant-based 'design, procure, install' models for electrifying public institutions, which often lead to premature system failure due to neglected operation and maintenance (O&M). It proposes a service-based model where private providers install and maintain systems over 10-15 years, with governments paying for performance verified by third parties. The brief identifies key barriers—including public sector affordability, private sector capital risks, and grid arrival—and presents case studies from Benin, Kenya, Niger, and Nigeria to demonstrate the model's potential.

The text highlights the critical role of over 500 million smallholder farms in global food production and the severe funding gap they face for climate adaptation. It calls for a new consensus among governments and international aid groups to increase financial aid, improve data collection, and deploy climate-resilient technologies to support these farmers, who currently receive only a small fraction of global climate finance.

This document is a research protocol outlining a methodological plan for a mixed methods systematic review. The review intends to evaluate the effectiveness of adaptation finance in sub-Saharan Africa by synthesizing academic and grey literature to determine how project characteristics and funding modalities influence adaptation outcomes, specifically regarding climate change risk and vulnerability.

The document establishes a direct link between gender-based development pillars—specifically secondary education for girls and access to modern contraception—and the capacity of vulnerable populations to adapt to climate change. It highlights that women in low- and middle-income countries face disproportionate climate impacts, which often trigger a cycle of early marriage and school dropout. The brief provides evidence that education reduces disaster vulnerability and that family planning improves maternal and child health, thereby increasing household resilience. It concludes that these strategies are largely absent from National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and calls for their integration into climate finance and policy frameworks.

The report analyzes how SIDS and LDCs are disproportionately vulnerable to coupled ocean risks, including sea-level rise, ocean warming, and macroeconomic shocks. It emphasizes the need for context-specific resilience strategies, the integration of indigenous knowledge, and the deployment of novel financial tools to support a sustainable ocean economy.

The document outlines a methodological plan to evaluate the effectiveness of adaptation finance in sub-Saharan Africa, specifically focusing on projects funded by multilateral climate funds and bilateral donors from the UK and Sweden. It proposes a theory of change to link financial inputs and project design to outcomes such as reduced climate risk and vulnerability. The protocol details a multi-pronged search strategy across academic and grey literature, and a synthesis approach combining meta-analysis, framework synthesis, and qualitative comparative analysis. However, the authors note that funding for the review was discontinued in March 2021, and the review will not be completed as described.

The document examines the historical tendency of extractive companies in Africa to build exclusive 'island mode' infrastructure, which limits integration with host economies and reinforces the 'resource curse'. It advocates for a transition toward shared-use infrastructure—such as power, rail, and ports—to convert natural resource depletion into broader societal assets. The author suggests that while 70% of resource infrastructure investment could be shared among operators and another 30% with the public, achieving this requires stronger local governance, new internal corporate competencies in socio-economic development, and government incentives like tax offsets to compensate companies for the costs of open access.

Climate Adaptation Notes is a proposed funding mechanism designed to mobilize private, commercial bank, and institutional investment for water and wastewater infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa. The instrument combines short-term construction financing from commercial banks with long-term asset-based funding from institutional investors, utilizing 'first loss' subordinate debt from Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to mitigate risk. The mechanism targets three tiers: the Southern African Common Monetary Union (or ZAR-tied countries), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the broader sub-Saharan Africa region. Success depends on the availability of deep local debt capital markets and a robust pipeline of investable projects. The instrument is currently in pre-piloting and fundraising stages.