What? Panel Discussion: “Financing Nature for Resilient Communities and Economies”
Who? Natural Resource Management and Investment Centre of the African Development Bank Group, Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), World Resources Institute (WRI), Cities4Forests, World Bank Group, Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction (GFDRR), Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP), Caterpillar Foundation
When? Wednesday, 16 November 2022 (COP27 Biodiversity Day), 17:00-18:30 EGT (UTC+2)
Where? Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) Joint Pavilion, Area C, COP27, Sharm el-Sheikh
To mark the COP27 Biodiversity Day on 16 November 2022, the African Development Bank Group’s African Natural Resource Management and Investment Centre, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and other partners will organize a panel discussion on the theme: “Financing Nature for Resilient Communities and Economies”.
To mark the occasion, a new flagship AfDB report on “Debt for nature swaps in Africa’s natural resources sector” will be unveiled.
Another flagship report, entitled “Waterways to resilience: Natural based-solutions for adaptation in Africa” will also be launched. Developed by the African Development Bank and the WWF, this publication examines nature-based solutions for climate adaptation that can help African countries build resilience. It assesses the opportunities for nature-based solutions in Africa in relation to the continent’s natural resources and infrastructure investments. It also presents innovative financing mechanisms in this area to help solve the climate-nature-debt crisis.
The session will highlight the first results of a study on Nature-based Solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa for Climate and Water Resilience. The study, conducted in collaboration with the World Resources Institute, the World Bank, Cities for Forests, the Green Growth Knowledge Platform and GIZ (German Cooperation), was recently published.
To further highlight the pragmatism of Nature-based Solutions and their true added-value in the fight against climate change and the preservation of natural resources, four imminent projects will also be detailed, which rely on nature-based solutions to secure freshwater resources in Kenya, Uganda, Tunisia, and South Africa. WWF is currently working to finalize these, together with the Global Center on Adaptation.
African Development Bank Director of the African Natural Resource Management and Investment Centre, Vanessa Ushie, and Al-Hamndou Dorsouma, Director of the AfDB’s Climate Change and Green Growth Department, will attend, together with Joanna Mclean Masic, a World Bank expert on urban planning. Other participants include: Nisha Krishnan, Director for Climate Resilience, Africa, at the World Resources Institute (WRI); Eric Oyare, founder of the Blue Heart of Africa; Stuart Orr and a WWF Freshwater Practice Leader. Innocent Onah, Chief Natural Resources Officer at the African Natural Resources Management and Investment Centre, will moderate the discussions.
The event promises to be a major rallying point for multilateral development banks on the importance of biodiversity and the need to integrate natural capital into climate finance and development finance in Africa.
You can follow the event live online
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It will also be streamed live on social networks: YouTube and Facebook.