Africa’s funding focus needs to change: the African Development Bank has plans to make that happen

By Chris Humphrey, Senior Research Associate Development and Public Finance, ODI Global

International development cooperation – external financial and technical support for economic and social improvements in lower-income countries – is shifting fast all around the world. Nowhere is this happening faster than in Africa.

Aid cuts, natural and war-related shocks, unstable geopolitics, rapidly growing young populations and high external debt levels mean African leaders have to find new development paths.

Central to this new agenda is easing dependence on external development finance. Africa has resources of its own – over US$1 trillion in pension assets across…

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