Background
Africa faces persistent and intersecting development challenges, including rising climate vulnerability, rapid urbanization, constrained fiscal space, high debt burdens, and limited access to affordable, long-term financing.
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) held from 30 June to 3 July 2025 concluded with a declaration of outcomes – also known as the Sevilla Commitments - representing a renewed global effort to reform the international financing architecture, scale climate finance, and support inclusive and sustainable development.
For African countries, the central challenge is not only mobilizing additional resources, but also to ensure coherence between global commitments and delivery at country and regional levels. This requires stronger coordination among African Member States, the African Union (AU), the United Nations system, Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs)and development partners.
Building on the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, a framework adopted during the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) held in Addis Ababa in July 2015, and the African Position - an outcome of the Africa Regional Consultation held in Addis Ababa in November 2024 in preparation for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, the Sevilla commitments emphasize, inter alia:
- Expanding sustainable fiscal space through stronger, fairer, and more efficient domestic resource mobilization
- Mobilizing private investment at scale for sustainable development by lowering risk and aligning incentives.
- Making international public finance more predictable, concessional, coordinated, and aligned with country priorities.
- Preventing and resolving debt crises in a timely, fair, and development‑oriented manner.
- Leveraging trade as a driver of structural transformation and inclusive growth.
- Aligning financing for development with climate action, environmental sustainability, and resilience.
- Harnessing innovation and digital transformation as enablers of financing efficiency and productive development.
- Strengthening accountability, evidence‑based policymaking, and implementation capacity.
- Stronger coordination across development, climate, nature, and debt frameworks.
For Africa, the central challenge is no longer alignment with global objectives, but operationalization - how to translate the Sevilla Commitments into measurable financing outcomes at sub-national, national and regional levels, and how to ensure that reforms deliver scale, speed, and impact in support of climate resilience and sustainable development.
Operationalizing the Sevilla Commitments is essential to closing Africa’s climate and development financing gaps and advancing the shared objectives of Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063. Through focused dialogue and coordinated action, the Africa Regional Consultation aims to contribute to a shift from commitments to delivery, from fragmentation to coordination, and from pilots to system‑wide impact.
Therefore, the Africa Regional Consultation will provide a platform to advance shared understanding, identify concrete pathways for implementation, and strengthen coordination among African countries and institutions, the United Nations system, international financial institutions, and development partners. This should lead to the identification and implementation of scalable instruments, platforms, or pilot initiatives with significant resources for Africa’s climate resilience and sustainable development.
Objectives of the Africa Regional Consultation
The Africa Regional Consultation aims to:
- Identify practical pathways for operationalizing the Sevilla Commitments within the African context;
- Bridge global commitments and country‑level delivery, with a focus on climate resilience and inclusive sustainable development;
- Strengthen coordination and coherence across African member States and institutions, UN entities, multilateral development Banks (MDBs), climate funds, and development partners;
- Generate action‑oriented recommendations and inputs for follow‑up through various fora such as ECOSOC, the Financing for Development Forum, the High‑Level Political Forum, and African Union mechanisms.
Scope and Thematic Focus
Discussions will focus on the following interlinked themes:
- What African countries can do better together to expand fiscal space, including: Regional cooperation on tax and IFFs; Peer learning on digital tax and customs reforms; Regional support to development banks; Embedding Sevilla priorities in INFFs.
- Lowering Africa’s cost of capital through regional solutions, including: Regional risk‑sharing mechanisms; African capital market integration; Regional project preparation pipelines; and MSME and diaspora finance platforms.
- Africa’s collective engagement with the international financing system, including: Common African asks on MDB reform; SDR rechanneling through African institutions; Reducing fragmentation of development cooperation; Strengthening South‑South and triangular cooperation.
- Systemic debt solutions, not case‑by‑case negotiations, particularly: African coordination on debt transparency; Common African Position on Debt, Regional technical and legal support; Debt instruments aligned with resilience; Collective engagement on credit ratings:
- Financing AfCFTA implementation as a development strategy, considering: Financing trade‑related infrastructure; Trade finance at regional scale; Regional value chains; and Policy coherence.
- Africa’s collective climate finance constraints covering: Improving access to climate finance; Scaling adaptation and resilience finance; Regional disaster risk financing; and Linking climate and debt solutions.
- Regional digital and innovation public goods covering, inter alia: Digital public infrastructure at regional scale; Regional innovation ecosystems; Technology transfer and skills; and Governance of digital and AI technologies.
- Ensuring Sevilla moves from commitment to delivery – including: Common Operationalization Framework; INFFs as the delivery mechanism, Regional monitoring and peer review, and Africa’s engagement in global FfD follow‑up.
Expected Outcomes
The Consultation is expected to deliver:
- A shared understanding of priority operational actions under the Sevilla Commitments for Africa;
- Identification of scalable instruments, platforms, or pilot initiatives;
- A set of policy‑relevant recommendations for governments, Pan-African Institutions, UN entities, MDBs, private sector, CSOs and partners;
- Clear messages and inputs to global and regional follow‑up processes.
Participants
The Consultation will bring together:
- Ministries of Finance, Planning, Environment, and Development from African countries;
- International development partners led by African Union Commission, AfDB and UN entities including UN Regional Offices and RCOs
- Climate funds and blended finance platforms;
- Civil society, philanthropic organizations, academia and private sector representatives.
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