
AAAP in the Media
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African Development Bank Group approves $379.6 million Desert to Power financing facility for the G5 Sahel countries

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved the Desert to Power G5 Sahel Financing Facility, covering Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. The Bank envisages to commit up to $379.6 million in financing and technical assistance for the facility over the next seven years.
The Desert to Power G5 Financing Facility aims to assist the G5 Sahel countries to adopt a low-emission power generation pathway by making use of the region’s abundant solar potential. The facility will focus on utility-scale solar generation through independent power producers and energy storage solutions. These investments will be backed by a technical assistance component to enhance implementation capacity, strengthen the enabling environment for private sector investments, and ensure gender and climate mainstreaming.
The facility is expected to result in 500 MW of additional solar generation capacity and facilitate electricity access to some 695,000 households. Over the lifespan of the project, it is expected to reduce carbon emissions by over 14.4 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
The Board of the Green Climate Fund approved $150 million in concessional resources in October 2021 for the facility, which is expected to leverage around $437 million in additional financing from other development finance institutions, commercial banks and private sector developers. The Global Center on Adaptation is providing technical assistance to strengthen adaptation and resilience measures undertaken in the facility as part of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program in partnership with the African Development Bank.
The African Development Bank’s Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth, Dr. Kevin Kariuki said: “The innovative blended finance approach of the Desert to Power G5 Sahel Facility will de-risk, and therefore catalyze, private sector investment in solar power generation in the region. This will lead to transformational energy generation and bridge the energy access deficit in some of Africa’s most fragile countries.”
Dr. Daniel Schroth, the Bank’s Acting Director for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, added: “The facility will also support the integration of larger shares of variable renewables in the region’s power systems, notably through the deployment of innovative battery storage solutions and grid investments.”
The facility will be implemented as part of the broader Desert to Power initiative, a flagship program led by the African Development Bank. The objective is to light up and power the Sahel region by adding 10 GW of solar generation capacity and providing electricity to around 250 million people in the 11 Sahelian countries by 2030.
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Youth Adaptation Solutions Challenge Francophone Cohort
The Youth Adaptation Solutions Challenge is an annual competition and awards program for youth-led enterprises (50% women-led) organized by GCA and AfDB as part of the Youth Adapt Flagship Program.
The competition invites young entrepreneurs and Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Africa to submit innovative solutions on climate adaptation and resilience. The winners will be part of a 1-year incubator program, which will provide tailored training on business development and adaptation, coaching, networking opportunities, and grants to enable the youth-led enterprises to scale up their innovative businesses and build resilience among marginalized communities in Africa
The objective of the project is to deliver business development services (BDS) to and build the institutional capacity of youth-led enterprises, positioning them to effectively utilize grants offered and to also mobilize additional private capital, scale up climate action and create employment opportunities on the continent.
- Build youth capacity for employability and unlocking access to finance
- Deliver a 1-year incubator program tailored training on business development and adaptation
- Provide coaching and networking opportunities
- Equip young innovators and MSMEs with customized skills and resources to scale up climate adaptation innovations and boost the creation of jobs
- Grant disbursement to the 5 winners of the YouthADAPT winners
- 12-weeks training with practical skills in entrepreneurship and business development and climate adaptation
- Mentorship to enable the winners to execute their business plans, create jobs, and support the continental effort towards climate resilience
- Training materials developed and training workshops delivered tailored to the selected youth-led start-ups
- Support to the youth led-businesses to develop and implement their business plans and to mainstream adaptation and climate resilience in their businesses
- Delivered business development services (BDS) to and building the institutional capacity of youth-led enterprises
- Youth-led enterprises positioned to effectively utilize grants offered and to also mobilize additional private capital
- Scaled up climate action and ability create employment opportunities on the continent
USD 500 Million
Rapid Climate Risk Assessments for Five African Cities (Batch II)
Currently, Africa’s infrastructure needs are around USD 130–170 billion a year, with an investment gap of over 50–60% of that amount. Making Africa’s infrastructure resilient adds only an average of 3% to total costs, but every $1 spent could yield $4 of benefits.
The Africa Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator (Pillar 2 of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP)) focuses on accelerating infrastructure resilience efforts on the continent. It will strengthen the enabling environment and provide the technical support to scale up investment in resilient infrastructure. It will also ensure that new and existing infrastructure uses nature-based solutions and create positive socioeconomic impacts and green jobs. By 2025, Pillar 2 of the AAAP aims to scale up investment at national and city level for climate-resilient infrastructure in key sectors such as water, transport, energy, and waste management, and integrate resilience in up to 50% (by value) of new infrastructure projects.
The City Adaption Accelerators (CAAs) will conduct Rapid Climate Risk Assessments (RCRAs) in target cities, which aim to improve climate adaptation and build resilience in urban areas.
The primary purpose of the RCRAs is to inform the identification and preparation of AfDB projects.
The RCRAs will inform the development of a comprehensive climate adaptation strategy and prioritization plan and are a crucial step towards the development of the CAA for each of the target cities. The overarching objective of the CAA is to create a shared strategic framework for GCA’s engagement in climate adaptation and resilience building in urban areas. The development objective of the CAA is to support cities and countries to strengthen their urban climate adaptation and resilience outcomes through enhanced (1) understanding; (2) planning; (3) investments; and (4) governance and capacity building
- informed future discussions surrounding climate adaptation investments
- technical guidance to firms towards developing well-informed analyses
- Literature review of vulnerability and adaptive capacity assessments of cities to climate change
- Scoping of past and current initiatives and key stakeholders relevant for adaptation and resilience building in cities.
- City Scan system established for a rapid review of actions around climate hazard and risk assessments and more locally focused assessments of vulnerability and adaptive capacity.
- Rapid Climate Risk Assessments prepared: readily available and accessible information on key climate hazards and associated risks; will indicate whether an in-depth climate risk assessment is required.
- City Scoping system established that provides insight into past and current initiatives relevant for adaptation and resilience building and identifies key stakeholders and relevant initiatives.
- Strengthened urban climate risk management for resilient cities;
- Equitable access to water resources that are well and sustainably managed created; Improved urban liveability and public health due to a reduction in climate risks stemming from heat stress and disease
~€45,000 per city (~€225,000 total)