AfDB, GCERF Forge Partnership to Mobilise Development Investment in Fragile States

The African Development Bank and the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund have signed a Letter of Intent to strengthen cooperation on mobilising development finance and investment in fragile and conflict-affected settings across Africa.

The agreement, signed on September 21 on the margins of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, seeks to connect community-led efforts to prevent violent extremism with development financing and economic opportunities.

Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbade, senior vice-president of the African Development Bank Group, and Stefano Manservisi, chair of the GCERF Governing Board, signed the agreement at the African Union’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations.

The partnership will bring together GCERF’s community-level knowledge and local networks with the African Development Bank’s analytical capabilities and operational reach. The organisations said the arrangement could help connect communities in fragile settings with development finance and investment.

The institutions said fragility, exclusion and limited socio-economic opportunities can contribute to conditions conducive to violent extremism. Integrating prevention efforts with development programmes, they said, could help reduce instability, protect development gains and improve the sustainability of investments.

“The Bank can help de-risk investment, strengthen institutions and align financing with national priorities,” Akin-Olugbade said. She added that GCERF’s local prevention and engagement work could complement the Bank’s development financing in fragile and conflict-affected settings.

Manservisi said the partnership would bring community-level experience together with development expertise to strengthen links between local resilience, economic opportunity and long-term stability.

The two organisations will use community-level insights to inform policies and investments in fragile settings, while exploring joint initiatives focused on prevention, resilience and development outcomes.

The agreement also seeks to advance the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus by connecting local prevention efforts with development investment and applying a people-centred approach to addressing fragility.

Source: FSX Business News