A very interesting event to attend if you are in Addis for the Financing for Development Conference

UNLOCKING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE FINANCE FOR AFRICAN INFRASTRUCTURE

Monday July 13, 2015: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Elilly Hotel, Room Mars, 10 AM

The global community is engaged in a pivotal year for sustainable development. The July 2015 Addis Ababa Financing for Development Conference (FFD3) will set the financing architecture for the September 2015 adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as serve as a landmark for the December 2015 Paris UN Convention on Climate Change (COP21).

To achieve sustainable development in Africa, closing the infrastructure gap must be a top priority. This includes access to cores infrastructure services, including safe water and sanitation, transport, connectivity, and modern energy services, including those covered by the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative in Africa. African infrastructure will require, at a minimum, approximately $100 billion in annual investments over the next decade.

BACKGROUND

Infrastructure is a major impediment for African growth and development. Today, continuous power cuts characterize energy provision throughout the continent; transportation is costly and unreliable with only a quarter of African roads paved; Internet penetration rate is approximately 10%; water management is deficient with only 5% of agriculture under irrigation, and intra-African trade costs are exacerbated by poor intermodal interconnectivities and port facilities.

Aware of the key roles infrastructure could play in economic growth, poverty reduction, towards regional integration, and anticipating the growing demand, African leaders approved a new continental infrastructure development architecture, underpinned by previous plans: the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). In 2010, AUC, NEPAD, and AfDB joined efforts to design PIDA as a unique African owned and led programme, spearheaded by a robust pipeline of implementable and financeable projects in support of Africa’s economic integration and the integration of Africa in the world economy. At the January 2012 Addis AU Summit, African Heads of State and Government (HSG) decided to entrust NEPAD with the role of executive agency for the PIDA investment plans, including the 51 projects contained in its priority action plan PIDA-PAP by 2020 requiring US$ 68 billions.

To accelerate the implementation of this NEPAD flagship programme, the AU leadership unveiled a number of policy initiatives:

• NEPAD Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative (PICI) launched in complement of PIDA as a politically-driven implementation platform
• Dakar Financing Summit for Africa’s Infrastructure (DFS) hosted by Senegal in June 2014, which identified 16 regionally balanced pilots to accelerate “powering Africa, moving Africa forward and connecting Africa” through PIDA; it resulted in the Dakar Agenda for Action (DAA) articulated around leveraging Public-Private Partnerships for infrastructure transformation and concrete actions towards financing for Africa’s infrastructure development 
• Infrastructure project preparation tunneling process was set to address the lack of bankable projects, in accordance to DAA; it consists in the early stage PIDA Service Delivery Mechanism (SDM) that is handing over to downstream facilities, such as the NEPAD Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (IPPF) and the AfDB Africa 50 Fund to accompany the projects from technical feasibility, commercial development and up to financial closure
• Continental Business Network (CBN), as a follow up to DAA, that was just launched to serve as an exclusive infrastructure investment advisory platform connecting high-level African policy makers and private sector leadership and engagement towards PIDA implementation as well as, among others, the AfDB-funded PIDA capacity building project (PIDA-CAP) designed to support capacity enhancement of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) implementing agencies and complemented by the Infrastructure Skill for Development (IS4D) initiative to improve the project management skills at the national level; the Africa Power Vision (APV), which was initiated during the 2014 Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) in order to reach a consensus on a list of 13 energy projects, based on PIDA-PAP, that reflects African priorities for the power sector; SE4ALL Africa Hub hosted by the AfDB and the development of Action Agenda and Investment Prospectus (AA-IP) for the 44 opt-in African countries…

The foundations for the development of transformational infrastructure are set but still need to attract the means of implementation commensurate with the task at hand. These means of implementation will need to leverage new infrastructure investment platforms, informed by the existing, being created by leading investment firms, academics and research centers, new financial institutions being created globally to support infrastructure development, the growing importance of capital markets for African development and more.

THE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP MOMENTUM

At the Third International Conference for Financing for Development, it is imperative that the public and private sectors pave a path forward for Africa to mobilize the needed finance for its infrastructure development. On Monday, July 13, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the NEPAD Agency will co-host a meeting to bring together leaders in African infrastructure to map future action to close the financing gap for African infrastructure.

AGENDA

10:00-10:10 Welcoming by Dr. Amadou Sy, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution (Moderator) 10:10-10:20 Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network 10:20-10:30 Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer, NEPAD Agency

10:30-10:40 Prof. Joseph  Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics, Co-President, Initiative    for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University

10:40-10:50 Prof. Sanjay  Peters, Director, Global Infrastructure Investment Platform,   Center for Global Economic Governance, Columbia University

10:50-11:00 Mr. Malcolm Gray, Global Head of ESG, Investec Asset Management 

11:00-11:10 Ms. Tas Anvaripour, General Director, Africa 50 Infrastructure Fund 

11:10-11:20 Mr. James Zhan, Director, Investment and Enterprise, UNCTAD

11:20-11:30 Mr. Admassu Tadesse, President and Chief Executive Officer, PTA Bank (TBC) 11:30-12:20 Interactive Discussion moderated by Dr. Amadou Sy

12:20-12:30 High-Level Closing Remarks by Senior African Government Official (TBD)