Abidjan: The Arab Coordination Group (ACG) and the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) today inaugurated a structured strategic partnership aimed at increasing co-financing, mobilizing private capital, and accelerating Africa's economic transformation. This initiative was announced during a High-Level Consultation Meeting held at the AfDB's headquarters.
According to Saudi Press Agency, the meeting established a unified platform to transition from fragmented cooperation to programmatic, large-scale co-investment aligned with the continent's economic development priorities. This effort comes at a time when Africa is grappling with a widening development financing gap and the urgent need to mobilize substantial capital for energy access, climate resilience, food security, regional integration, and private-sector-led growth.
Discussions during the meeting centered on how the ACG and the AfDB could jointly anchor Arab African co-financing by combining their balance sheets, financing capacities, sectoral expertise, and country platforms. This collaboration aims to mobilize larger, more coordinated public and private investments in support of Africa's development priorities.
Participants explored concrete pathways to enhance joint project preparation, harmonize financing approaches, strengthen policy dialogue, leverage comparative advantages, and support country-led development agendas. The aim is to ensure that investments deliver measurable impact and long-term resilience.
The meeting also aligned with the AfDB's agenda to strengthen Africa's financial sovereignty through a New African Financial Architecture (NAFA), which seeks to better integrate development finance institutions, guarantee providers, insurers, capital markets, and private investors.
The High-Level Consultation Meeting concluded with the adoption of a joint declaration on a strategic partnership between the ACG and the AfDB. This declaration outlines a shared political vision and translates it into operational direction, with clear priority areas for cooperation. It also sets principles for institutional follow-up mechanisms to guide the next phase of the Arab-African partnership.
As a practical next step, the declaration calls for the development of a financing and operational partnership framework, scheduled for consideration in 2026. This framework will define modalities for co-financing, pipeline coordination, mutual reliance, and regular joint programming. It also emphasizes the central role of the African Development Fund (ADF), the AfDB Group's concessional financing arm, in supporting low-income and fragile countries. The declaration encourages exploring closer collaboration between ACG institutions and the ADF.