REFLECTIONS ON FICS 2025: KEY TAKEAWAYS
Last week, Benjamin Klaus from the Regional Business Development team had the opportunity to attend the Finance in Common Summit (FiCS) 2025 in Cape Town, an event that brought together over 2,000 delegates from around the world. Co-hosted by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), with support from Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Summit highlighted the critical role of public development finance in driving a just and sustainable transition. Here are Benjamin’s reflections on the conference.
Strengthening the business case for a just transition: A key message from the Summit was the pressing need to reinforce the business case for a just transition, particularly in South Africa and globally, in light of ongoing political and economic shifts. Ensuring a sustainable and inclusive economic transition requires continued mobilisation of financial resources, alignment of investment flows with just transition principles, and proactive engagement with both public and private sector stakeholders.
AFD's historic support for South Africa: One of the strongest signals of commitment to this transition came from AFD, which announced a historic 400 million euros loan to South Africa, in partnership with the Presidential Climate Commission and National Treasury. This is the largest loan ever provided by AFD and underlines the commitment of the international financial community to support South Africa's climate and economic transformation. In this context, KfW and AFD, represented by Country Directors Audrey Rojkoff and Cornelia Tittmann, signed the MoU to strengthen and deepen their cooperation in South Africa! The main focus of the MoU is to support South Africa's goals in the context of a just energy transition with a special focus on municipalities.
Key developments and publications: At FiCS 2025, a number of important initiatives and publications were presented that reinforce the role of public development banks (PDBs) and development finance institutions (DFIs) in the global transformation of the financial system: these include the launch of the FiCS 2025 Strategy and the launch of the FiCS 2025 Financing for Development (FiCS 2025):
- Launch of the PDBs Reference Book, a comprehensive mapping of 536 PDBs and DFIs worldwide, managing assets worth $23 trillion. Read more.
- Finance in Common’s contribution to FfD4, emphasizing the potential of PDBs in financing sustainable development. Read more.
- Expansion of financial innovations, such as sustainability bonds and risk-sharing mechanisms, to enhance private sector participation.
- Formation of new coalitions and initiatives, including the FiCS Ocean Coalition and the Sport Investment Forum, aiming to mobilize $10 billion for community-based sports infrastructure by 2030.
- Major agreements between leading financial institutions - including AIIB, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), AFD, and UNDP - to drive climate action, digital growth, and sustainable development.
Looking ahead: The Summit reinforced FiCS members' commitment to shaping the global financial transformation, with an eye on upcoming milestones such as the Financing for Development (FfD4) conference in Seville and COP30 in Belem. As we move forward, the role of public development finance in promoting sustainable and just economic growth will remain central to achieving global climate and development goals. For those interested in delving deeper into the outcomes of FiCS 2025, read the thefinal communiqué.
Looking at opportunities for GFA in this context, it will be important to build relationships with local borrowers and partners, such as the National Treasury, the Presidential Climate Commission, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the eight Metropolitan Municipalities and to better understand their procurement processes.
Photo: Klaus together with Cornelia Tittmann, KfW
