AFRI-RES is a partnership initiative of the African Union Commission, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the World Bank (WB), and the African Development Bank (AfDB), with initial funding supported by the Nordic Development Fund. AFRI-RES was created to assist African institutions (such as national governments, river basin organizations, regional economic communities, and power pools) and the private sector (project developers and financiers) in planning, designing, and implementing investments that are resilient to climate variability and change in selected sectors.
In 2015, the World Bank and UNECA (through its African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC)) released an innovative report titled "Enhancing the Climate Resilience of Africa's Infrastructure (ECRAI)". This report led to the formation of AFRI-RES. The ECRAI report, which covered all river basins in Africa, revealed that dependent on the climate scenario, the likelihood of the Zambezi River system, upon which Zambia and Zimbabwe rely for energy generation, losing at least 60 percent of its hydropower production potential is very high.
In light of the climate risks identified by the ECRAI study and the enormous investments that would be required to close development gaps in critical sectors such as agriculture, energy, water, transportation, cities, and ecosystems, it is clear that urgent action is necessary.
AFRI-RES was established to support and sustain Africa's growth and accelerate the eradication of extreme poverty by assuring that Africa's infrastructure investments are resilient to climate variability and longer-term climate change.
AFRI-RES is an open partnership of entity promoting climate resilience in Africa. currently consists of the African Union Commission, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the World Bank (WB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the Nordic Development Fund. All these partners share a common objective which is, making Africa's infrastructure climate resilient.
