NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Sustainable development in Africa depends on innovative sources of finance and resources from the private sector, African leaders and world experts said at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, currently being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Speaking at a high level panel on Financing Sustainable Development in Africa, African states and their partners discussed resource mobilisation for sustainable development – both domestically and internationally.

The panel, representing a number of partners such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the Ivoirian ministry of Economy and Finance and the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry also addressed the divide between the managers of money and facilitators of development.

Institutions that have access to global financial resources are sometimes constrained by their inability to effectively operate at a level where sustainable development initiatives are undertaken in a meaningful manner. Those who are able to do so are often either unable to raise the resources they need or are denied access to institutions who have such resources.