Presented by Athens Democracy Forum, by The Democracy & Culture Foundation
After 10 years in charge, Akinwumi Adesina stepped down as president of the African Development Bank, capping a tenure that reshaped both the bank’s resources and its visibility on the global stage.
Known for his trademark bow tie and relentless optimism, Adesina led AfDB to triple its capital from $93 billion to $318 billion in his 10 years at the helm, my colleague Ayenat Mersie writes in a profile examining Adesina’s tenure. He pushed financial innovation by pioneering hybrid capital among multilateral development banks, raising $750 million last year to expand lending capacity. He championed rechanneling IMF Special Drawing Rights and launched high-profile initiatives such as the Africa Investment Forum, which has generated over $150 billion in investment interest; along with Mission 300, a joint effort with the World Bank to provide electricity access to 300 million people in Africa by 2030.
Adesina’s “High 5s” strategy — to power, feed, industrialize, integrate, and improve lives in Africa — gave the bank a unifying vision, while his agriculture roots kept food security at the center of AfDB’s work. Yet critics note mixed results: Desert to Power, announced in 2019 with the goal of 10 gigawatts of solar energy across the Sahel by 2030, has delivered less than 3% of its target, while decentralization reforms left country offices with limited decision-making power. His tenure was also marked by controversy, including 2020 whistleblower allegations of favoritism — later dismissed — and ongoing concerns about governance and delivery on his promises.
Even so, Adesina leaves with strong endorsements from African leaders and development heavyweights: World Bank President Ajay Banga praises his “vision, energy, and relentless determination,” while one African head of state calls him a “tireless son of Africa.” Observers credit him with strengthening AfDB’s global voice, its financial profile, and its ability to innovate.
But questions remain about the bank’s effectiveness in times of debt distress, where countries still turn first to the IMF and World Bank.
“We see that the bank never fully became Africa’s go-to financial institution,” Brenda Chongo Chanda, head of economic management and governance at the African Center for Economic Transformation, tells Ayenat.
Next up is Mauritanian economist Sidi Ould Tah, who took helm of AfDB yesterday. He inherits both a stronger institution and the unfinished work of cementing AfDB’s role as Africa’s primary lender in an era of mounting climate and financial crises.
Read: The bow tie bows out — Adesina’s 10 years at AfDB
ICYMI: African Development Bank gets ready for Sidi Ould Tah
Adesina says Tah Tah
Sidi Ould Tah was sworn in yesterday as AfDB’s ninth president. In his opening speech in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, he pledged to accelerate reforms, mobilize new partners, and unlock capital for job creation and climate resilience. The Mauritanian economist — and former head of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa — will take over after Adesina’s impressive tenure.
The election reflects shareholders’ growing appetite for Gulf financing as traditional donors pull back, observers say. He has promised to convene a high-level forum within his first 100 days to retool financial instruments and expand AfDB’s private-sector portfolio, which remains below 25% of lending. One of his first major tests: guiding this year’s replenishment of the African Development Fund, with an ambitious $25 billion target on the table.
“The goal won’t be another declaration of intent,” Tah wrote to Ayenat ahead of the election in May. “The goal will be action.”
Read: New AfDB president inherits a bigger bank — and tougher challenges
Brazil polishes its forest plan
Brazil’s Tropical Forest Forever Facility, or TFFF, is edging closer to its COP30 climate summit debut in Belém with the release of Concept Note 3.0 — a $125 billion fund designed to pay rainforest nations $4 per hectare of conserved forest. The model could generate up to $4 billion in annual payouts, a scale larger than some donor countries’ entire aid budgets.
The latest draft tightens rules and adds safeguards that could make the facility more attractive to investors and governments:
• Indigenous benefit-sharing: Twenty percent of country proceeds must flow to Indigenous peoples and local communities, either through national trust funds or directly via an Indigenous steering committee.
• Bypassing central governments: An international agency such as the United Nations Development Programme could be tasked with delivering funds, avoiding political bottlenecks.
• Stronger accountability: New transparency rules and penalties for noncompliance.
• Clear exclusions: No fossil fuels or deforestation-linked activities in the investment portfolio.
• New risks addressed: Provisions for “incompleteness risk” to prevent deforestation shifting to savannahs or other ecosystems.
Traditional backers such as Germany and Norway may soon be joined in TFFF by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and even China — a move that could reshape the climate finance landscape. And with OECD rules under review, governments could possibly count investments as official development assistance, or ODA, making TFFF a politically attractive way to stretch tight aid budgets.
“The financial magic here is that these governments do not need to pull that out of ODA budgets because it’s not grant money that they’re putting in. It’s an investment that they’re getting back with interest,” Andrew Deutz of the World Wildlife Fund tells me.
For Brazil, TFFF is more than a climate initiative — it’s a centerpiece of its COP30 presidency, and a test of whether new funders can be drawn into the climate finance fold.
Read: Brazil's forest finance plan takes shape ahead of COP30
ICYMI: High stakes and uncertain plans as Brazil's Amazonian COP30 approaches
Is forest finance trending?
The World Bank last week approved $592.5 million for a project that will boost the environmental governance of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, the country’s largest state by area. The state will also pass new laws that help stimulate the bioeconomy; enforce regulations around illegal logging, mining, and land grabbing; and upgrade forest-fire prevention and response systems.
In the same vein as TFFF, this new project will “[reward] municipalities that show stronger environmental results through performance-based transfers.” Is this a temporary rising trend in the lead-up to the Amazon-located COP30? Or could forest finance be the new name of the game?
Philanthropy turns up the heat on adaptation
A new Adaptation and Resilience Fund will pour over $50 million into locally led projects helping communities withstand climate shocks — from extreme heat to floods and droughts. Backed by ClimateWorks Foundation alongside Howden, Laudes, Quadrature Climate, and Rockefeller foundations, the fund fulfills a pledge made last year in response to the U.N.’s Call to Action on Extreme Heat.
Initial grants will target urban areas in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 2.4 billion people face severe heat each year. With adaptation finance covering just 10% of needs in low-income countries, philanthropy is stepping into a critical gap.
“We can’t win on decarbonisation if we don’t invest in resilience,” says Jess Ayers of Quadrature Climate Foundation. “This isn’t just about survival, it’s about catalysing equitable, systems-level change where it’s needed most.”
Related: The case for catalytic equity in climate and development finance (Pro)
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Inside MDB misconduct probes
Your next job?
Manager – Climate Change and Nature
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Worldwide (based in Beijing, China)
Two experts who specialize in misconduct investigations at multilateral development banks break down what is often an opaque process in a recent podcast. The experts, Sârra-Tilila Bounfour, an independent arbitrator and consultant, and Joyce Nkini-Iwisi, the head of compliance and corporate investigations for Africa at Control Risks, explain how cases are triggered — usually by whistleblowers or irregularities in MDB-financed projects — and walk through the stages of an investigation, from initial evidence gathering to field missions and final decisions by independent sanctions boards.
The discussion highlights MDBs’ standardized procedures, the “more likely than not” burden of proof applied, and the possibility of cross-debarment across multiple banks. Throughout, the speakers stress that companies facing scrutiny can improve outcomes by cooperating with investigators, strengthening compliance systems, and maintaining transparency, since sanctions can carry not only financial but also reputational consequences.
What we’re reading
China’s exports to Africa jumped 25% to $122 billion this year — outpacing other major markets and putting trade on track to top $200 billion for the first time. [Bloomberg]
The World Bank has raised the international poverty line from $2.15 to $3 a day, adding 125 million more people to the count of those living in extreme poverty. [Our World in Data]
The World Bank has sold its first-of-its-kind $510 million bond backed by loans to 57 companies in developing countries, a securitization deal designed to draw more institutional investors into emerging markets [Bloomberg]
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
