For the climate transition to serve Africa, it must be shaped by African actors, grounded in African realities and accountable to African priorities.
The African Climate Foundation is the first African-led, strategic regranter working at the nexus of climate and development.
Climate and development cannot be separated.
Across Africa, climate instability is already a lived reality. Droughts are shortening growing seasons. Floods are sweeping away homes and harvests. Heat is eroding health and productivity. Behind every one of these pressures are people — farmers watching crops fail, young people pulled from school as livelihoods collapse.
These are not just climate impacts. They are reshaping migration, deepening food insecurity, straining public budgets and redefining development choices — exacerbating inequalities along gender, geographic and income lines.
This is why climate and development cannot be separated. Energy access, resilience, jobs, industrialisation, finance — these are part of a single transformation. And the question is no longer whether a transition will happen. It is on whose terms.
The decisions made now will determine whether African economies become more climate-resilient, competitive and inclusive.
Across the continent, governments, civil society, labour movements, researchers and businesses are already driving that transition. Building coalitions. Negotiating for better terms. Demanding that the benefits stay where the resources are.
The African Climate Foundation exists to reinforce that momentum.
Integrated support architecture
We believe that structural transformation happens when policy, finance and institutions align: when the conditions exist to attract investment, when financial systems have the capacity to receive and deploy it and when international partnerships reinforce rather than constrain domestic priorities. We work through country- and regionally led investment platforms, operating through three reinforcing layers at the same time. Each layer is necessary. None is sufficient alone. This is what distinguishes our investment platform approach from conventional project-by-project philanthropy.
We provide support through three integrated instruments; together, these instruments are designed not to build our own footprint but to strengthen the ecosystem around it.
Strategic priorities
Africa’s transition will be shaped from within or imposed from without. Our role is to make sure those driving it from within have what they need.
We ensure that growth in scale is matched by growth in coherence, resilience and long-term effectiveness. Our work focuses on three interconnected priorities.
These priorities depend on finance that builds capability rather than dependency — and African actors negotiating the global rules with the analytical depth and coordination they deserve.
Since 2020, we have supported more than 467 investments — totalling approximately US$41.3 million— across 35 countries.
Our presence continues to deepen, with dedicated country programmes in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia — local teams working alongside governments, civil society and communities, grounded in the realities of each context.
Delivering systemic climate and development transformation across multiple countries requires financial resilience, capable and committed people, disciplined systems, credible governance and a learning architecture that can navigate complexity over time. As a pan-African platform, we have invested deliberately in the institutional foundations that underpin our delivery.
