About us

Shaping the transition from within

The African Climate Foundation (ACF) is a regional climate foundation, working at the intersection of climate and development. Established in 2020, we support governments, institutions, coalitions and communities driving the continent’s transition. Our work is delivered through grantmaking, fiscal hosting and incubation.

Our Vision

A vibrant and climate-resilient Africa in which inclusive socio-economic development delivers sustainable and equitable growth.

Our Mission

Supporting interventions at the nexus of climate and development that can deliver long-term socio-economic transformation and inclusive development on the African continent.

Our journey

We are an African institution: built on the continent, led from the ground and trusted by governments, coalitions and communities. We earned that trust through years of practical, non-prescriptive engagement. The ACF was established with a clear conviction that for the climate transition to serve Africa, it had to be shaped by African actors, grounded in African realities and accountable to African priorities.

Our role is to support, not to lead. Our work aims to strengthen the capacity to act – helping to create the conditions in which African governments, institutions, coalitions and communities can move faster, negotiate from positions of strength and hold direction under sustained pressure.

The model in which we work is unique. In each country we operate, we support an investment platform approach: helping to align policy, finance, investment and institutional capability simultaneously, so progress in one area accelerates the others. This is not project philanthropy. It is systems work, requiring a deep, long-term presence that we have spent six years building.

In practice, this means supporting communities, civil society, labour, governments, financiers and global institutions in shaping enabling policy and redirecting capital towards Africa’s priorities. It involves helping to strengthen the coalitions and movements that give African actors a greater collective voice. It also means building the ideas that help those actors think through and act on the challenges they face. And it entails supporting the institutions driving change so they can define the transition on their own terms. By acting simultaneously on policy, finance, investment, institutional capability and ideas, the ACF helps to shift the system – not just the symptoms – of Africa’s climate transition.

We deliver support through strategic grantmaking, fiscal hosting and incubation. Together, they are designed not to build our own footprint but to strengthen the ecosystem around it. Our priority areas outline where we focus our support and why.

Our strategic objectives:

Strengthening African agency and collective action.

Amplify Africa’s collective climate agency by strengthening the institutions, coalitions and platforms through which African actors define and drive their own transition.

Improving ecosystems for lasting impact.

Advance Africa’s climate-aligned and inclusive development pathways through agile, responsive and strategic approaches to grantmaking, fiscal hosting and ecosystem strengthening.

Securing long-term financial sustainability and resilience.

Mobilise and deploy diverse, sustainable and mission-aligned financial resources to maintain long-term impact and partnerships, reducing vulnerability to external shocks.

Building institutional capacity for continental delivery.

Build a continent-wide operational architecture that enables agile delivery, accelerates capital deployment and deepens regional engagement in step with our growing ambition.

Measuring what matters: impacts, learning and accountability.

Safeguard impact integrity through adaptive measurement systems that assess long-term contribution, drive systemic learning and ensure accountability to partners, funders and the communities that we serve.

Our values

Our approach is shaped by five values – guiding principles that define not just what we stand for but also how we show up in practice.

We support local agency and back community-driven solutions to Africa’s climate challenges.

We work across geographies with openness, co-creating African-led solutions for a just climate transition

We hold ourselves accountable to our mission, partners and the communities we serve.

We build trust through consistent, evidence-based work with professionalism and clarity.

We remain focused and resilient, guided by a long-term vision for equitable development.

Read our strategy (2026 – 2030)

Also available in Arabic and French.