Leading development financiers, aid agencies and political leaders in Africa have called for stronger investment in local solutions to conflict prevention over crisis response as the continent grapples with mounting security and economic challenges.
They made the call on the opening day of the Africa Resilience Forum, hosted by the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where participants highlighted that some 250 million people in Africa now live in countries directly affected by conflict.
“Conflict prevention is not only a moral imperative, it makes economic sense—because for every dollar invested, we can gain over $100 in long-term savings,” said African Development Bank Group Vice President for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery, Ms Nnenna Nwabufo, who moderated the session on “Partnering for Conflict Prevention”.
Panelists shared unique insights into their organisations’ approaches, stressing that financing institutions must pair resources with local knowledge, community leadership and long-term private investment if Africa is to reduce fragility.
Abubakar Umar Alhassan, a presidential representative on Ghana’s National Peace Council, said durable peace requires letting communities lead. “Women and youth groups in most cases hold the key to resolving conflicts and sustaining peace,” he noted.
From Mauritania, Mohamed Abderahmane Deddi, Director General at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, called for a rethink of aid flows. Less than 4% of development aid to Africa is devoted to conflict prevention, he said, urging more support for governments like Mauritania that are adopting national strategies for peace and social cohesion.
Olivier Ray, Director for Mobilisation, Movement and Partnerships at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) emphasised the dual challenge of sustaining state and development presence in fragile areas while safeguarding essential services.
He pointed to joint AfDB-ICRC efforts in Sudan to sustain livelihoods amid conflict and announced that both institutions will publish a policy brief in early October, distilling lessons from a decade of collaboration.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is a new player in sub-Saharan Africa, having recently received approval to open offices in five countries. Asari Efiong, Head of the Bank’s Côte d’Ivoire office, shared how the Bank’s roots in a disintegrating Soviet Union, three decades ago, have helped embed “fragility and resilience in our DNA.”
In the last three years alone, in wartime Ukraine, the Bank—the largest institutional investor in Ukraine—has invested $8.4 billion in the country, and mobilised $1.6 billion in donor grants from donor partners. 85% of funded projects have been in the private sector, with a focus on addressing challenges around workforce volatility caused by displacement, conscription, and death; as well as on the reintegration of a rapidly growing population of military veterans.
“We think there are a lot of lessons from the last three years of our work in Ukraine that translate into other fragile scenarios elsewhere,” she affirmed.
Source: AfDB