Africa's most fragile economies will begin to enjoy economic interventions as the African Development Bank Group and the World Economic Forum (WEF) officially launch the Humanitarian and Resilience Investment (HRI) Roadmap for Africa to channel private investment into identified poor countries.
The HRI Roadmap for Africa sets out a coordinated, country-led approach to mobilize commercial and catalytic capital in disadvantaged frontier markets and transitional states, regions where the investment gap is most acute and the enabling conditions for private investment have historically been the weakest.
The development of the Roadmap responds to a structural contradiction at the core of Africa's financing challenge: the continent faces an annual development financing gap of approximately $400 billion.
Despite having 17 percent of the world's population, Africa attracts only 3.5 percent of global foreign direct investment and less than 2 percent of global venture capital. Changing geopolitical dynamics and the contracting of the official development assistance environment have further increased the urgency. Pilot projects are already underway in Liberia, Somalia, Mozambique and Djibouti.
In the keynote address, Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbede, Senior Vice President of the African Development Bank Group, speaking on behalf of President Dr. Sidi Ould Tahough, underlined the urgency of this moment. “Now is the time for a paradigm shift from aid dependency to investment-led development. The HRI Roadmap builds that foundation. It clarifies roles. It sequences interventions. It puts public and development finance where it belongs: as a catalyst, not a substitute.”
Ms. Sheeba Crocker, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum; Said: “The world's most vulnerable communities deserve more than relief – they deserve investment in businesses and economies that allow them to thrive on their own terms. Building on the global HRI initiative and supported by more than 100 partners, this roadmap reflects our determination to move beyond fragmentation and move towards the coordinated, investment-led approach that Africa's marginalized markets urgently need.”
Acting Vice President for Regional Development, Integration and Trade Delivery, Dr. Abdul Kamara, moderated a panel discussion on promoting investment in Africa's frontier markets following the high-level remarks. Panelists were WEF MD Sheeba Crocker; Bihi Iman Egeh, Finance Minister of Somalia; Chris Bould, Director of the International Financial Institutions Department at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO); and Sarah Mbago-Bhunu, Director, Eastern and Southern Africa Division, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Minister Ageh argued that Somalia does not lack entrepreneurship but suffers from risk aversion and exclusion from correspondent banking. Mbogo-Bhunu drew on examples of IFAD's work with smallholder farmers – including a digital-voucher scheme with Kenyan commercial banks – to make the case that rural and peri-urban implementation will require integrated financial, digital and infrastructure tools, not isolated interventions. Boldt said FCDO is steering its development finance institutions toward weaker states that rely on concessional capital. He pointed to Kenya's M-Pesa mobile money system as evidence that creating new markets depends as much on regulatory reform as capital.
Mr Bumi Camara, Chief Fragility and Resilience Economist of the African Development Bank, gave a presentation on the Roadmap.
The roadmap, which embeds climate resilience and gender inclusion as core pillars, is aligned with the African Development Bank's Four Cardinal Points strategic compass as well as the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), endorsed through the Abidjan Consensus in April 2026. It also aligns with the Bank's Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), which has disbursed $1.33 billion to date. Women-led businesses in 45 countries.