The third edition of the Finance in Common Summit took place from the 18th to 20th of October 2022 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. For the first time, it was co-organised by two major multilateral development banks (MDBs), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), and took place in Africa. The summit accommodated over 900 guests in person that came all the way from Latin America, Asia, Europe, and more than 1000 remotely. FICS is delivering on its promise to convene the whole financial system, leaving nobody behind. This year's participants were not only government, regulators, or public development bank (PDBs) representatives, but a vast representation of civil society organisations were also present.
The summit focused on accelerating green and just transitions for a sustainable recovery. During this third edition, public development banks reinforced their climate commitments. The International Development Finance Club (IDFC) members have committed $224 billion to date in total green finance, a 21% increase from 2020. These figures demonstrate progress on the path towards attaining climate and broader environmental targets, yet members reiterated a strong commitment to further increase their adaptation finance.
Additionally, following FICS engagements with civil society organisations, the first ever Public Development Banks Statement on Human Rights and Human Rights Based Approach was produced and endorsed by multiple banks. With this statement, PDBs have their starting point to converge actions and elaborate strategies that will advance human rights whilst strengthening alliances with local communities. Meetings with FORUS International will be held in the following month, in order to elaborate an action plan for the statement.
Above that, the FICS Gender Coalition successfully hosted an informal closed door meeting to showcase the work done in 2021 and to share success stories from various women leaders. The coalition has managed to have 5 additional signatories to the initial Paris Development Banks statement on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. The European Investment Bank, one of the summit's co-hosts, announced the extension of the Bank’s SheInvest initiative to mobilise another €2 billion of gender-responsive investment across Africa, Asia and Latin America. In less than three years since the launch of SheInvest at the end of 2019, the EIB has already mobilised a total of €2 billion of investment to boost gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in Africa, together with its partners on the continent and through Team Europe.
In only three years, FICS has gained the power to write a new collective narrative. In collaboration with the Global Fund for Cities Development (FMDV), FICS was able to gather for the first time key players to finance sustainable urban development. The coalition of Resilient Cities and Regions has also been launched during the side event "Finance Your Cities" that successfully took place the 21 October in Abidjan.
Last but not least, this year's summit successfully embedded a Research Conference a day prior to the high-level political discussions. Globally, the database was updated and improved, by adding new features, such as the identification of policies in which each PDB is active. 18 additional research papers were presented, which provided concrete, evidence-based propositions that acknowledge the theory of change supported by the FICS coalition.
FICS chairman, Rémy Rioux, recognized that our communities are not perfect, yet PDBs have a strong will to do more and do better. This is why FICS does not stop here, next year's summit will be held in Latin America, in partnership with the Latin American Association of Development Financing Institutions (ALIDE) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).
The full list of deliverables from this year's summit are the following:
- FICS 2022 Progress report
- UNDP-FICS joint report on “The role of Public development Banks in scaling up sustainable finance”
- FICS Progress report to the G20
- IDFC Green Finance Mapping Report 2022
- 2021 Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance
- Public Development Banks statement on Human rights and Human rights-based approach
- Creation of the Alliance of Subnational Development Banks in Africa
- Creation of the Resilient Cities & Regions Coalition
- Launch of a Health and Social protection investment agenda
- Key Takeaways from the Research Conference of FICS Summit 2022
- 18 research papers from the Research Conference of FICS Summit 2022
- IDFC report on “Adaptation Finance: Lessons and way forward for the International Development Finance Club”
- IDFC Toolbox on Integrating Biodiversity into Strategies and Operations of Development Finance Institutions
- Responses of Latin American Development Banks to the Economic Crisis by the Covid 19 in Particular in Agricultural and SMEs Sectors
- G7 Progress Report from the FICS Adaptation and Resilience Investors Collaborative
- Natixis-IDFC Study on “PDBs’ catalytic role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals”
- GCA-Invesco MoU signature on climate adaptation