For the first time, the FiCS 2022 summit was held in Africa. Co-organized by the European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank, the summit, which took place on 18-20 October in Abidjan, focused on a green and just transition for a sustainable recovery.
Every autumn, FiCS organizes a global summit of all Public Development Banks, which aims to bring different perspectives and expertise to bear on the most pressing issues, to anticipate the major challenges ahead and translate commitments into coordinated action on the ground.
FiCS is among the major events on the year’s calendar of high-level global events on climate and sustainable development, such as the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, COP, the G20 framework and the UN Financing for Development Forum. The aim is to highlight the perspectives of PDBs in global development conversations.
Alongside FiCS’ third edition, researchers will share the fruits of their investigations into public development banks and the ways that more of their work could be steered towards the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals. Researchers will present their findings to the summit to fuel discussion of such issues as the SDGs and facilitating the transition to greener and fairer forms of development.
Any debate of the potential shift in PDBs’ mandate requires an analysis of their current work. This was undertaken on a massive scale in 2020, when the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University (INSE) and AFD Group launched the first-ever comprehensive database of PDBs, identifying more than 500 development banks worldwide, with information on their financial flows, assets and priorities.
What’s more, the Research Initiative on Public Development Banks, consisting of over 20 academics and think tanks, sheds light on the role of PDBs and on their contribution to the 2030 Agenda.
Multiple research papers have been produced, covering topics ranging from the global development finance architecture, to PDBs’ governance, business models, and SDG alignment.
The FiCS Summit will explore the key roles played by Public Development Banks (PDBs) in supporting economies and financial systems in their moves toward sustainability.
Economies worldwide are trying to recover from the Covid-19 crisis, which wrote off years of economic growth, investment and social progress, so many will focus simply on resuming economic growth. But it is also important to continue to orient investment and operations towards a green and just transition.
Put simply, the goal set by AFD and its partners, is to "build back better," meaning above all, greener and fairer.
The summit will feature discussions of green, quality infrastructure, the importance of resilience and adaptation, health and social protection and the quest to reduce inequalities.
The AFD Group, a co-founder of the FiCS General Secretariat and host of the first FiCS Summit, is also a major partner for this event.
Below, you will find publications and resources pertaining to the 2022 Finance in Common Summit, and can read about the topics discussed during the event.
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