The 5th Finance in Common Summit

fics 2025 afd capetown afrique du sud — pixabay

When: From Wednesday february 26 2025 to Friday february 28 2025
Schedule: 08:30–20:00
Where: CTICC (Cape Town International Convention Centre) - and online

The fifth Finance in Common Summit (FiCS) will take place from February 26–28, 2025, in Cape Town, South Africa. The event is co-organized by the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), with the support of Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

The summit, themed “Enabling infrastructure and finance for fair and sustainable growth”, is a global platform for over 2,000 change-makers working to create a greener and more inclusive world. The event will be a “Summit of Solutions”, where public development banks (PDBs) and their stakeholders will deliver concrete and impactful responses to major challenges based on four fundamental pillars: infrastructure for climate action (with a focus on adaptation and resilience), digital transformation, inclusive finance for sustainable growth, and reforms to financial architecture and financial stability.

Registration

Events will be held in English and translated into French and Portuguese

More information:

https://financeincommon.org/

https://www.financeincommonsummit2025.com/

The program is structured over three days of plenary sessions, breakout sessions, working sessions and side events designed to address the need to reorient the financial system.

The objectives are as follows:

To take stock of and report on the progress of the Cartagena Action Plan, notably in relation to the Innovation Lab (FiCS Lab) launched at COP28, the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) alignment coalition and the FiCS study on technical assistance and capacity building, including its next steps for public development banks (PDBs).
To drive high-level commitments for PDBs to support sustainable development goals, COPs, G20 initiatives – notably in relation to the priorities of the G20 Sustainable Finance and International Financial Architecture Working Groups and the G20 Task Force on Global Mobilization against Climate Change announced under the Brazil presidency – and other initiatives such as the New Global Financing Pact.
To showcase innovative finance initiatives and best practices in support of the climate, biodiversity and the SDGs, including those promoted by the FiCS thematic coalitions.
To prepare FiCS’ contributions to the 2025 conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) to be organized in Spain by the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs.

Explore the provisional program of the summit

The times mentioned in the programme are based on South Africa Standard Time (SAST), which corresponds to UTC+2.

More information:

https://financeincommon.org/

https://www.financeincommonsummit2025.com/

Public development banks (PDBs) and development finance institutions (DFIs) are now gaining greater global visibility, as their role is increasingly recognized by academics and policymakers. Created by governments to proactively achieve public policy objectives, they are potentially useful policy instruments for addressing and stimulating market failures, coordinating public policy with stakeholders and promoting the structural transformation of the economy in an equitable and sustainable manner. To achieve their development potential, it is important to rigorously examine their roles, operations and effectiveness in order to avoid pitfalls.

In this context, the Fourth International Conference on Financing Sustainable Development (FfD4), convened by the United Nations and to be held from 30 June to 3 July 2025 in Seville, Spain, calls for sound analyses of the role of the BPDs in the global financial architecture.

The summit will therefore include an ambitious research program put together by the Global Research Network (GRN), including a series of plenaries and sessions over the three days.

The Global Research Network on public development banks (PDBs) analyzes key issues emerging from the international debate. After a successful launch in 2024, it offers substantive research sessions to FiCS participants, addressing key questions about the role of PDBs in financing transitions.

Discover the provisional programme of the Summit

The times mentioned in the program are based on South Africa Standard Time (SAST), which corresponds to UTC+2.

More information:

https://financeincommon.org/

https://www.financeincommonsummit2025.com/

As part of this global summit on the role of public development banks (PDBs) in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the integration of well-being is emerging as a key factor in addressing global challenges in a more holistic and inclusive way. In particular, SDG 3, “Good Health and Well-being”, is not only a specific goal, but also serves as a foundation for all the other goals, helping to create a more equitable, resilient and prosperous society.

Over the three days, experts, artists, athletes and cultural leaders will explore how sport, art and culture can promote physical health and social cohesion, foster emotional well-being and resilience, and contribute to inclusion, equality and peace.

As a result, the question of well-being will be brought to the forefront of global discussions, and PDBs will be invited to reflect on how to integrate this new paradigm into their investment strategies, pursuing a development model that takes into account not only economic progress, but also the quality of life and overall well-being of people and communities.

In 2024, on the occasion of the Paris Olympic Games, AFD Group was mandated by the French Presidency of the Republic and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to organize the Sport for Sustainable Development Summit. This summit brought together heads of state, institutional and sports stakeholders to discuss the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals agenda, and was an opportunity for them to support the Paris Agreement on Sport and Sustainable Development, which sets out 10 commitments.

At FiCS 2025, participants will be able to review the agreement and prepare the ground for the next stages.