The National Treasury of South Africa and the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) co-hosted the first consultative meeting on the “South Africa’s Legacy Initiative to Accelerate Cross-Border Infrastructure in Africa: The Ubuntu Approach” in Pretoria.
Held in a hybrid format, the event brought together senior officials from 15 African countries, the African Union Commission, eight African Union-recognized Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD to advance a transformative toolkit for cross-border infrastructure development.
The Ubuntu Initiative, a key deliverable of South Africa’s G20 Infrastructure Working Group, aims to address barriers to planning, financing, and managing cross-border infrastructure.
Developed with the AfDB, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and World Bank, the toolkit focuses on four pillars: updating data on Africa’s infrastructure gap post-COVID-19, identifying investable cross-border projects, establishing a Governance Concilium for expert advisory support, and promoting innovative financing through public-private partnerships, bonds, and guarantees. Multilateral Development Banks will play a critical role in de-risking projects to attract private investment.
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Participants expressed strong support for the initiative, emphasizing its potential to drive regional integration and economic growth. They urged leveraging existing tools, such as the NEPAD Infrastructure Projects Preparation Facility Special Fund and the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa, to enhance efficiency and credibility with international partners. The initiative aligns with the Pan-African vision of a prosperous, integrated continent.
Following the meeting, organizers plan to translate commitments into a concrete action plan, with the next engagement scheduled alongside the G20 Infrastructure Working Group meeting in September 2025. Further details will be shared closer to the date, inviting broader participation to advance Africa’s infrastructure agenda.
