Africa faces a $200 billion annual SDG financing hole

By Steve UMIDHA

Africa faces a $200 billion annual SDG financing gap and shrinking development aid; the need to mobilise domestic institutional capital has never been more urgent.

AVPA – a Pan-African network for social investors, says that with over US$1.3 trillion in pension and sovereign wealth fund (SWF) assets under management across the continent, unlocking even a fraction of this capital could be transformative for Africa’s sustainable and resilient growth.

It is against this backdrop that AVPA will, in November, convene pension fund leaders, sovereign wealth fund executives, regulators, asset managers, DFIs, and impact investors to explore how domestic institutional investors are approaching infrastructure, sustainable finance, and impact investing, as well as look at how regulatory and market reforms are needed to mobilise long-term domestic capital.

Slated for November 3-5 in Nairobi, the forum will also aim to capitalize on opportunities for collaboration among pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and impact investing platforms.

The organisation will also look to align on Africa’s SDG financing gap and the opportunity cost of inaction, and recognize the central role of African pension funds and SWFs in sustainable investing.

Indeed, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), a United Nations affiliate body that supports the achievement of Africa’s development agenda through development planning, macroeconomic policy, economic governance, and public finance, says the continent’s annual Sustainable Development Goal financing shortfall has reached $1.3 trillion, with leaders increasingly clear-eyed about the limits of donor-driven models.

At a high-level session on the margins of the 2025 UN High-level Political Forum, African leaders called for structural reforms to expand domestic resource mobilization, build regional value chains and shift away from exporting raw commodities.

“Aid won’t close the gap. We must stop exporting raw materials and importing poverty,” said Claver Gatete, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

He called for greater investment in manufacturing, green industries, and youth-led enterprises. More than 80 percent of Africa’s exports remain unprocessed, a model he described as unsustainable.

Mr. Gatete was speaking at a session organized on the margins of the 2025 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York.

The event, co-hosted by the Government of Uganda and the ECA, focused on how to translate the Kampala Declaration, adopted at this year’s Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD), into concrete action.