89 importance of harnessing technological innovation for green growth. The Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program is an example of how the Bank supports knowledge- and innovationbased responses to scale up proven technologies across Africa. Accomplishing this will require a concerted effort by the Bank to revisit and update its Green Growth Framework through dedicated internal processes, as well as operationalizing its approach to green growth in its investments and its support to African countries. Gender, youth and social inclusion The African Development Bank is deeply committed to integrating the genderclimate nexus in its operations and investments. Gender inequalities and climate change are inextricably linked. On the one hand, climate change hinders progress towards gender equality and slows efforts to reduce poverty (with the impacts of poverty experienced disproportionately by women). On the other hand, gender inequality can reduce community resilience to climate change and impede societal uptake of low carbon development initiatives. In addressing the climate-gender nexus, it is crucial to internalize that women and girls are affected by climate change differently than men and boys, and thus uniform ‘one-size-fits-all’ climate change solutions are not optimal. The Bank’s climate change and green growth efforts must reflect gender differentiation, where relevant, to ensure the benefits of investments and initiatives are equally received by women and girls. Women and girls are often agents of change at the household, community, local, and national levels. By promoting opportunities for women to participate in designing and implementing climate change and green growth solutions, the Bank can accelerate the achievement of desired results. Gender mainstreaming will be accorded special attention to ensure the success and sustainability of climate change and green growth investments. Consistent with the Bank’s Gender Strategy 2021–2025, and mindful of the Paris Agreement’s objectives to achieve gender-responsive climate policy and action, the Bank will adopt gender-sensitive, genderresponsive, and gender-transformative approaches and will promote gender equity. Along with women and girls, youth in Africa are also a special constituency, requiring focused attention and targeted initiatives. Youth are also agents of change, shaping societal trends, market demand, and both driving and embracing innovation. The African Development Bank’s climate change and green growth efforts must pay special attention to improving awareness and knowledge of climate change among youth (through formal and non-formal education), and to increasing job opportunities for the continent’s burgeoning youth population. It must harness the energy, creativity, and ingenuity of young minds, and reduce the challenge of growing unemployment and socio-economic discontent. It will thus maximize Africa’s ‘demographic dividend.’ The African Development Bank’s commitment to social inclusion and to actively combating social disadvantages will also extend to other vulnerable or marginalized groups, beyond women, girls, and youth, as may be applicable within the context of specific programs, projects, activities, investments, or operations (including historically disenfranchised populations relevant to the geographies the Bank operates in). Private sector development and participation Governments and development finance institutions cannot meet the climate change challenge on their own. Even though Africa’s private sector is largely made up of MSMEs, the power of business must be leveraged so that the African Development Bank’s support can have an exponential impact. This will require the Bank to shape and strengthen the business ecosystem, and enable the private sector to grow and develop, with a focus on increased participation in climate change resilience and low-carbon development solutions. Furthermore, the Bank will work to mobilize increasing volumes of private sector climate finance and support African countries to do the same. Improving private sector development and participation entails, in some African countries, market building and the baseline development of functional markets, working with local commercial banks to increase knowledge of and operational capacity with climate finance, the preparation of climate and green growth investment portfolios, and supporting institutional capacity both within government financial regulators and MSMEs to enhance their absorptive capacity. In other African countries, it will entail more sophisticated capital market tools. The African Development Bank is well-positioned to support private sector development across the continent, particularly given its track record of support to growing African businesses and enterprises, which gives it legitimacy to act as convener and partner for private actors. It is also wellpositioned for this because of its success with green bonds, its convening role in the AFAC, its ability to access long-term financing on the international market on highly favourable terms (including for onward lending), its special mandate on regional integration that allows it to support African enterprises on regional trade and investment issues, and its country presence that allows for direct knowledge of the challenges and opportunities for private actors in various African markets. Building on this track record, and in Green growth in Africa — current initiatives and future developments
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