Public development banks driving gender equality: An overview of practices and measurement frameworks

This publication was jointly prepared by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

The publication was led by Vanina Vincensini, UN Women with substantive contributions from Mar Merita Blat, Philippe Galland and Myriam Mesbah from AFD; and Vipul Bhagat, Anna Falth, Robyn Oates and Diana Rusu from UN Women. The authors would like to thank the experts who generously contributed their time and expertise to review the report, including Lizabeth Bronder, Marcelo Giugale, Anna Gollub, Esther Illouz, and Daniel Seymour.

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2026 AADFI Annual General Assembly

The Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AADFI) is pleased to announce that its 2026 Annual General Assembly will take place from May 24 to 29, 2026, in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, on the sidelines of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Annual Meetings.

The Annual General Assembly will be held on the theme “Augmenting Sovereign Finance in Africa: DFIs Unlocking Growth and Resilience through NAFA,” with a focus on the transformative role of African Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) in strengthening Africa’s financial sovereignty. The discussions will align with the AfDB-led New African Financial Architecture (NAFA), a system-level framework designed to mobilize long-term investment, reduce Africa’s cost of capital, and reinforce resilience through coordinated financial systems and deeper domestic capital markets.

The Annual General Assembly will convene leaders of African DFIs, government officials, regional institutions, and development partners to further explore how African DFIs can catalyze local investment, de-risk strategic projects, and strengthen economic autonomy to build resilience against global shocks and bridge the continent’s infrastructure funding gap.

Further details will be shared in the coming weeks.