Fair Finance Southern Africa Launches
It is with great pleasure that today Fair Finance International welcomes Fair Finance Southern Africa as its newest member to the network. Fair Finance Southern Africa is the first African Fair Finance coalition to be created. The Fair Finance alliance is now active in 15 different countries and on 4 continents.
The Fair Finance Southern Africa coalition will be working towards ensuring Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) invest in a socially and environmentally responsible manner in Southern Africa and Africa and will focus primarily on the issues of climate change and transparency.
South African Development Finance Institutions and DFIs operating in South Africa include the African Development Bank (AfDB), Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Export Credit Insurance Corporation (ECIC), Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), and New Development Bank (NDB). These banks have broad mandates to fund development projects, however the way they make funding decisions is not transparent, and their policies and procedures trail many of those of their international peers, as highlighted by this study by Fair Finance member the Centre for Environmental Rights in 2020. South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world, and as such, the role of DFIs is incredibly important to bring about true development.
DFIs have, furthermore traditionally operated without much oversight, whether from parliament or civil society. A number of civil society organizations have sought to change that recently, and hence the creation of Fair Finance Southern Africa, which brings 7 NGOs together to work together for improved transparency and accountability of these institutions.
Speaking following the launch Fair Finance International Coordinator Kees Kodde said “The launch of Fair Finance Southern Africa fulfils a long-held ambition to expand the network to Africa. We warmly welcome Fair Finance Southern Africa and look forward to working together to make banking and investments work better for people and planet.”
The coalition partners making up Fair Finance Southern Africa are 350Africa.org, Centre for Environmental Rights, African Climate Reality Project, Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), Oxfam South Africa, Justica Ambiental, Earthlife Africa
Fair Finance International (FFI) is an international civil society network of over 100 CSO partners and allies, initiated by Oxfam, that seeks to strengthen the commitment of banks and other financial institutions to social, environmental and human rights standards. For more information, contact FFI Coordinator, Kees Kodde - kees.kodde@oxfamnovib.nl
