From aid to investment: How Africa is shaping global shift in nature finance

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2026 shows environmental threats dominating the long-term outlook, with biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and extreme weather among the most severe risks facing the global economy.

At the same time, official development assistance is under pressure. Recent data from the OECD show that, after peaking in recent years, aid levels are flattening and, in real terms, declining for many countries as ODA budgets tighten and priorities shift.

This is prompting a necessary rethink: how can the role of concessional finance evolve for countries like Kenya, from a primary funding source to a catalyst for building the systems that can generate larger, more durable flows of domestic and private finance?

The 12th Regional Dialogue on Biodiversity Finance for Africa and the Arab States, hosted by UNDP and the Government of Kenya, brings together ministries of finance and environment, private sector leaders, and multilateral development banks from 56 countries.

As the largest gathering of its kind on the continent, it signals a shift from discussion to implementation towards practical solutions that embed nature within economic systems. It also reflects a broader recognition: that the question is no longer whether to finance nature conservation, but how to do so at scale and in ways that can future-proof our economies against rising climate and planetary risks, whilst creating new sources of growth.

Across Africa, countries are beginning to reframe nature not as a constraint on growth, but as a foundation for it, embedding natural capital into financial decision-making and public policy. This is not happening through grand announcements, but through practical changes in how economies are financed. UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) has so far supported 41 countries to unlock over US$3bn for nature, with African economies increasingly at the forefront of this shift.

Kenya is among the 30 African countries that have started working on Biodiversity Finance Plans in the past two years with BIOFIN support, aiming to unlock new sources of financing for nature.

In Zambia, with BIOFIN support, green bonds have so far raised over US $196 million for sustainability-linked sectors, signaling how domestic capital markets can support nature-positive growth.

Botswana is proving that well-managed ecosystems can generate stable public revenues, with protected-area fees linked to a high-value tourism model.

In Zanzibar, similar levies on visitors create predictable funding streams for ecosystem management, directly linking environmental stewardship to fiscal resilience. South Africa is advancing this further, integrating biodiversity into financial planning and using blended finance approaches to attract private capital.

These are not isolated initiatives. They are early signals of a broader shift that aligns with a growing international recognition that economic systems must better reflect the value of nature. Studies show that a transition to a nature-positive economy could unlock $10 trillion in annual business opportunities and create nearly 400 million jobs by 2030, underscoring that investing in nature is not only risk management but a pathway to long-term prosperity.

This shift is also being reinforced at the global level. With upcoming UN COPs under the climate, biodiversity, and desertification conventions, the international community is increasingly converging around a more integrated approach. These processes recognise that ecosystems, climate stability, and land productivity are deeply interconnected and that financial systems must evolve accordingly. UNDP is helping to bridge these agendas, supporting countries to translate global ambition into practical financial strategies.

Africa’s BIOFIN examples demonstrate a simple but powerful idea: finance should not only fund outcomes, it should also enable systems. Countries are leveraging relatively small amounts of donor funding as catalytic capital to design policies and financial instruments that generate larger, recurring domestic flow, through fees, taxes, market instruments, and budget reforms.

This “finance for finance” approach marks an important evolution. Rather than relying on external funding, it strengthens domestic financial systems, builds institutional capacity, and creates more predictable, long-term revenue streams linked to natural capital.

For African economies, this model is particularly relevant. Home to some of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, the continent underpins ecosystem services that support global economic stability, while also sustaining the livelihoods of more than 1.3 billion people. It demonstrates that nature finance is not separate from economic policy; it is increasingly part of it.

Agriculture, tourism, water systems, and energy production all depend on functioning ecosystems. When these systems are maintained and restored, they support growth and stability. When they are degraded, the costs are felt across economies. Integrating this reality into financial systems is, therefore, not an environmental add-on; it is sound economic management.

The task now is to move from momentum to scale. With 91 countries supported by UNDP-BIOFIN set to move into implementation next year, the opportunity to unlock nature finance at scale is significant. And this extends beyond biodiversity. It reflects a broader shift in how economies value natural capital, with countries increasingly integrating and pricing nature into fiscal policy, economic planning, and investment decisions. It also points to a wider evolution in how concessional finance can be used, not as an end in itself, but as a catalyst to build the systems that generate sustained domestic and private investment.

In this, African countries are not only advancing their own development pathways but offering a model for how finance can work more effectively in a resource-constrained world.