ARIA
Sierra Leone and Liberia are the first countries to be included in the ARIA initiative.
In 2021, Development Finance Institutions funded by the G7 nations announced the launch of a new platform designed to boost investment in fragile and conflict-affected states in Africa. The Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator (ARIA) aims to unlock investment in fragile states through collective influence and by pooling expertise to overcome the challenges of providing capital in these countries.
Historically, DFIs have tried to originate investments in fragile states with mixed results. ARIA aims to engage proactively in such markets in a way that would improve investment-readiness – both a country’s readiness to benefit from DFI investment and DFIs’ abilities to invest in these economies.
The Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator will help development finance institutions to support the G7’s landmark commitment of providing $80 billion of investment in the African private sector by 2027.”
ARIA’s areas of focus will be:
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Market mapping: The development of a tool containing investment-related information, including key sectors, relevant local partners, financial intermediaries, potential investees and barriers to investment.
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Integrity: A group to exchange views and experience around challenges relating to integrity, especially in investment due diligence processes, and to agree on common standards, approaches to work collectively to leverage information sharing across DFIs.
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Conflict Sensitivity: The harmonisation of best practices around conflict sensitivity, including the development of common standards and tools that the DFI community can use to manage investment activities in areas that are at high risk of conflict.
The members of ARIA are: CDC Group, US International Development Finance Corporation, Proparco, FinDev Canada, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), in its role as Financial Institution for International Development Cooperation (Observer), JICA (Observer), Swedfund, International Finance Corporation, African Development Bank, European Investment Bank (Observer) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Observer).