Speech

Remarks by the Managing Director at the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Summit, COP26

November 2, 2021

Thank you, Patrick. 

I'm so thrilled to join President Tshisekedi and my dear brother Akin Adesina, who has been a fantastic leader for an institution that has put not only adaptation—but the broad objective of Africa-led development so squarely on the map.

There are Presidents, leaders here that have for years wrestled with tough challenges—never, ever bringing spirits down, always believing that: we can, we must, and we will do better.

And I'm very honored for my institution to be your partner.

Let me make three points since we are already quite advanced in time.

The first is that we are embracing resilience, because we do live in a fast-changing and more shock-prone world.

It is a must to build resilience—of people that are educated, healthy and have good social protection for when a shock hits them; the resilience of our planet and our ecosystems—so it can continue to sustain humanity; and, of course, the resilience of our economies and our financial institutions.

And policies for resilience is what we have embraced.

In the IMF, I'm proud to say, we lead on this work.

We recognize that we have the economic skills to make the case for putting policies in place in a way that is efficient, effective, and makes best use of money.

What does that mean? We look for ways in which adaptation is more than adaptation.

Adaptation can help mitigation, when we protect our forests and restore the mangroves. It can do so much to adapt our communities that also sink carbon. The world must pay for it.

We advocate for a price on carbon. Not only when we cut carbon emissions through renewable energy, through clean transportation, but also when we cut carbon emissions by sinking carbon and risks restoring the ecosystems for the good of people.

Adaptation is also development, when we build climate-smart agriculture that sustains droughts and withstands—what Africa used to not have—rains that fall in 24 hours and destroys the crops. When we have resilient agriculture, it is more productive. It is great for development.

Resilient infrastructure—when we build so it lasts and multiplies the impact. For example, a school that can also be a shelter—then we help communities to withstand shocks.

When we empower women. African women are the strength of the continent. And when women are empowered, communities are so much better.

And we also recognize that building strong internet connectivity means access to data. And if a drought is coming or rains are coming—we can know it in advance and use data to improve the performance of our economies.

This is what we promote at the IMF.

We also promote removing obstacles—and this is my second point—removing obstacles to adaptation. For example, lack of access to insurance and credit.

Financial stability is only strong when people can access financial resources, so their families and their communities are stronger.

And my third point is about money.

We do have to raise more financing for adaptation. The $100 billion seems to be coming – bravo – we heard earlier in an earlier session that we might be there.

But this would only do good if resources go where they would make the biggest difference. And that means fairly splitting for mitigation and adaptation. At the Fund, we believe that this must be done, and bravo my brother Adesina for what you have achieved.

We at the Fund also help countries to have fiscal space to deal with these challenges, including adaptation.

Our historic $650 billion new special drawing rights allocation brought fresh resources with no additional debt to everybody here in this in this room.

But we have to do more—and the leaders of Africa know what I'm talking about.

Make sure that part of the SDRs that went to countries that don't really need it can be moved to countries that need it. For poverty reduction and yes, for climate resilience.

We are creating a new Resilience and Sustainability Trust that will provide long-term financing for countries so they can take the turn to a more resilient future.

There is a phrase I love from Ben Okri: We can redream the world and make the dream come true.

And that is what we have to do. Or otherwise, the women in Madagascar that have seen no rain—they would be having nightmares.

So, for a for a dream that comes true for the betterment of all.

Thank you.