Abidjan: The African Development Fund, the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group, has granted $4.23 million for the second phase of a project aimed at integrating natural capital into development financing across thirteen African nations. According to African Press Organization, the project encompasses Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Partner institutions, including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the German public agency for international cooperation on sustainable development (GIZ), the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa's Development, the Economic Commission for Africa, and the United Nations Environment Programme, will contribute in-kind support. These efforts aim to enhance the integration of natural capital into political and financial decision-making processes, with participating countries also contributing to the proje ct. Scheduled for implementation from October 2026 to September 2029, the project is anticipated to produce outputs in policy, statistics, institutions, and knowledge, facilitating improved integration of natural capital into development planning. The strategy seeks to bolster policy-making systems, statistical systems, institutional frameworks, and knowledge-generation mechanisms necessary for the regional member countries and the African Development Bank Group to assess and incorporate natural capital into public policy-making. The project will employ a comprehensive set of measures, including policy support, technical assistance, assessments of statistical readiness, biodiversity financing tools, pilot projects to evaluate green wealth, capacity building, and peer learning. These efforts are designed to enhance the resilience of development to climate change, promote nature-friendly initiatives, and ensure inclusivity by enabling African countries to better identify, measure, and manage their natural wea lth. Innocent Onah, Chief Natural Resources Officer at the African Development Bank Group, emphasized that the project is intended to strengthen the evidence base for development financing, dialogue on sovereign policies, and the mobilization of green investments. He noted that, in the long term, this could result in significant improvements in the target countries' GDP growth, foreign direct investment inflows, economic development, poverty reduction, improved employment, economic competitiveness, and financial and economic risk ratings.