The World Bank Group has committed more than $3.8 billion to climate-smart agriculture projects across Africa between 2022 and 2025, underscoring a sustained push to strengthen food-system resilience amid worsening climate pressures on the continent’s farming sector.

The investment drive, which has evolved from isolated pilot interventions into a broader continent-wide framework for agricultural resilience, is anchored by the Accelerating Innovation and Catalyzing Capacity for Resilience in Africa (AICCRA) programme, according to its report.

The programme entered its fourth phase last year following the approval of an additional $46 million grant aimed at scaling climate-smart farming technologies and strengthening institutional capacity across several African countries.

The initiative has attracted support from major development and private-sector partners, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which contributed $18.8 million, and OCP Group, which committed $5 million in co-financing support.

The World Bank’s private-sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, also identified about $335 million in private investment opportunities through Rwanda’s Climate-Smart Agriculture Investment Plan in 2025, highlighting growing investor interest in climate-resilient agricultural systems.

By 2022, the World Bank had already established a substantial footprint in climate-smart agriculture across the continent. Its broader portfolio, which expanded rapidly between 2016 and 2018, included 83 approved projects worth $3.8 billion across 30 African countries.

The Bank’s Food System Resilience Programme, which became operational across West Africa in 2022, complemented AICCRA’s efforts by helping national agricultural systems deploy climate advisory services, agrometeorological tools, and crop varieties adapted to shifting rainfall patterns and extreme weather events.

A major financing milestone came during the COP28 climate summit in December 2023, when the World Bank pledged $100 million through its International Development Association concessional financing window for the 2024–2025 AICCRA cycle.

The funding, channeled through the CGIAR research network, was designed to accelerate the delivery of climate-smart technologies to smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Senegal and Zambia.

The COP28 commitment signalled a strategic shift from financing isolated research programmes to embedding climate-smart practices into national agricultural systems, extension services and data infrastructure capable of sustaining long-term adaptation efforts.

In March 2024, the World Bank approved an additional $40 million grant to deepen the programme’s reach across the six participating countries. The financing focused on scaling drought-tolerant rice and maize varieties, expanding digital climate advisory platforms and deploying solar-powered irrigation systems in areas facing erratic rainfall.

The latest phase of the programme, officially titled “Accelerating Innovation and Catalyzing Capacity for Resilience in Africa,” is being financed through a mix of International Development Association resources, the Policy and Human Resources Development Fund Global South Pillar and the Food Systems 2030 Multi-Donor Trust Fund. The programme is administered through the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology. By the end of the previous implementation cycle, AICCRA had reached nearly 12 million beneficiaries with validated climate-smart agricultural solutions and supported 309 institutional partners across Africa.

The broader Food System Resilience Programme reduced food insecurity by 30 per cent in targeted communities, extended agro-meteorological services to about 962,000 agricultural actors and enabled nearly one million farmers to adopt improved farming technologies. Under the new phase, more than 250,000 farmers are expected to adopt drought-tolerant crop varieties and solar-powered irrigation systems, while the programme aims to mobilise $16.5 million in private capital and support 150 agribusiness ventures. Another 25 agricultural technology incubators and accelerators are expected to be strengthened or newly established across East and West Africa.

AICCRA Director Robert Zougmoé described the latest funding approval as a strong endorsement of the programme’s impact.

“This enhanced collaboration paves the way for sustained and effective use of climate-smart innovations across Africa,” he said.

World Bank Regional Director Chakib Jenane said the initiative places strong emphasis on job creation, particularly for women and young people across the agricultural value chain.

The Director of Strategy and Operations for the Western and Central Africa Region.,Marina Wes stressed the importance of regional cooperation in tackling climate-related agricultural risks.

“Climate risks, pests, data systems, and markets do not stop at borders,” she said.