African Development Bank: Private-Sector Partnerships Key to Sustainable Humanitarian Response
Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbade, Senior Vice President of the African Development Bank Group, emphasized that engaging the private sector is essential to strengthening humanitarian responses and supporting sustainable economic recovery, noting that the Bank’s role is to complement humanitarian actors rather than replace them.
Her remarks came during her participation in the Geneva International Cooperation Forum, where she joined a high-level panel titled “Private-Sector Partnerships in Humanitarian Contexts.” The forum was held on February 26–27, 2026, at the Geneva International Conference Centre in Switzerland, with the participation of private-sector representatives and international experts.
Akin-Olugbade highlighted that crises are often accompanied by collapsing markets and lost jobs, stressing that the private sector plays a central role in Africa, where nearly 80% of the population works in the sector, making it a key partner in prevention, stabilization, and recovery efforts.
Participants at the forum also underscored the importance of expanding humanitarian financing amid declining global resources, while ensuring that funding is responsible and does not fuel conflicts, and that cooperation with the private sector strengthens partnerships with governments rather than replacing them.
Akin-Olugbade also outlined examples of the Bank’s interventions, including supporting more than 300 micro and small enterprises in Madagascar to access bank financing through the Transition Support Facility, as well as partnerships in Sudan and the Sahel region to stabilize agricultural value chains and support economic resilience in collaboration with humanitarian organizations.
She noted that these initiatives aim to revive local economies, restore essential services, and reduce the risk of relapse into crisis, emphasizing that synergy between humanitarian actors, the private sector, and multilateral development banks is key to achieving a sustainable humanitarian response.
