Our Work in Africa

Overview

Since establishing The Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa Regional Office in 1966, we’ve formed strong ties with African governments, academic institutions, and pan-African entities. The office continues to catalyze investments to support Africa as a leader in the fight against climate change.

If Africa continues to develop as other nations have, we will never achieve net zero emissions. The traditional development path relies heavily on fossil fuels. Africa needs to find a different approach to sustainable and low-carbon development.

Africa’s low emissions are not due to a decision to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but rather to underinvestment in power generation and infrastructure. This has led to a severe lack of access to reliable electricity on the continent.

Why it matters

~$0BillionBillion
in 2019 and 2020 went towards financing for climate-related projects around the world. Only $19 billion of that came to Africa, with just $2 billion from the private sector
0%%
of global emissions will have been accounted for by 2050 if we don't focus on expanding access to clean electricity, energy-poor countries in Africa and around the world
0MillionMillion
public school children in Africa are funded by government school programs—which could reach tens of millions more

Current Actions

Our Strategy

1Power: We work to bring renewable energy to sub-Saharan Africa, where 55 percent of the population has no access to electricity. We also seek to expand Africa’s role in the voluntary carbon market space, turning to Africa’s abundant natural resources.
2Food: We believe school meals are the most reliable social safety net, and are working to help supply nutritious meals, often using local produce farmed through regenerative methods.
3Health: We envision a world where data-driven decisions empower community health systems. We leverage health data for surveillance, pandemic preparedness, and response efforts. We accelerate data collection, aggregation, analysis, and utilization to revolutionize public health and achieve health equity for all.