Seville, Spain – July 2, 2025 – At a high-level institutional investor meeting during the Financing for Development Summit (FfD4) in Seville, Dr Hubert Danso, Chairman and CEO of Africa Investor (Ai), spoke at the flagship event, “Incentives for Institutional Investors to Pursue Sustainable and Equitable Investments in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs).
Speaking on the theme, “Rewiring Investment Ecosystems for a Regenerative Global Economy,” Dr Danso urged investors to move beyond legacy mandates and co-create future-fit fiduciary models through collaborative sandboxes and Institutional Investor–Public Partnerships (IIPPs).
“We’re not just here to talk about investing in the future — we’re here to rewire the investment system itself,” said Dr Danso, referencing the Earth for All report he co-authored, Investing to Reconnect Financial Value with People, Nature, and the Real Economy.
Dr Danso spotlighted three transformative investment paradigms currently being piloted across Africa and the Global South that are reshaping investor incentives and accelerating sustainable capital flows into EMDEs:
1. Green Industrial Cities: Dr Danso highlighted Africa’s emerging Green Industrial Cities and Economic Zones, aligned with national and regional green industrialisation strategies such as the African Union’s Nairobi Declaration – Africa’s Green Investment Deal.
These hubs are anchored in ESG-aligned value chains, green infrastructure, and bankable offtakes for value-added products. The cities themselves are structured as investable real assets — akin to green industrial REITs — positioning Africa’s green industrial infrastructure as a globally competitive investable asset class, and scaling its share of the $10 trillion global green industrial economy.
2. Natural Capital Investing: Referencing the G20 Natural Capital Investment Roadmap, launched at London Climate Action Week and now featured at FfD4, Dr Danso called on investors to treat nature as a productive, strategic public asset class.
By integrating IAS 37/38-compliant accounting standards, AI-enabled ecosystem valuation, and sovereign balance sheet tools, institutional investors can mainstream nature-linked investment solutions, transforming them from the exception to the expectation.
3. GEMs3.0 – AI-Enabled Investment Ecosystem: Unveiled at FfD4, the GEMs3.0 Institutional Investor User Survey Report— based on responses from select Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) members managing over $6 trillion in assets — was co-developed with SMI and supported by EY, informing the foundation of the GEMs3.0 platform initiative to align institutional capital with just regenerative transitions.
GEMs3.0 is the world’s first AI-enabled investment ecosystem designed to:
- Correct benchmark and ratings distortions.
- Deliver real-time, transition-relevant insights.
- Empower asset owners to allocate capital in mandate-aligned, systemically regenerative ways.
GEMs3.0 is purpose-built to accelerate just transitions across EMDEs — delivering benefits for people, planet, nature, and portfolios.
“These multi-stakeholder sandboxes are the system,” Dr Danso concluded. “Green Industrial Cities, Natural Capital Investing, and GEMs3.0 are not isolated pilots — they are interoperable platforms redefining how we govern, invest, and scale long-term regenerative returns through Institutional Investor–Public Partnerships.”
“Let’s be the market,” Dr. Danso urged. “As universal owners stewarding over $300 trillion in assets, we are not passengers in this transition — we are its architects. It is time to move beyond ‘Theory of Change’ and ‘Change the Theory’. Let us use the Earth for All report and the FfD4 process to co-create and execute scalable, inclusive investment blueprints for the regenerative global economy we need.”
ENDS
