At a recent institutional investor meeting during the Financing for Development Summit (FfD4) in Seville, Spain, Dr. Hubert Danso, chairman and CEO of Africa Investor (Ai), urged investors to move beyond legacy mandates toward future-fit fiduciary models through collaborative efforts and institutional investor partnerships.
Danso spotlighted three investment paradigms being piloted across Africa and the Global South that are reshaping investor incentives and accelerating sustainable capital flows into emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). According to Danso, these are green industrial cities; natural capital investing; and GEMs3.0, an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled investment ecosystem.
“These multi-stakeholder sandboxes are the system,” said Danso. “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.”
Aligned with national and regional green industrialization strategies, green industrial cities and economic ones are anchored in ESG-aligned value chains, green infrastructure and bankable offtakes for value-added products. According to Danso, 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.
In addition, referencing the G20 Natural Capital Investment Roadmap that was launched at London Climate Action Week, Danso urged investors to treat nature as a strategic public asset class. He believes that by integrating a number of resources and tools, institutional investors can make nature-linked investment solutions more mainstream.
Danso also referenced the GEMs3.0 Institutional Investor User Survey Report, which was based on responses from select Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) members managing more than $6 trillion in assets. The survey was developed to inform the foundation of the GEMs3.0 platform initiative to align institutional capital with just regenerative transitions. GEMs3.0 is a first-of-its-kind AI-enabled investment ecosystem designed to correct benchmark and ratings distortions, deliver real-time, transition-relevant insights, and empower asset owners to allocate capital in mandate-aligned, systemically regenerative ways. GEMs3.0 aims to accelerate just transitions across EMDEs, delivering benefits for people, planet, nature, and portfolios.
“Let’s be the market,” urged Danso. “As universal owners stewarding over $300 trillion in assets, we are not passengers in this transition — we are its architects. 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.”
