Bridging the climate finance gap: the power of country platforms

There is new momentum around country platforms (CPs) as a change in course in the financial mobilisation for climate and development outcomes. The idea of a "country platform" has been used in international development cooperation to describe country-level coordination that links international goals to domestic priorities, thereby both securing and directing international support, primarily finance.

In their simplest definition, these platforms are government-led coordination that establish a hub of gravitas for governments and partners to navigate complex political, social, and economic realities, agree on shared priorities. The Just Energy Transition Partnership in South Africa is an example of an emerging country platform for climate action.

Although not relatively new and in trial over the last two decades, these have not been clinically examined, refined, or incorporated into successive development interventions. In response to this emerging momentum, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Presidential Climate Commission, and Just Energy Transition Project Management Unit convened the Country Platform Exchange (CPE) on February 24 to 25, 2025 as a precursor to the Finance in Common Summit taking place in Cape Town over the next three days.

Appreciating the experiences and volumes of literary reference and the acknowledgement that the current global financial architecture system is not fit for purpose and requires reforms to ensure equitable access to finance for developing countries, our Country Platform Exchange was designed to look ahead at how to scale up country platforms, ensure their integration into the global climate finance architecture, and identify the support structures needed to make them more effective.

Climate finance continues to fall short of developed countries' commitments and developing countries' needs. In the same vein, the pertinent question remains: what exactly do we need to invest in, who will pay, what kind of finance package/s do we need for different programmes and phases within those programmes, and how will actions be coordinated.

The CPE explored the experiences of early adopters, the role of different financial actors, and the operational challenges of country platforms and focused on concrete next steps to enable the next generation of country platforms to mobilise finance at scale, enhance country ownership, and drive systemic climate action.

Inclusive governance

CPs serve as a bridge between national strategies and global financial architecture reforms, addressing issues such as high costs of capital in developing countries and must therefore address structural financial barriers such as high debt burdens, lack of predictable financing, and limited private sector mobilisation.

To be optimally effective, successful CPs have been championed at the highest levels of government, driven by political will and leadership, thus ensuring that CPs are not understood merely as financial coordination mechanisms but as catalysts for broader systemic change embedded in national developmental and climate strategies, ensuring alignment with long-term economic plans.

CPs must be country-led, predictable, inclusive, and aligned with national developmental priorities and socio-economic plans to be effective and to achieve that, these platforms must prioritise governance structures that promote transparency, accountability, and trust.

Transformative Financing Ecosystem

CPs must move beyond conceptualisation and planning to quickly deliver concrete projects with clear implementation pathways. As the world turns its attention to the Finance in Common Summit, the CPE emphasised the urgency of unlocking large-scale finance for country platforms and ensuring they are positioned at the heart of the global climate finance agenda leading up to COP30 in Belém, Brazil.

The Country Platform Exchange has set the stage for a new era of country platforms that are country-led, better financed, and more integrated into global financial architecture.

With the Finance in Common Summit theme being “Fostering a Global Public Development Bank Ecosystem to Reduce Borrowing Costs, Better Manage Debt and Effectively Promote Climate-Aligned Development”, the CPE reflected on the practical measures needed to enable a growing cohort of country platforms, including the role of early-stage finance, system coordination, domestic reforms, and learning networks.

All these measures should remain underpinned by the just transition principles to address the impacts on workers and communities of climate transitions if they are to achieve the desired and just outcomes. This means actionable plans driven by the platform that should include job retraining programmes, community investments, and mechanisms to support displaced workers, and deliberately embedding just transition measures into project design can support this and build public and political support for these innovative mechanisms for change.

Deepening the effectiveness of these platforms will require more than getting the coordination bodies right: it will ultimately require a new paradigm for development cooperation in the most vulnerable countries. The time for incremental change has passed and the moment for action is now, and country platforms offer a transformative vehicle for ensuring climate finance delivers real, on-the-ground impact for developing countries.

Dorah Modise is an executive director at the Presidential Climate Commission.
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