Nnenna Nwabufo: Building Africa's resilience in the face of fragility and conflict

When other development institutions withdraw from conflict zones, the African Development Bank stays. That choice — and the philosophy behind it — sits at the heart of this opening episode of the Africa Resilience Series podcast, in which Delphine Vakunta speaks with Nnenna Nwabufo, the Bank's Group's departing Vice President for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery.

Conflict does not respect borders, and solutions should not do so either. Nwabufo makes the case for a regional lens on fragility: investments must be designed to reduce competition over scarce resources, integrate early warning systems, and build the shared infrastructure that creates economic interdependence between neighbors.

Nwabufo also makes a forceful case for the private sector as a stabilising force in fragile contexts. Local businesses feel the shock first and are often first to steady communities. Nwabufo argues that unlocking private investment in these places takes four things: an enabling environment, stronger market linkages for small and medium enterprises, smart de-risking instruments, and patient, honest risk-taking.

The episode's most arresting argument is also its simplest. Communities living through fragility are not waiting to be saved.

People living through fragility, Nwabufo says, have more expertise on survival than most of those who arrive to help. The Bank's job is to partner with them — to remove barriers, amplify what works, de-risk what doesn't. "We do not design for the communities," Nwabufo says. "We design with them."

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