As a sponsor of the FiCS Coalition for Social Investment, the ILO supported two high-level discussions on social investments and just transitions at the 5th Finance in Common Summit (FiCS), held from 26–28 February 2025.
Social investments and increasing the social impact of public development banks’ investments, are recognized as a priority at the 5th FiCS. In the context of shrinking Official Development Aid (ODA), the final communiqué of the Summit recalls “the importance of aligning growth, jobs and sustainability by embedding social investments and by ensuring just transition principles at program and project levels”. Read the Final Communiqué of FiCS 2025 here.
Breakout session "Just Transitions and Social Investments"
As part of the FiCS Coalition for Social Investment, for the first time, the ILO co-organised a breakout session on “Just Transitions and Social Investments”, together with AFD, CDP, CEB, EIB and Save the Children. Moderated by Nick Robins (London School of Economics), the high-level panel discussion drew a full audience, reflecting the growing momentum behind social investments for just transitions. The subsequent expert level discussion, moderated by Valérie Schmitt, Deputy Director of the Universal Social Protection Department at the ILO, provided more concrete examples for actions already being taken, and the way forward.
The speakers in this session were:
The discussion showed that just transitions cannot happen without social investments, meaning investments in social protection systems, skills development, employment creation, and other social policies and programmes. The case of South Africa shows that transitions can also provide countries with a unique opportunity to invest significantly in their social fabric. This investment is crucial for ensuring that the transition is equitable and inclusive.
“Just transitions in Africa must be defined within the continent’s unique social-economic realities and development priorities. In Africa, we must balance climate action with equitable economic development and ensure no one is left behind.”
- Leila Farah Mokaddem, Director General for Southern Africa, AfDB
Banks have two roles to play:
Firstly, they need to ensure that their investments contribute not only to economic development, but also to social development. This can be done, for example, by ensuring that their projects create decent jobs with social protection.
Secondly, PDBs also need to support the development of social policies and schemes. This includes skills development programmes, social security funds, public employment programmes. This contributes to building the social fabric of every country. Effective policies are essential for guiding social investments. PDBs can play a critical role in supporting these policies by providing the necessary financial resources. This helps to ensure that social investments are sustainable and impactful.
"We have also developed the concept of just resilience, which is adaptation finance for those countries and those groups of vulnerable people -- indigenous people in some countries, women, low-income households -- that are most affected by climate change and have the most limited capacity to deal with it and adapt to it."
- Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-President, EIB
The many references to a multi-stakeholder approach also made clear that for the transitions to be just, PDBs must collaborate with others. They need to join forces with the UN, civil society, workers and employers. The FICS Coalition for Social Investments serves as a vital space to continue this discussion and jointly advance in this work. It is a platform for exchange, enabling PDBs to share best practices and discuss ways to measure the impact of their operations on the SDGs. This platform also offers through its working group on the Global Accelerator opportunities to engage and support government-led roadmaps for just transitions.
"We have set up this Coalition for Social Investment, and the idea was to build the resilience of our economies because equal access to basic services such as health, education and skills, along with a solid social protection system is a foundation for economic growth. Investing in human capital is certainly a prerequisite for just and sustainable growth, just like any infrastructure project. So, the role of PDBs in the broader financial system is to promote sustainability and inclusivity, and to bring together all the development financiers around the same objectives."
- Audrey Rojkoff, Regional Director Southern Africa, AFD
Side meeting of the Coalition for Social Investment
The side meeting of the Coalition for Social Investment on 26 February fostered this kind of discussion. It covered the three working groups under the Coalition for Social Investment, which are the working group on Just Transitions, which concretely also supports the Global Accelerator, the Health and climate working group, and the newly founded Education working group.
Nicolas Picchiottino (Secretary General, International Development Finance Club) and Mia Seppo (Assistant Director-General, Jobs and Social Protection, ILO) opened the meeting, giving an overview of the links between the Finance in Common Summit in Cape Town and the upcoming FfD4 Conference in Sevilla, and the Second World Social Summit in Doha.
“PDBs and the UN have different mandates but shared goals: achieving the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. The path ahead—from Cape Town to Sevilla and onwards to the World Summit for Social Development in Doha—is a unique opportunity to deepen our collaboration and scale up financing for decent jobs, universal social protection and just transitions.”
- Mia Seppo, Assistant-Director General, Jobs and Social Protection, ILO
The ILO particularly highlighted the potential of its Structural Model for Sustainable Development, which can help PDBs in assessing the social impact of their investments and improve the design of their operations to maximize their contribution to the SDGs.
Fruitful bilateral meetings
On the sidelines of the Summit, fruitful bilateral meetings took place with African Development Bank, Agence Francaise de Développement, Asian Development Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank, European Commission, European Investment Bank, Development Bank of Namibia, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Malawi Agriculture and Industrial Investment Corporation. Moving from discussions to implementation, concrete next steps will pave the way towards working together at country level in Global Accelerator pathfinder countries.
The 5th edition of FiCS concluded with members recalling the importance of aligning growth, jobs and sustainability by embedding social investments and by ensuring just transition principles at program and project levels, as well as improving interoperability of financial taxonomies and methodologies. They recognized the need to mobilize increased concessional resources for the lower income countries, including through new avenues such as the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force and other initiatives. They highlighted the need to work with a broad range of partners and proposed to rejuvenate international cooperation focusing on inclusive and sustainable investment, beyond ODA.
For more information, please reach out to [email protected].