As the World Bank and International Monetary Fund host the Spring Meetings in Washington this week, Africa’s development priorities hang in the balance.

With no high-level discussions on climate or gender — issues that are central to the continent’s growth and resilience — the agenda seems increasingly disconnected from the systemic challenges facing African nations. Instead, the focus remains on "Jobs and Macroeconomics," a framing that recalls the failed structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) of the 1980s and 90s.

Under the guise of growth and stability, these policies imposed austerity, deregulation and fiscal cuts that decimated public services, deepened inequality and burdened Africa with unsustainable debt. The current direction threatens to repeat this damaging legacy, while the institutions responsible for financing fossil fuel expansion and undermining climate resilience evade accountability.

In this context, Mission 300, launched at the Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam in January, stands as a critical initiative. Led by the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), African Union, and the government of Tanzania, Mission 300 aims to provide electricity to 300 million people across Africa by 2030.

But ambition without justice is not progress. And promises without integrity are not solutions. The truth is, Mission 300 risks becoming just another top-down, donor-driven project that fails to answer the fundamental question: whose development, on whose terms, and at what cost?In line with this year’s Spring Meetings’ theme "Jobs and Macroeconomics,” we must critically assess whether Mission 300 will create clean, sustainable jobs that benefit communities across Africa. Will it empower young people in rural Kenya or women in informal settlements in Ghana — or will they be concentrated in urban industrial corridors and foreign contractor payrolls?According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), Africa accounts for only 3 percent of global renewable energy jobs, despite its vast potential and growing population. If Mission 300 is to reverse this trend, it must move beyond megaprojects and pipelines, and instead prioritise community-led, decentralised energy systems that generate not just electricity but equitable, decent work rooted in local contexts.

Yet, early indications are troubling. The inclusion of fossil gas as a transitional energy source — backed by the World Bank and reflected in Senegal’s National Energy Compact — is a signal that the same polluting industries responsible for destabilising our climate are being rebranded as part of the solution.

Natural gas may offer short-term job spikes during construction, but these are neither green nor future-proof jobs. Moreover, the International Energy Agency has made it clear that no new oil and gas fields are compatible with net-zero by 2050.

The financing model raises equally serious concerns. Much of the funding promised under Mission 300 comes in the form of concessional loans. Even at a one percent interest rate over 40 years, this is debt — and for a continent where 40 countries face rising debt levels, and at least 19 are at high risk of debt distress, adding more liabilities to public balance sheets to fund fossil-dependent infrastructure is not development — it is exploitation.

African nations sink deeper into debt crisis. Their external debt has reached a staggering $11.4 trillion in 2023. According to a report by Christian Aid, across Africa, 32 countries now spend more on debt than healthcare, with $85 billion paid to external creditors in 2023, projected to increase to $104 billion in 2024.

As debt burdens grow heavier across the continent, the wave of billion-dollar pledges and commitments deserves careful attention.

The Africa Energy Summit generated headlines with pledges of over $5 billion from donors like the Rockefeller Foundation, AIIB, and Islamic Development Bank, but bigger numbers don’t always mean better outcomes.

With over $50 billion now committed to Mission 300, including $48 billion from the AfDB and World Bank by 2030, there is still no public guarantee of how these funds will be deployed.

This lack of transparency and the sidelining of critical climate concerns only amplifies the deeper contradictions within the World Bank/IMF policies and deeply alarms African civil society and vulnerable communities in Africa.

The World Bank committed at the 2023 Annual Meetings in Marrakech to a new mission: A liveable planet, in addition to poverty eradication. This new vision is now marginalised possibly due to fears of withdrawal by the Trump administration, revealing a major contradiction.

Regarding climate finance, Bretton Woods institutions must strengthen their climate financing capacities, particularly in ways that don’t create additional barriers for developing countries. The September 2024 report on MDB’s Joint Report on climate finance shows that MDBs contributed a record $125 billion in 2023.

But these funds often come in the form of debt and non-concessional finance, which limits the fiscal space of developing countries already struggling with climate impacts and high debt levels. There is an urgent need to significantly increase grant-based and highly concessional finance within their portfolios.

Gender has also been sidelined in World Bank discussions for far too long. Despite the Bank’s ambitious Gender Strategy for 2024-30, which promises to prioritise gender equality in global development, the reality remains far removed from these claims. Women’s needs, particularly in vital sectors like energy access, continue to be neglected.

Nearly 900 million people in Africa still rely on harmful biomass for cooking, and the burden falls disproportionately on women. This is not merely a climate or environmental issue— it’s a health crisis, a significant economic vulnerability, and an unaddressed inequality. Reliance on polluting fuels costs $791.4 billion annually, with health-related impacts accounting for $526.3 billion.

The Spring Meetings must be seized as a turning point. While the hopes may be tempered by the complexities and challenges ahead, giving up is worse. Expectations are low, given the history of unfulfilled promises and empty rhetoric. Yet, this moment presents a critical opportunity for African leaders to reject outdated models of debt-driven growth, fossil-fuelled development, and gender-blind planning.

Dr Wafa Misrar is the Campaign and Policy Officer at CAN Africa, and Said Skounti is a researcher at IMAL Initiative.

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