The Power of Co-Financing: Voices from Casablanca

Developing countries are under intensifying pressure to create jobs, strengthen resilience, and keep growth alive-just as budgets tighten, and development aid comes under strain. The gap between what is needed and what is available is no longer looming on the horizon. It is here, driving the choices governments must make right now.

Closing that gap requires something harder to measure than dollars or disbursements: trust, coordination, and a shared willingness to put country priorities first. Cofinancing- when multiple partners pool resources behind a common program-is one of the most powerful ways to do this.

This idea was the basis of our recent event, The Power of Co-financing, which brought development partners together in Casablanca. Under the auspices of Morocco's Ministry of Economy and Finance, the World Bank Group and Agence Française de Développement (AFD Groupe) convened governments, multilateral development banks, bilateral partners, private sector actors, and national development banks to take stock of how co-financing is working in practice and what needs to change to make it work better.

Participants agreed that co-financing, when done well, allows countries to pursue investments that no single institution could support alone-reducing fragmentation, lowering transaction costs, and aligning external financing behind national strategies rather than institutional agendas. But they were equally clear that this does not happen automatically. Procedures need to be simplified and aligned. Teams need incentives to work across institutional boundaries. Financing must be coordinated and predictable. And success must be measured by outcomes delivered, not commitments announced.

From Principles to Practice: Voices from the Field

To better illustrate what co-financing can accomplish in practice, the Casablanca event featured a series of Ignite Talks. These short presentations showcased practitioners working on co-financed projects across organizations, sectors, and countries, sharing concrete examples of what co-financing looks like on the ground.

Four practitioners share their experiences below-from water partnerships in Morocco to energy access in Mozambique, from transformative urban infrastructure to municipal finance reform. Each story is different. But the same thread runs through all of them: when development partners align around a shared goal and put the client country first, more becomes possible.

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The Power of Water Partnerships

Timothée Ourbak, Head of Natural Resources and Biodiversity, AFD Groupe

When four partners came together to finance a water investment in Morocco, coordination did not add complexity, it made things simpler. AFD Groupe served as a "one-stop shop" that reduced administrative burden and streamlined engagement for the government. Drawing on lessons from the Paris Agreement climate negotiations, the speaker reflects on what makes partnerships truly work: listening, inclusiveness, and trust built over time.

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Greater Casablanca Mobility and Logistics Hub

Dominic Pasquale Patella, Senior Transport Specialist, World Bank, and Lena Keicher, Portfolio Manager, KfW Development Bank

Large infrastructure projects test the limits of what any single institution can deliver. The World Bank and KfW are working together to help Morocco transform urban mobility through the CasaHub program. At the heart of their collaboration is the KfW-World Bank Co-Financing Framework Agreement, which allows both institutions to rely on shared standards and procedures-cutting complexity for teams while reducing the burden on the government, and ultimately helping to deliver better services for commuters and businesses.

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Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation (ASCENT) in Mozambique

Jenny Chao, Senior Energy Specialist, World Bank

Mozambique has made remarkable strides in expanding electricity access-and development partners have played a central role in making that progress possible. Coordinated investments are helping drive jobs, economic activity, and growth across the country. The program is part of the broader ambition of Mission 300: the joint initiative to bring electricity to 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. That goal is only achievable through partnership-with multiple institutions aligning behind a shared target and co-financiers stepping in to accelerate momentum.

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Morocco Municipal Performance Program 

Chaymae Belouali, Senior Urban Development Specialist, World Bank, and Zoubida Bennani, Local Governments and Financial Institutions Specialist, AFD Groupe

When designed well, co-financing can strengthen the institutions that make services work for citizens over the long term. The World Bank and AFD Groupe developed a shared framework for measuring and improving municipal management-combining coordinated financing with complementary technical assistance and training. The result is a model that goes beyond building assets to building capacity: helping local governments perform better, manage resources more effectively, and deliver more for the people they serve.

Co-financing is one way multilateralism can respond to a constrained financing environment. And the evidence that co-financing works in practice, and can work at scale, exists. By putting countries first, aligning incentives, and acting collectively, development partners can deliver at the scale the moment demands.