Africa’s debt problem constrains government spending and investment across the continent. Ample access to electricity is another problem, which constrains growth. Then there are the twin climate and biodiversity crises, to which fragile African states are particularly vulnerable. There is no panacea for these interlocking challenges. But there is a tool that offers the chance to make some progress on all of them — debt-for-nature swaps (DfNS).

Not that long ago, private equity firms only had to be active in Africa to claim their capital was having an ‘impact’. Such was the investment shortfall that simply being willing to face the array of challenges earned the label. But as the standards for impact investing are rise, private equity needs to find a way to meet them while simultaneously delivering higher risk-adjusted returns.