Agricultural Climate Financing for Sub-Saharan Africa post the 2015 Paris Agreement Declaration

Abstract In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), there are limited empirical studies on agricultural climate financing; yet within the knowledge economy framework, climate finance is increasingly recognized as a knowledge-intensive mechanism fostering institutional learning, governance innovation, and adaptive agricultural transformation in climate-vulnerable economies. In this study, we examine institutional governance and economic drivers of agricultural climate finance in SSA, with particular attention to the post-2009 global financial recession and the post-2015 Paris Agreement periods. Using panel-data estimators, including fixed effects and the dynamic feasible generalized least squares (FGLS), the study analyses how governance indicators, macroeconomic conditions, and structural policy shifts affect climate-related development finance flows to SSA.The results reveal that institutional governance variables, particularly corruption control and political stability, significantly influence climate-related development finance mobilization, while the post-recession and post-2015 Paris agreement periods generated structural changes in the governance-finance relationship. The interaction effects suggest that global climate governance frameworks enhanced knowledge transfer, policy learning and institutional adaptation across countries in SSA, thereby changing the effectiveness of governance structures in attracting climate finance. Thus, the study clarifies the significance of sound institutional governance and emphasizes the need for developed countries to commit to providing SSA countries with finance to help them decarbonize their agricultural sectors, to limit global warming to 1.5 °C as enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The study contributes to the knowledge economy literature by positioning agricultural climate finance as a governance-driven and knowledge-based development instrument that strengthens institutional innovation capacity, climate resilience, and sustainable transformation in developing countries.