VICTORIA, Seychelles — Vice President Ahmed Afif used a climate finance roundtable at the Savoy Seychelles Resort yesterday to argue that Seychelles, although classified as a high-income country, does not receive the financial assistance its climate vulnerabilities demand.
Hosted in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the session brought together government officials, diplomats and financial specialists to examine the gap between Seychelles’ climate ambitions and the resources available to meet them. Mr Afif said: ‘Climate change is real and we need finance. While it is doing everything it can, we also need to say that we require the support we deserve.’ He argued that conventional development indicators understate the country’s exposure to sea-level rise, coastal erosion and extreme weather events.
Delegates discussed how Seychelles can better access concessional finance, restructure debt to free up climate spending, and present unified proposals to international partners. The roundtable forms part of a wider push to position the country as a credible voice in global climate negotiations. Officials pointed to recent storms and the Orange Alert responses as evidence that adaptation must be funded at scale, not in piecemeal projects. The Vice President said the government intends to follow up the discussions with a formal engagement plan targeting both multilateral lenders and bilateral partners over the coming months.
