In the coming years the key bottleneck question for African development policy will further be a focus: How can rapidly growing investment needs – in climate, education and infrastructure – be financed and translated into productive growth, while traditional donor funds become scarcer and debt risks increase? We structure our analysis along three axes: first, the effectiveness of reform and investment initiatives such as the G20 “Compacts with Africa” in mobilising private capital; second, an appropriate division of labour between private finance and public development finance, including domestic resource mobilisation; and third, the role of structural constraints – such as infrastructure, energy, skills and governance – for investment decisions and sustainable partnerships.