The 2026 Africa SABRE Awards have named communications showcasing the scale and impact of the African Development Bank Group's Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa, (AFAWA, best "Global Campaign" in the 2026 Africa SABRE Awards.
The Superior Achievement in Branding, Reputation and Engagement (SABRE) Awards, focus on excellence in communications, public relations and content creation originating from Africa.
Africa SABRE Awards winners are selected from more than 500 entries, including from multinational agencies such as Edelman, Weber Shandwick and FleishmanHillard, African PR powerhouses like Chain Reactions Africa, Clockwork Digital and APO Group - all representing clients like Vodacom, Spotify, Mastercard Africa and Anglo American.
The Bank Group's winning campaign launched with a series of "AFAWA Stories" videos supported by AFAWA or AFAWA-participatory events in Johannesburg, New York, Paris, Rabat, Abidjan and other cities. The videos took viewers to Kenya, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cote d'Ivoire to hear from women entrepreneurs and financial institution representatives participating in AFAWA programmes.
AFAWA is reducing the estimated $49 billion financing gap faced by Africa's women entrepreneurs, largely by scaling access to finance, advocacy for gender-affirmative policy and regulation, private sector partnership, as well as skills training and mentorship for women-led businesses to successfully apply for financing.
"The goal of the AFAWA: Banking on Women campaign was to influence Africa's commercial banking sector to unlock billions of U.S. dollars in lending to women-led businesses. Additionally, the campaign helped our AFAWA donors to connect with experiences of women entrepreneurs who are benefiting from AFAWA," said Dr. Jemimah Njuki, the Bank's Director for Gender, Women and Civil Society.
"We are thrilled that a jury of SABRE Awards peers has recognized the African Development Bank Group's inclusive "one Bank" approach to communicating these stories," she added.
During the Bank communications campaign, AFAWA measured:
- a 44 percent increase in AFAWA partner commercial banks signed up to the AFAWA program.
- a 241 percent increase in the number of African women entrepreneurs receiving loans or business training.
- a 466 percent increase in financing disbursed to Africa's women-led businesses.
- a 16 percent increase in the number of countries participating in the AFAWA program.
The 2026 Africa SABRE Awards, organized in partnership with the Public Relations and Communications Association, will be presented at a ceremony during the Association's South Africa Conference in Johannesburg on 17 March.
As the African Development Bank Group's first Africa SABRE Awards win, the AFAWA campaign advances to compete in the Global SABRE Awards - honoring the world's 50 best public relations programs - to be held in Miami, Florida in October.
"As always, the quality of storytelling and content creation across Africa stood out for its creativity," said Paul Holmes, creator of the SABRE Awards. "We received entries from a record number of companies and agencies from all across the continent, and it is clear that public relations campaigns in Africa are more data-driven than ever, and deliver stronger business results."
The Africa SABRE Award marks the third communications honour for this AFAWA campaign, and the Bank's twelfth international award for agriculture, human and social development-centred communications.
