There is little regional data on private investment in CCD beyond that to renewable energy. This paper applies a methodology to address this data gap and to support greater understanding of the role of public incentives in shaping private investment in climate relevant sectors. Because of the granularity needed to understand private investment choices as they relate to CCD, the paper focuses on lessons learned from analysis of four countries and two sectors: Uganda and Namibia’s energy sectors and Zambia and Tanzania’s agricultural sectors. Cross-cutting findings suggest there remains a significant gap in support to the diffusion of decentralised and smaller-scale technologies (hard and soft) which are particularly relevant for Africa. Also, creating the enabling environment for private investment in CCD requires greater support at market level and increased policy coherence within climate relevant sectors, including public support to market-level information collection and dissemination.