Event Report Africa Climate Week session: Colliding climate and conflict risks: Building resilience from an integrated approach in fragile and most vulnerable places

This event report documents a session titled "Colliding climate and conflict risks: building resilience from an integrated approach in fragile and most vulnerable places," held during a GRP/FAO side event preceding the UN Africa Climate Week in Accra, Ghana, on 18 March 2019. The session focused on identifying local actions in Africa to combat food insecurity and conflict risks, analyzing the barriers to their implementation, and discussing strategies to scale these initiatives to national and global levels.

• The session identified several core visions for resilient development, including the need for transformed agricultural systems that are socially and ecologically sustainable, equitable and accessible funding mechanisms for farmers, and the inclusion of all societal groups and types of knowledge.
• Current actions on the ground primarily target community cohesion—such as farmer-pastoralist dialogue platforms in the Sahel and West Africa—and the provision of local climate information. There is a significant lack of actions focused on mainstream investments in farming and the creation of resilient landscapes.
• Significant barriers to scaling resilience include land tenure issues, particularly regarding land rights for women and youth, and government policies that favor chemical fertilizers, hybrid seeds, and cash crops (such as cocoa, peanuts, and cotton), which can undermine soil fertility.
• A tension exists between proponents of 'smart agriculture' and 'agro-ecology.' Smart-agriculture advocates argue that the primary barrier is the lack of policy implementation due to corruption and low resources, while agro-ecology proponents argue that existing policies support industrial approaches that actually hinder agro-ecological success.
• Conflicts between farmers and pastoralists are driven by weak governance and unplanned agricultural expansion. These local conflicts are noted to be increasingly widespread and linked to violent crime, radicalism, and terrorism.
• The report highlights a disconnect between global and local scales, noting that top-down approaches often fail to provide context-relevant information in indigenous languages, leading to a lack of local ownership and poorly aligned incentives.
• To achieve resilient development, the report recommends six key actions: supporting community self-organization, promoting locally-driven ideas and peer-to-peer capacity building, introducing innovative funding for local actors, improving access to information via user-friendly technology, supporting participatory conflict resolution, and targeting corruption.

APA

Downing, A., Harmackova, Z., & Brainich, A. (2019). Event Report Africa Climate Week session: Colliding climate and conflict risks: Building resilience from an integrated approach in fragile and most vulnerable places. Global Resilience Partnership. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/event-report-colliding-climate-and-conflict-risks-acw-final.pdf

Chicago

Downing, Andrea, Zuzana Harmackova, and Anastasia Brainich. Event Report Africa Climate Week session: Colliding climate and conflict risks: Building resilience from an integrated approach in fragile and most vulnerable places. Global Resilience Partnership, 2019. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/event-report-colliding-climate-and-conflict-risks-acw-final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Downing |first1=Andrea |last2=Harmackova |first2=Zuzana |last3=Brainich |first3=Anastasia |title=Event Report Africa Climate Week session: Colliding climate and conflict risks: Building resilience from an integrated approach in fragile and most vulnerable places |publisher=Global Resilience Partnership |date=18 March 2019 |url=https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/event-report-colliding-climate-and-conflict-risks-acw-final.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{downing2019event, author = {Downing, Andrea and Harmackova, Zuzana and Brainich, Anastasia}, title = {{Event Report Africa Climate Week session: Colliding climate and conflict risks: Building resilience from an integrated approach in fragile and most vulnerable places}}, institution = {Global Resilience Partnership}, year = {2019}, month = mar, url = {https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/event-report-colliding-climate-and-conflict-risks-acw-final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }