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

The report details a session from Africa Climate Week 2019 focused on integrating climate and conflict risk management in fragile African regions. It identifies key visions for resilient agriculture, such as community cohesion and ecological innovation, while highlighting barriers including top-down policy mismatches, corruption, and land tenure issues. The session emphasizes the need for locally-driven, peer-to-peer capacity building and innovative funding to scale resilience efforts.

• The session identified several visions for transformed agricultural systems, including the need for 'Equitable and accessible funding mechanisms for farmers', 'Resilient landscapes', and 'coordinated and cohesive communities'.
• Current actions are most concentrated on fostering community cohesion and providing information to individuals, while there is a 'vast shortage' of actions focused on mainstream investments in farming.
• Significant barriers to scaling resilience include governmental policies that favor 'chemical fertilisers, hybrid seeds, mechanisation agrochemical focused on cash crops' over agro-ecological solutions, as well as issues with land rights for women and youth.
• There is a noted tension between 'smart agriculture' and 'agro-ecology' approaches; proponents of the former cite corruption and lack of resources as the primary barriers to policy implementation, while proponents of the latter argue that the policies themselves support unsustainable industrial models.
• Conflicts between farmers and pastoralists are driven by weak governance and unplanned agricultural expansion, and these local tensions are increasingly linked to 'violent crime and conflict' and 'the contagion of radicalism and terrorism'.
• A critical disconnect exists between global and local levels, characterized by a 'top-down global to local approach' and a lack of platforms for sharing indigenous and scientific knowledge, which leads to poorly aligned incentives.

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} }