PROMOTING CLIMATE-RESILIENT PEACEBUILDING IN FRAGILE STATES

The report argues that climate change acts as a "threat multiplier" in fragile states, exacerbating existing conflict drivers like poverty and weak governance. It proposes a framework for "climate-resilient peacebuilding" based on six principles, including integrated context analysis and a forward-looking approach to planning. The document identifies specific entry points for integration across five peacebuilding dimensions: basic safety and security, political processes, basic services, government functions, and economic revitalization. It also reviews existing international guidance, noting that while some tools integrate climate risks, many others lack this perspective, suggesting that practitioners should integrate climate resilience into existing resources rather than creating new toolkits.

• Climate change is characterized as a "threat multiplier" that does not directly cause conflict but interacts with existing drivers—such as political instability, poverty, and weak governance—to exacerbate current conflicts or trigger new ones.
• Fragile states are particularly vulnerable to climate-related conflicts due to their high exposure to risks, economic dependence on rain-fed agriculture, and histories of weak governance and poverty.
• Climate change can drive instability in fragile states by increasing competition for natural resources, displacing large populations, and overwhelming weak state institutions by stressing health, water, food, and energy systems.
• The report proposes six guiding principles for climate-resilient peacebuilding: using integrated context analysis, balancing immediate and long-term priorities, addressing climate-natural resource-conflict linkages, facilitating cross-sector coordination, adopting forward-looking planning, and aiming for resilience as the overarching objective.
• Integration of climate resilience can occur across five peacebuilding dimensions: basic safety and security (e.g., climate-resilient livelihoods for ex-combatants), political processes (e.g., using climate impacts as a platform for dialogue), basic services (e.g., climate-resilient water infrastructure), government functions (e.g., strengthening early warning systems), and economic revitalization (e.g., integrating climate trends into natural resource sector planning).
• Practitioners face significant barriers to integration, including a lack of available or usable climate data, competing immediate humanitarian priorities, funding silos, and a lack of technical skills to translate climate data into responses.
• A review of existing guidance shows a mixed level of climate integration; for example, the UN's 'Renewable Resources and Conflict' guidance is well-integrated, whereas the 'Conflict-Sensitivity Resource Pack' and World Bank's 'Guidance for Supporting State-Building' do not explicitly address climate change.
• Practitioners suggest that instead of creating new dedicated toolkits, the international community should provide practical guidance, such as checklists and case studies, on how to integrate climate resilience into existing peacebuilding resources.

APA

Crawford, A., Dazé, A., Hammill, A., Parry, J.-E., & Zamudio, A. N. (2015). PROMOTING CLIMATE-RESILIENT PEACEBUILDING IN FRAGILE STATES. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/promoting-climate-resilient-peacebuilding-fragile-states.pdf

Chicago

Crawford, Alec, Angie Dazé, Anne Hammill, Jo-Ellen Parry, and Alicia Natalia Zamudio. PROMOTING CLIMATE-RESILIENT PEACEBUILDING IN FRAGILE STATES. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2015. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/promoting-climate-resilient-peacebuilding-fragile-states.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Crawford |first1=Alec |last2=Dazé |first2=Angie |last3=Hammill |first3=Anne |last4=Parry |first4=Jo-Ellen |last5=Zamudio |first5=Alicia Natalia |title=PROMOTING CLIMATE-RESILIENT PEACEBUILDING IN FRAGILE STATES |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=March 2015 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/promoting-climate-resilient-peacebuilding-fragile-states.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{crawford2015promoting, author = {Crawford, Alec and Dazé, Angie and Hammill, Anne and Parry, Jo-Ellen and Zamudio, Alicia Natalia}, title = {{PROMOTING CLIMATE-RESILIENT PEACEBUILDING IN FRAGILE STATES}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2015}, month = mar, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/promoting-climate-resilient-peacebuilding-fragile-states.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }