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The report examines the 'adaptation gap,' noting that annual costs for adaptation in developing countries could reach USD 500 billion by 2050, while current flows remain insufficient and skewed toward mitigation. It analyzes how MDBs are transitioning from stand-alone climate projects to a 'Paris alignment' paradigm where all development finance is climate-resilient. Key barriers identified include a lack of technical expertise in developing countries, the high upfront costs of climate-proofing (10-20% of finance), and the difficulty of attracting private sector investment due to a lack of immediate revenue streams. The document recommends increased technical assistance for National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and the use of innovative blended finance instruments to catalyze private capital.

The report examines youth climate advocacy in Africa, highlighting the role of civil society, government policies, and the challenges of the digital divide. It argues for a shift from tokenistic inclusion to meaningful participation, where youth are recognized as active agents of change in policymaking and implementation.

The policy brief examines the health diplomacy of the US and China during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically focusing on Africa and Latin America. It argues that while both powers used health aid to gain diplomatic ground, China committed more new resources and employed a multi-actor approach, whereas the US relied heavily on pre-existing frameworks like PEPFAR. The document also analyzes systemic impacts, such as the disruption of global supply chains and the rise of nationalism over multilateralism, and highlights the critical need for health equity and global cooperation to manage future public health crises.

The document examines the critical interdependencies between water, energy, and food security, illustrating how failures in one sector trigger crises in others. Using case studies from India, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, and Pakistan, it demonstrates how climate-driven droughts and poor governance exacerbate resource scarcity and political instability. The author advocates for a systemic shift in international aid, moving away from siloed management toward a nexus approach based on three pillars: enhanced knowledge through data, strengthened institutional governance, and cross-sectoral regional cooperation.

The document describes the life of Hanna, a 13-year-old girl in Ethiopia facing severe hardships due to drought. Her daily life involves attending school and performing heavy household chores, specifically walking long distances to fetch water, which has become more difficult as drought increases wait times at boreholes and raises concerns about water contamination. The drought has caused significant economic instability; her father left for an Internal Displaced Persons camp with the family savings, leaving her mother to sell small food items to cover basic expenses and sanitary products. Consequently, Hanna is skipping meals due to rising food prices and lacks savings. While she is interested in climate-smart agricultural and livestock projects to improve local productivity and potentially convince her to stay in her community, her capacity to participate is limited by her age, lack of access to loans, and the time demands of her chores and studies.

The document presents a scenario in Kul-Bayne, Ethiopia, where drought and resource scarcity threaten livelihoods. It outlines a series of proposed resilience measures developed by an Environmental Management Officer, including improved meteorological liaison, community radio weather forecasts, water-saving technologies, women-focused savings and loan schemes, bio-fertiliser kitchen gardens, and disaster risk reduction networks to protect vulnerable populations during heatwaves.

This document is a role-playing scenario for a 'social lottery' game designed to simulate the experiences of a 22-year-old commercial sex worker living with HIV in Ethiopia during a drought.

A case study on the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) project in Talensi, Ghana, detailing how a low-cost land restoration technique has improved soil fertility, increased crop yields, and enhanced the climate resilience of over 10,000 smallholder farmers.

The document analyzes the scale of illegal wildlife trade, which is estimated to be worth between USD 7 and USD 23 billion annually. It evaluates CITES as the primary legal framework for regulating international trade in endangered species, noting that while it has evolved through partnerships with organizations like UNODC and INTERPOL, it lacks a mandate to criminalize trade or oversee domestic activities. The brief discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the potential link between wildlife trade and zoonoses, and explores proposals for a new treaty focused on 'Wildlife Crime' or 'One Health' to fill existing regulatory gaps.

The report identifies over 60 mitigation policies adopted between July 2019 and August 2020, noting the highest activity in the energy and transport sectors. It highlights a lack of explicitly 'green' COVID-19 recovery measures in most assessed countries, except for the EU and Republic of Korea. Additionally, it tracks the progress of NDCs and LTS, noting that only Vietnam has officially revised its NDC target among the group, while the EU and Japan have submitted net-zero long-term strategies.

The guide outlines a framework for land restoration consisting of understanding the land's state through social and physical mapping, setting inclusive goals, and establishing tracking systems. It emphasizes that restoration must integrate local expertise and marginalized voices to avoid pitfalls such as planting trees in incorrect locations or violating land rights. Case studies from Kenya, India, Ethiopia, and El Salvador illustrate how data-driven planning and community engagement can maximize carbon sequestration, water quality, and economic benefits.

The Market Approaches to Resilience (MAR) project (2015-2019) aimed to reduce the vulnerability of rural Ethiopian pastoralists to climate shocks by diversifying their assets beyond livestock. By providing microfinance services—including loans, savings, and credit—the project enabled participants, particularly women, to establish small businesses and generate steady cash incomes. This financial diversification reduced the need for long-distance migration to find grazing land during droughts. The project employed a 'systems approach' that combined financial services with the restoration of depleted landscapes through the planting of trees and vegetation. A key focus was gender integration, with some Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLA) reaching up to 80% female membership. The project reached 188,902 people, including 70,825 women, and demonstrated that pastoralist resilience can be improved without forcing a transition to a non-nomadic lifestyle. The authors conclude that systemic resilience requires longer funding cycles than the typical three-year period to ensure institutional gains are sustainable and to overcome barriers such as the reluctance of financial institutions to serve low-income, non-permanent settlements.

The document highlights that Malawi loses approximately 1.7% of its GDP annually to droughts and floods, a rate significantly higher than the average for Least Developed Countries. It advocates for a 'triple dividend' approach to resilience—avoided losses, unlocked development potential, and co-benefits—noting that benefit-cost ratios for such investments can range from 3:1 to 50:1. The brief provides evidence from infrastructure, social protection, and climate-smart agriculture to support the claim that proactive resilience is more cost-effective than humanitarian aid.

Djibouti leverages its strategic position at the Bab el Mandab strait to maintain agency despite a highly asymmetrical relationship with China. While China has become a primary creditor and infrastructure provider through the Belt and Road Initiative, Djibouti manages this influence by hosting multiple foreign military bases and diversifying its economic partnerships with the US, France, and Saudi Arabia. President Ismail Omar Guelleh has recently worked to reduce China's dominance by renegotiating loans and postponing projects to avoid excessive debt distress.

The report outlines the critical role of geospatial least-cost modelling in achieving universal energy access, while highlighting significant data gaps in demand-side considerations, grid infrastructure, and clean cooking patterns. It argues for a shift from static to dynamic data inputs and suggests that integrating electrification and clean cooking planning can double the viability of electric cookstoves. The document provides frameworks for key data inputs and proposes cost-effective methods for filling gaps, such as AI-driven remote sensing and cell phone-based surveys.

The document examines the vulnerability of coffee farming in Coto Brus, Costa Rica, where climate change threatens arabica coffee production. It highlights the role of farmer cooperatives, peer-to-peer learning, and cross-sectoral alliances in scaling adaptation. The brief provides six recommendations, including diversifying incomes through alternative crops like vanilla and cacao, and establishing monitoring baselines for adaptation measures. It also notes similar regional efforts in Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico.

The paper argues that while existing climate services primarily support short-term farming decisions, they must be expanded to include decadal and long-term projections to guide transformative adaptation—significant systemic changes to agricultural production. A review of 253 national documents found that only 2.7% describe transformative applications of CS. The authors recommend integrating long-term climate data with crop models and socioeconomic factors to identify viability thresholds and map adaptation pathways, while emphasizing the need to modernize National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) and ensure equitable access for marginalized farmers.

The document analyses the scope and direction of energy transition policies in 34 African countries, evaluating them against dimensions of energy justice. It finds a general shift toward market-oriented regimes using auction instruments and feed-in tariffs, but warns that an overemphasis on bankability can sideline development goals. The brief identifies several 'good practice' countries and recommends that AU-EU cooperation integrate energy justice criteria, support regional partners, and facilitate policy learning from African successes.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and its subsidiaries reported total assets of $261,740,321 as of September 30, 2020, an increase from $169,995,735 in 2019. The organization's total operating revenues for the 2020 fiscal year were $235,894,882, with total operating expenses of $143,915,998. Independent auditors Grant Thornton LLP issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements and confirmed compliance with the major federal program identified as the USAID Hay Tao Program. WRI's work focuses on seven critical issues: Climate, Energy, Food, Forests, Water, Cities and Ocean, supported by disciplinary centers in Business, Economics, Finance, and Governance. The organization maintains a donor-restricted endowment of $25 million (cost basis) and operates regional offices in China and Africa, as well as subsidiaries in India and Europe.

The document analyzes the energy deficit in Africa, noting that over 600 million people lack electricity. It identifies key barriers to green energy adoption, including a need for $70 billion in annual investment, technical capacity gaps, and fossil fuel subsidies. The author argues that the AfCFTA can fast-track the transition by creating a unified market, reducing investment risks through dispute resolution mechanisms, and facilitating the free movement of skilled labor. Additionally, the briefing suggests that the EU-Africa partnership should shift from bilateral aid to regional support, prioritize institutional knowledge sharing on fossil fuel transitions, and focus on local adaptation of green technologies rather than mere imports.