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The policy brief examines the rise of agricultural growth poles in Africa, which are coordinated investments designed to shift the continent from subsistence to commercial agriculture. While these 'agropoles' aim to attract private investment and promote industrialization, the document highlights significant operational challenges, including poor coordination, financial mismanagement, and risks to small-scale farmers. It argues that for these initiatives to be sustainable, governments must implement robust legal frameworks, avoid stabilization provisions in contracts, and follow a three-stage development process consisting of vision, design, and implementation, with a strong emphasis on transparency and community engagement.

The report identifies a gap between Namibia's strong economic growth and its poor human development indicators, particularly in sanitation, electricity access, and nutrition. Using the International Futures (IFs) system, it models various policy interventions to determine their impact on GDP, extreme poverty, and infant mortality. Key findings suggest that while individual sectoral pushes like 'Health Extension' or 'Infrastructure Push' provide specific gains, an 'Integrated Development Push' combined with household transfers offers the most comprehensive path to reducing poverty and inequality, though it involves trade-offs in funding and specific health outcomes.

The document examines the tension in South Africa between the desire to attract skilled migrants and the drive to deter irregular, semi-skilled migration. It critiques the 2016 Green Paper on International Migration for proposing regressive asylum policies, such as processing centres, while noting positive steps toward regional SADC integration and the retention of foreign graduates. The authors highlight systemic bottlenecks, including poor inter-departmental coordination and the negative impact of the Licensing of Small Businesses Bill on migrant entrepreneurs, and argue that xenophobia is exacerbated by government discourse linking irregular migration to national security.

The document examines AVIC International's approach to skills transfer in Kenya, arguing that the company views local development as a business priority and a strategic tool for market expansion. It identifies a 'bootstrapping' model of development where projects evolve organically based on encountered obstacles. While stakeholders report high satisfaction with the programs, the study finds that concrete outcomes in terms of widespread job creation and machinery utilization remain mixed.

The paper investigates the dynamics between South Africa, as a regional hegemon, and several 'secondary powers' in sub-Saharan Africa. It concludes that while these states possess significant material power, their ability to contest South African leadership is limited by poor governance and a lack of overlapping strategic interests. Most contestation is found to be unintended, with the exception of Angola, which employs a strategy of soft balancing through economic protectionism and strategic investments.

The report examines the utility of extreme event attribution (EEA) through interviews with government officials and NGO representatives in Ethiopia, Kenya, and India. While generally viewed positively, the practical application of EEA varies by country and sector. In Ethiopia and Kenya, EEA is seen as a critical tool for securing international climate finance and improving drought early warning systems. In India, stakeholders expressed more skepticism, emphasizing the need for a 'critical mass' of studies to identify trends before the science can effectively influence national mitigation or adaptation agendas. Across all regions, significant barriers persist, including the high technical complexity of EEA outputs, a lack of predictive capacity for future events, and the need for down-scaled, non-technical communication to reach local communities and farmers.

The 2015-16 drought in Ethiopia, exacerbated by El Niño, was an extremely rare event that affected 9.7 million people and exceeded the mitigation capacity of existing national and international response systems.

The workshop, attended by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MEFCC) staff, focused on creating an action plan to communicate Ethiopia's NAP process. Participants developed messages for international entities like the UNFCCC and multilateral donors, emphasizing the need for technical and financial support. The group identified priority channels including the MEFCC website, policy briefs, and social media for international reach, while noting that radio, television, and clan leaders are essential for reaching national audiences due to limited internet usage and linguistic diversity.

The report details a workshop conducted by the NAP Global Network with the Ethiopian government to transition from the finalization of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP-ETH) to its implementation. It outlines five strategic priorities for adaptation: mainstreaming into policies, building institutional capacity, establishing sustainable funding, advancing research, and improving knowledge management. The document also assesses the opportunities and challenges regarding vertical integration, noting that while political commitment and existing governance structures are strengths, financial constraints and capacity gaps at sub-national levels remain significant hurdles.

The German G20 presidency focused on 'Shaping an Interconnected World' through initiatives like the Compact with Africa and the Marshall Plan for Africa, aimed at reducing investment risks and addressing migration root causes. However, the 2017 Hamburg summit faced significant tension due to US President Donald Trump's protectionist agenda and withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The author suggests that a broad G20 agenda—covering everything from tax cooperation to the 2030 Agenda—may help Chancellor Merkel find common ground with the US despite deep disagreements on trade and climate.

The study finds that longer tenures for current heads of state are associated with increased corruption and expanded government powers. It also suggests that historical long-term rulers leave a legacy of structural damage, though countries generally recover over time. The analysis identifies 10 years as a critical threshold beyond which negative effects on country wellbeing become evident.

The document reflects on seven years of CDKN's work to integrate climate action with poverty reduction, highlighting its influence on policies in 33 countries and its support for the Paris Agreement. It identifies critical gaps in current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the need for diversified climate finance beyond the Green Climate Fund, and the slow pace of sustainable transport and smart city adoption in developing nations compared to the rapid energy transition to renewables.

The document details CDKN's support for Kenya's climate goals, highlighting the impact of the 2016 Climate Change Act and the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP). Key achievements include a 140 MW increase in geothermal energy in 2015, the development of the CaRROT tool for the flower sector, and the submission of four proposals to the Green Climate Fund. It also discusses the 'Raising Risk Awareness' initiative for extreme event attribution and efforts to integrate water, energy, and food (WEF) security planning at the county level.

The report examines the 'art' of market facilitation through the experience of the FSD Network in Sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that effective facilitation requires a shift from traditional project-based delivery to a systemic approach that addresses root causes of market failure. Key success factors identified include the use of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) for operational flexibility, the maintenance of technical credibility and neutrality, and the use of results chains for adaptive management. The document highlights the critical importance of understanding political economy and partner incentives, noting that technical solutions often fail when they ignore underlying social or political dynamics.

The document argues that while climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can enhance food security and climate resilience in sub-Saharan Africa, its adoption is hindered by physical input shortages and institutional failures. It recommends improving tenure security, expanding financial instruments like crop insurance, and strengthening local governance and scientific research to scale these practices.

The report argues that digital payments are critical for achieving Sustainable Development Goal #7 (universal energy access) by reducing the high costs and risks associated with cash-based collections. It identifies three primary barriers: the financial unviability of grid extension in rural areas, high upfront costs for clean-energy assets, and a lack of private investment. The document proposes solutions such as bundling prepaid smart meters with digital payments, implementing pay-as-you-go (PAYGo) financing for solar home systems, and digitizing energy subsidies to reduce leakages. Case studies from South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, India, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia illustrate how these digital tools improve utility profitability, expand renewable energy reach, and enhance financial inclusion for low-income households.

The paper argues that while the water-energy-food nexus approach is popular for identifying resource interdependencies, its treatment of governance is superficial and overly technical. By reviewing the literature through risk, economic rationality, and political economy perspectives, the authors identify three primary gaps: a lack of understanding regarding the conditions for cross-sector collaboration, a neglect of multi-level governance dynamics beyond horizontal interactions, and a failure to account for the political and cognitive factors that determine policy change. The authors suggest that the nexus community must integrate insights from integrative environmental governance theory to move beyond administrative coordination and address the power relations and norms that actually drive decision-making.

The report examines the proposed Stiegler's Gorge hydropower dam in Tanzania, highlighting significant risks to the Selous Game Reserve (a World Heritage Site) and the Rufiji-Mafia-Kilwa Marine Ramsar Site. It argues that the project would cause irreversible damage to the region's Outstanding Universal Value, disrupt downstream ecosystems, and threaten the livelihoods of approximately 200,000 people. The document also questions the project's financial feasibility and reliability given climate change and suggests alternative energy sources such as natural gas, solar, wind, and geothermal power.

The document argues that the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board is creating an artificial distinction between 'development' and 'adaptation', which hinders the approval of funding for Least Developed Countries. The authors contend that effective adaptation must address underlying socioeconomic vulnerabilities—such as livelihood diversification and public health—rather than focusing solely on quantifiable technological infrastructure. They call for the GCF to move toward programmatic approaches and require a 'theory of change' from project proponents to link activities to enhanced resilience.

The document explores the multifaceted meaning of 'bankability' in climate finance, arguing that it extends beyond traditional financial returns to include socioeconomic and environmental impacts. It provides lessons from CDKN's work in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, highlighting how bankability requirements differ between public and private funders and between mitigation and adaptation projects. The paper concludes with a guiding checklist for project developers to improve the success rate of proposals submitted to multilateral funds like the Green Climate Fund (GCF).