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The Climate Action Handbook is a guide designed to empower South African communities to respond to climate change by combining scientific understanding with legal action. It defines climate vulnerability and resilience, outlines South Africa's specific climate risks and legal framework—including constitutional rights and environmental legislation—and provides a ten-step practical framework for community-led climate action, ranging from advocacy and information gathering to formal legal proceedings.

The document examines the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework's Two-Pillar Solution to tax challenges from the digitalisation of the economy. It highlights that developing countries, particularly in Africa, suffer disproportionate revenue losses from tax avoidance—up to 5%–8% of GDP in some cases—compared to developed nations. The author argues that the current framework lacks adequate representation of African nations (only 23 of 55 AU members participated) and contains provisions, such as a 15% minimum corporate tax rate and high turnover thresholds for profit reallocation, that may marginalise poorer economies. The brief recommends shifting negotiations to a neutral body like the UN and increasing technical and financial support for developing countries to implement new standards.

The document analyzes the resurgent roles of China and Russia in Africa since 2000. China's influence is primarily economic, driven by the Belt and Road Initiative and long-term infrastructure investments, while Russia's approach is more opportunistic, focusing on mining, arms exports, and the deployment of private military contractors in fragile states. While the two powers coordinate on challenging Western norms and supporting non-interference in the UN Security Council, they maintain a 'competitive partnership' characterized by limited strategic coordination in security and economics, and occasional competition for commercial contracts in countries like Zimbabwe.

The document explains how beneficial ownership transparency (BOT) helps uncover the individuals who ultimately control assets, preventing criminals and corrupt officials from using shell companies to hide profits from illegal wildlife trade, forestry, and fisheries. It highlights the role of public registries in tracing 'dirty money' and provides guidance for NRM practitioners to conduct due diligence and identify signs of obscured ownership to safeguard conservation projects.

The document examines the OECD's two-pillar solution for digital taxation, noting that while the EU and most African Inclusive Framework (IF) members support it, significant gaps remain. African entities like the ATAF and G24 advocate for the redistribution of total profits rather than residual profits, higher minimum taxes, and non-binding dispute resolution. The author highlights that 'stabilization clauses' in investment treaties may prevent African countries from adjusting tax incentives to meet minimum tax rules without losing revenue to home states. The paper suggests the EU could support Africa through technical assistance and by advocating for transparent, regionalized arbitration centres.

The Youth Enterprise Grant (YEG) was a two-year pilot project starting in late 2018 that provided 1,000 youth in Mathare, Nairobi, with smartphones and enterprise grants totaling $1,200. Implemented by GiveDirectly for FSD Africa, the project aimed to determine if digital tools—including M-PESA for payments, Touch Doh for budgeting, and the Hustle Fiti Facebook group for business advice—could enhance financial literacy, money management, and business skills among micro-entrepreneurs in informal settlements.

The High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, including leaders from 16 nations, advocates for a transition to a sustainable ocean economy to close the emissions gap. The Panel identifies six key action areas—nature-based solutions, renewable energy, industry decarbonisation, sustainable food, carbon capture and storage, and research—noting that these actions could provide up to 21% of the annual emissions cuts required to limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2050. Member nations commit to developing Sustainable Ocean Plans to manage 100% of their national waters sustainably within five years.

The Climate Crowd initiative uses community-collected data to co-design and implement resilience projects in rural areas. This report highlights projects in Madagascar, Zimbabwe, and Kenya focusing on livelihood diversification, water security, and the reduction of human-wildlife conflict.

The report examines the role of indigenous knowledge in bridging climate data gaps in Africa, highlighting how traditional observation methods and community-based forecasting can enhance the accuracy of early warning systems when integrated with scientific meteorology. It identifies the decline of this knowledge due to modernization and the preference for top-down scientific models, while providing examples of successful 'co-production' of climate information in countries like Kenya.

The document outlines a framework for integrating gender equality into climate finance projects, emphasizing the need for local expertise, robust baseline data, and continuity between project design and implementation. It provides specific recommendations for project teams and climate funds, supported by case studies from various sectors and regions.

The document analyzes the 'innovation chain'—emergence, deployment, and widespread adoption—to explain why capital fails to flow to climate projects in developing countries. It details a strategy by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to overcome these barriers through policy support, piloting new technologies, de-risking investments via blended finance, and strengthening domestic financial institutions.

The report finds that East Africa remains fragile due to violent extremism, insurgency, and resource-based conflicts, despite governance progress in some states. It highlights the prevalence of unregistered firearms, particularly in Somalia, and the role of anocracies in driving political instability. The document maps the overlapping mandates of regional organisations like the EAC and IGAD and recommends stronger inter-REC coordination and standardised regional monitoring to address information gaps.

The report analyzes mixed migration in East Africa and the Horn, identifying a complex interplay of political instability, state fragility, poverty, and climate change as primary drivers. It highlights the challenges of protracted refugee situations, particularly the restrictive nature of encampment policies, and contrasts the progressive refugee framework in Uganda with more restrictive regimes in neighboring states. The document argues for a shift from dependency to self-reliance, the harmonization of regional and international laws, and the integration of climate adaptation into migration policies to achieve durable solutions.

The document examines China's role as a primary funder and contractor of ICT networks in the Global South, specifically through the Digital Silk Road (DSR) initiative. It compares the implementation of a submarine fibre optic cable in Cambodia and the National ICT Broadband Backbone in Tanzania. The analysis finds that while these projects generally had limited environmental impacts and provided essential connectivity, they suffered from a lack of transparency and mixed results in socioeconomic mitigation, such as limited high-level technology transfer and underutilisation of infrastructure.

The document examines the failure of grant-based 'design, procure, install' models for electrifying public institutions, which often lead to premature system failure due to neglected operation and maintenance (O&M). It proposes a service-based model where private providers install and maintain systems over 10-15 years, with governments paying for performance verified by third parties. The brief identifies key barriers—including public sector affordability, private sector capital risks, and grid arrival—and presents case studies from Benin, Kenya, Niger, and Nigeria to demonstrate the model's potential.

The report outlines systemic barriers to gridless services, emphasizing that failures often stem from a lack of understanding of user needs, regulatory gaps, and financial instability rather than technical performance.

The analysis reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic has widened the climate finance gap in developing countries, leading to domestic budget reallocations away from climate projects toward health and economic recovery. International climate finance has also decreased, with a higher reliance on loans that increase national debt burdens. The report highlights that climate-finance needs, estimated at $4.6 trillion based on a sample of NDCs, far exceed current flows, and that pandemic-related restrictions have delayed the approval and execution of critical climate projects.

The document details the status of five rhino species. The greater one-horned rhino and white rhino show recovery trends, while the Javan, Sumatran, and black rhinos remain critically threatened. Poaching is a universal threat across all species, with climate change and habitat loss specifically impacting the greater one-horned rhino.

The paper examines the potential of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies to transform South Africa's commercial landscape by reducing dependence on physical currency. It highlights the risks of cash-in-transit (CIT) heists and ATM attacks, noting that 243 CIT heists occurred in 2019. While acknowledging challenges such as the third-highest global rate of cybercrime and a large informal economy, the authors argue that digital payment systems—similar to those adopted in China, Kenya, and the UK—could improve security and economic inclusivity. The document identifies barriers to e-commerce growth in South Africa, including high banking charges, lack of funding for SMMEs, strict labour laws, and expensive internet data.

The document argues that Africa faces an existential crisis due to climate change, yet adaptation finance remains critically low compared to mitigation. It identifies barriers such as the perception of adaptation as a public good, lack of bankable proposals, and inadequate climate data. To address these, the brief recommends demonstrating the business case for adaptation to attract private capital, strengthening government technical capacity, introducing adaptation levies, and lobbying for a distinct international goal for adaptation finance.