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The researchers used a co-creative, narrative-based approach in Lusaka, Zambia, combining natural language processing (NLP) and text network analysis (TNA) to integrate residents' experiences from informal settlements into flood-risk maps. This process, facilitated through 'learning labs' with stakeholders, aimed to address gaps in disaster risk management and social vulnerability. The primary finding was a critical need for local government to be more adaptive and inclusive of community voices in decision-making. The authors argue this framework provides a dynamic way to enhance stakeholder engagement and tailor resilience-building measures.

The 2025 City Profiling Report for Cape Town describes a city with strong institutional governance and high service delivery standards relative to other SADC cities, yet one plagued by deep structural inequality and chronic traffic congestion. While the city maintains a clean audit record and high human development indices, it faces significant challenges in youth unemployment, informal settlement growth, and climate vulnerability, particularly regarding water scarcity and fire risk.

Dar es Salaam is one of Africa's fastest-growing cities and Tanzania's economic hub, though it faces significant challenges in infrastructure and governance. While the city's GDP is growing and it leads the country in startups and telecommunications, it is characterized by high levels of informality, with 70% of the population living in informal settlements. Public services such as water, sanitation, and waste management are underperforming, and the city is highly vulnerable to flooding and urban heat. Governance is heavily centralized, with local authorities relying on the national government for approximately 75% to 90% of their revenue, severely limiting their fiscal autonomy and ability to address local needs.

The report compares 10 SADC cities, revealing stark disparities in economic wealth and infrastructure. While South African cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town are the wealthiest, they face high inequality and unemployment. Most other cities are characterized by high proportions of informal housing (60-86%) and a heavy reliance on national parastatals for engineered services. Sanitation remains the most critical service gap, with sewered sanitation being rare outside of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Local government finance varies wildly, with some cities relying heavily on national transfers while others, particularly in Zimbabwe, receive no transfers despite high service obligations.

The Harare City Profiling Report 2025 details the challenges facing Zimbabwe's capital, characterized by rapid informal urban growth, severe infrastructure decay, and a strained relationship between the opposition-led city council and the national government. While Harare serves as the country's economic hub, it suffers from critical gaps in water, sanitation, and waste management, with a significant portion of the population living in informal settlements. The report highlights a severe fiscal crisis where the city relies almost entirely on its own limited revenue sources while facing low payment compliance and high levels of non-revenue water.

The report provides a comprehensive profile of Luanda, highlighting its rapid population growth, extreme economic inequality, and a highly centralised governance structure. While the city has benefited from oil wealth, significant service delivery gaps persist, particularly in housing, water, and sanitation for those in informal settlements. The report notes that Luanda is one of the most congested cities globally and faces increasing climate risks, including flooding and sea-level rise.

The report analyzes planning frameworks, negotiation methods, and financing models used by city water authorities (CWAs) in LMICs to secure resilient water supplies. It identifies that while tools like Scenario Analysis, Robust Decision Support (RDS), and Climate Risk-based Decision Analysis (CRIDA) exist, their implementation is often hindered by low technical capacity, data gaps, and reactive planning driven by crises. Successful negotiation often relies on incentivization, trusted intermediaries, and public buy-in, while financing varies from traditional tariffs and grants to innovative mechanisms like Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) and water funds. Case studies from cities such as São Paulo, Cape Town, and Amman illustrate the practical application and challenges of these strategies.

The document outlines the challenges of urban food insecurity in Zambia, drawing on household surveys from 14 cities. It advocates for a diverse urban food system that integrates formal and informal sources, such as street vending and urban agriculture. The toolkit details how the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) can be used for food-system investments and maps specific local and national policies—including those related to land, energy, and climate change—that can be leveraged to improve food access and affordability.

The SEI Urban Toolbox for Liveable Cities is a living digital resource hosted on the weADAPT platform, designed to gather SEI-developed tools for city officials, residents, and community groups. Developed through a four-phase co-design process involving internal reviews and workshops with stakeholders in Thailand, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, and Colombia, the toolbox focuses on improving environmental conditions, health, and well-being. Key findings from stakeholder workshops emphasized a strong demand for tools that foster citizen science, participatory mapping, and open data access to inform decision-making. The toolbox organizes resources into four main domains: residents' wellbeing, neighbourhood conditions, environmental quality and ecosystem services, and cross-cutting issues.

The report finds that women represent only about 10% of the Zambian mining workforce, primarily in support roles. Despite national policies like the Gender Equity and Equality Act of 2015, the sector suffers from a 'gender-blind attitude', persistent sexual harassment, and significant data gaps. The authors recommend standardizing gender-disaggregated data collection, promoting STEM education for girls, and implementing specific retention strategies to address the gender pay gap and structural barriers.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) 2022 Annual Results Report details the organization's progress across three impact areas: reducing climate risk, promoting sustainable resource use and resilient ecosystems, and improving health and well-being. Key achievements include contributing to the COP27 decision to establish a loss and damage fund, developing the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) indicator adopted at COP15, and implementing water management master plans in Bolivia. The report highlights the use of digital tools like LEAP, WEAP, and Trase to inform policy in various regions, including Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Organizationally, SEI reports an increase in scientific publications, a diversification of funding sources, and the implementation of a global monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) procedure.

The report identifies widespread labor rights violations by Chinese companies in Southern Africa, including low wages, unsafe working conditions, and unfair dismissals. It highlights a systemic failure of national governments to enforce labor laws, often exacerbated by corruption and political ties between Chinese investors and local elites. While some positive impacts on employment and infrastructure are noted, the study emphasizes the precarious nature of these jobs and the marginalization of trade unions.

The document analyzes the 'arduous' journey of Zambian civil society in the APRM process, highlighting the establishment of a dedicated CSO APRM Secretariat in 2007 and its eventual closure in 2011. It details how the process was hindered by resource constraints, political instability following the death of President Levy Mwanawasa, and overlaps with a contentious national constitutional review. Key achievements include the production of an independent CSO thematic report that influenced the Country Self-Assessment Report and the Country Review Report. The author argues that the lack of a plan to monitor the National Programme of Action (NPoA) after the Secretariat's closure was a fundamental flaw, and emphasizes the need for long-term funding and collective capacity building for effective governance oversight.

The document argues that effective climate services require an intentional MEL design based on outcome mapping to foster collaboration and adaptive management. It details the use of boundary partners, outcome challenges, and progress markers to track behavioral changes rather than just direct development impacts. The briefing recommends specific tools like the 'most significant change' technique and outcome harvesting to capture complex, non-linear results. An illustrative example from the FRACTAL project in Windhoek, Namibia, demonstrates how these elements are applied to different stakeholder groups, including city officials and climate service providers.

The FRACTAL project developed three Climate Risk Narratives (CRNs) for Windhoek to translate complex climate projections into non-technical, actionable scenarios for the 2040s. These narratives—ranging from 'much hotter and drier' to 'warmer with similar rainfall'—were co-produced through 'Learning Labs' involving scientists, city officials, and stakeholders. The CRNs served as 'boundary objects' to facilitate dialogue and inform the City of Windhoek's Integrated Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (ICCSAP). Findings highlight critical vulnerabilities in water security due to increased evaporation and the disproportionate impact of flooding on informal settlements.

The authors argue for a shift in climate services from a narrow focus on products to a process-centric approach based on transdisciplinary collaboration. To facilitate this, they introduce the 'Tandem' framework, which provides structured elements and guiding questions to support the co-exploration and co-production of integrated climate information. The framework aims to improve knowledge integration across the science-society interface, identify decision-relevant needs, and build the institutional and human capacities necessary for climate-resilient decision-making.

The document argues that Africa is experiencing a growing economic divergence from the rest of the world, with GDP per capita projected to be less than one quarter of the global average by 2040. While human well-being indicators like life expectancy have improved, the continent's growth is constrained by an unproductive economic structure dominated by low-end informal services and a slow demographic transition. To ignite a 'growth revolution', the author advocates for a 'bottom-up' approach focusing on basic infrastructure, reducing fertility rates, and transitioning toward manufacturing and productive agriculture. The brief emphasizes that leveraging the fourth industrial revolution, renewable energy, and the African Continental Free Trade Area, alongside accountable leadership, is essential to reversing commodity dependence and achieving sustainable prosperity.

The Stockholm Environment Institute developed a terminology card game as part of the Future Resilience for African CiTies and Lands (FRACTAL) project to address gaps in understanding climate-related terms. The game is designed for use in 'Learning Labs' to create a 'level playing field' of knowledge between city stakeholders, scientists, and policy makers. Participants cooperatively categorize statements and actions under concepts such as weather, climate, adaptation, mitigation, sustainable development, and disaster risk reduction. The activity aims to facilitate 'transdisciplinary knowledge integration' and build working relationships to increase the uptake of science in urban policy and planning.

The report examines South Africa's historical and recent involvement in Burundi, highlighting a transition from significant military and diplomatic leadership during the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement to a more peripheral role following Burundi's 2015 political crisis. While South Africa has provided tangible support in electoral capacity building and civil service training, the report finds that bilateral agreements have been implemented in a fragmented manner. It emphasizes the value of 'citizen diplomacy' through civil society and academic exchanges, particularly in supporting Burundi's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The authors argue that South Africa should leverage its remaining political capital and technical expertise through a holistic strategy that navigates complex regional dynamics involving the East African Community (EAC) and the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).

The Tandem framework addresses the 'usability gap' in climate services by shifting from provider-led to collaborative, transdisciplinary co-design. It outlines a seven-step iterative process—ranging from identifying adaptation challenges to maintaining the service—supported by cross-cutting components like sustainable financing and capacity building. The framework is illustrated through an urban water security case study in Lusaka, Zambia, where co-produced hydrological models helped stakeholders assess water demand against climate scenarios.