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The 2021 Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index reveals a slowing pace of global improvement and widening disparities in women's status. While developed countries, particularly Nordic nations, lead the index, fragile states and regions like South Asia perform poorly. The report highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities, particularly through job losses in female-dominated sectors and increased risks of intimate partner violence. Additionally, new indices for forcibly displaced women and subnational data for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the United States demonstrate that national averages often conceal severe internal disparities and the compounding disadvantages of displacement.

A coalition of international church-based organisations urges the European Commission to reform its migration and asylum policies, arguing that the current system is 'fundamentally broken'. The statement highlights the failure of the 'hotspot' approach and the 2016 EU-Turkey deal, calling for a shift from 'crisis mode' to a system based on solidarity, human dignity, and the equitable sharing of responsibility among all EU member states. It specifically advocates for safe passage channels and the rejection of policies that externalise border controls.

The paper examines the challenges and success factors associated with implementing an integrated 'nexus' approach to managing land, water, and energy in the MENA region. It identifies systemic barriers such as sectoral silos and a lack of empirical evidence, while arguing that targeted investments and pioneering actors are necessary to create a virtuous cycle of evidence-based policy improvement.

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Index 2019/20 ranks 167 countries based on 11 indicators across three dimensions: inclusion, justice, and security. Norway is the top-ranked country (.904) and Yemen the lowest (.351). While 59 countries showed significant progress since 2017, the report highlights persistent gaps in women's employment and parliamentary representation. It also establishes correlations between women's well-being and broader outcomes, such as reduced maternal and infant mortality and a lower risk of violent conflict.

The report analyzes energy pricing reforms in the MENA region, specifically within the GCC, following the 2014 oil price collapse. It argues that while price increases are a regional trend, they are not yet a norm and risk political instability if not accompanied by social safety nets and labor market reforms. The document details specific reform measures in countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Morocco, and provides technical recommendations for international assistance to support a transition toward productive economies.

The MENA region is identified as a climate hot spot facing extreme heat, drought, and aridity. The agricultural sector, which is 70% rain-fed and a primary employer, is highly exposed; in a 2 °C warming scenario, annual water discharge is projected to drop by 15–45%. These biophysical pressures, combined with a population projected to double by 2070, are expected to deteriorate rural livelihoods, increase migration to urban areas, heighten food import dependency, and potentially exacerbate social unrest in politically unstable areas.

The document identifies a gap in sustainability efforts regarding gender and social equity, particularly within SMEs. It argues that gender acts as a 'social stratifier' that limits women's access to education, finance, and leadership, which in turn hinders overall economic and environmental progress. The brief provides a business case for gender equality, noting that closing gender gaps in agriculture and employment could significantly boost GDP and food security. It suggests that the 'green economy' risks excluding women if technical roles in renewable energy and construction remain male-dominated. Recommendations include implementing family-friendly workplace policies, repealing discriminatory laws, and adopting public procurement policies that target female-led micro- and small enterprises.

The GCF-EBRD SEFF co-financing Programme aims to mobilize private sector climate finance by providing credit lines and technical support to local partner financial institutions (PFIs). The programme targets 13 countries, with an initial focus on Egypt, Georgia, Morocco, Tajikistan, and Tunisia, to finance over 20,000 projects in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and climate resilience. With a total budget of USD 1,538.5 million, the initiative seeks to reduce carbon emissions by approximately 29 million tonnes over its lifetime and create around 11,500 green jobs.

The report develops the Transnational Climate Impacts (TCI) Index to measure how countries are exposed to climate risks originating outside their borders. Using a framework of four risk pathways—biophysical, finance, people, and trade—alongside a global context indicator, the authors identify nine indicators of exposure. The resulting index reveals that many high-income, small European nations are highly exposed to transnational risks, contrasting with traditional vulnerability indices that primarily highlight low-income nations. The authors present this as a tool to raise awareness for national adaptation planning, though they note it is a preliminary instrument not yet intended for direct decision-making.

The document analyzes how two climate scenarios, Radical Emissions Reduction (RER) and High-end Climate Change (HCC), impact four Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the stability of Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. Under RER, the transition to meet Paris Agreement targets may trigger food-versus-fuel conflicts, gender-based violence from biofuel-driven displacement, and geopolitical instability in oil-dependent states. Conversely, the HCC scenario suggests that climate-driven agricultural failure and water scarcity would exacerbate armed conflicts, global inequality, and the influence of extremist groups. The authors argue that the short-term geopolitical costs of rapid climate action must be integrated into national policy formulation to manage risks effectively.

The document examines the tension between treating fossil fuel suppliers as polluters and recognizing extraction as a sovereign right for development. It argues that meeting Paris Agreement targets requires leaving a majority of proven reserves in the ground, which would disproportionately impact lower-income regions through the loss of significant resource rents.

The report examines the 'water-energy nexus,' where water scarcity threatens energy production and energy costs impact water provision. It analyzes three case studies: the Middle East and North Africa's reliance on energy-intensive desalination, China's coal-fired power plants facing high water stress, and the United States' water-intensive hydraulic fracturing for shale gas. The document argues that companies can mitigate these risks by shifting from expanding supply to reducing demand, scaling alternative water sources like reclaimed wastewater and brackish water, and adopting clean energy resources such as solar and wind.

The paper argues that ecological, financial, and political systems are under increasing pressure, creating a need to integrate 'hard' security (state-centric) with 'human' security (individual and ecosystem well-being). It identifies commonalities between these fields—such as uncertainty, irreversibilities, and multi-stakeholder complexity—and proposes a three-step methodology: context analysis, participatory scenario building, and options appraisal. Case studies demonstrate how water scarcity in the Nile and Euphrates-Tigris basins, climate-driven geophysical changes in the Arctic, and energy-water dependencies in Central Asia create security risks that require integrated governance and investment strategies.

The report argues that the pharmaceutical industry is fueling the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis through the unmonitored dumping of antibiotic-laden waste into the environment during the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). It highlights a 'three-tier chain' where raw materials from China are processed in India and then sold to global markets. The document identifies specific polluting factories in China—including NCPC, CSPC/Inner Mongolia Changsheng, and Sinopharm—and links them to major companies such as Pfizer, Teva, and McKesson. It concludes that current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) are insufficient because they lack environmental criteria, and calls for greater supply chain transparency and the integration of environmental protection into global pharmaceutical standards.

The briefing analyzes the six-year experience of the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) as a 'living laboratory' to offer strategic advice for the Green Climate Fund (GCF). It highlights the need for balancing rapid fund deployment with detailed operational guidelines, the importance of evidence-based learning despite costs, and the necessity of clear theories of change for achieving transformational impacts. Additionally, it emphasizes the need for an early definition of risk appetite to avoid limiting investment instruments and the critical role of multi-stakeholder partnerships in project design and implementation.

The Ouarzazate I CSP project in Morocco utilizes a public-private partnership (PPP) model and significant concessional financing from international financial institutions (IFIs) to overcome the commercial unviability of CSP technology. The project is designed as the first phase of a larger portfolio to drive down costs and eventually enable renewable energy exports to the European Union. Key success factors include the creation of the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN), strong donor coordination, and a risk-sharing framework that allocates operational risks to private developers and revenue risks to the public sector.

The MENA region faces severe climate vulnerability characterized by warming and water scarcity, yet adaptation and mitigation efforts are often siloed. The document proposes a 'nexus' approach that integrates water and energy planning to identify synergies, such as solar desalination or energy recovery from wastewater, and recommends the use of integrated tools like WEAP and LEAP to move beyond reactive, short-term coping measures.

The report presents a mitigation scenario for the EU27 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% in 2020 and 90% by 2050 relative to 1990 levels. This is achieved through radical energy efficiency, a shift to renewables, and the phase-out of fossil fuels, nuclear power, and carbon capture and storage. The analysis also estimates that Europe's fair share of international climate finance for developing nations would range between €150 billion and €450 billion by 2020.

The report finds that global progress toward the human development MDGs is inadequate, with Sub-Saharan Africa off track for every goal. It identifies critical bottlenecks in the supply of skilled health and education workers and a disconnect between the need for recurrent personnel funding and the technical assistance provided by donors. The document advocates for pragmatic human resource strategies, such as using paraprofessionals and contract teachers, and calls for a shift toward predictable, budget-aligned donor support and improved public sector accountability to ensure services reach the poorest populations.

The report argues that climate change and armed conflict act as mutually reinforcing drivers of harm, creating a polycrisis that disproportionately affects vulnerable populations. It highlights how climate change serves as a 'threat multiplier' by exacerbating resource scarcity and instability, while military activities contribute significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation. The document emphasizes the resulting collapse of health systems and the emergence of infectious diseases in conflict zones. It calls for integrated climate, health, and peacebuilding strategies, including a transition to renewable energy and greater military accountability for emissions, to break this cycle of harm.