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The report identifies Africa as a net energy exporter, though it forecasts that total energy demand will exceed production by 2039. While a small group of countries like Algeria, Nigeria, and Angola maintain high export values, a significant number of African nations remain heavily dependent on energy imports, a group expected to expand by 2043.

The report argues that nature-based solutions (NBS) and carbon offset schemes often serve as 'escapes' for major polluters to continue emitting greenhouse gases while facilitating land grabbing and violating human rights. It provides numerous case studies across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas, highlighting systemic issues such as inflated carbon baselines, lack of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), and the failure of projects to deliver promised carbon reductions or community benefits. Specific examples include REDD+ projects in Gabon and Zimbabwe, soil carbon initiatives in Kenya and the US, and cookstove offsets in India.

The document is a resource list compiled by Friends of the Earth International, cataloguing various publications that challenge the legitimacy of 'false climate solutions'. It highlights materials focusing on the risks of net-zero targets, nature-based solutions, carbon markets, and geoengineering, often linking these mechanisms to land grabbing and corporate greenwashing.

The report details the southward expansion of JNIM into Mali's Kayes and Koulikoro regions, where the group has significantly increased violence and fatalities since 2021. JNIM leverages illicit activities—including zakat taxation, cattle rustling, and the control of timber logging in the Baoulé forest—to fund its operations and gain local influence. The group further exploits social cleavages, such as farmer-herder conflicts and the persistence of hereditary slavery, to recruit members and undermine state authority. While the Malian government and its Wagner partners have made gains elsewhere, security forces in the south are described as overstretched and under-resourced, with varying levels of community trust.

The document analyzes the 'epidemic' of military takeovers in Africa, identifying governance dysfunction, democratic decline, civil-military tensions, and Islamist insurgencies as primary drivers. It argues that the African Union (AU) and regional economic communities (RECs) have relied on reactive, inconsistent, and ineffective blanket sanctions that fail to deter coup plotters. The author recommends a shift toward prevention, targeted sanctions, and the strengthening of civil-military relations and democratic legitimacy.

The report examines vertical integration in National Adaptation Plan (NAP) processes, finding that while most countries reference sub-national governments and non-governmental actors, there are varying levels of integration across planning, implementation, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) stages.

The report examines vertical integration in National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), highlighting the roles of subnational governments and non-governmental actors. Based on an analysis of 45 multisectoral NAPs, it finds that while most countries recognize subnational roles in planning and implementation, gaps remain in monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) and stable financial flows to local levels. It provides recommendations for national governments, subnational authorities, development partners, and funding bodies to strengthen multi-level coordination and capacity.

The policy brief examines the challenge of youth unemployment in Africa, noting that millions of young people, including tertiary graduates, struggle to enter the labor market. It evaluates various school-to-work transition initiatives, such as Ghana's National Service Scheme and NABCO, and identifies a critical trade-off between the scale of a program and the quality of its training. The author argues that for these programs to be successful, they must provide comprehensive skills training, ensure inclusivity, avoid political interference, and be coupled with efforts to create more high-quality jobs in collaboration with the private sector.

A review of 41 multisector NAP documents reveals that transboundary climate risks are sporadically mentioned and lack a systematic approach, with most references limited to shared ecosystems like river basins. The document argues that the dominance of place-based adaptation and state sovereignty norms hinder the integration of cross-border risks, and recommends leveraging intergovernmental organizations and territorial framing to improve regional collaboration.

The report identifies systemic barriers to gender equality in the off-grid solar (OGS) sector across sixteen Sub-Saharan African countries, highlighting a critical lack of sex-disaggregated data and the prevalence of restrictive social norms. It finds that women generally have less access to OGS technologies and are underrepresented in technical and leadership roles within the workforce. To address these gaps, the Hardest-to-Reach (H2R) initiative proposes a strategy focused on elevating women as customers, employees, and entrepreneurs through gender-lens investing, technical assistance for portfolio companies, and dedicated training facilities.

The report assesses the impact of EU migration interventions in the Sahel, specifically in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso. It finds that the EU's focus on deterring northbound migration to Europe through border reinforcement and funding-based policies has prioritised security over human protection, undermined regional free movement, and ignored a massive internal displacement crisis. The author recommends a shift toward area-based assistance and a strategic recalibration that prioritises the needs of displaced persons over the goal of curbing irregular arrivals in Europe.

The policy brief identifies three primary drivers of food insecurity in Africa: limits to agricultural land, limits to agricultural productivity, and climate change effects. It highlights a steady decline in arable land per capita from 0.31 in 1990 to 0.2 in 2020, alongside severe productivity gaps where African farmers use only 8kg of fertiliser per hectare compared to 140kg in Asia and Latin America. The document calls on the G20 to provide financial and technical support for soil mapping, small-scale irrigation, the Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism, and the commercialisation of quality seeds to help the continent meet UN Sustainable Development Goals and AU Agenda 2063 targets.

The "Hardest-to-Reach" (H2R) programme aims to provide clean, climate-resilient off-grid solar (OGS) energy to 72.4 million people across 16 sub-Saharan African countries. The initiative utilizes a two-pronged financing approach: a $50 million grant-funded Market Support Facility (MSF) to support market entry and capacity building for new players, and a $200 million blended finance Market Expansion Facility (MEF) providing impact-linked loans to scale existing OGS companies. The programme targets a mitigation outcome of 5.1 million tCO2eq avoided and an adaptation outcome of 54.3 million first-time energy access beneficiaries. It emphasizes gender inclusivity, targeting 32% female customers and creating approximately 13,922 green jobs, including 4,641 for women.

The report identifies poor governance, hydrocarbon dependence, and an unsustainable subsidy system as primary barriers to Algeria's growth. It projects a modest GDP growth rate of 1.8% between 2020 and 2040 under the 'Current Path' but proposes an 'Algerian Dream' scenario based on four reform pillars: improved governance, economic transformation, investment in the knowledge economy, and a transition to sustainable agriculture and renewable energy.

The paper analyzes the shift in German-African energy relations from a focus on development aid to a complex mix of energy diplomacy, foreign policy, and technical cooperation. It highlights a tension between Germany's goals for a green transition (including hydrogen partnerships) and its strategic interests in diversifying fossil fuel imports. The author critiques 'energy colonialism' and the financialization of projects, recommending that future cooperation be grounded in 'energy justice' and a value-chain approach to ensure local benefits and social standards.

The German government's announced 'paradigm shift' in migration policy aims to transform Germany into a modern immigration country by attracting skilled workers while curbing irregular migration. However, the analysis suggests that this shift is limited in practice, as legal pathways for African migrants remain constrained by strict qualification requirements and are likely to be conditioned on increased cooperation in the repatriation of individuals without residency rights. The document highlights a contradiction between the goal of new partnerships and proposals to outsource asylum procedures to North Africa, while noting that Germany's economic need for approximately 400,000 immigrants annually drives its interest in diversifying labor sources toward Africa.

The Horn of Africa is characterized by a very young population and high fertility rates, particularly in Somalia. Only Djibouti has currently reached the working-age to dependent ratio necessary to potentially realize a demographic dividend. The region is predominantly rural, with Ethiopia being the most rural and Djibouti the most urbanized. High youth populations combined with limited economic opportunities are identified as contributors to socio-political instability.

The report analyzes the Democratic Republic of Congo's high fertility rates, rapid population growth, and urbanisation trends. It argues that without sound demographic policies to reduce fertility and manage a large youth bulge, the country's population growth will remain a significant obstacle to economic prosperity and human development, delaying the achievement of a demographic dividend until approximately 2060.

The document analyzes Germany's attempt to transition toward a modern immigration country by easing access for qualified workers, particularly from Africa, to address domestic labor shortages of approximately 400,000 immigrants per year. However, the authors argue this shift is undermined by a continued focus on 'return offensives' and the potential externalization of asylum processing. The paper highlights that structural barriers—such as strict skills recognition and limited consular capacity in countries like Ghana and Nigeria—persist, while the linking of legal pathways to readmission cooperation creates tension with West and Central African partners. It also notes a new, though potentially fragmented, focus on the nexus between climate change and migration.

The document reports that 2022 was the deadliest year for state-based conflicts in Africa since 1989, primarily due to the war in Ethiopia. While non-state conflicts are the most common type of conflict in the region, they have generally been less severe in terms of battle-related deaths than state-based conflicts. The brief also highlights a worrying trend of one-sided violence by governments and a series of military coups in Central and West Africa between 2020 and 2023.