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The Africa Hydromet Program in Burkina Faso is currently behind schedule, with an overall implementation rate of 35% to 40% as of December 31, 2022. While the project has successfully installed 50 automatic weather stations and provided critical emergency equipment like ambulances and trucks, it has struggled with staffing challenges in its Project Management Unit and external disruptions including the COVID-19 pandemic, regional insecurity in the Sahel, and political instability. The project has reached 517,066 direct beneficiaries against a final target of 3.5 million. Gender mainstreaming is integrated into all components, with 10% of resources dedicated to these actions. Sustainability is considered generally satisfactory due to strong government commitment, although a formal exit strategy has not yet been developed.

The document examines how African nations have navigated the Russia-Ukraine war, highlighting a preference for non-alignment driven by historical grievances with Western leadership and strategic national interests. It details the varied voting patterns of African states at the UN General Assembly, the potential for Africa to fill Europe's energy gap through gas and critical minerals, and the risks posed by great-power competition to regional security, particularly in the Sahel.

The report analyzes how non-Western powers are extending their influence in Afghanistan and the Sahel through economic, political, and security tools. While China and Russia are the most visible actors, their strategies differ: Russia often employs a 'harder' security-focused approach, while China focuses on 'softer' developmental and economic interests. The document finds that while there are expectations that these powers will fill the vacuum left by Western withdrawals, there is limited evidence that a major power shift has materialized. It concludes that the engagement of autocratic states likely allows for the continuation of existing illiberal tendencies rather than actively exporting them, and recommends that Norway focus on its own unique benefits when engaging with these regions.

The report analyzes how the 2012 gold rush in the Sahel region coincided with rising religious extremism and organized crime, leading to areas beyond government control in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. It focuses on governance frameworks, illicit financial flows, and the links between mining and conflict to help governments restore stability and increase tax revenues.

The report reviews 24 financing strategies from developing countries, categorizing them into discrete adaptation strategies and general climate action strategies. It finds that while these documents help communicate priorities and attract international grants, there is a significant gap in strategic analysis regarding how to leverage public finance to attract private investment. The report emphasizes the need for stronger engagement from ministries of finance and planning, as well as improved country-level tracking of climate finance to measure the actual impact of these strategies.

The document examines the relationship between climate change and conflict in Africa, asserting that climate change functions as a 'risk multiplier' that exacerbates existing political, social, and economic tensions. It highlights that while some regions like the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, and the Lake Chad Basin are particularly vulnerable, the path from climate impact to violence is indirect, often mediated by resource scarcity, forced migration, and institutional weakness. The report calls for the Global North to fulfill climate finance commitments and for African nations to adopt evidence-based, community-informed adaptation strategies that are sensitive to local conflict dynamics to prevent future instability.

The editorial calls for the European Union to provide material and humanitarian support to Ukraine and to intensify sanctions, specifically targeting the financial system and energy ties, in response to the Russian invasion.

The document traces the history of international efforts to combat land degradation, from the 1972 Stockholm Conference to the establishment of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). It details the shift toward 'land degradation neutrality' (LDN), a goal integrated into SDG target 15.3, which aims to balance productive land loss with recovery. The paper identifies critical barriers to LDN implementation, including insecure land tenure, gender inequality in land ownership, lack of national coordination, and insufficient funding, while highlighting initiatives like the Great Green Wall and the LDN Fund.

The document details how West Africa is experiencing warming faster than the global average, leading to increased heatwaves, erratic rainfall, and severe economic losses. It highlights critical vulnerabilities in health, food security, and coastal infrastructure, while emphasizing the urgent need for increased climate finance and data collection to support transformative adaptation.

West Africa has experienced warming of 1–3°C since the mid-1970s, leading to increased heatwaves, variable rainfall, and widespread losses in GDP and food productivity. Future projections indicate severe risks, including a potential 30% decline in marine fisheries catch and significant population exposure to sea level rise, particularly in coastal cities like Lagos and Abidjan. Adaptation requires transformative, ecosystem-based approaches and a significant increase in climate finance, as current funding is insufficient and heavily skewed toward non-African institutions.

The document argues that climate change acts as a 'threat multiplier' in Africa, where risks are amplified by existing governance deficits and poor development. It emphasizes that while climate-driven scarcity can fuel conflict, causality is complex and depends on political and historical contexts. The authors advocate for integrating climate action into the broader development agenda, transitioning from a narrative of vulnerability to one of economic opportunity through renewable energy and climate-resilient infrastructure. Key recommendations include strengthening the evidence base for climate security, increasing climate finance flows, and expanding climate diplomacy beyond the UNFCCC to platforms like the G20 and the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased food insecurity across Africa, with upper-middle income countries like South Africa experiencing higher vulnerability due to their reliance on formal employment and global supply chains. While agricultural production grew in 2020, protectionist measures such as export bans in Malawi hindered the redistribution of food. The document highlights the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) as a critical mechanism to reduce dependence on global imports, lower trade barriers, and improve food resilience through increased intra-continental trade and the legalisation of informal cross-border trade.

The report consists of several independent briefers analyzing how climate change acts as a threat multiplier across various domains. Key analyses include the evolution of 'environmental terrorism' from a tactical to a strategic threat, the need to integrate peacebuilding with climate adaptation in fragile regions like the Sahel, and the shifting geopolitics of energy security as the world transitions to renewables. It also assesses specific vulnerabilities of U.S. Space Force infrastructure to sea-level rise and wildfires, the role of digital Earth observation technologies in anticipatory intelligence, and the gendered impacts of climate-induced resource scarcity. Regional case studies focus on the Arctic's changing geopolitical landscape and the influence of media reporting on climate-induced farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria.

The report analyzes the security landscape of West Africa, identifying a complex interplay of weak governance, economic inequality, and emerging threats like violent extremism and transnational crime. It highlights how these factors undermine regional stability and development, particularly in the Sahel. While Ghana is relatively stable, it faces risks from porous borders and internal community tensions. The document recommends pursuing economic integration via the AfCFTA, addressing youth unemployment, and strengthening regional security alliances to combat terrorism and trafficking.

The Desert to Power G5 Sahel Facility is a large-scale program requesting US$ 150 million from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to leverage a total of US$ 966.7 million in financing. The initiative aims to add 500 MW of solar generation capacity and 239 MWh of utility-scale storage across five G5 Sahel countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 14.4 million tCO2equ over its lifetime. The program is structured into three components: grid investments to de-risk solar Independent Power Producers (IPPs), incremental finance for solar power generation, and technical assistance to improve the regulatory and institutional environment. The African Development Bank (AfDB) serves as the Accredited Entity, coordinating with national governments and private sector stakeholders to address technical, financial, and legal barriers to renewable energy adoption.

Developing countries are increasingly facing 'compound shocks'—simultaneous or sequential disruptive events like pandemics, economic crises, and climate-driven disasters—which deplete budgets and cause cascading system failures. The authors argue that the current disaster risk finance architecture over-incentivizes ex post relief over ex ante preparedness. To address this, they propose that the World Bank's IDA offer softer financing terms (higher grant components) to countries that commit to specific resilience investments in data collection, regulatory reform, budgetary frameworks, and early warning systems. Additionally, they recommend introducing automatic 'disaster clauses' in IDA debt to defer payments following major shocks, similar to models used by Grenada and Barbados. Finally, the document proposes transforming the Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF) into a Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) to increase its operational independence, broaden its donor base beyond Germany and the United Kingdom, and better support regional risk pools and risk measurement capacity.

The guide argues that water and food security decisions must be accompanied by social analyses to identify and protect vulnerable groups based on sex, ethnicity, income, and race. It outlines the core objectives of social analysis, such as ensuring inclusivity in decision-making and protecting customary rights to land and water. The text illustrates potential negative impacts through scenarios, including the increased burden on women in Malawi and the marginalization of pastoralists in the Sahel. It further warns that irrigation projects in Bangladesh and Pakistan can divert domestic water to farms, and that large-scale infrastructure, such as India's UKP dam, can cause mass displacement. To support these analyses, the document lists resources from organizations like the World Bank, FAO, and UNDP, and provides a framework of critical questions regarding who benefits from and who is adversely impacted by development projects.

The briefing argues that while climate change is unlikely to be the primary ideological driver for terrorist groups, it acts as a risk multiplier. It identifies three channels of impact: the creation of recruitment opportunities due to food and livelihood insecurity; the erosion of state legitimacy when governments fail to respond effectively to climate-induced disasters; and the security instabilities caused by the global energy transition, which may strand assets in hydrocarbon-exporting states and increase the value of critical minerals in fragile regions.

The report argues that climate change is a national security issue for Canada, affecting its Arctic sovereignty, domestic disaster resilience, and international stability. It recommends establishing a Climate Security Task Force to coordinate a cross-agency response, adapting military infrastructure to sea-level rise and permafrost thaw, and leveraging multilateral institutions to manage global climate-driven fragility.

The report identifies systemic gender inequalities across seven Sahelian countries that hinder women's resilience to climate change, specifically citing limited land ownership, high burdens of unpaid care work, and restricted access to climate information and financial services. It proposes a Gender Action Plan to increase women's economic empowerment, reduce workloads through solar-powered technologies, and improve access to climate-smart agricultural inputs and micro-insurance, targeting at least 40% of interventions for women.