Search Climate Insights Directory

The document outlines Italy's strategic focus on the Horn of Africa, driven by colonial history and security concerns, and its role in regional peace processes. It details Italy's development aid trends, noting a decline in real terms despite government commitments, and examines Italy's trade and investment ties across Africa, particularly with Tunisia, Libya, and South Africa.

This policy brief by the South African Institute of International Affairs examines the gap between the African Union's (AU) normative commitments to democracy and human rights and the actual foreign policies of its member states. The author argues that strong sovereignty norms and a state-centric approach have hindered the domestication of human rights, leading to a state of 'stasis' or reversal in several countries. The brief recommends that the AU embrace global partnerships with civil society and that pivotal states like South Africa rejuvenate human rights as a core pillar of their external engagements to ensure continental stability.

The document analyzes Nigeria's economic contraction and subsequent recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the role of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and fiscal stimulus. It identifies critical gaps in social protection, gender-responsive policy, and fiscal buffers, while advocating for central bank independence and digital economy integration for long-term stability.

The document is a formal statement signed by a broad coalition of individuals, businesses, and civil society organizations calling for urgent government action to limit global warming to 1.5°C. It emphasizes that 1.5°C is a critical limit rather than a target and argues that current national pledges are insufficient to meet this goal. The signatories commit to a just transition and call for global emissions to be halved by 2030, highlighting the immediate impacts of climate change already visible in regions such as Pakistan, California, Europe, and Somalia.

The report argues that traditional 'gray' infrastructure alone is insufficient to meet global development goals and climate adaptation needs. It proposes a 'next generation' approach that combines built solutions with 'green' systems—such as forests, wetlands, and mangroves—to improve water supply, flood management, and hydropower efficiency. The authors provide a framework for evaluating these projects across technical, environmental, social, and economic dimensions, emphasizing that green infrastructure can lower costs, increase resilience, and empower local communities if rigorously designed and supported by enabling policies and innovative financing.

The report argues that combining natural systems—such as forests, wetlands, and mangroves—with built infrastructure can lower costs and increase resilience against climate change. It provides a technical, social, and economic framework for project appraisal and highlights the need for enabling policies and innovative financing to mainstream these 'next generation' infrastructure solutions.