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The report analyzes Thailand's Community Forest Act B.E. 2562 (2019), noting that while it provides a first-time official umbrella law for community forestry, it is limited to areas outside protected forests. The analysis highlights gaps in customary tenure recognition, complex allocation processes, and a lack of explicit safeguards for marginalized groups. It recommends the development of detailed subsidiary regulations to clarify management plans, benefit-sharing, and market access.

The report establishes a conceptual framework for urban climate finance, emphasizing that mobilization depends on the alignment of country-specific, city-specific, and climate-specific enabling conditions. It details the five roles city governments play—consumer, provider, fundraiser, regulator, and champion—and argues that a lack of administrative capacity, fragmented authority, and limited revenue sources in developing countries create significant barriers. The document recommends integrating climate considerations into all levels of city planning (strategic, spatial, capital investment, and budgetary) and suggests using carbon pricing, land-value capture, and conditional intergovernmental transfers to close the urban financing gap.

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 examines how corruption in natural resource management (NRM) undermines human rights and how reframing corruption as a human rights issue can provide more effective solutions than a purely criminal justice approach. It uses the illegal abalone trade in South Africa and the role of rangers as case studies to illustrate how structural injustices and power asymmetries drive corruption and environmental crime. The brief advocates for integrating human rights mechanisms into anti-corruption strategies to address the root causes of illegality and protect vulnerable communities and environmental defenders.

The report estimates that 1.2 billion tonnes of food are wasted on farms annually, representing 15.3% of global production. This waste contributes 2.2 gigatonnes of CO2 eq, approximately 4% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis reveals that high- and middle-income regions contribute a disproportionate share of harvest waste per capita. The document argues that farm-stage waste is driven not only by direct biological or technical factors but by indirect systemic drivers, including market power imbalances, rigid retail specifications, and the diversion of edible food to animal feed. It calls for a 50% reduction target from 'farm to fork' by 2030 and a shift toward holistic interventions involving governments, retailers, and citizens.

The Kibera Public Space Project, led by the Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI), transforms dumpsites and wastelands into a network of multifunctional public spaces to build flood resilience in Nairobi's largest informal settlement. By integrating drainage, gabions, and early-warning systems, the project protects vulnerable households from increasing rainfall risks exacerbated by climate change. The initiative emphasizes community co-design and has successfully advocated for the integration of Kibera into formal city planning through a Special Planning Area approved in 2020.

The document examines how climate change increases post-harvest losses in Kenya and Uganda through heightened pest and disease pressure, and proposes hermetic storage technologies (HSTs) as a solution to improve food security and farmer livelihoods.

The paper analyzes how international lending influences African countries' integration into global value chains. It finds that Chinese lending, which focuses heavily on transport and communication infrastructure, increases the overall intensity of GVC participation. In contrast, World Bank lending, which prioritizes social sectors like education and health, helps countries move toward higher value-added, upstream positions in production networks. The study emphasizes that reducing trade costs through infrastructure is key to initial GVC access, while human capital investments support economic upgrading.

The document analyzes the gap between the digital goals of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and the actual capacities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Zambia. It argues that while paperless trade and 'single window' systems aim to increase efficiency, low literacy rates and language barriers (reliance on English) create 'SPS-Plus' burdens that exclude many small-scale traders. The author recommends integrating digital skills training and AI-powered translation of trade requirements into local languages to ensure SMEs can benefit from the energy and economic transition toward a digital economy.

The document analyzes the vulnerability of sub-Saharan African food systems during the COVID-19 pandemic, noting a heavy reliance on global imports and a lack of fiscal capacity for social protection. It details how governments primarily used interventionist market, trade, and production policies, while highlighting severe disruptions in input supply, labor, and logistics. The authors argue for a shift toward more agile governance, investment in infrastructure, and the effective implementation of regional trade agreements to build future resilience.

The report examines gender inequality in the urban public transport sectors of Nairobi, Kampala, and Dar es Salaam, finding that transport systems are generally designed for young, fit men and fail to address the specific mobility needs, safety concerns, and employment barriers faced by women. While national constitutions and gender policies in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya provide a foundation for equality, specific transport policies often generalize users and lack explicit gender-responsive measures. The study highlights significant risks of sexual harassment and assault, the underrepresentation of women as drivers and operators due to social stigma and structural barriers, and a lack of gender-disaggregated data to inform policy. It suggests that the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems and the rise of online taxi-hailing services present opportunities to integrate gender-sensitive infrastructure and flexible employment for women.

The UNEP Regional Seas Programme employs a regionalized approach to ocean governance, coordinating actions across 18 Conventions and Action Plans involving over 146 countries. While it has achieved significant milestones in pollution management and biodiversity conservation, its effectiveness is hindered by political instability, funding gaps, and weak enforcement.

The research utilizes user journey mapping to analyze the experiences of household and business users of a 6 kW solar PV mini-grid in northwestern Tanzania. The study concludes that a single value proposition is insufficient for diverse user groups and emphasizes the importance of expectation management and continuous engagement to prevent service disuse or 'energy stacking'.

The GEC Steering Group met to discuss 'Building the Coalition', a strategic pathway aimed at transitioning from a UK-led hub to a distributed global network of autonomous hubs. The group emphasized organic growth, the need for sustainable resourcing, and the importance of maintaining collective integrity while decentralizing. The meeting also reviewed five strategic priorities for 2021, noting that green recovery, inequality approaches, and SME policy networks are progressing, while the network function is marked as 'amber' due to delays. The group agreed to rename the network development task force to a 'reflection and learning group'.

The report assesses South Africa's natural gas value chain, identifying a current energy mix contribution of 2.6% with a target of 15.7% by 2030. It evaluates domestic reserves in basins such as the Orange and Outeniqua, regional supply options from SADC countries—particularly Mozambique—and global LNG markets. The document prioritizes gas-to-power projects as anchor demand to stimulate infrastructure growth, while also exploring industrial and transport applications like CNG for taxis and buses. It concludes with a PESTEL and SWOT analysis to inform a national roadmap for gas sector reforms.

The report finds that the 60 largest global banks provided $3.8 trillion in fossil fuel financing from 2016 to 2020. Despite a 9% drop in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, financing levels remained higher than in 2016. JPMorgan Chase is identified as the world's worst fossil fuel banker, with $317 billion provided over the five-year period. The analysis highlights a significant gap between banks' 'net zero by 2050' pledges and their continued funding of fossil fuel expansion, particularly in sectors like LNG, offshore oil and gas, and coal. The report also details the human rights and environmental impacts of specific projects, such as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline and the Line 3 pipeline, and argues that current bank policies are insufficient to align with the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement.

The research evaluates NPP fluctuation in Tanzania to inform livestock productivity and vegetation adaptation. It finds that the number of grazing livestock, including cattle, sheep, and goats, will increase in Tanzanian grasslands under the studied climate scenarios, suggesting a need for improved grassland productivity and conservation for sustainable management.

SADC member states generally struggle to meet the 2001 Abuja Declaration pledge to allocate 15% of national budgets to healthcare, with an average annual allocation of 5.3%. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted critical gaps in healthcare infrastructure, drug supplies, and professional staffing, while simultaneously straining regional economies. To bridge funding gaps amidst declining GDP and high external debt, the paper recommends establishing a SADC regional healthcare fund backed by the African Union, forming public-private partnerships, improving domestic tax compliance, and involving civil society organisations to ensure transparency in health financing.

The report analyzes the mini-grid sectors in Sierra Leone and Nigeria, focusing on regulatory frameworks, tariff structures, subsidies, and the productive use of energy (PUE). It highlights that while Sierra Leone has established a regulatory framework, its market is nascent and characterized by a top-down, donor-funded approach, whereas Nigeria has a more mature, private-sector-led market. Key findings emphasize the need for Sierra Leone to shift toward a bottom-up approach, implement results-based financing (RBF), and integrate PUE to improve the commercial viability of mini-grids and reduce end-user tariffs.

The report assesses gender inequalities in Tanzania, specifically within the agriculture sector, identifying four primary barriers for women: land ownership, labor access, technical/technological gaps, and financial constraints. It reviews national and international policy frameworks and proposes how the TACATDP project will address these barriers through adaptation credits, guarantee support, and technical assistance.