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The Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) emphasizes the role of youth as core contributors in climate resilience through a model that combines flexible funding, mentorship, and creative storytelling. By utilizing small, catalytic grants via the Knowledge Into Use (KIU) Awards, GRP supports arts-based initiatives—such as murals and theatre—to make technical climate data accessible to local communities. The report highlights the importance of 'proximate leadership,' where youth are integrated into decision-making roles and global policy spaces like the COP Resilience Hub. Key findings suggest that pairing financial resources with structured guidance and visibility enables young innovators to scale their impact and secure further investment.

The document introduces 'metacoupling' as a research lens to understand the interdependence of social-ecological systems (SES) across local (intracoupling), adjacent (pericoupling), and distant (telecoupling) scales. By integrating an equity lens—focusing on distributional, procedural, and recognitional dimensions—the framework reveals how global flows of resources and capital influence local inequities. Case studies in South Africa and Namibia illustrate that international market demands and certification standards often marginalize small-scale producers and riverine communities, while power imbalances between local actors and multinational entities constrain equitable resource access.

The EU is establishing Strategic Partnerships with 14 countries to secure critical minerals for its 2050 climate neutrality goal. Global Witness argues that these deals prioritize resource access over social and environmental governance, citing specific risks in Serbia, Rwanda, Australia, Argentina, Uzbekistan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The author calls for the EU to implement stringent safeguards and transparent 'Roadmaps' to ensure the energy transition does not perpetuate human rights abuses or environmental destruction.

Between 2021 and 2023, mining for copper, cobalt, lithium, and nickel was linked to 334 incidents of violence or protest across 19 top-producing countries, averaging 111 per year. Nearly 90% of these events occurred in emerging and developing economies, while the majority of production is controlled by companies from advanced economies and major consumer countries, primarily China. The report warns that social unrest is likely to increase as production is forecast to spike by 2028 to meet climate goals, potentially destabilizing supply chains and increasing costs for renewable technologies.

A Global Witness investigation warns that the rehabilitation of the Lobito Corridor railway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) threatens low-income residents of Kolwezi with forced evictions. The report highlights a critical gap in legal protections, as the project is governed by the 1977 Law of Expropriation for Public Utility—which only requires compensation—rather than the more stringent 2002 Mining Code. Legal ambiguities regarding land titles, particularly those involving the national rail company (SNCC), and disputes over the width of the railway's buffer zone further expose residents to displacement. The report argues that the EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) could provide a mechanism for accountability for companies like Trafigura and Mota-Engil, provided the law is not weakened by proposed amendments. It concludes with recommendations for the EU, the DRC government, and investors to implement meaningful consultations, independent monitoring, and higher resettlement standards.

A Global Witness investigation alleges that Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals (FQM) has engaged in a decades-long covert influence campaign in Zambia, including the alleged funding of President Hakainde Hichilema's party (UPND). The report claims this relationship resulted in significant tax breaks for FQM and other mining firms, totaling an estimated $771 million in savings for FQM between 2022 and 2025. The investigation further details the role of the Brenthurst Foundation and SABI Strategy in shaping economic policy and managing disinformation campaigns to support Hichilema's political rise and retention of power.

The document examines the crisis of external debt in Africa, noting that for some commodity-dependent nations, debt-to-GDP ratios exceeded 100% after the COVID-19 pandemic. It argues that current debt relief efforts by the G20 and UN are insufficient because they lack binding frameworks for private creditors. The authors contend that the global financial system reproduces colonial extraction and that only a coordinated effort to write off private, public, and multilateral debt can ensure a just recovery and protect socio-economic rights.

The document is a popular education toolkit designed to help Southern African activists connect lived experiences of working-class women to structural inequalities in food and climate systems. It argues that care work—primarily unpaid labour performed by women—is the invisible foundation of food provision and community survival, yet is ignored by dominant neoliberal policies. The toolkit guides users through six activities to analyze social reproduction, the power dynamics of food systems, the gendered impacts of climate change, and the development of care-centred alternatives and advocacy strategies.

The CAPA Initiative, funded by Global Affairs Canada, implements nature-based solutions (NbS) to protect biodiversity and strengthen climate resilience. In Belize, activities focus on reforestation in the Maya Forest Corridor and coral reef health in marine reserves. In Fiji, interventions include flood mitigation buffers and sustainable fisheries. In the Greater Virunga Landscape (Uganda), the project focuses on restoring agricultural lands and promoting climate-resilient livelihoods. In the Kavango–Zambezi Landscape (Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Angola), efforts target forest restoration and the stabilization of wetlands and headwaters. Global-level support is provided by IISD through research, capacity strengthening, and gender-responsive approaches.

The Climate Adaptation and Protected Areas (CAPA) Initiative implements nature-based solutions for climate adaptation across the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) landscape, which spans Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The initiative focuses on restoring forest cover, stabilizing water sources, and restocking native wildlife, while providing technical and financial training to women, youth, and persons with disabilities. Specific project sites include the Cuando River basin in Angola, the Sioma Ngwezi and Mosi-Oa-Tunya ecosystems in Zambia, Bwabwata National Park in Namibia, and areas around Hwange and Chizarira National Parks in Zimbabwe.

The document examines how valuable minerals can finance violence, trigger local conflicts, and weaken state governance through corruption. It provides lessons learned for development interventions, such as empowering local communities, supporting artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), and promoting corporate responsibility. The toolkit includes a survey instrument for risk assessment and lists USAID contracting mechanisms and international partners to address mineral-related conflict.

The report examines the limitations of traditional mining taxation—primarily corporate income tax and royalties—and suggests ten alternative policy mechanisms to improve revenue mobilization. These include minimum profit shares, production sharing contracts, state equity participation, commercial state-owned enterprises, variable royalties, the 'Sixth Method' for related-party pricing, carbon pricing to mitigate EU CBAM impacts, development turnover taxes for communities, competitive bidding for licenses, and remote monitoring for quarry production. It emphasizes the need for these tools to be adapted to local administrative capacities and the evolving demand for critical minerals.

This text is the introductory material for a book titled 'The many faces of human security: Case studies of seven countries in Southern Africa', produced by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) with funding from the Royal Danish embassy in South Africa. It outlines the collaborative effort between the ISS, the Southern African Peace and Security Network (SAPSNet), and various academic and strategic partners across seven Southern African nations to explore the concept of human security in a region historically dominated by state security priorities.

The document argues that juvenile justice reforms in Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zambia have been slow and inadequate since decolonisation. Despite being party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, these states fail to consistently apply principles of limited criminal liability for minors or prioritise rehabilitation over retribution, often treating children in ways that disregard their dignity.

The policy brief argues that the judicial systems of Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zambia are hampered by a colonial legacy where the executive branch remained dominant over the judiciary and legislature. Despite the adoption of international human rights instruments and constitutional guarantees of fair trial and judicial independence, the executive continues to control the resources available to the judiciary, which undermines its ability to prevent impunity and ensure the rule of law.

The report examines the reception of 250,000 to 350,000 Mozambican refugees in South Africa during the 1980s, highlighting a paradox where ethnic solidarity among Shangaan-speakers coexisted with severe economic exploitation. It details the creation of a 'third tier' of undocumented labour in the lowveld's commercial farming sector and critiques the UNHCR's flawed repatriation programme in the 1990s. Despite subsequent South African government amnesties granting permanent residence to 176,648 refugees by 2000, the author argues that many former refugees remained a 'de facto undocumented' underclass due to systemic xenophobia and structural economic dependence on cheap labour.

The report details a seminar held in Addis Ababa on February 12, 2009, which analyzed the outcomes of the 12th Ordinary Summit of the African Union. Key discussions focused on the low implementation rate of AU Assembly decisions, the legal challenges of transforming the AU Commission into an Authority, and the AU's response to the International Criminal Court's indictment of the President of Sudan.

The report examines the Rhodesian government's attempt to apply 'stability operations'—combining internal defence and development—to counter insurgency. It details the evolution of psychological warfare units, from the informal Sheppard group to the formal 1 Psychological Operations Unit and the Directorate of Psychological Warfare. The analysis highlights a consistent failure to achieve 'hearts and minds' due to a reliance on force, racial paternalism, and a lack of genuine civic action. Specific failures are noted in food control (Operation Turkey), disinformation campaigns (Operation Splitshot), and the manipulation of spirit mediums, concluding that the state's emphasis on the 'iron fist' over the 'velvet glove' rendered its psychological efforts ineffective.

The paper examines how Zambia manages competing public needs through macroeconomic reforms and growth stimulation. It details the transition from state-led economic management to a liberalised system, focusing on GDP growth, inflation control, and interest rate reductions to expand the state's resource envelope.

The provided text is an introductory fragment and acronym list for a research project initiated in 2001 by Gun Free South Africa (GFSA) and the Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR). The project aimed to examine the trade, use, and control of small arms and light weapons (SALW) across nine southern African nations to develop strategies for limiting their misuse. Specifically, the research sought to determine the size and nature of legal state-held and civilian-owned arms, the sources of illegal weapons—including losses or thefts from legal stockpiles—and the factors driving civilian demand for legal firearms.