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The document examines the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Africa, highlighting a tension between the continent's role as a provider of raw materials and labour and its dependence on foreign AI technologies from the Global North and China. It identifies significant risks associated with AI adoption, including the misuse of biometric digital IDs in Namibia and South Africa, the deployment of facial recognition for surveillance in Uganda and South Africa, and the exploitation of vulnerable populations through 'click work' in Kenyan refugee camps. The author analyses emerging national AI strategies in Egypt, Mauritius, and Rwanda, as well as the SMARTAfrica Blueprint, noting that while these frameworks address infrastructure and talent, they often overlook the labour rights of gig workers and the specific impact of automation on women. The brief evaluates the potential for policy transfer from the EU, specifically the AI Act and GDPR, warning that such frameworks may not account for African socio-economic rights or the technical constraints of local start-ups. It concludes by recommending that African policymakers focus on building inclusive digital infrastructure, fostering regional cooperation for data sharing, and implementing beneficiation frameworks to ensure local communities profit from the data used to train AI systems.

The document details how East Africa has experienced warming exceeding the global average, leading to increased drought frequency, glacier loss, and significant economic losses. Future projections indicate severe risks to human health, food security, and biodiversity, particularly if warming exceeds 1.5°C. It emphasizes the need for transformative adaptation, increased climate finance, and improved climate services to build regional resilience.

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) is implementing a five-year programme (2022–27) focused on accelerating locally-led, equitable, and ecosystem-based climate action. The initiative targets disadvantaged groups, including women, Indigenous Peoples, and migrants, across Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. CDKN's strategy centers on three priority areas: integrating gender equality and social inclusion into climate policies, enabling inclusive finance for local action, and implementing effective ecosystem-based adaptation. The approach emphasizes 'knowledge-into-action' by combining local, Indigenous, and scientific knowledge to strengthen Southern leadership and institutional capacity.

The Human Rights Committee (CCPR) has increased its focus on climate change, issuing more recommendations and questions to states between 2019 and 2021. While early outputs primarily targeted Small Island Developing States and developing countries, the Committee has expanded its scope to include developed nations like Germany and Canada. Key areas of inquiry include mitigation, adaptation, procedural rights, and the regulation of private actors, with specific concerns raised regarding fossil fuel extraction in Guyana, Tanzania, and São Tomé and Príncipe. In the case of Teitiota v. New Zealand, the CCPR recognized that climate change could trigger non-refoulment obligations if it creates real threats to the right to life, though it found no breach in that specific instance. Additionally, the Pereira Benega v. Paraguay ruling established a precedent for state obligations to prevent environmental threats to private, family, and cultural life.

FSD Africa's 2022 Impact Report details the agency's efforts to deepen African capital markets and transition toward a green economy. Key achievements include mobilising £1.9 billion in long-term capital, supporting the issuance of pioneering gender bonds in Tanzania and Morocco, and expanding green finance initiatives. The report highlights the agency's 'green strategy' target to have 70% of its portfolio be green by 2025, alongside specific interventions in geothermal risk transfer, carbon markets, and COVID-19 emergency job protection in Ethiopia.

FSD Africa's 2022 Impact Report highlights the organization's shift toward green financing, with a goal of 70% of its portfolio being green. Key achievements include facilitating green bonds in 20 African countries, investing $0.25bn via the African Local Currency Bond Fund to support renewable energy, and launching the African Natural Capital Alliance to manage nature-related financial risks. The organization has increased its green financing commitment from £23 million in 2020 to approximately £52 million in 2022, with a target of over £122 million by 2025.

The COP27 Resilience Hub served as a physical and virtual space to accelerate ambition and investment in climate resilience, representing over 1,500 non-state actors. The report identifies five cross-cutting messages, emphasizing that scaling adaptation is a prerequisite for containing Loss and Damage and that locally-led adaptation (LLA) requires radical collaboration. The document details thematic analysis across nine areas—including finance, food, water, and health—and highlights the role of Regional Resilience Hubs in amplifying under-represented voices from Africa, South Asia, Asia Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The review finds that Kenya has implemented numerous initiatives to enhance climate resilience in its agriculture sector, including the development of drought-tolerant crops, improved rangeland management, and the scaling of sustainable aquaculture. While the enabling environment has improved through legislation like the Climate Change Act (2016) and the establishment of the Climate Smart Agriculture Multistakeholder Platform, the report notes a critical lack of baseline data and indicators in the original NAP, making it difficult to accurately track progress. Despite these efforts, smallholder production remains limited due to persistent climatic shocks, including a 40-year record drought from 2019 to 2022.

The report evaluates the integration of gender considerations in National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) globally, noting an increase in the use of gender-responsive language, gender analysis, and the inclusion of gender ministries in institutional frameworks. It highlights specific progress in capacity building and monitoring and evaluation (M&E), while providing case studies from countries like the Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Marshall Islands, and Suriname to illustrate best practices in gender-responsive climate adaptation.

The report evaluates sustainable cooling policy progress in the 'Critical 9' countries, finding that while energy efficiency policies exist, they are inconsistently implemented and often fail to cover off-grid devices or reflect best-in-class technology. It highlights a significant gap in integrating cooling demand into national electrification planning and financial incentives, while noting varying levels of adoption of National Cooling Action Plans (NCAPs) and the Kigali Amendment.

The report argues that transitioning to a circular plastics economy by 2050 will result in positive cumulative effects on GDP, employment, and consumer welfare in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and South Africa compared to a business-as-usual scenario. Using computational general equilibrium (CGE) modelling, the study finds that such a transition increases economic activity and reduces the costs of environmental externalities. For Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya, immediate implementation is recommended to maximize environmental gains and avoid sunk costs. For South Africa, an incremental shift is suggested to minimize short-term negative impacts on its more established plastics sector. The report emphasizes the need for national policy instruments—such as extended producer responsibility (EPR) and deposit return schemes—alongside regional coordination via the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and a legally binding global treaty to combat plastic pollution.

The report examines the role of informal waste reclaimers in African cities, highlighting their significant contribution to recycling and waste diversion despite facing severe health risks, social marginalization, and low pay. It argues that the current linear 'take-make-waste' model is unsustainable and that an 'inclusive circular economy' must integrate these vulnerable workers into formal policy and value chains. The document provides a comparative analysis of the informal waste sector in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda, detailing specific policy gaps and opportunities for reclaimer integration and formalization.

The policy brief examines the severe fiscal constraints facing African countries during COVID-19 recovery, noting that while advanced economies mobilised about 6% of GDP, African countries mobilised barely 1%. It highlights the inadequacy of current debt relief mechanisms like the DSSI and the Common Framework, and the high cost of borrowing from international capital markets due to unfair credit ratings. The author proposes five policy priorities: establishing national donor coordination frameworks, reallocating public investment to de-risk private projects, extending the DSSI for two years with partial debt cancellation, creating a transparent multilateral framework for debt resolution involving commercial creditors, and exploring the establishment of independent, publicly owned credit rating agencies.

The document examines the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework's 'Two-Pillar Solution' to tax challenges from the digitalisation of the economy, highlighting how current global tax fragmentation allows multinational corporations to avoid taxes. It argues that African and least-developed countries suffer disproportionate revenue losses as a share of GDP and are underrepresented in negotiations. The brief criticizes the agreement for a high turnover threshold that limits the number of taxable companies and for a minimum corporate tax rate of 15% that some African nations find too low. It recommends increasing African participation, moving negotiations to a neutral UN forum, and providing technical and financial support to ensure equitable implementation.

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 examines the synergy between the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the African Union's Green Recovery Action Plan (GRAP) to foster green intra-continental trade and investment. While the AfCFTA is intended to transform Africa's production and trade landscape, the document notes that environmental and climate considerations have not been prominent in its development. The report specifically analyzes how the combined implementation of these frameworks can support recovery in Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa.

The document outlines key lessons for SADC member states to improve their NDCs, emphasizing the need for inclusive stakeholder engagement, alignment with long-term development goals, and the use of quantifiable targets and evidence-based analysis. It highlights examples from South Africa, Rwanda, and Costa Rica to demonstrate how detailed implementation roadmaps and participatory scenario planning can enhance climate commitments.

The 'Closing the Loop on Textile Waste in Kenya' partnership, led by Enviu, PurFi, and Upset Sourcing East Africa, utilizes a chemical recycling technology to process textile waste into high-quality materials for new manufacturing. The initiative has sold 100,000 kg of textile cotton waste and employs a sorting team of women processing 36,000 kg per month. By collaborating with Kenya's Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA), the partnership aims to integrate circular waste-to-value solutions into the country's expanding textile industry to reduce environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

The report details Kenya's progress in climate adaptation and mitigation from July 2019 to June 2020. Key achievements include the distribution of climate information services to over 2.5 million people, the accreditation of Kenya Commercial Bank with the Green Climate Fund, and the climate-proofing of over 3,000 km of roads. However, implementation was hindered by the Covid-19 pandemic, a desert locust invasion, and weak coordinating units at the county level. The document recommends ring-fencing climate finance and adopting a biennial reporting cycle to improve efficiency.

The 'Klimaatsaksie Handboek' is a practical guide designed to empower South African communities to combat climate change using legal tools. It explains the science of climate change, identifies specific vulnerabilities and potential impacts—such as water scarcity and food insecurity—and outlines a framework for 'climate action.' The document details South Africa's constitutional rights, relevant environmental legislation, and international commitments. It provides a step-by-step toolkit for community organizing, including methods for gathering evidence, accessing government information via PAIA, participating in Environmental Impact Assessments, lobbying, and taking legal action as a last resort.