Background

The impacts of climate risks are becoming more pronounced in their intensities, duration and geographical extent. The Horn of Africa (HoA) is particularly impacted by numerous climate risks including perpetual droughts, floods and heatwaves, that have affected lives and livelihoods.

The Horn of Africa is a deeply interconnected region, particularly the borderlands (transboundary lands), which are complex regions within unique environmental, economic, social, and geopolitical systems making the region one of the most vulnerable regions on the planet. In addition to the cross-border movements of pastoralists, market networks, and trade, groundwater constitutes a prime example of the invisible bonds that link these countries together.

Most countries in the HoA set out ambitious NDC commitments to address climate change, however, there is a gap and a need for investment towards adaptation particularly for the conditional commitments that have been made in their NDCs. In addition to this, there is also a discontinuity when addressing the increasing cross-border climate risks in the region, to address this will require cross-border and regional transformative adaptation through collaborative and collective efforts from national governments and regional economic communities.

Enhancing regional integration efforts is key to moving towards collaborative climate risk management and adaptation on the ground. Policymakers and practitioners at local, national and regional levels are key in addressing the unprecedented challenges of building climate resilience in HoA complex settings.

About this event

This side event aims to bring together key scientists, policymakers and finance experts to unpack, the increasing transboundary climate and adaptation risks and its impacts on the region's natural resource dependency. This has an impact on the region’s credit ratings which affects investment appetite in countries most vulnerable to climate change. The session looks to highlight investment opportunities which through Green Climate Fund (GCF) funding can, not only have project pipelines that increase the region’s climate resilience but also be leveraged to bring in more innovative forms of financing from both the public and private sector, with a high potential for climate change adaptation whilst reducing cascading climate risks and transboundary tensions.

Speakers will join a panel to:

• Highlight the cascading climate risks which threaten cross-border climate adaptation and peace and security.
• Showcase and discuss successful initiatives and opportunities which could benefit from a transboundary investment approach which could be scaled up through GCF funding.
• Explore challenges which exist in deploying transboundary investments and highlight possible domestic solutions to adaptation financing in the most vulnerable regions, such as the HoA.

Speakers

Evan Girvetz
Thematic Lead, Climate Smart Technologies and Practices, AICCRA
Principal Scientist, Climate Action Africa Lead, Finance, and Investment Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

Malle Fofana
Africa Regional Director, Global Green Growth Institute

George Wamukoya
Team Leader, African Group of Negotiators Expert Support (AGNES)

Caroline Mwongera
Country Director, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Sidonie Kouam
Regional Investment Lead, Global Green Growth Institute

Addisu Negash Melkie
Lead, Environment and Climate Change Coordination Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Ethiopia

Participating Organizations

ClimBeR, the CGIAR Initiative on Climate Resilience, aims to transform the climate adaptation capacity of food, land and water systems in Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, Zambia, Guatemala, and the Philippines. ClimBeR researchers and partners tackle vulnerability to climate change at its roots. Researchers at ClimBeR are working in close collaboration with local partners including governments, small-scale farmers, small- and medium-scale enterprises, and other actors in the food value chain. The Initiative envisions helping 30 million farmers across these six countries adapt to climate change by 2030.

AGNES, the African Group of Negotiators Experts Support was created in 2015 to provide scientific expertise and evidence to inform a common African position in climate change negotiations as well as support governments in addressing climate change. The AGNES seeks to facilitate the exchange of ideas between experts and negotiators at the international level, especially within the framework of the UNFCCC. The AGNES utilizes scientific evidence as a major tool that can be employed to inform the unified common Africa position on matters of climate change. Since, its inception AGNES has informed the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) regarding the development and defending of positions on agriculture and gender based on scientific evidence. 

GGGI The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) is a treaty-based international, inter-governmental organization dedicated to supporting and promoting strong, inclusive and sustainable economic growth in developing countries and emerging economies. The GGGI will achieve this through supporting a global transition toward a model of green growth, based on country specific models, with strategies that simultaneously achieve poverty.

AICCRA, Accelerating the Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa, works to make climate information services and climate-smart agriculture more accessible to millions of smallholder farmers across Africa. With better access to technology and advisory services—linked to information about effective response measures—farmers can better anticipate climate-related events to take preventative action that helps their communities safeguard livelihoods and the environment. AICCRA has teams in six countries: Senegal, Ghana, Mali, Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia. 

About Africa Climate Week

Co-hosted by the Government of Kenya and the Africa Union Commission, the summit seeks to forge a new path of collaboration and collective action by bringing together a high-level congregation of African Heads of State, International Governments, Organisations and Investors focusing on Climate Action.  

This year's Africa Climate Week will take place from 4-8 September 2023 in Nairobi, hosted by the government of Kenya. ACW 2023 will be organized in parallel with the Africa Climate Summit on 4-6 September, also hosted by Kenya.

See our Events page for a full list of AICCRA's participation at both conferences.

For more information about AICCRA's participation in Africa Climate Week and for media enquiries, please contact Rhys Bucknall-Williams at r.bucknall@cgiar.org