Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue—it exacerbates root causes of fragility, conflict and human mobility.
As the UN Secretary-General emphasizes, “We need to protect the people and communities that are being hit by climate disruption. We must step up preparations for the escalating implications of the climate crisis for international peace and security.”
Because of a changing climate, the way governments and communities manage land, water, and food systems is now more than ever a pivotal factor in whether societies can endure peace.
And yet, despite significant investments in humanitarian, development, and peace operations, a critical gap remains—the recognition of the intrinsic link between climate, food security, and peace in global policies.
CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security fills this vital gap by aligning humanitarian, peacebuilding and climate resilience objectives through research on food, land and water systems to inform the design of conflict-sensitive and peace responsive climate adaptation interventions and climate sensitive humanitarian and peace operations.
Our Impact and Outcomes
Thanks to our research and advocacy efforts, identifying and addressing climate security risks have now landed at the top of national, regional, and pan-African policy agendas.
In the past few years, our research has informed:
- the African Union Africa Climate Risk Assessment report;
- IGAD-CAEP Regional Adaptation Strategy ;
- the launch of a new Climate Smart Agriculture Multi-stakeholders’ platform in the Laikipia county in Kenya;
- Zambia’s Green Growth Strategy;
- the upcoming Kenya’s National Climate Change Adaptation Plan, the CCAD Regional Strategy on Climate Change (ERCC), and much more.
Our researchers also provided evidence, data, and insights to support UNHCR to mitigate the vulnerability of 110 million re fugees, displaced people, and their hosts, and to potentially influence policies in 135 countries and 585 offices across the globe. Notably, we helped inform UNHCR’s new Strategic Plan for Climate Action, provided evidence to optimize ongoing humanitarian assistance, developed analyses needed to build enabling policies and secure funding, and raised awareness internally and externally. Our research also contributed critical evidence on displacement and conflict tipping points released for the first time in the Global Tipping Points Report at COP28.
Our geographic coverage:
We work across the full fragility and conflict continuum, including relatively stable and less fragile countries such as Kenya, Senegal, Mauritania, Benin, Zambia, Madagascar, Vietnam, The Philippines, India, and Guatemala, to more fragile, conflict-affected and displacement hotspots such as Sudan, South Sudan, Jordan, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Libya, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Togo, Somalia, Ethiopia, DRC, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Honduras, Haiti, Papua New Guinea.
Our Skills and Expertise:
A highly talented, multi-disciplinary team with more than 70 members, with unique skills and expertise spanning from climate science to peace, conflict, migration, displacement, systems, and complexity thinking, social media, and media analysis, which has expanded the overall CGIAR research capacity to new topics and dimensions.
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Our Strategic Approach:
To better capture demand, for more effective scaling for impact, and to directly inform emergency, humanitarian, and peacebuilding interventions, we matched the location of our regional hubs (Addis Ababa, Cali, Cairo, Dakar, Hanoi, Nairobi, Pretoria) to humanitarian and peace actors’ presence and seconded our staff to UN regional and country bureaus (WFP, UNHCR, IOM).
