PACJA Launches the Climate Security Initiative (ClimSec- Africa)

What You Need to Know About the Initiative

In March 2022, a consultative forum by the Horn of Africa Climate Security Working Group (HoACSWG) on climate security in Africa convened on the sidelines of the 8^th Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development in Kigali, Rwanda.

The group assessed the situation of climate insecurity in the Horn of Africa and resolved to call on different development actors, policymakers, governments and other parties to urgently build the much-needed evidence base on climate insecurity to support policy advocacy championed by CSOs to address the urgent climate insecurity crisis.

The HoACSWG, now institutionalized at PACJA as the Africa Climate Security Initiative (ClimSec Africa) was initiated to seal the existing gap for an African-led institution to champion the mobilization of the requisite knowledge and climate security innovations and linking these to policymaking processes in countries and the region.

On the sidelines of 9^th Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development Forum (ARFSD-9) held in Niamey, Niger, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA)  officially launched  the Climate Security Initiative ( ClimSec – Africa).

On this occasion, PACJA  also launched the five  year  strategic  plan that will guide  the implementation of  the ClimSec- Africa’s  strategic  objectives.

Experts commended PACJA for leading  the journey with anchoring the  ClimSec Initiative with a strong belief that Africa is experiencing  Climate related  security.

It was revealed that Climate related and triggered insecurities have compounded other previously existing vulnerabilities worsening climate change impacts in the continent and pushing national governments to spend massive resources in addressing humanitarian crisis triggered by these insecurities.

According to Dr. Ahmed Bugri, the Senior Migrant protection and assistance advisor at African Union around 85 million of people are expected to be displaced due to the impacts of Climate change. Not only that, lack of resources is creating localized conflicts between communities.

 “Today we can’t still say that Climate is a debatable issue because researches have showed that there is a link between and arising conflicts. This is real”, said Dr. Ahmed. He links the water resources scarcity as another issue affecting the development of countries such as diminution of hydroelectric power generations and others.

PACJA observed gaps hindering the process of addressing the climate security in the region and beyond on the continent including demand for local knowledge to inform resilience strategies; and the need for a pan-African platform to generate and/or translate knowledge into policy and action in hotspots beyond the Horn of Africa.  PACJA envisions to undertake a research agenda to guide demand-driven evidence generation; focus on key hotspots and institutionalizing HoACSWG and scaling its focus to cover Africa to address the highlighted gaps.

In November 2021, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council delivered a document underlining the threat of climate change for the continent’s future peace and security with its communique on the need for a climate-security-development nexus for Africa.  AU underlined the importance of adopting a climate-sensitive planning dimension to peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction missions, and in development efforts to prevent any relapse to armed conflicts in fragile communities.

According to Dr. Kituyi Evans, the senior Associate, PACJA, to address the climate insecurity, the initiative will be driven by three main objectives including Generation of knowledge and innovations for wide-scale adoption, strengthening capacities of individuals and institutions operating in the hotspots and Promoting partnerships and stakeholder engagement for greater impact.

The  Stockholm Environmental Institute observes that  the combination of political instability  and disasters has contributed  to an increase in the number  of internal displaced people and  refugees  in Africa.

According  to International  Displacement  Monitoring center report,  about  40.5 million people  were newly displace in 2020. At least 27% of them are from sub-Saharan Africa.