On 4 October, SIPRI co-organized a session at the 2023 Africa Resilience Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The session ‘Accelerating Finance for Sustaining Peace’ focused on how to reconfigure the climate finance system towards innovation, sustainability and predictability while widening the engagement of financing actors.
Various recommendations have been made in recent years to increase, for example, the risk appetite of donors, accessibility for governments of fragile and conflict-affected states, and guidelines for increasing conflict-sensitivity. This session took stock of the extent to which these recommendations have been translated into concrete actions and discussed how to build on these experiences. The session gave insights into specific challenges on the ground that arise from the combination of conflict and climate extremes, and into new mechanisms, such as the African Development Bank’s Climate Action Window, which aims to provide fast climate finance to the most vulnerable states, with a focus on grants for climate adaptation.
Dan Smith, SIPRI Director, moderated the panel, which comprised of Saoudata Walet Aboubacrine, Secretary General, TIN HINAN; Gilles Carbonnier, Vice President, International Committee of the Red Cross; Dr Kevin Kariuki, Vice President, Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth, African Development Bank Group; and Wilford Mwanza, Founder and CEO, FordOlutions.
The theme of the African Resilience Forum 2023 was ‘Financing Peace, Security and Development for a Resilient Africa’. The forum is held every two years and brings together policymakers and practitioners from humanitarian, development, peace and security communities across the public and private sectors, including investors, academics, think tanks and members of civil society.
About SIPRI’s work on Climate Change and Risk
SIPRI’s work on climate change and risk provides reliable insights on how climate-related security risks evolve and how they are interlinked and interact with different social, political and economic processes. SIPRI researchers also analyse how different policy organizations are responding to these risks and provide advice on conflict-sensitive adaptation, mitigation strategies and how international efforts for sustaining peace can be achieved.
Click here to read more about SIPRI’s work on Climate Change and Risk.