This briefing looks at what the 1.5°C limit means in terms of adaptation and loss and damage for the most vulnerable countries and regions. It finds that slowing down warming is critical to buy us time to adapt and also to avoid irreversible loss and damage. With global warming continuing …
Two-year-old Thayi loves the aerosol therapy room at Senegal's Albert Royer Children's Hospital, where she gets to fall asleep on her mother's lap, breathing deeply - something that is usually hard to do. The mask over her face pumps out medicine that soothes her asthmatic lungs, a condition worsened by …
Ghana plans to replace its polluting "trotro" buses and formalise waste collection in slums as part of a new plan to help its crowded capital withstand climate change and disasters. The West African country on Thursday became the second in the region after Senegal to launch a plan to help …
Environmental groups involved in talks at a United Nations conference in Kenya have accused the US of blocking an ambitious global response to plastic pollution. Representatives of countries at the UN environment conference in Nairobi this week agreed to significantly reduce single-use plastics over the next decade but the voluntary …
The African Development Bank (AfDB) on Thursday said it would provide $25 billion (2.5 trillion shillings) over the next five years to help in the global fight against climate change. Akinwumi Adesina, the President of AfDB, said the bank currently provides 34 per cent of its overall lending portfolio to …
Over the last decade many countries in the Sahel region—the semi-arid southern edge of the Sahara that stretches from Senegal to Ethiopia—have been embroiled in conflict. Populations in these countries are growing. This means that resources are increasingly scarce, and a highly variable climate is making agriculture-based livelihoods more uncertain. …
Beyond the shattered lives, the harsh consequences of erosion, pollution and flooding are very costly to Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and Togo. A new World Bank study reveals in economic terms the cost of the damage in these four countries. Titled "The Cost of Coastal Zone Degradation in West Africa", …
Despite the lack of robust empirical evidence, a growing number of media reports attempt to link climate change to the ongoing violent conflicts in Syria and other parts of the world, as well as to the migration crisis in Europe. Exploiting bilateral data on asylum seeking applications for 157 countries …
In this first Annual Report, the InsuResilience Global Partnership for Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance highlights the initiatives that the different actors worked on towards the Partnership’s vision. That is, 25 programs were supported in 78 countries by the commitments made in the context of the Partnership. This …
From an app to diagnose disease on Zambian farms to Tinder-style matchmaking for Senegalese land owners and young farmers, young coders have been finding solutions to hunger in the first Africa-wide hackathon on the issue. Eight teams competed in the hackathon, organized by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) …
From Pakistan to Panama, a steady stream of countries from the Global South have endorsed China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) promoting connectivity since its launch in 2013. The trend continued this week as Senegal and Rwanda inked deals under the BRI banner during President Xi Jinping’s tour of the …
Kenya and Tanzania are among nine African countries set to benefit from an ambitious US-led initiative to invest in gas-powered power plants. The Gas Roadmap for sub-Saharan Africa, launched in June at the World Gas Conference in Washington, DC, by the US Agency for International Development's Power Africa co-ordinator, is …
Eight West African states have called for emergency aid for four countries in the Sahel facing food shortages as a result of jihadist violence. Agriculture ministers from the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), at a meeting in the Nigerien capital of Niamey on Monday, said around 3.5 million …
Kampala — Uganda has Africa's best electricity regulatory system, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB's) 2018 Electricity Regulatory Index (ERI) report. Second is Namibia, tailed by Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, Cameroon, South Africa, Togo, Senegal, Côte I'voire, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and the Gambia respectively. "The implication of this result …
‘Leave no one behind’ is a principle central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This policy briefing, based on five years’ research by the PRISE project, puts forward the view that governments, development partners and investors must prioritise investments to tackle poverty and climate vulnerability in dryland areas …
The 21st Session of the African Forestry and Wildlife Commission (AFWC) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) begins today in Dakar, Senegal, to discuss how to sustainably manage and restore Africa’s forests, landscapes and wildlife resources. The five-day meeting, which focuses on the theme “Restoring …
The United Nations aid chief raised alarm on Tuesday over a worsening food crisis in the Sahel region that has sent malnutrition rates skyrocketing to their worst level since 2012. Nearly six million people are struggling to feed themselves in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal, where 1.6 …
The U.N. humanitarian chief warned Tuesday that nearly 6 million people are struggling to get food in West Africa's Sahel region and severe malnutrition is threatening the lives of 1.6 million children. Mark Lowcock said in a statement that these levels haven't been seen since a crisis in 2012 "and …
Chronic fatigue, weight loss and lingering sadness. Mohammed Elmouved does not need a doctor to diagnose his symptoms. "It's my animals," said the livestock owner, at a dusty herders' camp in R'Kiz, on the edge of the Mauritanian desert. "They've barely had anything to eat or drink in days, so …
Africa50, Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) are set to develop solar projects in the Sahel through the Desert to Power Programme. On the sidelines of the African Development Bank annual meetings, the heads of Africa50, GCF and AfDB signed an agreement to collaborate on the …
Kenya is among five countries that will receive insurance cover for farmers suffering losses caused by weather-related disasters. This is part of a rural resilience initiative launched by the UN World Food Programme and Oxfam to protect poor farmers and strengthen their income as well as food security. Benoit Thiry …