AU PSC calls for integrating environmental dimensions in peace, security & development strategies in Africa

The Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) underscored the importance of integrating environmental and climate dimensions, including agricultural adaptation, into peace, security, and development strategies in Africa.

In a communiqué issued on Saturday following a meeting on “Climate Change: Challenges to Peace and Security in Africa,” held recently under the chairmanship of Morocco, the Council encourages investments dedicated to the implementation of relevant African initiatives for the adaptation of African agriculture, as well as projects aimed at the sustainability of natural resources, the stability of human resources and the security of institutional resources as well as other areas of development such as environmental sustainability.

The PSC also calls for enhanced cooperation between African stakeholders and international partners in responding to climate-related challenges and underscores the imperative to define African Solutions including on education and employment for youth, improve African research and data collection, develop a Common African Position (CAP) on the Climate change, peace and security nexus, and build a collaborative framework for climate change, peace, and security initiatives.

The Council also highlights the imperative to enhance climate change governance by strengthening climate security capacities, ensure inclusivity, focus on marginalized groups, address gender-based violence, and integrate climate-conflict indicators in early warning systems.

In this respect, the PSC emphasizes the need to develop knowledge among various stakeholders, including building civil society capacities, use local and traditional knowledge, and ensure an inclusive data collection to this end.

The PSC also requests the AU Commission to support and strengthen its collaboration with initiatives aimed at strengthening African capacities to anticipate, prevent and effectively manage the challenges of climate change, notably the African Agriculture Adaptation (AAA) Initiative, the African Security, Stability and Sustainability (SSS) initiative and the three Climate Commissions, namely the Sahel Commission, the Island States Commission and the Congo Basin Commission.

It likewise urges the AU Commission to mobilize, in collaboration with partners, the necessary funds to build continental capacity to anticipate, prevent, and manage the challenges of climate change with focus on adaptation projects across the continent.