Climate security and emerging threats

Climate change knows no boundaries, but neither do locally-led innovative solutions!

By localising climate, peace and security, GPPAC adopts an approach that shifts the power to local actors, including local peacebuilders and local governments. Concretely, this means that local actors lead the design and implementation of strategies, policies, and measures to address climate-related security risks within specific communities or regions.

While governments have the overall responsibility for building and sustaining peace, meaningful participation of local actors is crucial because they possess a deeper understanding of the unique challenges and dynamics at the local level in their respective regions or communities. This also holds true when it comes to finding solutions to climate-related security risks. When local actors lead the design and implementation of strategies, policies, and measures to address climate-related security risks, they make the efforts more effective, contextually relevant, and sustainable. Local actors do so by providing valuable insights and expertise that external entities might overlook.

GPPAC local peacebuilders have piloted the localisation of a climate, peace, and security risk assessment in Uganda, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe and developed a comprehensive Guidance Note for peacebuilders worldwide. The Guidance Note is a valuable resource to empower local actors to document, assess, and address climate security challenges at the local level. It shares critical experience, tools and resources to develop timely, contextually-relevant and locally-led responses to severe weather events.

Not only did local peacebuilders in Uganda, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe develop the Guidance Note, but they also applied it on the ground. The result is three case studies that outline climate-related security risks within specific regions and provide concrete solutions on how local peace actors, donors, and policymakers can address these risks.
 

"Community actors in Uganda have remarked that this was the most locally-owned, locally-led and inclusive project they have experienced in their community." - Patrick Bwire, CECORE Uganda.

• Read the practical Step-by-Step Guidance Note for local peacebuilders to localise climate, peace and security
• Watch how GPPAC member CECORE in Uganda localises climate, peace and security in Karamoja
• Explore the powerful role of local indicators in addressing climate-related security risks
• Discover how we promote the nexus between gender, climate and peace