BCSC Nairobi logo II

BCSC-Nairobi 2023

BCSC-Nairobi at a glance 

Who: Policy makers, decision makers, climate security experts and practitioners from UN country offices, international organisations and civil society 

What: Since its inaugural edition in 2019, BCSC has become the global forum connecting important stakeholders working to better address the impacts of climate change on international peace and security through diplomacy, development and defence approaches. To ensure the conversation is truly global, in 2023, BCSC, in partnership with our African co-hosts, will host its first ever African edition in Nairobi. 

When: 6 July, 2023

Where: Nairobi, Kenya (location tba)

Why: Numerous risk analysis tools, early warning systems and resilience programmes being implemented on the ground in Africa at the regional, sub-regional, national and even municipal levels. However, these initiatives are not adequately represented in the global climate security discourse, limiting the opportunities for the climate security community to learn from and where relevant and replicate existing good practices from the African context. 

Objective: BCSC-Nairobi will establish a space for the African climate security community to convene, share and learn from existing tools, research and experiences in order to promote more and better context relevant, climate-security risk informed action in Africa. The outcome of the BCSC-Nairobi is intended to inform the climate security outlook for African Climate Week (AWC 2023), which in turn will inform the African regional position on climate ahead of COP.

Agenda: You can download the preliminary agenda here and below.

Image of preliminary agenda Nairobi

On the agenda

Continuing the momentum of COP27, the conference will focus on four strategic goals:

  • Sharing of best practice examples from Africa to explore the different entry points to address the interlinkages between climate security risks, food systems and sustainable livelihoods;
  • Spotlighting tools, resources and capacities to advance integration of climate and conflict sensitive analysis and policies into operations and programming on the ground;
  • Sharing engagement activities on climate security, with updates from the AU on the nascent Common African Position on the nexus between climate change, peace and security, inputs from the different RECs and regional UN offices (e.g. IGAD, UNOWAS etc.);
  • Strengthening synergies between multilateral initiatives like Climate Responses for Sustaining Peace (CRSP) and Climate for Peace (Climate4Peace) to ensure climate, peace and security risks to Africa are a top priority on international agendas going into COP28.

Background

The impacts of climate change are affecting African countries both directly and indirectly, particularly through intensifying existing political, peace and security, socio-economic and development challenges that especially affect vulnerable communities across the continent. 

There are also Africa-specific challenges. Efforts to adapt to climate change impacts have had limited success due to limited access to financial or material resources for humanitarian intervention, capacity, technology transfer and development towards a green transformative agenda. Therefore, it is crucial that these challenges are aired and that there is support for these efforts and approaches, as well as scaling up learning intra-regionally and strengthening institutional structures and implementation mechanisms. 

BCSC-Nairobi aims to bring the international climate security discourse to Africa, strengthen the existing, rich community of practice, and find better linkages across sectors and regions. 

Participation is by invitation-only. For more information, please contact steinkrausatadelphi [dot] de