Breakout Session: Addressing the Interlinkages between Climate and Conflict in Africa

Breakout Session: Addressing the Interlinkages between Climate and Conflict in Africa

When: 29 April 2026 | 11:00-12:30

Format: Roundtable discussion or panel discussion

Venue: Plenary

Climate-related instabilities are increasingly manifesting across conflict contexts in Africa, with the Horn of Africa among the most acutely affected regions. Prolonged droughts, erratic rainfall, and intensifying competition over shrinking natural resources are compounding existing governance fragilities, driving displacement, and fuelling intercommunal tensions — from pastoralist conflicts in the Sahel to coastal vulnerabilities in East Africa.

Yet the relationship between climate and conflict is neither simple nor deterministic. This breakout session examines the evolving evidence base for the climate–conflict nexus, exploring how environmental stressors interact with political, economic and social drivers of instability to shape conflict dynamics on the ground. It asks what the research and practitioner communities can tell us — and where critical knowledge gaps remain.

Beyond diagnosis, the session focuses on action. It identifies concrete entry points for strengthened, integrated climate, peace and security responses that connect conflict prevention, climate adaptation and sustaining peace efforts — drawing on the experiences of African states, regional bodies, and international partners. With perspectives from the continent itself at the centre of the discussion, the session foregrounds African agency, leadership and priorities in shaping solutions that are both evidence-informed and contextually grounded.

Guiding questions:

What does the current evidence base tell us about how climate stressors interact with existing conflict drivers in the Horn of Africa and Central Africa — and where do the most critical knowledge and data gaps remain?
Where are the most promising entry points for integrated climate, peace and security action in these regions, and how can conflict prevention, climate adaptation and peacebuilding efforts be better connected in practice?
How can states, regional institutions such as the African Union and IGAD, and local communities in the Horn of Africa and Central Africa be more meaningfully centred in the design and implementation of climate-security responses?

Speakers:

Jestino Sharty Gaye, Sr., First Secretary and Climate Change Expert, Permanent Mission of Liberia to the United Nations (tbc)
Tanya Merceron, Climate Peace and Security Advisor, UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS)
Zinurine Alghali, Senior Political Coordinator, AU Permanent Observer Mission to the UN (tbc)

Moderated by Tendai E. Kasinganeti, Climate, Peace and Security Advisor, United Nations Office to the African Union

Return to the BCSC 2026 New York Agenda.