Joint Communiqué on Climate, Peace and Security in the Horn of Africa

We, the IGAD Member State Representatives, International Partners, and Civil Society Actors, convened in Kwale County, Kenya, from 15 to 16 April 2026 for the Horn of Africa Regional Validation Workshop on Climate, Peace and Security, organised by the Life & Peace Institute (LPI) and the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), with support from the European Union and the Government of Sweden.

The workshop aimed to validate and strengthen regional evidence on climate, peace, and security (CPS), and to build a shared understanding of policy priorities and response pathways across the IGAD region. Participants reviewed findings and gave recommendations from two key studies:

• Climate Security Governance in the IGAD Region: Policy Gaps, Challenges, and Strategic Priorities (ICPAC); and
• A Regional Context Analysis of Peace and Security Dynamics and the Comprehensive Systems Mapping and Analysis on Livelihoods, Vulnerability and Conflict Systems in Moyale Cluster (LPI)

Key Observations

1. We note with concern that climate change is no longer only an environmental challenge, but a structural stressor that interacts with and exacerbates existing, or creates new vulnerabilities — including but not limited to resource competition, displacement, weak service delivery, increased inequality, and governance constraints — amplifying instability across the region.
2. We recognise that climate-related security risks are driven not only by climate hazards alone, but by institutional and policy gaps that allow these pressures to escalate into conflict, displacement, and livelihood loss.
3. We further observe that while important progress has been made, including the establishment of the IGAD Regional Climate Security Coordination Mechanism (RCSCM) and the Community of Practice on Climate, Peace and Security, regional responses remain inadequate and fragmented, while climate, peace, and security continue to be addressed through parallel systems, limiting effective prevention and response.
4. We emphasise the urgent need to strengthen coordination, enhance policy coherence, and translate climate information into timely and actionable, gender-inclusive responses, including linking climate-conflict early warning systems to early and anticipatory action, feeding into long-term development planning and peacebuilding.
5. We emphasise the importance of inclusive, multi-stakeholder partnerships that bring together governments, regional institutions, development, peacebuilding and humanitarian actors, and communities, with particular attention to the leadership and participation of women, youth, pastoralists, and other marginalised groups.
6. We recognise the importance of including indigenous and local knowledge systems in climate resilience and conflict prevention across the region. These knowledge systems provide valuable insights for sustainable resource management, mobility, and adaptation strategies, yet remain underutilised in formal policy and decision-making processes.
7. Recognise the critical role of both traditional and contemporary governance systems, and the need to leverage the structures to drive solutions on climate, peace and security.

Commitments and Way Forward

We hereby commit to:

1. Strengthening integrated climate security governance by developing and implementing policies and capacity-enhancement that connect climate risks with conflict prevention, peacebuilding, security planning, and sustainable development.
2. Enhancing regional coordination under IGAD, including advancing the operationalisation of the Regional Climate Security Coordination Mechanism (RCSCM) and strengthening collaboration across Member States and partners.
3. Improving inter-ministerial and inter-institutional coordination to ensure effective, joint planning, and alignment across climate, environment, security, disaster management, and development sectors.
4. Mainstreaming climate, peace, and security considerations into Member States’ climate change and security policies, strategies, frameworks and implementation plans, ensuring that climate information supports peace and sustainable development.
5. Strengthening natural resource governance and nature conservation, including promoting equitable access, protecting pastoral mobility, and supporting cross-border resource management.
6. Scaling up climate-resilient livelihoods, particularly in pastoral, agro-pastoral, including borderlands, urban- and peri-urban centres, as well as informal settlements, to reduce vulnerability and strengthen resilience.
7. Promoting inclusive participation, ensuring that women, youth, persons with disabilities, and marginalised groups are meaningfully engaged in climate security policy- and decision-making processes.
8. Enhancing significant scale-up and strategic alignment of climate finance, both international and domestic, as well as the private sector, to address the risks and fragility nexus, including blended climate finance, de-risking investment and unlocking private capital, such as climate risk insurance.
9. Co-creating evidence-based knowledge and data-sharing, including improving climate-conflict data systems, strengthening monitoring and evaluation, and ensuring that evidence informs policy and action.
10. Strengthening subnational and local capacity, recognising that local institutions are at the frontline of responding to climate-related risks and conflicts.
11. Advancing a unified regional voice on climate, peace, and security, leveraging global and regional platforms to mobilise political will, financing, and support for the region’s priorities.
12. Establishing mechanisms for accountability and follow-up to track progress on these commitments and ensure their effective implementation.
13. Leveraging on the transfer of best available technologies and emerging industries, including climate-smart agriculture, green energy and artificial intelligence, among others.

We call upon regional and international partners to align their support with nationally owned and regionally coordinated priorities, and to provide predictable, long-term financing and technical assistance that strengthens institutional capacity.

We hereby validate the findings of the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) and Life & Peace Institute (LPI) studies, adopt and endorse this communiqué and commit to its implementation.

Kwale County, Kenya, 16 April 2026

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