Climate change and its impacts create severe risks for food systems and human security more broadly, making peaceful coexistence between people and communities harder to maintain or achieve. Both slow onset changes such as temperature rise and increased variability in precipitation patterns, as well as fast onset events such as extreme weather events can severely affect people’s livelihoods and food security, especially in contexts that are already fragile. These cascading effects can then contribute to socioeconomic and political instability, increasing the risk of violent conflict.
As part of the Weathering Risk initiative, adelphi and WFP set up a learning facility to explore entry points for strengthening climate adaptation and resilience programming in Eastern Africa. Climate change and environmental pressures have severe cascading effects on peace and human security in the region, ranging from climate migration and displacement to food insecurity and conflict over dwindling natural resources. In response, this learning facility aims to inform ways to build more climate-resilient food systems in Eastern Africa as a way to prevent, mitigate and resolve climate-induced conflicts and insecurity.
This climate, peace and security study focuses on the Somali Region of Ethiopia as one of the case studies undertaken during the adelphi-WFP learning collaboration. The Somali Region, located in south-eastern Ethiopia and bordering Somalia, was selected because of its particular vulnerability to climate impacts and related risks to peace and human security.
The first chapter of this study outlines the relevant contextual factors that shape the Somali Region’s vulnerability to climate change and environmental degradation. These include governance and the socioeconomic situation, food and agriculture, intersectional factors, migration and displacement, and conflict history. The second chapter focuses on historic, current and projected climate trends and impacts. Based on the combined analysis of both contextual and climate-related factors, the third chapter presents key climate insecurity pathways relevant to the Somali Region. Finally, this profile provides entry points and priorities as guidance for future climate- and conflict-sensitive, peace-oriented programming in the region.
This is an excerpt (introduction) from the full report by Weathering Risk. The full report can be found here.
Authored by Lucas Destrijcker, Milen Yishak, Michael Thomson, Aminata Traore, Yishuang Antonio Xu, and Hannah Kurnoth