Geneva landscape: Projects, programs, and activities in Africa
For contact information for any below-listed contact points, please email aericksonpearson@gmail.com.
Projects, programs, and activities
Multi-level approaches for peace in Nigeria’s Middle Belt
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Mainstreaming Conflict Sensitivity into the NAbSA Operational Framework: Strengthening the Resilience of Climate Adaptation in Fragile Contexts
eEARTH monitoring dashboard
In Nigeria’s Middle Belt, HD works to prevent and resolve violent conflicts over natural resources exacerbated by climate change by facilitating inclusive dialogue processes that bring together diverse stakeholders from conflicting groups and ethnic communities, including women, young people, traditional authorities and religious leaders. The project also supports local peace infrastructures and builds capacity among stakeholders to prevent resource-based conflicts. This approach has resulted in the development, signing and implementation of community-level natural resource-sharing agreements that incorporate provisions on climate adaptation measures.
Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HQ: Geneva; 2 in Geneva working on HDP-climate related projects)
Contact point: Lina Hillert
Nigeria: Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa States
Sectors: Peacebuilding, peacemaking, & cooperation; Environment; Climate
Additional element: Mediation
Environmental mediation: promoting sustainable use of natural resources through community agreements
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Since 2015, HD has facilitated more than 110 agreements in the Sahel, many of which specifically prevent or address environmental challenges. The outcomes of the mediation processes demonstrate that these agreements not only help to resolve conflicts but also to protect natural resources and adapt community practices for more sustainable resource exploitation.
Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HQ: Geneva; 2 in Geneva working on HDP-climate related projects)
Contact point: Lina Hillert
Sahel (incl. Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger)
Sectors: Peacebuilding, peacemaking, & cooperation; Environment
Additional element: Mediation
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Building Sustainable Livelihoods and Social Cohesion for Young People in Uganda
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The Kofi Annan Foundation (KAF) and Prospect Initiative (Uganda) are developing a 24-month project to support 80–100 young women and men (18–30) from conflict- and climate-affected communities in the Rwenzori sub-region and Kampala’s Kisenyi settlement to access sustainable, climate-resilient livelihoods. The project combines vocational and technical skills training, entrepreneurship support, and market linkages with peer-based collaboration and dialogue, recognising that economic inclusion and social cohesion are interdependent.
Kofi Annan Foundation (HQ: Geneva; 1 in Geneva working on HDP-climate related projects)
Project partners: Unknown
Contact point: Anja Tresse
Uganda: Rwenzori (in Kasese) and Kisenyi
Timeline of project: Started 2026; 24 month project
Sectors: Peacebuilding, Environment, Climate
Additional element: Livelihood development
No link available.
Peacemaking and nature conservation
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Risk Index for Climate Mobility
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Climate Catalytic Fund
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Regional Responses to Climate Displacements in Sub-Saharan Africa (RE2CLID) and Regional Responses to Climate Displacements in Southern Africa and Indian Ocean countries (RE2CLID)
Research and publications on transboundary water management, minerals, as well as the links between climate dynamics, food insecurity and conflict
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HD supports conservation actors with negotiating access arrangements for park rangers, establishing conflict-sensitive management structures, and facilitating dialogue between authorities, communities, and other actors on issues such as benefits, compensation and land ownership.
Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HQ: Geneva; 2 in Geneva working on HDP-climate related projects)
Project partners: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Noé
Contact point: Lina Hillert
Central Africa (incl. Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Sectors: Peacebuilding, peacemaking, & cooperation; Conservation
Additional element: Mediation
No link available.
The Risk Index for Climate Mobility (RICD) is an operational foresight tool developed by the Climate Mobility Innovation Lab (CMIL) in collaboration with a network of government, scientific, academic and other partners through a co-creation modality. Detailed information on the objectives, methodology, and approach is available at the link below.
IOM (HQ: Geneva; 3 in Geneva working on HDP-climate related projects)
Contact point: Helena de Jong
Fiji, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vanuatu and now rolled out to South Sudan, Uganda, Somalia
Sectors: Climate; Migration
As a part of IOM’s Climate Mobility Innovation Lab (CMIL) efforts to help bridge the gap between data, finance, and action, the Climate Catalytic Fund (CCF), a blended finance mechanism, mobilises rapid and flexible match funded grants to translate data-driven risk insights from the Risk Index for Climate Displacement (RICD) into concrete, locally led adaptation action.
IOM (HQ: Geneva; 3 in Geneva working on HDP-climate related projects)
Contact point: Helena de Jong
Fiji, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vanuatu and now rolled out to South Sudan, Uganda, Somalia
Sectors: Climate; Migration
The RE2CLID programme seeks to enhance the resilience, self-reliance, and protection of Displacement-Affected Communities living in areas at risk of disasters, environmental degradation, and other adverse impacts of climate change. The programme operates across two highly vulnerable sub-regional clusters, including the Southern Africa and South-West Indian Ocean Cluster, covering Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Comoros. The objective of the programme is to improve overall capacity to respond to and increase overall resilience to disaster displacement at regional level through strategic interventions regionally, nationally and locally. The action is framed around three main objectives: Strengthen systems that enable to avert, minimize and address displacement, and promote effective adaptation and resilience of communities most exposed to displacement risks due to climate hazards; Improve the governance and management of natural resources and agricultural land use in ways that create sustainable livelihoods for displaced and host communities; Help population displaced attain climate resilient durable solutions and enable social cohesion in host and return communities.
IOM (HQ: Geneva; 3 in Geneva working on HDP-climate related projects)
Contact point: Helena de Jong
The programme operates across two highly vulnerable sub-regional clusters, including the Southern Africa and South-West Indian Ocean Cluster, covering Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Comoros.
Sectors: Climate; Migration
No link available.
NAbSA, a Global Affairs Canada initiative, supports 19 projects in 30 countries (27 of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa) to develop a gender-responsive framework for nature-based solutions with biodiversity benefits. IUCN is currently working to integrate conflict-sensitivity into the operational framework.
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (HQ: Gland; 3 in Geneva working on HDP-climate related projects)
Project partners: Global Affairs Canada
Contact point: Veronica Ruiz
International / Africa
Sectors: Conservation, Development
Additional element: Nature-based Solutions (NbS)
Crisis Group is currently working on research and publications on transboundary water management, minerals, as well as the links between climate dynamics, food insecurity and conflict. This will likely include a report this fall on Afghanistan’s Qush Tepa Canal and its regional water security implications, a commentary on gold mining in the Amazon, as well as a humanitarian diplomacy piece on the weaponised use of starvation in South Sudan.
International Crisis Group (HQ: Brussels, 1 in Geneva working on HDP-climate)
Contact point: Margaux Pimond
Afghanistan / South Sudan
Sectors: Water; Conflict impacts
No link available.
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Improving Land and Natural Resources Governance
Since 2022, Interpeace started a series of initiatives aimed at advancing the peaceful and inclusive management of natural resources. Within this framework, the initiative actively worked to promote youth inclusion through intergenerational dialogue on issues related to land access and ownership. Simultaneously, efforts were made to strengthen existing local capacities for conflict prevention and management at both the community and institutional levels. This involved providing training, technical support, and disseminating best practices.
In 2023, Interpeace expanded the scope of its work to include the regions of Bafata and Gabu, with a heightened emphasis on preventing conflicts associated with transhumance and pastoralism. This second project places particular importance on fostering dialogue among pastors and herders, aiming to identify inclusive solutions that enhance the governance of natural resources.
Interpeace (HQ: Geneva, 3 in Geneva working on HDP-climate)
Contact point: Menna Waguih
Bafata and Gabu regions in Guinea Bissau
Sectors: Peacebuilding, peacemaking, & cooperation
Additional element: Inclusive dialogue
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Inclusive Governance of Natural Resources for Conflict Prevention at the Burkina Faso-Ivory Coast border
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Conflicts related to the use of resources (water and land) as well as pressure on protected areas are significant in the cross-border regions between Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. The project identifies, builds or rehabilitates, in a climate change-appropriate manner, social and economic infrastructure around which conflicts over natural resources arise, while providing corresponding services. This is supported by implementing measures and mechanisms to promote social cohesion, conflict prevention and resolution, particularly conflicts related to the use of natural resources. This approach helps ensure peaceful access to natural resources in the region and mitigate and reduce conflicts related to resource use and cohabitation within cross-border communities.
Interpeace (HQ: Geneva, 3 in Geneva working on HDP-climate)
Contact point: Menna Waguih
Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast
Sectors: Peacebuilding, peacemaking, & cooperation; climate change
Additional element: Inclusive dialogue
The Early Action & Risk Tracking Hub (eEARTH) is an initiative by the International Crisis Group that combines advanced data analytics with deep regional expertise to analyse and anticipate resource-related conflict. Developed through extensive work on climate-security risks in the Horn of Africa, our platform is designed to detect signs of instability, whether from scarcity or abundance, before they escalate.
International Crisis Group (HQ: Brussels, 1 in Geneva working on HDP-climate)
Contact point: Margaux Pimond
Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda
Sectors: Conflict impact
Additional element: Data and analysis
Environmental peacebuilding in Somalia
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IOM is actively involved in environmental protection and conservation efforts in unstable, conflict-afflicted, and newly recovered areas affected by the Al Shabaab insurgency in Somalia. The goal of IOM’s green environment initiatives is to promote peace and stability by addressing environmental stressors that can contribute to conflict and displacement. Environmental degradation, resource scarcity, and climate change can exacerbate existing tensions and lead to mass migrations and forced displacement.
IOM (HQ: Geneva; 3 in Geneva working on HDP-climate related projects)
Contact point: Helena de Jong
Somalia
Sectors: Peacebuilding, peacemaking, & cooperation
Additional element: Migration