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Africa Resilience Group calls for locally led climate adaptation finance – EnviroNews
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The Africa Resilience Collaborative (ARC) has called for fundamental reforms to Africa’s climate finance and governance systems, urging greater power, resources and decision-making authority to be transferred to African institutions and frontline communities.
ARC made the call in a post-event communiqué issued in Addis Ababa on September 10, 2026, following its Post-CCDA XIV Dialogue and Strategy Meeting, which examined priorities for advancing locally led adaptation ahead of COP31 and COP32.
Following the conclusion of the Fourteenth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-XIV), members and partners of the Africa Resilience Collaborative (ARC) gathered in Addis Ababa for a high-level dialogue and strategy meeting to consolidate lessons from the ARC Learning Agenda Webinar Series, reflect on discussions emerging from CCDA-XIV, and define practical priorities for advancing locally led adaptation on the road to COP31 and COP32.
The collaborative said Africa was experiencing intensifying climate impacts across livelihoods, food and water systems, health, ecosystems, infrastructure and economic development, with inadequate global mitigation action increasing the adaptation burden on countries and communities that have contributed least to the climate crisis.
It said the continent was not lacking climate solutions, noting that communities, governments, civil society organisations, women and youth leaders, cooperatives, enterprises and African institutions were already developing responses based on local knowledge and lived realities.
However, ARC said global systems continued to fail to adequately recognise, finance and place these locally developed solutions at the centre of climate decision-making.
According to the group, Africa’s adaptation challenge was not simply a financing problem but also reflected gaps in power, governance, institutional design and accountability.
“Resilience cannot be delivered to communities from the outside. It must be built with communities and led by those who understand their risks, assets, priorities and aspirations,” ARC said.
The collaborative described locally led adaptation as a fundamental shift in agency, finance, governance and accountability, stressing that communities should not be treated as passive beneficiaries of climate finance but as architects and builders of their own resilience.
ARC called for adaptation finance systems to become more flexible, equitable, predictable, transparent and accountable, with funding requirements and risk-management processes designed around the realities of frontline actors rather than systems that exclude them.
It also urged governments and development partners to integrate resilience into core development systems, including food, health and water systems, ecosystems, infrastructure and local economies.
The group said national adaptation plans should move beyond policy documents and become vehicles for investment and implementation through fiscal transfers, decentralised planning, stronger local institutional capacity, community participation and public accountability.
ARC further called for funding requirements, due diligence and reporting systems to be made proportionate and fit for purpose, enabling local governments, civil society organisations, cooperatives, women and youth leaders, enterprises and community institutions to access long-term support.
It advocated strengthening African regranting and intermediary institutions as part of the delivery architecture linking global climate finance with locally led action. Such institutions, it said, should help build trust, reduce access barriers, support implementation and ensure that financing responds to community-defined priorities.
Looking ahead to COP31 and COP32, ARC said African countries and partners should pursue adequate, predictable, accessible and non-debt-inducing grant-based adaptation finance.
It also called for reforms to the mechanisms through which climate finance reaches African institutions and frontline communities, alongside greater decision-making and accountability at the African and community levels.
In its call to action, ARC urged African governments to translate national adaptation commitments into local implementation pathways connecting national plans with subnational governments, local institutions and communities.
It called on climate finance institutions and bilateral partners to simplify access requirements, increase direct and predictable grant-based adaptation finance, and invest in African regranting institutions as well as national and local governments.
The collaborative also urged philanthropic foundations and development partners to move beyond short-term, project-based support and invest in African institutions, networks, learning platforms, women and youth leadership, and locally rooted innovation systems.
ARC further called on pan-African and regional institutions to champion a common African agenda for adaptation finance reform and strengthen platforms linking governments, civil society, local governments and communities.
African negotiators, it said, should carry the voices and lived experiences of frontline communities into COP31 and COP32 by advancing predictable adaptation finance, simplified access, non-debt-inducing instruments, locally led decision-making and stronger accountability.
The collaborative urged all partners to treat locally led adaptation as a question of authority rather than geography, supporting systems that enable communities to define priorities, influence decisions, control resources and hold implementing institutions accountable.
It said climate action from CCDA-XIV towards COP31 and COP32 should be shaped by African realities, informed by local knowledge and driven by African leadership so that resilience investments reach frontline communities and African voices influence decisions affecting their futures.
The ARC comprises several key organisations aimed at enhancing resilience and adaptation in Africa, such as African Climate Foundation, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, Tax Justice Network Africa, LIFE-AR, and TrustAfrica.
