B. Soumaré/Oxfam

CGIAR delivering the scientific foundations for peace and security

CGIAR science, innovation, and technologies are critical in supporting global efforts to secure sustainable peace.

The evidence about the conflicts we have seen around the world since the turn of the century points to a simple conclusion: Conflicts between communities, armed groups, and even military forces are increasingly being affected by changing climates, environmental degradation, food security, and the struggle to control a finite pool of natural resources.

Because of a changing climate, the way governments and communities manage land, water, and food systems is now more than ever a pivotal factor in whether societies can endure peace.

In the words of the UN Secretary-General, 'The fallout of the assault on our planet is impeding our efforts to eliminate poverty and imperiling food security'.

Without peace, there is no end to hunger. That has been true for so long. Without food security, peace cannot last. And without climate-sensitive actions for peace and security, none of these efforts will succeed.

The global community rightly invests in much-needed peace and security operations worldwide. But the climate-food-peace paradigm shift that has happened in the real world has yet to be adequately reflected in the global policy agenda.

CGIAR aims to address gaps in knowledge about climate change and food security for peace and security policies and operations through a unique multidisciplinary approach. Our main objective is to align evidence from the realms of climate, land, and food systems science with peacebuilding efforts already underway that address conflict through evidence-based environmental, political, and socio-economic solutions.

We are supporting a number of global initiatives to align food security, climate, and peacebuilding, most notably Action Track Five of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit: Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stress. Download a summary of the CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security strategy here .

EVIDENCE 4 PEACE

Understanding the complexity of climate and security for informed decision making.

POLICY 4 PEACE

Articulating the role of food systems in a climate crisis for policies and frameworks

PROGRAMMING 4 PEACE

Developing peace sensitive operations for millions of beneficiaries

FINANCE 4 PEACE

Leveraging finance by aligning objectives and incentives along the Humanitarian Development and Peace Nexus.

Explore CGIAR’s contribution to Peace

Watch CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security Webinar Series

Listen to CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security Podcasts on Global Dispatches Podcast

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Flagship initiatives 2021

Building on our four research areas and in partnership with our extensive network, we have designed our 2021 flagship initiatives, which, if grouped together, make up our roadmap for the year ahead.

We will identify drivers and mechanism of multiple climate security nexuses (flagships: 1,2,3 and 4), develop indicators and means of qualifying and quantifying them (flagship 5) to helping policy makers, donors and international organisations in making scientifically sound, informed decisions (flagship 6).

We will focus on developing the Africa crisis observatory and tackle climate security in the dry corridor in Latin America (flagships: 7 and 8). We are also extremely excited to have launched a PHD Programme (flagship 9), which represents first generation all-women candidates from the global South and North, focusing on climate security in the Sahel, and the Asian deltas (Mekong and Ganges).

CGIAR Climate Security Explorer

The development of CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security has revealed CGIAR’s untapped potential in Peace and Security. Much of CGIAR’s research contributes to improving the prospects of peace. CGIAR has carried out a portfolio review that provides insights into how CGIAR and partner research contributes to climate security and how future research collaborations can further leverage CGIAR's research on food systems for peace and security.

The CGIAR Climate Security Explorer is a searchable database on CGIAR’s contribution to peace. Choose search options based on the conflict driver, region, or country of interest by selecting single or multiple criteria in each filter.

Use the visualizations of driver interactions to learn more and get inspired for your search.

The fact that climate exacerbates the risk for conflicts is increasingly recognized in academia, development, and policy, a common understanding of mechanisms and drivers is however still lacking. Establishing impact pathways between climate drivers and conflict has been challenging: Simultaneously acting drivers of conflict interact in different, sometimes opposed directions depending on geographical/spatial, temporal, social, and political dimensions. Conflicts itself are products of reciprocal feedback loops increasing vulnerabilities and potentially amplifying existing or creating new conflicts. Climate change adaptation and mitigation and development interventions often stimulate peace, but can also prompt new conflicts.

While the exact impact pathways and causal relationships for climate-induced conflicts remain controversial, various scientific reviews have come to a consent that: The link between climate and conflict will most likely materialize in regions that a) are highly exposed to climate change and variability, b) have, due to historical, political, social or geographical reasons, a high risk for (violent) conflicts and c) are agriculture-dependent.

Approaches addressing both, the impact of climate variability on food insecurity and strengthening government institutions are seen as instrumental for preventing conflicts and contributing to the prospects of peace. These approaches are central in CGIAR’s work.

Our portfolio analysis identified research, directly and indirectly, contributing to the prospects of peace. We first reviewed general literature on climate-related conflicts to establish a set of drivers relevant within the climate security nexus. We then conducted a keyword search on climate security-related drivers on different CGIAR platforms and repositories, to identify and extract key drivers and conflicts and from research items contributing to climate security in different ways .

Explore CGIAR Climate Security portfolio

Choose options of interest (driver, conflict, country)

View research outputs in the table below

Download research outputs

Find here definitions for drivers , conflicts and contribution categories .

Find your data

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G. Smith/CIAT

Events

Upcoming webinar summit

CGIAR Webinar Series on Climate Security 2021

The CGIAR is hosting webinar series of live and interactive sessions to highlight the importance of connecting science and policy in the context of climate security to ensure sustainable natural resource management and resilient food systems as a foundation for peace.