High-Level Dialogue on Climate Security Draws Policymakers from 15 Nations

On 15–17 May 2025, Everpeace Institute for Research and Technology convened the inaugural High-Level Dialogue on Climate Security in West and Central Africa, bringing together senior government officials, civil society leaders, researchers, and development partners from 15 nations. The three-day forum, held in Abuja, produced a landmark communiqué committing signatories to a coordinated regional response to the climate-conflict nexus.

The dialogue addressed four thematic areas: the evidence base for climate-conflict linkages in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin; the governance architecture needed to coordinate cross-border climate adaptation; the role of communities in building climate resilience; and financing mechanisms for climate-sensitive peacebuilding. Each session combined research presentations with practitioner perspectives, reflecting Everpeace Institute's commitment to bridging the gap between knowledge and policy.

A key output of the dialogue was the Abuja Framework on Climate Security — a set of 12 commitments around which participating governments agreed to align their national climate and security strategies. The Framework calls for the integration of climate risk assessments into national security planning, the establishment of cross-border resource-sharing agreements for pastoral communities, and a joint research programme to generate the evidence base for regional policy.

"This dialogue demonstrated that the political will exists to address climate security as a shared regional challenge," said the Executive Director of Everpeace Institute. "Our role now is to turn the commitments made in Abuja into concrete policies and programmes — and to provide the research evidence that keeps those policies grounded in reality." The Institute will publish a full report from the dialogue, including the text of the Abuja Framework, later this month.