Climate change continues to place severe pressure on vulnerable populations, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings, driving growing global attention to the Climate, Peace, and Security agenda (CPS). While significant progress has been made in conducting CPS analyses and assessments, translating these insights into practical solutions remains limited, creating a gap for implementing actors. In response, the UN Community of Practice on Climate, Peace and Security, facilitated by the Climate Security Mechanism (CSM) met on 27 January 2026 in collaboration with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to focus on bridging analysis and action and informing local efficiency of climate financing for peace-positive transformative change.
Reflecting Local Realities and Adapting to Evolving CPS Dynamics
The discussion emphasized that effective CPS responses must be firmly grounded in local realities in specific contexts to define problems. Inclusive, locally informed assessments are essential to capture how climate risks intersect with governance gaps, resource pressures, livelihoods, and social cohesion. As climate and conflict dynamics continue to evolve, participants stressed the importance of adaptive management, with project designs and theories of change that remain flexible over time to stay relevant to evolving contexts.
Translating Diagnostics into Actionable Design Narratives
Participants highlighted the need to translate diagnostics into action-oriented and decision-ready narratives. This includes combining quantitative data with qualitative insights from local actors, who play a critical role in validating analyses through lived experience, convening stakeholders, anticipating trade-offs, and shaping context-appropriate solutions. Such translation is key to turning technical assessments into practical solutions with peace co-benefits.
Enabling Conditions for Overcoming Structural Barrier
The discussion also acknowledged persistent structural barriers that undermine effective CPS action, including fragmented institutional mandates, scale mismatch, limited capacity in local governance, and constrained access to finance. Strengthening environmental governance, improving inter-agency coordination and accountability, as well as integrating CPS insights and elevating local actions into national planning frameworks were identified as essential enabling conditions for sustained impact.
Looking ahead, participants underscored that flexible and long-term climate finance offers a critical opportunity to reinforce environmental governance, strengthen institutional coordination, and build the core capacities of local and national actors. By supporting inclusive assessments, adaptive programming, sustained collaboration across sectors and levels, and continuous learning, climate finance can play a catalytic role in translating CPS insights into scalable, peace-positive outcomes that remain responsive to evolving climate and conflict risks.
Mr. Fabien Monteils, Head of Environmental Security, Disaster and Conflict Branch, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) highlighted three key observations for the CPS agenda: sustained support from developed countries despite financial and geopolitical pressures; growing and accelerating engagement from developing countries, underpinned by expanding scientific evidence; and the dynamic role of the CSM as an ‘enabler’ supporting the shift from knowledge to action. He emphasized the need for urgent, integrated responses that deliver direct CPS solutions, scalable and locally effective climate finance, and enabling conditions to unlock CPS actions.
Mr. Pierre Bégat, GEF Technical Officer at FAO, presented a GEF-funded project in Burkina Faso addressing climate stress, weak natural resource management, and geographically concentrated land disputes. He outlined a four-component intervention framework covering governance, climate-resilient landscapes, resilient agro-sylvo-pastoral livelihoods, and monitoring and knowledge building. The project design responds to analysis showing how weak local governance and insecurity reinforce conflict, erode social cohesion, and undermine livelihoods. During the panel, he emphasized that effective CPS assessments require the use of advanced analytical tools (such as STRATA), a commitment to fully embracing contextual complexity through inclusive problem definition, and the agility to adapt analysis and solutions as conflict‑affected environments evolve.
Dr. Ileana Ávalos Rodríguez, researcher at CATIE, shared experiences from the UNEP–EU-supported PARES initiative implemented across six Latin American countries. She highlighted how locally led diagnostics can be translated into solutions through co-produced landscape analyses that link climate risks, livelihoods, ecosystems, and conflict into decision-ready evidence, including piloting nature-based solutions with peace benefits. She noted challenges related to governance gaps, transformative adaptation, and conflict sensitivity, while highlighting opportunities for peer learning among local organizations and stronger links between local action and national decision-making. In the panel discussion, she emphasized the critical role of local actors in convening and legitimizing inclusive decision-making, translating assessments into locally grounded action, and identifying trade-offs early. She also called for flexible climate finance, rather than one-shot approach, that strengthens local capacity and enables long-term coordination and learning.
Mr. Abdulrahman Mohamud Dirie, Senior Climate Advisor at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of the Federal Government of Somalia, highlighted structural barriers to climate action in fragile contexts, including fragmented institutional mandates, weak data coordination, limited local capacity, and constrained access to climate finance. Looking ahead, he stressed the need to translate assessment data into narratives to design actions, strengthen environmental governance, and strategically leverage climate finance. He underscored key priorities such as improving inter-ministerial coordination through coherent policies, integrating climate and conflict risks into national and local planning, enhancing accountability and transparency, and strengthening early warning and disaster response systems. He also pointed to entry points for climate finance to support such enabling conditions, including national climate mechanisms such as Somalia’s national climate fund and existing legal and policy frameworks, including the National Adaptation Plan.
Mr. Ladu David Morris Lemi, Climate Change Specialist at GEF, emphasized that effective climate adaptation planning relies on robust climate projections grounded in reliable data, with assessments providing a critical evidence base for decision making. He stressed that conflict must be addressed at the grassroots level, as top-down approaches often fail to reach those most affected, making local capacity, conflict sensitivity, and community-driven diagnostics essential. He highlighted the need for integrated, context-specific, and cross-border approaches, particularly in border regions where climate risks and conflicts overlap. He also underscored the importance of adaptive project management over time and noted persistent barriers for local actors in accessing finance, calling for stronger partnerships, capacity building, and the systematic integration of conflict and security analysis in adaptation investments. He further highlighted the role played by the GEF’s climate adaptation funds (the LDCF and SCCF) in supporting efforts that address the interlinkage of climate change, natural resource management, fragility and conflict, to build broader resilience while sustaining peace, including conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and post-conflict recovery
Dr. Adriana Goncalves Moreira, Lead Partnership Specialist at GEF, highlighted the importance of cross-sectoral and cross-regional dialogues that connect local actors, governments, UN entities, and partners, noting climate and conflict dynamics across regions. She emphasized that climate impacts, peacebuilding, ecosystem conservation, and security are deeply interconnected and require integrated approaches, central to GEF’s mandate. Referring to the 2024 GEF guidance on fragile and conflict-affected situations, she stressed the value of grounding project design in practical experience. Adriana underscored meaningful involvement of local communities, especially women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and displaced groups as brokers elevating local voices to decision makers. She also emphasized peer-to-peer learning, GEF platforms for engagement, and strengthening partnerships with local organizations to achieve sustainable peace and security outcomes.