Cabo Verde

Cabo Verde faces socioeconomic and environmental challenges due to its dependence on imports, climate-related pressures, and persistent droughts. Urban areas are particularly affected, with ongoing issues such as poverty, youth unemployment, food insecurity and limited access to essential services. The country’s strategic location has also made it a transit point for drug trafficking, contributing to security concerns and posing risks to investment in key sectors like tourism and finance. Addressing these interconnected challenges requires a holistic, community-based and nationally-led approach focused on resilience and a forward-looking perspective that can account for long-term trends such as the changing climate.​​

As a Small Island Developing State with an economy heavily reliant on tourism-related trade, imports and services, Cabo Verde has been deeply affected by the multidimensional consequences of COVID-19 and the exacerbating impacts of climate change and natural disasters, especially drought. This situation is further compounded by rapid urbanization that has led to a proliferation of informal settlements located in the peripheries of major urban centers and often in areas of poor accessibility and high risk and exposure.