Development partners need to recalibrate their relationship with African countries - recognising African contributions to a more climate-resilient future, says Dr Fatima Denton, Director of the United Nations University - Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA), in an exclusive interview with CDKN:

“It is in our interest [in Africa] to grow in a resilient way and growing in a green manner is possible. That has to be incentivised by monies that can be invested in adaptation as well as mitigation,” she says.

“Many of the nations we’re talking to in the global North were not able to industrialise without their agricultural sector. This is a continent that has huge ambitions for industrialisation and we can’t industrialise without a strong and performing agricultural sector.”

At the same time, Dr Denton warns that ‘climate change is the greatest single threat to Africa’s growth potential.’ She concludes: “We’re still a continent of potential. We need to move away from being the continent of potential in solar energy, in agricultural development, to becoming the continent where we actualise the potential.”

Watch the full interview with Dr Fatima Denton here on Youtube:

This is one of six short video interviews that CDKN undertook with African adaptation experts to explore how the continent can accelerate adaptation. Find out more about the film series ‘Adaptation Voices’.