Improving local access to climate finance: Lessons from the CDKN Namibia country programme This blog, by Amanda April and Margaret Angula, dives into the critical challenge of ensuring climate finance effectively reaches local communities in Namibia. It examines the complexities of current funding flows, highlighting significant barriers and offering practical recommendations to bridge the gap between national climate goals and essential on-the-ground adaptation efforts.

CDKN at Rise Africa Festival 2025 The Rise Africa Festival 2025 takes place in Cape Town, South Africa, from 25-29 May. CDKN will be co-convening a two-day workshop on 29 and 30 May to explore human rights-based approaches (HRBA) for biodiversity and climate action in cities.

Muungano youth share their role as knowledge brokers driving change in informal settlements Young people are often the first responders to climate and social challenges in their communities, and this is especially true for Muungano wa Wanavijiji Youth. Living in informal settlements where issues of land, housing, and access to basic services are deeply connected to climate vulnerability, Muungano youth are often the hardest hit by disasters like floods.

Bridging Indigenous and Western knowledge systems for inclusive forest-based resilience in Benin Rooted in cultural and spiritual traditions, sacred forests offer unique opportunities for conservation. This feature article by Edmond Totin, Esdras Obossou, and Ferdinand Ayimasse highlights the Knowledge-to-Action (K2A) project in Benin, led by the NGO SURVIE de la Mère et de l’Enfant. The K2A initiative aims to integrate Indigenous Knowledge and sacred forest management into biodiversity and climate policies across six districts.

What does a just transition mean for Africa? The concept of a just transition is not new and has been around since the 1980s when it was used by Trade Unions to draw attention to the social effects of environmental measures (United Nations, 2023). In the context of climate change, it aims to ensure that no one is left behind, or excluded, in the transition to environmentally sustainable and low-carbon economies.

What do knowledge brokers working on locally-led adaptation need to get right to enhance their impact? This was one of the questions we posed to project partners involved in the Step Change initiative, who recently met in Arusha, Tanzania. CDKN facilitated a session using the 'All hands on deck' card game to bring out the most important aspects of their knowledge brokering approaches.

Connecting early-career researchers with creatives for climate knowledge brokering in Ghana As climate change continues to pose unprecedented challenges across different sectors in Africa, the role of evidence-based research has never been more critical, as it provides the basis to diagnose and contextualise these challenges and design appropriate place-based solutions.However, there is limited capacity among researchers in Africa to connect  evidence-based research to place-based solutions that can address Africa’s unique challenges, especially for researchers who are aspiring or starting their professional research journeys.

Advancing sustainable food systems and enhancing water security through supporting ecosystem-based approaches: Insights from the Step Change initiative Last month CDKN had the pleasure of attending a learning review of the Step Change initiative which brought together multiple project partners to reflect on progress, surface synergies and outline pathways for collaboration between projects to amplify impacts across research, policy and practice.

CDKN forms new partnership to address gender equity and land rights for climate resilience in East and Southern Africa CDKN has joined the International Land Coalition Africa to co-lead a project titled, Advancing Gender Equity and Land Rights through Knowledge Brokering for Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Southern Africa. They have partnered with the Micaia Foundation, the Uganda Community Based Association for Women and Children Welfare, Youth4CAN and the University of Botswana.

How better urban planning and design can help Rajkot beat the heat Rapid urbanisation and global climate change are contributing to the urban heat island (UHI) effect in cities across the world. Anuradha Adhikari of ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability South Asia (ICLEI South Asia) and Nilesh Prajapati (GFA Consulting Group GmbH) share recommendations for reducing the urban heat island effect in Rajkot, India, providing an example for other cities.

Landmark science-policy assessment highlights the importance of integrated strategies in addressing interlinked global crises CDKN's EbA lead, Nadia Sitas, was a coordinating lead author and part of the negotiation team for the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Nexus Assessment. She reports on the latest global assessments, which were approved in December 2024.

Reflecting as we go: Lessons from CDKN’s open call for locally-led adaptation initiatives in Africa CDKN is providing Knowledge-to-Action (K2A) grants in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In Africa, an open call for locally-led adaptation (LLA) initiatives and a comprehensive selection process led to five K2A projects being chosen who received US$150,000 each in Benin, Cameroon, Kenya, Mozambique and South Sudan. We intentionally adopted a learning approach and here we share our insights from the selection process.