Africa Regional Brief: Human Rights in the Context of Climate-induced Migration and Displacement June 2023 Executive Summary Climate mobility is fast becoming a growing trend in Africa, forcibly displacing people from their homes and livelihoods and disrupting human mobility patterns across different parts of the continent. In light of this worrying trend, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Flight and Migration Center in partnership with the Climate Migration and Displacement Platform and ACT Alliance jointly organised a consultative forum that gathered experts, civil society actors, and researchers to discuss the question of human rights in the context of climate-induced migration in Africa. This policy brief – which is a product of a two-day rigorous deliberation – highlights a shared understanding of the challenges and implications of climate mobility on human rights of various vulnerable groups in Africa. The policy brief also presents a set of recommendations for policymakers, civil society actors, researchers, and other players actively addressing on climate mobility in the continent. Introduction Climate change is increasingly posing severe multiple threats to human existence. Slow and rapid-onset extreme weather events – such as drought, rising sea levels, flooding, cyclones, heatwaves – are driving a series of human security challenges in several parts of the world. The increasing intensity and frequency of these weather events are putting people’s lives and livelihoods in vulnerable situations. From water and land scarcity to violent conflicts, from food shortage to health crises, from forced displacement to human rights abuses – climate change is driving some of the worst humanitarian crises in human history. In Africa, specifically, extreme weather events are disproportionately threatening people’s survival, despite contributing less than 4 percent to the global greenhouse gas emission 1 . With agriculture accounting for 30 percent of Africa’s GDP and source of livelihoods for 50 percent of the continent’s population, climate change is making survival extremely difficult for the people and disrupting countries’ economic growth. With about four consecutive failed rainy seasons in the Horn of Africa, for instance, 36.1 million persons have been affected by drought, while 8.9 million livestock were reported dead in the region. In addition, over 16 million persons in the region are unable to access clean water and 20.5 million are experiencing food shortage 2 . Notably, climate mobility is fast becoming a growing trend in Africa. Climate change is forcibly displacing people from their homes, motivating affected persons to migrate for survival, while also disrupting human mobility patterns across the continent. In 2021 alone, about 2.6 million people were displaced due to climate-related disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa 3 . This is also evident in about one million persons that were forced to move due to drought in Somalia, while 2.3 million people who were displaced due to drying up of Lake Chad around Nigeria, Chad, and Niger. In Southern Africa, about 10.1 million people were 1 https://www.cdp.net/en/research/global-reports/africa-report 2 https://www.iom.int/iom-somalia-drought-response 3 https://www.internal-displacement.org/research-areas/Displacement-disasters-and-climate-change 1