The Horn of Africa now faces an unprecedented drought, with conditions not seen in the last 40 years. The implications of this looming catastrophe reach beyond the most recent severe drought periods in the region, which occurred in 2010 and 2011 and again in 2016 and 2017.

As of November 2022, over 36 million people in the Horn were affected by drought, including 24.1 million in Ethiopia, 7.8 million in Somalia, and 4.2 million in Kenya. More than 20 million children in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia need immediate water and food assistance. In addition, nearly 1 million pregnant and lactating women are acutely malnourished. Since mid-2021, more than 9.5 million livestock have perished in the region due to a lack of water, starvation, and disease.

The transnational implications of such extreme droughts on human security require coordinated responses. In the Horn, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)—an organization with representation from governments in the region—is increasingly the vehicle used to respond to climate security risks in the region.

To achieve these aims, IGAD has broad mandates to ensure peace and security, preserve natural resources and the environment, and foster economic cooperation and regional integration. Yet the organization’s state-centric approach results in limited engagement with non-state actors—including nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs)—that play a key role in providing lifesaving assistance and implementing projects that enhance community resilience.

The lack of a substantive role for non-state actors within IGAD hampers effective coordination in response. CSOs, NGOs, academia, business groups, and think tanks play a crucial role in researching, advocating, formulating, and implementing climate change-related policies, programs, and projects. It is no accident that the Paris Agreement specifically recognized the role of non-state actors in global climate governance and embodied hybrid multilateralism that amalgamates state and non-state interactions.

In a crisis such as the one the Horn of Africa now faces, better coordination is imperative. How can it be accomplished?

Reframing, Dialogue, and Ownership  

In the February 2023 edition of the Horn of Africa Bulletin, which focuses on climate security in the Horn, I offer recommendations for how IGAD can constructively engage CSOs to reduce climate security challenges and increase community resilience. In my view, IGAD must: (1) make human security its guiding principle; (2) revamp its current CSO engagement to establish a permanent structured dialogue; and (3) create a space that encourages CSOs to table issues important to the communities they are supporting and advocate for their adoption.

Climate security risks cross national and subnational boundaries with severe human security implications. Despite its specific regional focus, IGAD’s overly state-centric approach has meant that political will and flawed inter-state political coordination have become the primary barriers to the organization’s effectiveness.

Reframing IGAD’s work to make human security a driving principle creates the opportunity to reduce the effects of political will, create space for non-state actor engagement, and facilitate increased cross-border cooperation and information sharing. Amending the agreement that established IGAD, as well as present institutional arrangements and procedures, will be necessary to reflect this change. The new framing will also require the broadening of IGAD’s mandate to incorporate non-traditional security issues such as climate change, resource scarcity, infectious diseases, natural disasters, irregular migration, food shortages, and organized crime.

Dialogue within IGAD must also be revamped since current structures do not offer sustained and permanent engagement. At present, IGAD has only two such venues that specifically discuss climate security. In 2003, IGAD established the Civil Society and NGO Forum through the Khartoum Declaration to involve non-state actors in policy formulation and implementation. IGAD also set up the Regional Civil Society Drylands Governance Facility in December 2012 to support five NGOs in implementing various dryland resilience projects. Yet both forums are currently convened in an ad hoc fashion. When sessions are held, they offer limited inclusion (and participation) from civil society and academic groups.

Creating an inclusive and permanent structured dialogue with non-state actors within IGAD will create direct relationships between these parties and government officials working on climate change. The shift will also strengthen IGAD’s responses to climate security risks. Encouraging non-state actors to table and advocate for issues before the highest IGAD decision-making body (the Assembly) will further create a sense of ownership and inclusion in  IGAD’s core missions.  Civil society engagement will increase, and current barriers to cross-border cooperation and information sharing within IGAD will be reduced.

A More Effective Collaboration

Non-state actors, notably some international NGOs, strive already to build communities resilient to climate security risks and communal conflicts in the Horn of Africa in concert with IGAD. For instance, with financial support from the European Union, a consortium of four NGOs–Danish Refugee Council, World Vision, CARE, and WYG International Limited–launched a regional initiative in the Mandera triangle (the border region of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya that has experienced high levels of conflict) in collaboration with IGAD to address migration, climate change, and build the resilience of vulnerable communities to recurrent climate security challenges. This project demonstrates the valuable role of non-state actors in building climate-security-resilient communities. It is also a model project of environmental peacebuilding in action, managing natural resources to promote conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and inter-communal cooperation.

Yet this successful project is the exception at present. The engagement of local non-state actors in IGAD’s responses to climate security risks is in its infancy and has not been adequately established to address the immense crisis in the Horn. The drought and the subsequent food insecurity, loss of livelihoods, displacement, and inter- and intra-communal violence are expected to increase with an anticipated sixth consecutive failed rainy season expected from March to May 2023. More than 46 million people are estimated to be food insecure.

Coordinated responses to this potential catastrophe are required—and IGAD has the opportunity to play a more proactive role in these efforts. Ensuring genuine civil society engagement and input into the organization’s planning and actions will only strengthen the Horn regional body’s response to climate security risks. It will also contribute significantly to building climate and conflict-resilient communities. Improved civil society engagement will further improve cross-border cooperation and coordination among the countries within the region.