International Alert

International Alert

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09/07/2026

Zainab (pictured), from Tunga in northeast 🇳🇬 Nigeria, knows exactly what happens when your family depends entirely on farming in a place where climate change and conflict start colliding.

When rainfall stops following its seasonal patterns, fertile land grows scarcer and old tensions turn into new conflicts, the consequences for agricultural communities are vast and far-reaching. Less food on the table, young people leaving in search of better opportunities elsewhere, and fewer resources to go around.

But it’s women who are hit hardest – despite rarely having a say in decisions that directly affect their households.

👏 Zainab is changing that. Through our Powering Peace through Climate Action project, she's gained new skills in agriculture and conflict resolution and is now helping her community adapt in ways that are fairer, more inclusive, and more peaceful.

Read her story and see what's possible when climate action puts inclusion first - link in the comments👇

With support from Irish Aid

07/07/2026

Climate change and conflict create interconnected challenges for livelihoods, economies, security, and cooperation. Our new report shows how fragmented responses in the Kenya–Ethiopia borderlands can become an obstacle to community resilience – and what integrated approaches can achieve.

Rising temperatures, prolonged droughts and unpredictable rainfall in the Turkana-South Omo corridor are worsening competition over water and land. Violent conflicts between communities have become more frequent as existing dispute resolution systems struggle under increased pressure.

Both 🇰🇪 Kenya and 🇪🇹 Ethiopia have established frameworks for climate adaptation, peacebuilding, gender inclusion and cross-border cooperation. But these efforts remain divided, limiting the impact of responses.

➡️ The real obstacle is treating each issue separately, without addressing their connections.

Our new report ‘Converging crises, fragmented responses’ makes the case for integrated approaches to tackle shared environmental, social and economic challenges.

This means:

▪️Strengthening local institutions like councils of elders and peace committees
▪️Improving cross-border cooperation between Kenya and Ethiopia
▪️Transforming decision-making to meaningfully include women and young people
▪️Aligning efforts across governments, civil society and development partners

Read the report to discover our key insights and recommendations - link in the comments👇

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With support from Austrian Development Agency

Photos from International Alert's post 30/06/2026

Even well-designed programmes can be unintentionally exclusive – covering some marginalised groups while inadvertently leaving others out.

In conflict contexts, LGBTQI+ people are among those most often overlooked: present in the community, but absent from solutions.

Acknowledging that gap and acting on it is one of the highest-impact things a team can do when working on peace, humanitarian and development projects.

What this looks like in practice varies widely by context – especially if engaging openly is a risk.

But it is possible to do this thoughtfully and without causing harm - starting with making small, targeted adjustments to approaches and programmes.

Swipe through for eight practical areas where this really matters – drawn from our experience working on inclusive peacebuilding in conflict contexts.
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29/06/2026

Partnerships enable locally led solutions that communities can truly own. At the borders of DRC, Rwanda and Burundi, that's exactly what's changing lives – because the people most affected are the ones leading the way.

In one of Africa's most fragile regions, millions depend on cross-border trade to survive. Eight in ten of those traders are women. Every day they navigate ongoing armed conflict, unpredictable regulations and exclusion from decision-making, with little protection, voice or support.

No one understands these gaps in protection and representation better than the women experiencing them – or has more at stake in closing them.

➡️ The Mupaka Shamba Letu project (‘Our border, our livelihood’ in Swahili) starts there. By uniting local organisations, women traders, community leaders and policymakers – people who rarely work together – it connects trade and peacebuilding, economic empowerment and conflict resolution in ways that drive inclusion and lasting stability.

Now, small-scale traders across DRC, Rwanda and Burundi are organising, advocating, and building cross-border trust together. And communities that have lived through decades of conflict are finding, in everyday commerce, a practical path to peace.

🎥 Watch the video to hear it in their own words.

🔗 Want to explore how models like this can make your programmes more inclusive and community-owned? Get in touch with our team - link in the comments.
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Our work with partners under the Mupaka Shamba Letu project is possible through the generous support of Sida - Styrelsen för Internationellt Utvecklingssamarbete and Swiss Development & Cooperation

Thanks to our local partner ACUDI - Actions des Communautés Unies pour le Développement Intégral

Ambassade de Suède à Kinshasa / Embassy of Sweden in Kinshasa Coopération Suisse en RDC

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