Climate — Europe, Global
Too often, adaptation finance is treated as an exercise that begins only once a plan is finished. Building investment planning into resilience strategies from the start is key to turning plans on paper into bankable projects on the ground
Climate — Sub-Saharan Africa
A shrinking Lake Chad and increasingly erratic rains are pushing herders and farmers in the Sahel into conflict over water and land. Lasting peace depends on securing indigenous land rights, strengthening cross-border cooperation, and putting climate finance directly in local hands
Cities — Global
SDG 11, the New Urban Agenda and the International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning all rely on planners to put them into practice. Yet no one has conducted a representative survey of planners, asking whether these frameworks have changed their work, or whether the planning laws they work under even allow what the frameworks call for
Climate — Asia (Central, Eastern and Southern), Global
We can now predict many climate hazards months in advance, yet international finance still flows mainly after the damage is done. Closing that gap means funding preparedness when credible forecasts warn of danger, not only recovery once disaster hits
The war in Ukraine, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and El Niño are hitting global agrifood systems at once, just as the buffers that absorbed past shocks are running low. Preventing these disruptions from becoming food crises means tackling not only countries’ exposure to shocks but also the fragility that leaves them unable to respond
Climate — Asia (Central, Eastern and Southern), Pacific and South-eastern Asia
A green economy offers Asia greater resilience, new opportunities for growth, and a way to restore its depleted natural systems. Realizing it will require patient finance, closer public–private collaboration, and a firm focus on fairness
Cities — Global
Ten years on, the New Urban Agenda has shaped national urban policies, but much-anticipated innovations in financing have yet to deliver at scale, and the stakeholders who helped create it have been sidelined. Its halfway point raises a bigger question about whether 20-year global frameworks still make sense in a world of fast-moving, overlapping crises
Cities — Europe, Global
Cities face difficult choices about how to invest in resilience as climate
pressures intensify. Valuing health, ecosystems, social inclusion, and reliable services alongside financial costs can help them choose fairer, more effective ways to adapt to climate change
Global governance — Global
Indifference and hostility have created a leadership vacuum in development. But as practitioners do the best they can in challenging circumstances, they create their own forms of thought leadership
Climate — Global
The SDGs do not lack science, legitimacy, or vision – they lack an operating system. A global digital commons can help countries move from reporting progress to delivering transformation by bringing together open data, integrated modeling, stakeholder co-design, and sustainable finance
