Children in Africa are increasingly exposed to overlapping risks of climate change and armed conflict. These crises disrupt access to education, nutrition, health care, and child protection services which further expose them to heightened risks and vulnerability. Although the nature of the relationship between climate change and conflict remains unresolved, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), in its Continental Study on Climate Change and Children’s Rights in Africa (2024), highlights how climate-related effects such as droughts, floods, and rising temperatures intensify competition over scarce resources, disrupt essential services, and contribute to insecurity.
The Study draws attention to concrete examples in the continent, including farmer-herder clashes in central Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, and northern Kenya, where climate-induced resource constraints led to various feuds and clashes. The study also underscores how conflict undermines climate action, with fragile states facing barriers to climate finance despite their heightened vulnerability. These dynamics, while complex and context-specific, have profound implications for children’s rights under the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, particularly Article 22 on children in conflict situations, and Articles 5, 14, and 27 on survival, health, and protection respectively.
This Advocacy Brief calls on Member States to adopt child-sensitive approaches to climate action and conflict responses. It recommends integrating children’s rights into national adaptation plans, disaster risk reduction strategies, and peacebuilding frameworks. Other specific measures include strengthening early warning systems, expanding inclusive social protection, safeguarding education and health services in conflict-affected areas, ensuring climate adaptation efforts do not discriminate against children in armed conflict, and addressing conflict blind spots in climate finance. The brief also emphasises policy options such as conflict-sensitive adaptation programming and child participation in decision-making. Upholding the African Children’s Charter amid these intersecting risks is not only a legal obligation, but also a moral imperative.
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