Belmont Forum Africa Regional - CRA 2024

The Belmont Forum, an international partnership of research funding organizations of which ANR is a member, is launching a call for projects focusing on a region particularly exposed to climate change and variability: Africa.

Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change and climate variability, a situation aggravated by the interaction of multiple stressors, occurring at various levels, and low adaptive capacity. Key development sectors have experienced widespread loss and damage attributable to climate change, including biodiversity loss, water shortages, reduced crop yields, coastal tourism due to coral bleaching events, and livestock and fisheries productivity.

Furthermore, adverse impacts on human health include heat stress-related diseases and increased and spatially novel vector-borne diseases, decreased shelter availability, sea level rise and damage from ocean-related hazards, exacerbation of national security issues and international conflicts as well as changes in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems.

Africa’s major economic sectors are also vulnerable to current climate sensitivity, with huge economic impacts, and this vulnerability is exacerbated by existing developmental challenges such as endemic poverty, complex governance, and institutional dimensions; limited access to capital, including markets, infrastructure, and technology; ecosystem degradation; and complex disasters and conflicts.

Exposure and vulnerability to climate change in Africa are multi-dimensional with socioeconomic, political, and environmental factors intersecting and will require a transdisciplinary approach and transboundary partnerships to address and provide comprehensive solutions to its associated challenges.

Over the past three years, the Belmont Forum has engaged with African researchers through a series of scoping activities to discern knowledge gaps and priorities in addressing climate change vulnerability across the continent.

The 3 themes of this call for projects are described in the text of the call (available at https://www.belmontforum.org/cras) and are entitled :

• Theme 1. Water – Energy – Food – Health Nexus
   
• Theme 2. Pollution
   
• Theme 3. Disaster preparedness, Responsiveness and Recovery