The recently concluded second Africa Climate Summit and the Addis Ababa declaration did more than restate ambition. They set out a practical agenda to finance and deliver resilience at scale, with agriculture at the center. For governments, financiers and development partners, the signal is clear. Move rapidly from broad commitments to bankable projects that protect livelihoods, raise productivity and de-risk investment across rural economies.
That signal took concrete form. The Africa Climate Innovation Compact was launched to mobilize USD 50 billion a year and deliver one thousand African climate solutions by 2030. The facility behind it is built to crowd in blended finance and take homegrown ideas to scale in energy, water, transport, agriculture and community resilience. This is not a slogan. It is an execution plan with pillars for innovation, financing, policy and public engagement.
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Alongside it, African development banks and commercial lenders announced USD 100 billion in commitments to power a green industrialization pathway. The idea is straightforward. Use clean power to drive new industries, expand trade and create decent jobs while cutting emissions. It is a bet on Africa’s ingenuity and markets, not on its misery.
These financial signals matter for one reason above all others: adaptation. Our farmers and pastoral communities are on the front line of climate change. Droughts burn through savings. Crop yield has been reduced by up to 25 per cent. Floods sweep away topsoil and seeds. Heat waves turn reliable planting calendars into guesses. Extreme climate-related fatalities increased threefold in the last 15 years. The Addis Ababa declaration puts adaptation first and calls for predictable and accessible finance to build resilient food systems, climate smart cities and early warning systems. For agriculture, that means rainwater harvesting, afforestation, land reclamation and soil health at scale, drought tolerant seeds in every district, and digital weather and market services that reach the last mile. Africa has been investing in regenerating degraded lands and adapting to climate change, including through the African green belt, stretching 5000 miles from Senegal coast to Djibouti, spanning 11 countries and covered with billions of trees. Only Ethiopia, through its green legacy program, claimed to plant 50 billion trees by 2026.
The declaration also stands for fairness. Leaders urged reform of multilateral development banks, lower borrowing costs and a stronger African voice in decisions that shape our future. It capitalizes on African-led initiatives such as the Great Green Wall and landscape restoration and recognizes the role of traditional knowledge in keeping ecosystems and farms in balance. For those of us who work with smallholders every day, that recognition is not abstract. It is how adaptation becomes yields, incomes and dignity.
Agriculture runs through the core of the Addis outcomes. The declaration endorses joint work on agriculture and climate action that connects ministries and research bodies, supports the Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation (FAST) partnership to channel finance into food systems, and affirms commitments under the Kampala Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Proigram (CAADP) agenda. Most important, it calls for direct grant-based support to national, regional and philanthropy funds that can reach smallholder farmers, especially women and youth, with inputs, credit and extension. This is where impact is fastest and most equitable.
Energy access is part of the action. We cannot transform rural economies if agriculture remains a shamba culture, cool storage facilities are not existent, clinics are dark, schools cannot power computers and small processors cannot run. The summit advanced the Mission 300 agenda to connect 300 million people to modern energy and a clean cooking initiative aiming to reach 900 million by 2030. Besides being the cause of deforestation, clean cooking is a public health, gender and climate solution rolled into one, and Africa has already shown that targeted finance can unlock billions for it.
Skeptics will ask if this time is different. My answer is yes, for three reasons. First, politics are aligned. Addis built on the momentum from Nairobi and set a common African position for COP30. Leaders spoke with one voice about moving from aid to investment and about climate justice that is real, not rhetorical. Second, the architecture is taking shape. The innovation compact, the facility behind it and the green industrialization framework give financiers credible vehicles to back. Third, urgency on the ground cannot be ignored, from failed rains in the Horn to floods in southern Africa.
So, what must we do next? As a continent we should double down on four practical shifts.
First, make adaptation finance grants the default for smallholders and local governments. New loans for adaptation add weight to shoulders already carrying heavy debt. Grants channeled through national or subnational windows can crowd in private co-investment without pushing countries toward distress. That is the path to resilient food systems at speed.
Second, integrate climate change agenda with agriculture, by adopting climate smart practices that would enhance productivity, reduce risk, improve livelihood and ecosystem services
Third, scale what already works. Across our programs we see farmers who beat drought with water harvesting and soil cover, cooperatives that raise incomes with climate-smart seed and regenerative practices, and districts that use digital advisories to cut risk. With concessional capital from the compact and green industrialization initiatives, these solutions can move from thousands to millions of households in a few seasons.
Fourth, put women and youth at the center of design and delivery. When women get direct support, adoption rises, and nutrition improves. When agripreneurs can access blended finance, we see rapid growth in local processing, storage and logistics that reduce losses and create jobs near the farm. The Addis declaration reinforces that priority. Our task is to wire it into budgets, procurement and reporting.
There is also a narrative shift under way. In Addis Ababa we talked less about what we lack and more about what we can build together. Ethiopia showcased trees planted at record scale and new renewable energy sourcing through hydropower. Kenya pointed to progress since the Nairobi declaration in building green infrastructure. Civil society pushed hard on accountability and on taxing pollution. That mix of ambition and scrutiny is healthy. It keeps attention on delivery.
The world should pay attention. Africa has a young population, vast renewable energy potential and the soils, crops and ingenuity to feed its people and supply global markets. If we invest now in resilient agriculture, clean energy and local industries, we will slow emissions growth while lifting millions out of poverty. That is climate leadership. Not only because it is morally right, but because it is economically smart.
Addis was a turning point. It gave us tools, targets and a timetable. The next move is ours. As we head toward COP30, let us take this playbook to the farm, the cooperative, the district and the bank. Let us back African ideas with African capital and global partnership. And let us measure success not by communiqués but by families who get through the next failed season with food on the table and money in the mobile wallet. That is what success looks like. That is what Africa has just set in motion.
The writer is Director, Climate Adaptation, Sustainable Agriculture and Resilience, AGRA
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By Tilahun Amede