IFRC: Africans must have better choices as climate change forces people from their homes

By the IFRC

(This story appeared first on the IFRC website yesterday. It has been edited here for length.)

A new IFRC report highlights concrete ways National Societies – and others in impacted communities – help people prepare and adapt to climate change, so they can stay safe in their homes or move safely and with dignity on their own terms.

As floods, droughts, storms and heatwaves become more frequent and intense, the number of people in Africa uprooted from their homes by climate-related disasters has increased. 

These climate pressures do not exist in isolation, they often intersect with other risks such as conflict, economic instability, and food insecurity, compounding existing vulnerabilities and making it even harder for communities to recover and rebuild.

In most cases, people have been left with little choice. As they watch floodwaters rise, or the parched earth crack under their feet, they are left with few options: leave now and find safety elsewhere, or stay and risk losing your home, livelihood, health or, in the worst cases, your life.

The IFRC report, however, suggests there are many ways to work with people so they can avoid having to make such dire, life-altering decisions. And if such a choice is necessary, there are also ways to ensure that people and communities are prepared so they can move safely and with dignity, the report concludes.

Entitled Forced to Flee in a Changing Climate, the report also stresses the urgent need for political leaders, policy-makers, donors and international and regional organizations to do more to support local actors that work directly with communities facing these challenges (executive summary).

Charles Businge, IFRC regional director for Africa, said: “This report is a call to action, to invest in local solutions, empower communities, and ensure that no one is left behind when the next flood, drought, or storm hits.”

Indeed, the need for action is urgent. In 2024, 7.8 million disaster displacements were recorded in Africa, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center. That’s 1.8 million more than the 6 million disaster displacements recorded in 2023. (These figures refer to displacements not people, because some were forced to move more than once.)

“Over the past 60 years, Africa’s warming trend has exceeded the global average,” the report notes, citing measurements reported by the IPCC. “Recent years have seen heatwaves, heavy rains, floods, storms, cyclones and prolonged droughts.”

Rising temperatures and more extreme rains, flooding, heatwaves and storms are expected to continue to drive even higher levels of displacement. However, the report also offers a wide range of practical tools and solutions, along with many reasons for hope. 

‘Locally led collective action can help people adapt or move to safer areas
and rebuild with dignity’

The report features 30 case studies from 15 National Societies in Africa that are already working across multiple areas – identifying and reducing risks and promoting adaptation, preparing and acting early to reduce needs, providing assistance and protection, and promoting resilient recovery – to address and reduce the risks of climate displacement.

“Locally led and collective action can help people to adapt, move to safer areas, and recover and rebuild with dignity,” the report concludes.

“Across Africa, too many people are being pushed to the edge by climate change, forced to flee their homes not because they want to, but because they have no other choice,” Businge added.

“This is not inevitable. With the right support, communities can prepare, adapt, and make informed decisions about their future.

“This report is a call to action, to invest in local solutions, empower communities, and ensure that no one is left behind when the next flood, drought, or storm hits.”

Here are five ways National Societies empower communities and expand their choices in the face of climate change:

*Identifying risks through community-led risk assessments

The impacts of climate change and disasters affect people differently. To better understand their risks, including their risk of displacement, local actors are working with communities to map hazards and conduct community-led risk assessments.

The South African Red Cross, for example, has played a key role in collecting local data through emergency needs assessments in anticipation of potential flooding. This allows them to evaluate the priority needs of displaced communities and inform their response.

*Strengthening adaptation and promoting resilience to climate change impacts

Local actors help communities strengthen ecosystems and put in place nature-based solutions; they can strengthen people’s access to social protection systems and help people protect their assets in ways that are climate-smart and climate-resilient. This can provide people with more options to diversify their livelihoods, find new ways to adapt, and stay in their homes.

In Niger, for example, the Red Cross helps distribute drought-resilient seeds and it restocks cereal banks to reduce humanitarian needs when disasters arise. The Somali Red Crescent implements micro-economic initiatives to support local markets in the face of ongoing droughts and food insecurity.

*Acting early and preparing ahead of disasters

Early warnings, early actions, and preparedness measures – such as mapping evacuation shelters and routes – help people who have to move do so more safely. In Mozambique, the Red Cross is working in places where displaced people live to strengthen early warnings ahead of disasters, including communities with people already displaced by earlier storms or crises.

In Malawi, the Red Cross shares information about evacuation options in real time at the community level before the disaster strikes, so people move out of harm’s way and make informed choices before disasters strike.

*Providing people who are displaced with assistance and protection

Displacement cannot always be avoided. When it happens, local actors are often the first to respond, and are also working to ensure their responses are sensitive to the specific protection needs of vulnerable groups such as women, children, older persons, and people with disabilities, are heightened. 

The Chad Red Cross addresses the humanitarian needs of flood-displaced communities, working to ensure volunteers and staff are trained to strengthen inclusive, safe, protection-sensitive approaches.  In The Gambia, the Red Cross assists people displaced by floods in urban settings to better manage and store excess water.

*Supporting resilient recovery and longer-term assistance after disasters

Local actors are helping displaced people recover and integrate where they can, ensuring that in the future, people’s risk of displacement is lessened, for example by helping them rebuild their homes in a way that is more resilient. Where people remain in displacement camps or settlements, local actors are working to reduce their risks of future displacement.

The Ethiopian Red Cross provides displaced households in camp settings, at risk of drought impacts with essential services, using mobile clinics for health services, and providing cash and voucher assistance, shelter support and livelihood opportunities.

Malawi Red Cross volunteers hear local stories from people in the southern village of Chiwalo, where homes and crops were washed away by floods from Cyclone Freddy in March 2023. (Photo: Anne Wanjiru/IFRC)