About this report:

African Shifts: Addressing Climate-Forced Migration and Displacement is the flagship report of the Africa Climate Mobility Initiative (ACMI), a joint initiative of the African Union Commission, UNDP, UNFCCC, IOM, and the World Bank. Developed through extensive research, modelling, and consultations with African and international experts, the report provides one of the most comprehensive assessments of climate mobility across the African continent. 

The African Shifts report starts with the ground-level realities of how people experience climate vulnerability, and how it affects mobility decisions in Africa today. It then lays out plausible scenarios for how climate mobility might unfold on the continent between now and 2050, and which parts of the continent are likely to be particularly affected. It concludes by presenting an eight-point Agenda for Action for the next eight years, aligning with the Decade for Action to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.

The ACMI’s work builds on and contributes to the growing body of research and evidence on climate mobility globally and in Africa. This includes the World Bank’s Groundswell reports that have used a similar modelling approach to forecast future climate-driven movements on the continent. The Report also draws on recent research on African migration and displacement such as UNDP’s Scaling Fences report that documented the profiles and motivations of African migrants in Europe, and the 2020 Africa Migration Report which discussed diverse migration dynamics and highlighted the need for ‘a new paradigm on African migration’.

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