REPORT of THE PEER-TO-PEER EXCHANGE ON NDCs DEVELOPMENT, IMPLEMENTATION, AND INVESTMENT PRIORITIES AMONG AFRICAN COUNTRIES Date: 26TH – 28TH November 2025 Table of Contents | Page 1 of 9 CGIAR Table of Contents 1.0 INTRODUCTION 2 1.1 Objectives 2 1.2 Participants 2 2.0 Outputs and Outcomes 3 2.1 Strategic direction and a scoping review of Africa NDC 3.0: Supporting countries towards achievable and investable NDC 3.0 3 2.2 Institutional mechanisms for effective coordination and implementation of LTS and successive NDCs: Challenge and Best practices 3 2.3 Bundle of decision Support tools to inform policy development and drive climate action 4 i. 1.5°C National Pathway Explorer (NPE) 4 ii. PROVIDE Risk Dashboard 4 iv. NDC Capacity Scorecard 4 v. MERL Tool 4 vi. IPCC Summary Generator 5 vii. Adaptation Atlas 5 2.4 Transformational adaptation in Africa’s Agriculture 5 2.5 World Café and Panel discussions 5 3.0 Next steps 7 4.0 Annexes 7 CGIAR Table of Contents | Page 2 of 9 1.0 INTRODUCTION The Paris Agreement requires countries to submit successive Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) every five years, reflecting progressively higher ambition and taking into account each country’s capacity. In line with the Decisions (Decision 1/CP.21 and Decision 1/CMA.5), the deadline for submission of the NDCs 3.0 for implementation between 2031 – 2035 was 10th February 2025. As of November 2025, 23 African countries, As countries advance through the iterative NDC cycle, the need for enhanced peer learning has become increasingly evident. Many African countries continue to reflect on lessons from NDC 2.0 implementation while simultaneously designing successive NDCs that are better aligned with their Long-Term Low Emission and Climate-Resilient Development Strategies (LT LEDS). Given that countries are at different stages of NDC preparation and implementation, structured peer exchange provides an essential mechanism for identifying what works, what does not, and the opportunities for strengthening ambition and implementation capacity. Agriculture remains a priority sector within African NDCs. It is central to national economies, food systems, livelihoods, and employment, yet remains highly vulnerable to climate risks including droughts, shifting rainfall patterns, flooding, and land degradation. At the same time, the AFOLU sector offers significant mitigation potential and adaptation co-benefits that can contribute to national climate targets. This peer exchange workshop therefore provided a platform for African countries to share experiences, identify challenges, explore innovative approaches, and prioritize investments for scaling climate action in the agriculture sector within NDC 3.0 and LT-LEDS processes. 1.1 Objectives The objectives of the peer-to-peer workshop were to:  Facilitate experience sharing and knowledge exchange on the NDCs and alignment with LT-LEDS, focusing on the agriculture sector.  Identify sector-specific opportunities, challenges, and barriers in the design, costing, and implementation of agriculture-related climate actions in the successive NDCs.  Strengthening collaboration and coordination across ministries and partners through a sustained community of practice on agriculture NDC implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting. 1.2 Participants The peer-to-peer exchange brought together country NDC and LT LEDS focal points and coordinators, agriculture and adaptation officers, and climate negotiators from twelve African countries (with representation from the 4 sub-regions of Africa): Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Benin, Togo, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. Participants represented key national institutions such as ministries responsible for agriculture, environment, climate change, and livestock development, alongside national coordinators of climate initiatives and Green Climate Fund focal points. In addition to government representatives, the workshop also included technical experts from Climate Analytics, the Table of Contents | Page 3 of 9 CGIAR Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (ABC), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and African Group of Negotiators Experts Support (AGNES). This combination of policymakers, practitioners, and technical specialists created a robust platform for cross- country learning, enabling the exchange of practical experiences, analytical insights, and evidence-based approaches to advancing NDC 3.0 implementation in the agriculture sector. 2.0 Outputs and Outcomes 2.1 Strategic direction and a scoping review of Africa NDC 3.0: Supporting countries towards achievable and investable NDC 3.0 The session opened by outlining the emerging strategic direction of Africa’s NDC 3.0 cycle, emphasizing a continental shift toward more grounded, implementable, and investment focused climate commitments. The presentation underscored the persistent gap between intention and implementation. Across the continent, the analysis showed that African countries are putting forward increasingly ambitious NDC 3.0 targets, but the magnitude of these ambitions is matched by equally large financing needs. In West and Central Africa, countries collectively require USD 470 billion to implement their NDCs, with Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Mauritania among those presenting high conditional targets. East and Southern African countries display even higher needs, amounting to over USD 766 billion, driven by large scale energy transitions, climate-smart agriculture and resilience building, with Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa being major contributors. North African countries, including Morocco and Tunisia, present combined needs of nearly USD 150 billion for energy, water and adaptation priorities. In total, Africa’s NDC 3.0 implementation needs exceed USD 1.38 trillion for the 2025–2035 period, with Angola, Nigeria and Ethiopia alone accounting for approximately USD 900 billion. 2.2 Institutional mechanisms for effective coordination and implementation of LTS and successive NDCs: Challenge and Best practices The session examined how African countries are advancing from the design to the implementation of their Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS) and successive NDCs, highlighting persistent institutional, financial and coordination challenges that undermine delivery. The analysis presented, based on six country case studies (Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe), demonstrated that while most countries have made progress in articulating long-term visions, none has fully operationalized their LT-LEDS. The analysis showed that although many countries have developed long-term visions, none has fully operationalized their LT-LEDS, mainly due to unclear mandates, inadequate legal authority for coordinating institutions, staff turnover, heavy reliance on external consultants, and limited knowledge-retention systems. Financing readiness emerged as a significant barrier across all countries, with weak costing frameworks, absence of investment plans, and limited climate budget tagging constraining countries’ ability to mobilize resources or align long-term strategies with annual public budgeting. Countries also struggle with institutional coherence, with NDCs, NAPs, LT-LEDS and national development plans often progressing in parallel rather than through coordinated, sequenced frameworks. Despite these challenges, the session highlighted emerging best practices. Nigeria’s elevation of the National Council on Climate Change has strengthened authority and cross-government coordination, while South Africa’s Presidential Climate Commission provides an inclusive multi- stakeholder model for long-term decision-making. Kenya’s integration of LT-LEDS thinking into national planning frameworks and Zimbabwe’s efforts to mainstream climate considerations CGIAR Table of Contents | Page 4 of 9 across ministries were noted as promising approaches. The presentation underscored the need for countries to legally anchor climate mandates, develop costed and prioritized investment pipelines, integrate climate action into public finance systems and establish durable knowledge-management processes. It concluded that effective LT-LEDS and NDC implementation will depend on strong institutional design, long-term political commitment, participatory coordination, and predictable multi-year support from development partners. 2.3 Bundle of decision Support tools to inform policy development and drive climate action i. 1.5°C National Pathway Explorer (NPE) The 1.5°C NPE provides downscaled, country-level mitigation pathways derived from global IPCC-assessed models, helping countries benchmark their NDC and LT-LEDS ambition against 1.5°C-compatible trajectories. It translates global sustainability-screened scenarios into national emission ranges, sector transformation benchmarks, and fossil- fuel phase-out timelines. Countries can compare their current policies or NDC targets with multiple illustrative pathways to identify feasibility gaps and priority sectors. This supports more aligned, investable, and evidence-based NDC updates. Link ii. PROVIDE Risk Dashboard The PROVIDE Risk Dashboard visualises future climate risks such as extreme heat, heat stress, precipitation shifts, and other climate hazards at global, national, and city scales. It enables policymakers to assess unavoidable and avoidable risks under different policy scenarios, including “current policies” versus 1.5°C-aligned trajectories. High-resolution case studies such as Addis Ababa, Nairobi, and Mogadishu show projected days of heat stress by 2030, guiding adaptation planning and urban risk management. This helps countries prioritise climate-resilient investments and adaptation pathways. Link iii. Climate Impact Explorer (CIE) The Climate Impact Explorer delivers sector-specific projections for agriculture, water, health, and disaster risk reduction using state-of-the-art CMIP and ISIMIP climate models. It provides national and subnational indicators such as maize yield change, river discharge, heat-related labour productivity loss, and minimum daily temperatures under different warming scenarios. The platform allows countries to compare baseline climate conditions with future projections and assess implications for food security, water stress, and infrastructure planning. These insights feed directly into evidence-based adaptation strategies and sectoral components of NDCs and LT-LEDS. Link iv. NDC Capacity Scorecard The NDC Capacity Scorecard is an interactive platform that enables governments to assess their readiness for developing and implementing NDCs and identify targeted strategies to close capacity gaps. It consolidates climate data, visual analytics and tailored metrics to support evidence-based decision-making and highlight priority areas for improvement. The tool also offers training modules, guidance materials and collaborative features to strengthen institutional and technical capacity. Through its dashboards, users can track progress, identify challenges and translate capacity needs into actionable recommendations and resource-mobilisation strategies. Link v. MERL Tool The MERL Tool is a structured digital platform designed to track progress, effectiveness and impact of climate actions across counties. It provides a systematic approach for collecting, managing and analysing data, enabling stronger evidence-based decision- making. The tool integrates dashboards, indicators and spatial layers to visualise results https://1p5ndc-pathways.climateanalytics.org/#countries https://climate-risk-dashboard.iiasa.ac.at/ https://climate-impact-explorer.climateanalytics.org/ https://ndcscorecard.agnesafrica.org/ Table of Contents | Page 5 of 9 CGIAR and support transparency and accountability. By organising information in a consistent format, it strengthens monitoring, reporting and learning processes and improves coordination across implementing institutions. Link vi. IPCC Summary Generator The AI-Powered IPCC Summary Generator is an innovative tool designed to transform the extensive, highly technical IPCC Assessment Reports into accurate, objective, and user- tailored summaries. Built on a machine-readable version of the full AR6, the tool uses automated evidence retrieval to generate concise, citation-linked briefs adapted to different user profiles, including policymakers, practitioners, private sector actors, and civil society. It preserves scientific fidelity while providing simplified, context-relevant outputs that are easy to navigate. Through iterative testing with IPCC authors and end users, the tool ensures clarity, reliability, and alignment with the intent of original IPCC texts, expanding the usability of climate science for decision-making at all levels. Link vii. Adaptation Atlas The Adaptation Atlas is an evidence-based platform that compiles climate risks, sector vulnerabilities, and proven adaptation options supported by analytical notebooks covering agriculture, water, ecosystems, infrastructure and cross-cutting sectors. It provides data on intervention effectiveness, costs and co-benefits, helping countries identify high-impact and context-appropriate solutions. The atlas strengthens the design of adaptation components in NDCs, NAPs and sector strategies by linking climate impacts to actionable measures. Its structured guidance supports the development of climate actions and bankable project concepts, enabling governments to prioritise investments and improve coherence between risk assessments and adaptation planning. Link viii. Climate Monitoring and Accountability Tool (CMAT) The Climate Monitoring and Accountability Tool (CMAT) is a web-based platform designed to strengthen the oversight capacity of African Parliaments by enabling Members and Parliamentary Staff to track national climate action. It consolidates locally sourced climate documents, budget allocations, parliamentary discussions and government-led climate projects into an accessible data repository. The tool includes an AI-enabled chatbot, automated budget analysis, GIS-based remote monitoring of infrastructure projects and an oversight dashboard that assesses transparency and accountability across ministries. Link 2.4 Transformational adaptation in Africa’s Agriculture The session served as a scoping discussion on what transformational adaptation means for Africa’s agriculture, recognizing that the scale and pace of climate impacts now exceed what incremental adjustments can address. Presentation outlined why African food systems, that are already affected by warming trends, erratic rainfall, droughts and declining productivity, require shifts that go beyond improving existing practices toward interventions that fundamentally reshape agricultural systems, institutions and livelihoods. Using a draft Transformational Adaptation Evaluation Framework, the session explored emerging dimensions of transformational change, including systemic shifts, scalability, sustainability and inclusiveness, and discussed five potential pathways such as agroecological transitions, value chain restructuring, digitalization and livelihood diversification. 2.5 World Café and Panel discussions The workshop featured two rounds of World Café discussions and panel sessions that enabled countries to share country experiences on NDC and LT-LEDS development and https://merl.agnes.africa/ http://52.147.204.253:8000/chat_ui.html https://adaptationatlas.cgiar.org/ https://cmat.onrender.com/ CGIAR Table of Contents | Page 6 of 9 implementation process. These sessions were synthesized and grouped in themes in the table below. Table 2.5.1 Thematic Area What is covered Key Indicators Organizatio responsible 1. NDC and LT-LEDS development and implementation [NDC Costing, budgeting, investment priorities, MRV and tracking including incorporation of GGA indicators, knowledge exchange (Community of Practice)] • Methods, tools, and capacity to cost mitigation/adaptation actions, integrate budget cycles, and identify finance priorities to unlock investments. • Regional customizable tool • NDC 3.0 actions with long-term low-emission development strategies, including sequencing, milestones, and sectoral interlinkages • Enhanced use of the technical guide and the LTS knowledge piece • Strengthening data collection, NDC progress tracking, reporting, and ongoing knowledge exchange among ministries, partners, researchers, and practitioners • Vertical and horizontal coordination for government ministries and agencies and private sector, civil society, communities and academia and research • No. of countries applying the costing toolkit in planning cycles. • Investment-ready project proposals generated and vetted. • Amount of demonstrated domestic or concessional finance mobilized for pilot actions. • Tracking tool for Agric and other sectors – (excel based tool) • Countries with updated and submitted NDCs/LT-LEDS aligned with sectoral plans and development blueprints • Coordination platform in target countries AGNES Climate Ana Governmen departments ministries ABC ILRI/CGIAR 2. Customization and institutionalization of selected Decision Support Tools inclusive of subnational governments and the private sector and communities for policy development, implementation etc • Access to and use of decision- support resources to inform policy design, tracking, and reporting • Utilization of local expertise and integration into existing government platforms • Integrating evidence into practical policy actions. • No. of policy units trained • No. of open source templates for data collection etc developed • Tool usage rate in policy design cycles • Availability and accessibility of localized toolkits and dashboards • Quality of policy documents incorporating tool-driven evidence (e.g., explicit NDC-aligned targets) AGNES Climate Ana Governmen departments ministries ABC ILRI/CGIAR 3. Climate Literacy (carbon markets, climate negotiations, Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF), loss and damage, climate finance, just transition) • Summary for Africa policymakers • Capacity building initiatives e.g trainings, webinars, workshops, community meetings, roundtables • Simplified IEC materials on the different topics in African languages (Kiswahili, Amharic, Shona, Hausa etc) • Capacity building initiatives in place • No. of regional peer to peer exchanges • No of simplified IEC materials disseminated AGNES University Zimbabwe University o University Agriculture, Climate Ana National government Media 4. Data protocols, national and regional data collection, management and sharing platforms • Integration of climate indicators in data collection tools e.g census, household surveys etc • Fostering data and knowledge exchange among statistic offices • Data quality metrics met (completeness, timeliness, accuracy) for climate reporting and decision making Governmen departments ministries Table of Contents | Page 7 of 9 CGIAR and ministries to inform specific data needs and gaps • Availability of standardized dashboards and data portals accessed by national teams. 5. Adaptation co-benefits resulting from mitigation actions (carbon markets), transformative and incremental adaptation and climate-resilient agriculture • Scalable, transformative adaptation pathways including climate-resilient practices, innovative cropping systems, soil and water management • Resilient value chains • No. of pilot projects successfully demonstrating outcomes (e.g for transformative adaptation - yield resilience, income stability, climate risk reduction). • Adoption rate of playbook recommendations by national programs • No. of scaled actions or replication requests across countries AGNES Climate A ABC ILRI/CGIAR 3.0 Next steps The agreed action next steps from the sessions include: Table 3.0 Actions Timelines Responsibility 1 Circulation of the meeting report to all participants 3rd December 2025 AGNES 2 Feed back on the report from participants 10th December 2025 ALL 3 Draft Transformational Adaptation report 2nd December 2025 ILRI/AGNES 4 Initial feedback on the report from participants 15th December 2025 ALL 5 Responding to the IKI Large grant call 2nd and 3rd December IKI briefing Feb 2026 submission deadline CA/AGNES/ILRI/ABC 6 Invite CA to form part of the support in the LiveSys projects (Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia)- establishing a regional sustainable support hub January 2026 AGNES/CA 7 Establish a small team to look at the LT-LEDS guide, Knowledge product on implementation of LT-LEDs by CA and the guidelines on budgeting and costing that are in development 5TH December 2025 Yvas, Telvin, Pedro, Tapiwa, Ahawo, Fra Ibrahim Konate, Guy 4.0 Annexes World café 1 roundtable discussions World%20Cafe%201 %20Table%201.docx World%20Cafe%201 %20Table%202%20Fe World%20Cafe%201 %20Table%203%20Fe World%20Cafe%201 %20Table%204.docx World café 2 roundtable discussions World%20Cafe%202 %20Table%201%20Fe World%20Cafe%202 %20Table%202.docx World%20Cafe%202 %20Table%203%20Fe World%20Cafe%20T ABLE%204%20feedbac 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Objectives 1.2 Participants 2.0 Outputs and Outcomes 2.1 Strategic direction and a scoping review of Africa NDC 3.0: Supporting countries towards achievable and investable NDC 3.0 2.2 Institutional mechanisms for effective coordination and implementation of LTS and successive NDCs: Challenge and Best practices 2.3 Bundle of decision Support tools to inform policy development and drive climate action i. 1.5 C National Pathway Explorer (NPE) ii. PROVIDE Risk Dashboard iv. NDC Capacity Scorecard v. MERL Tool vi. IPCC Summary Generator vii. Adaptation Atlas 2.4 Transformational adaptation in Africa’s Agriculture 2.5 World Café and Panel discussions 3.0 Next steps 4.0 Annexes