Context

The climate crisis is escalating financial strain in the world’s most vulnerable countries, particularly Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Fragile and Conflict Affected States (FCAS), and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). These countries are simultaneously grappling with rising climate risks, deepening food insecurity, and unsustainable debt burdens that limit their ability to invest in resilience. For many, the fiscal space required to scale social protection, build adaptive capacity, or respond early to shocks simply does not exist.

At the same time, global financing remains fragmented. While new funding is emerging from sources like multilateral development banks (MDBs), climate funds, private investors, and insurers, access remains uneven, especially in fragile settings where delivery risks are perceived to be high. Even where funding is available, it often arrives too late, is poorly aligned with national systems, and is spread across short term, project based interventions.

Country platforms present a promising solution. When government led and locally rooted, they offer a mechanism to coordinate and harmonise different streams of finance, including debt swaps, insurance payouts, climate finance, concessional loans, and philanthropic capital, toward shared goals such as food security and shock-responsive social protection. They also provide a trusted interface for engaging with development partners, reducing duplication, and increasing investor confidence, especially in fragile environments.

Countries like Somalia and Senegal are beginning to demonstrate how such platforms can be used to crowd in finance, embed delivery systems, and derisk investment by aligning it with early warning, targeting, and scalable assistance mechanisms. But to scale, these efforts need clearer investment pathways, stronger coordination with non-humanitarian sources of finance, and political and technical support from donors and climate finance institutions.

This session will explore how country led platforms can serve as trusted vehicles to mobilise and harmonise finance for social protection and climate resilience in fragile contexts. Building on field experience from Chad, Somalia, Mali, and other fragile contexts, the discussion will unpack how such platforms can align diverse flows, from debt swaps and MDB instruments to climate funds, insurance, and philanthropic capital, under nationally owned strategies.

Purpose and Objectives of the Side Event

The session will highlight how country platforms can:

1. Identify scalable approaches to finance resilience and food security through social protection.

2. Examine what funders (e.g., GCF, MDBs, donors) need unlock finance in FCAS, LDCs, and SIDS.

3. Clarify technical gaps and how private sector participation can be de-risked.

4. Identify non-humanitarian finance streams that countries can leverage.

Agenda and Format

1. Welcome: Simon Lucas, Head of Profession for Climate Environment Infrastructure and Energy, FCDO https://uk.linkedin.com/in/simon-lucas-b5414528

2. Keynote Speeches:

   1. - H.E. Bakhit Djamous Hassan, Minister of Environment, Republic of Chad

   2. - H E Ambassador Elshad Iskandarov, Senior Advisor to COP29 Presidency and Special Envoy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, COP 29 Presidency

3. Context setting: Ritu Bharadwaj, Director, Climate Resilience, Finance and Loss & Damage/ ALL ACT, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) https://www.iied.org/people/ritu-bharadwaj

4. Fireside dialogue: What can make a locally led platform effective in fragile settings?

5. Moderator: Simon Lucas, Head of Profession for Climate Environment Infrastructure and Energy, FCDO

6. Panellists:

   Henrietta Southby, Head of implementation, Humanity Insured https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrietta-southby-14040655/

   Sophie Evans, Associate Director, Centre for Disaster Protection https://www.disasterprotection.org/sophie-evans

   Lindsey Paul Jones, Senior Climate Change Specialist, the World Bank https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsey-jones-0b792719/

   Ajaita Shah, Founder/CEO of Frontier Markets and the President of Frontier Innovations Foundation https://www.frontiermkts.com/about-us

   Michael Hugman, Lead Economist and Global Director for Climate, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) https://ciff.org/team/michael-hugman/

   Abdihakim Ainte, Director, Food Security and Climate Change, Office of the Prime Minister, Government of Somalia

7. Open discussion

8. Conclusion – summary of main themes and actions to put country platforms into practice