Sustainable socio-economic development is founded on water security which is vital for food and energy production, health, and livelihoods and enables industrial development, liveable cities, global biodiversity and sustainable ecosystems. Currently, one in every three people in Africa faces water insecurity.

Industrialization is central to Africa’s development prospects. With its young labour force, abundant natural resources and fast-growing internal markets. Africa has the potential to become the next global frontier for industrial development.

Liberia, due to its location on the west coast of Africa, within the tropical rain forest climate belt with heavy rain, is faced with high climate change risks, including cyclones, floods and rising sea levels.

The Gambia is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change from increases in temperature, decreases in rainfall, and a rise in the sea level, which affect millions of people and make adaptation more urgent. Rapid changes in climate tend to have severe effects on a country’s key economic sectors such as agriculture, tourism, and health.

Ghana is highly vulnerable to climate change due to its location along the Atlantic Ocean in a tropical climate zone. This increasingly exposes the country to the risks of climate change including rising sea levels, drought, higher temperatures and erratic rainfall, which negatively impact the socio-economic development of the country.

Risk factors that could affect the economic outlook are present and relatively prevalent, despite signs that the COVID-19 health crisis could ease significantly. Continuation of the war in Ukraine and prolonged restrictions on exports from Russia could put further upward pressure on food and energy prices.

Chapter 1 of this report looks at these conditions in some length. The analysis covers all the 15 member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS): Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

The economic outlook for Southern Africa will be affected by an additional threat that arises from global warming. The 13 countries are intertwined in a climate-water-energy-food nexus with a high reliance on climate-sensitive sectors.

In 2021, North Africa showed strong signs of recovery from a downturn in 2020 due to the global pandemic and concomitant oil price collapse.

This report is the result of a collaboration between the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group and the UNESCO Chair on Urban Resilience at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU.Resilience).