The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations puts the number of people suffering from chronic hunger around the world at 842 million. That is, one person in eight – above all women, children and old people -is denied the human right to food. Four out of five persons affected live in the countryside, two of them in a farm household.

Improved rural development, one that takes the needs of small-scale farming into account, is one of the keys to overcome extreme poverty and hunger. The rapid change of environmental factors is a crucial determining factor with immediate effects on the life of the rural poor. Given that the geography of famine strongly coincides with the focal points of climate change, the issues of climate risk management, climate proofing of projects and climate adapted agriculture gain more and more importance. We help you to get properly prepared and offer advice, advanced training and project monitoring.

International development and climate funding are indispensable in accomplishing the transformation to an economy model of sustainable, resource-friendly and low-carbon development. The German Advisory Council on Global Change (Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung Globale Umweltveränderungen, WBGU) estimates the annual global costs of such a transformation over the next decades at one or two per cent of the global GDP. However, in view of economic and financial crises, the willingness to make transfer payments is declining in many wealthy countries. The subsequent political and communicative challenge for development and climate policy is immense. Non-government organisations and churches must also question how the readiness for future investments in human development can be increased and how climate change as a task of the global community can be dealt with. There is also a challenge to ensure that the particular concerns of the poorest and most vulnerable will be prioritised in financial funding. We are happy to offer advice.

The ecological footprint of human development has become so large that our planetary boundaries are under threat. The overexploitation of resources has accelerated enormously with the global middle class growth. This has led to progressive environmental destruction and has undermined the development chances of the poor and of future generations. Resource conflicts are often conducive to severe human rights violations. Resource protection is thus a key challenge for both international politics and development cooperation. Solutions are possible and must aim at resource and energy efficiency. Worldwide only 7% of the resources used end up in the final product. In Germany too, resource efficiency during the last decades has increased only half as fast as labour productivity. The increase in energy efficiency lags even further behind. Climate & Development Advice assists you in developing and implementing adequate strategies. We offer your projects expert monitoring.

A growing number of people are affected by the increase in natural disasters, which are further aggravated by climate change and resource conflicts. Disaster prevention is thus becoming more and more important. This means that development cooperation and climate adaptation strategies should ensure the early identification of risks and their reduction, with targeted prevention measures to increase the resilience of particularly vulnerable population groups.

Risk assessment is an indispensable prerequisite for the development of adequate resilience strategies. The aim is to systematically gather hazard and risk expositions of specific groups of persons by means of participative procedures and to assess the scientific results. On this basis, preventive measures can be introduced in cooperation with the affected population. We conduct risk analyses and assist in the implementation of such procedures and approaches for your venture.