Around 120 representatives from 60 Africa regional adaptation knowledge platforms and other organizations have boosted climate change adaptation efforts in Africa, one of the world's most vulnerable continents to shifting climactic conditions, by endorsing the Africa Adaptation Knowledge Network (AAKNet) as a key tool for creating a coordinated approach.

Africa is particularly susceptible to climate change for a variety of reasons: its reliance on rain-fed agriculture, limited supply of freshwater, widespread poverty and disease, weak institutions, variable access to information and technology, complex disasters and conflicts, and inadequate access to basic services.

Throughout most of his 55 years, Mohammed Hassen and his family have suffered  during recurring droughts that have ravaged his district of Kalu, South Wollo Zone, in northeastern Ethiopia.

The country, once defined by rural poverty, is developing a strategy to address pockets of extreme poverty in its growing urban areas, and UNDP’s pioneering satellite mapping is helping.

In Hassen’s case, it has meant providing him and his neighbours with high-yielding seeds that are drought-resistant. Hassen’s income has improved, and his large family is now able to enjoy three meals a day; he even has extra cash to buy school supplies for the children and to start saving for the future.