In public buildings lighting accounts for about 40% of the electricity costs. If you multiply this figure by the number of kindergartens, schools and universities, town halls, local government buildings and government departments, libraries, swimming pools and hospitals, then the total is enormous. Lighting in public buildings is currently consuming far more energy than necessary, with all the negative side-effects such as high running costs, electricity bottlenecks and damage to the climate. That can easily be changed.

This paper considers the political contexts in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, how these affected the response to the 2011 Horn of Africa emergency, and the implications for future response. Although the Horn of Africa is often seen as a security-challenged region, for good reason, the level of insecurity varies significantly between and within countries. Moreover, the political systems – in terms of governance (and its impact on social and economic mobility and human rights) and of government capacity – in place in the three countries bear little resemblance to each other.

It is clear that, in the face of climate change, the agriculture sector in Africa is being called on to increase food production to meet the food demand for a growing population. A number of countries have prepared National Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plans (NAFSIPs) to integrate the scaling up of practices that augment development, food security, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. This paper proposes a methodology to examine the potential of existing NAFSIPs to generate climate change benefits.