The African continent is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate variability and climate change. The continent regularly faces a wide range of natural hazards and slow-onset events and processes leading to different forms of human mobility (displacement, migration, returns and planned relocation). Disasters linked to natural hazards, environmental degradation, and the adverse effects of climate change are amongst the leading and overlapping drivers of human mobility. 

In July 2022, the Government of the Republic of Uganda, spearheaded by the Ministry of Water and Environment, was supported by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for East and Horn of Africa and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s Regional Collaboration Centre (RCC) based in Uganda, to organize a High-level, Regional, Inter-Ministerial Conference on “Migration, Environment and Climate Change (MECC) in the East and Horn of Africa”. The Conference was geared towards developing an integrated approach to climate change induced mobility across the region and contribute to raising the important topic of human mobility in the context of climate change, at the global level. A landmark Kampala Ministerial Declaration on Migration, Environment and Climate Change (KDMECC) was signed. 

In response to the interest in expanding the KDMECC continentally, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) agreed to support the continental expansion of the Kampala Ministerial Declaration on Migration, Environment and Climate Change (KDMECC) through the coordination and development of a Continental Addendum (KDMECC-AFRICA). The finalised Continental Kampala Ministerial Declaration on Migration, Environment and Climate Change (KDMECC-AFRICA) is now being presented to the Ministers from the African Continent for signing and launch at the Twenty Eight Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 28) on the 2^nd December, 2023 in Dubai.