Policy Influence on Climate Action from Eswatini and the Global South
Across Eswatini and much of the Global South, climate policies often appear strong in design yet struggle in practice. There is a persistent gap between national plans, institutional frameworks, and the lived realities of vulnerable communities who face the daily impacts of climate change. Examining both successful and struggling policy examples helps to highlight the wider political and economic forces that shape climate action.
1. A Positive Example: Eswatini’s Climate Policy and Regional Alignment
One encouraging example from Eswatini is the country’s alignment with regional climate frameworks and its investment in climate‑smart agriculture and adaptation planning. Although still developing, this policy has helped to mainstream climate considerations into agriculture, water management, and disaster risk reduction. It has also attracted international technical support, particularly for drought response, and encouraged community‑based initiatives such as rangeland management and the use of drought‑resilient crops.
Three factors underpin this progress:
Political recognition that climate shocks threaten national development.
Regional cooperation through SADC and the African Union, which strengthens access to finance and technical support.
Integration with development goals, ensuring climate action is linked to poverty reduction, food security, and livelihoods.
While not perfect, this approach has helped shift climate change from being viewed solely as an environmental issue to being understood as a central development challenge.
2. A Struggling Example: Top‑Down and Underfunded Policies
Despite these gains, many climate policies in Eswatini and other African countries continue to face significant barriers. Limited and unpredictable funding, weak implementation capacity, and highly centralised planning processes often undermine policy effectiveness. National adaptation plans and disaster management strategies may acknowledge community vulnerability, yet they frequently fail to give communities real decision‑making power or direct access to resources.
The experience of Bangladesh after Cyclone Sidr illustrates how local power networks and elite capture can distort well‑intentioned policies, resulting in “participatory exclusion” where the poorest remain marginalised. Similar risks exist in Eswatini when participation is symbolic rather than meaningful.
3. Are International Frameworks Sufficient?
International frameworks such as the Paris Agreement have played an important role in setting global temperature goals, requiring Nationally Determined Contributions, and increasing attention to adaptation finance. However, they remain insufficient to meet global climate goals. Commitments are voluntary and lack strong enforcement, while funding for adaptation and loss and damage is far below what is required. Accessing climate finance is often slow and complex for small countries, and global systems still favour large, centralised projects rather than locally led adaptation.
4. Political, Economic, and Social Influences
Climate policy outcomes are shaped not only by technical considerations but also by political, economic, and social factors. Competing national priorities, limited budgets, and entrenched inequalities influence who benefits from climate programmes. Traditional authority structures in Eswatini can support mobilisation but may also restrict inclusive participation if youth, women, and poorer households are excluded.
5. Lessons from Bangladesh for the Global South
Bangladesh’s experience offers valuable lessons: climate policy must address power relations, ensure genuine participation, and link disaster management to long‑term development. These lessons are highly relevant for Eswatini and other African countries facing droughts, floods, and slow‑onset climate changes.
6. Bridging the Policy–Action Gap
To close the gap between policy and real resilience, countries need to devolve decision‑making, strengthen local institutions, ensure transparency in climate finance, integrate indigenous knowledge, and secure long‑term funding. For Eswatini, this includes empowering communities and chiefdoms to lead adaptation efforts grounded in local practices such as communal grazing management and drought‑resilient agriculture.