This assessment provides a regional synthesis of observed and projected losses and damages (L&D) resulting from climate change impacts across IGAD Member States. It examines both economic and non-economic losses and damages and situates its findings within global and regional policy frameworks under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. The assessment responds to a critical international policy moment marked by the operationalisation of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) and increasing expectations for countries and regions to generate robust, credible L&D evidence to access emerging finance and influence future allocation frameworks.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region faces escalating climate-related L&D that are systemic, multidimensional, and increasingly transboundary. Country case studies from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda demonstrate how intensifying slow-onset processes, such as rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and ecosystem degradation, interact with recurrent rapid-onset hazards, including floods and extreme rainfall, to create compounding risks that exceed local and national adaptation capacities. Communities across the region face recurring drought cycles, catastrophic flooding, climate-induced displacement, and the degradation of ecosystems critical to livelihoods and food security. Documented economic losses include damage to agriculture, pastoral systems, infrastructure, fisheries, and water systems, while noneconomic losses encompass displacement, loss of cultural heritage and identity, deterioration of mental health and social cohesion, and erosion of traditional knowledge systems.