By Abbas Nazil
Four African cities — Accra, Paynesville, Monrovia, and Kassa — have been awarded the African Urban Heat Resilience Grants by Climate Resilience for All (CRA) to support their fight against extreme heat.
Announced at the Africa Climate Summit 2.0 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, each city will receive \$40,000 to fund scientific analysis, heat quantification, vulnerability mapping, planning, and community-led awareness campaigns.
The initiative aims to address the rising risks of heatwaves in African cities, which the IPCC warns could expose up to 440 million urban residents by 2100 if global warming exceeds 4°C.
CRA CEO Kathy Baughman McLeod said the program represents a new era of African heat leadership, especially empowering women who are disproportionately impacted.
Mayor of Freetown Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr praised the selected cities, stressing Africa’s proactive leadership in building resilience and creating cooler, healthier futures.
City leaders welcomed the grants, noting that they would help identify heat hotspots, integrate resilience into planning, and safeguard health, livelihoods, and well-being.
The program builds on CRA’s work in Freetown, where the first-ever Heat Action Plan was launched in 2025.
It will also prepare the ground for the Africa Urban Heat Summit 2026 in Freetown, which will expand regional efforts and mobilize new action against extreme heat.
Alongside the grants, CRA announced shade infrastructure projects in three of Freetown’s largest outdoor markets, where women traders are losing up to 60 percent of their income to extreme heat.
The projects include solar-powered lighting, cold storage, and fans to improve health, safety, and livelihoods.
Mayor Aki-Sawyerr called for urgent adaptation finance to scale these solutions, stressing that African-led action is essential to shield vulnerable communities from escalating climate risks.
