Agriculture remains the backbone of the Horn of Africa’s economy, sustaining livelihoods, ensuring food security, and powering rural-urban linkages. It provides employment, trade, and value addition opportunities, while anchoring national GDP and resilience. Sustainable rural transformation depends on revitalizing agriculture through innovation, investment, and inclusive market systems.

Vibrant enterprise ecosystems drive inclusive growth and job creation, and in the Horn of Africa, strengthening business development systems is essential to overcome MSME constraints in finance, market access, and capacity, fostering competitiveness, resilience, and sustainable economic transformation.

Climate change poses a major threat to livelihoods, ecosystems, and economies in the Horn of Africa, where recurrent droughts, floods, and land degradation demand stronger adaptive capacity, climate resilience, and disaster risk management for sustainable and inclusive growth.

Education and skills development underpin inclusive growth and innovation, and in the Horn of Africa, strengthening access, quality, and relevance is essential to overcome low literacy, skills gaps, and inequality that limit youth and women’s employability.

Energy drives economic transformation and sustainable livelihoods, and in the Horn of Africa, expanding access to affordable, reliable, and clean energy through renewable innovations is key to powering industries, reducing poverty, and achieving low-carbon, climate-resilient growth.

Balancing development with environmental and social sustainability is vital for long-term prosperity, requiring robust impact assessments across infrastructure, energy, agriculture, and urban projects to meet international standards and safeguard ecosystems and communities in the Horn of Africa.

Effective governance and capable institutions form the backbone of sustainable development. In the Horn of Africa, many institutions face capacity, coordination, and accountability challenges that limit efficient service delivery and policy execution. Strengthening governance systems and institutional performance is therefore critical to achieving development impact.

Secure housing, land, and property rights are fundamental to peace, stability, and inclusive growth, and in the Horn of Africa, strengthening HLP systems is vital to address tenure insecurity, displacement, and weak governance while enhancing resilience and sustainable recovery.

Livestock is central to livelihoods, trade, and food security across the Horn of Africa. It drives household income, exports, and resilience for pastoral and agro-pastoral communities. Sustainable growth in this sector depends on innovation, animal health, climate adaptation, and compliance with international sanitary and trade standards.

Nutrition is the cornerstone of human growth, productivity, and resilience. In the Horn of Africa, malnutrition and food insecurity remain pressing challenges impacting children, women, and marginalized populations. Achieving nutrition security requires coordinated, data-driven action across health, agriculture, and social systems.

Public health remains the foundation of social stability and national progress. In the Horn of Africa, challenges of limited access, underfunded systems, and fragile service delivery continue to hinder health equity and resilience. Strengthening health systems, surveillance, and preparedness is therefore central to improving outcomes and achieving universal health coverage.

Sustainable urban planning, resilient infrastructure, and sound governance are essential to inclusive growth in developing economies. Across the Horn of Africa, rapid urbanization, inadequate planning, and infrastructure gaps continue to challenge cities’ ability to deliver services, attract investment, and ensure resilience.

Water, sanitation, and hygiene underpin human health, dignity, and socio-economic progress. Across the Horn of Africa, recurring droughts, fragile infrastructure, and rapid urbanization have intensified WASH challenges, impacting disease control and productivity. Sustainable and inclusive WASH systems are vital for long-term public health and resilience.