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The impact of climate change on Africa’s food systems is profound. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events and irregular rainfall patterns are reducing food production, raising food costs, increasing food and nutrition insecurity, and decreasing job opportunities across the continent. Small-scale farmers are particularly vulnerable to seasonal climate variability, including droughts and floods. This vulnerability is even more pronounced among rural women and girls due to gender-specific constraints and a lack of resources to adapt to climate change (Pirelli et al. 2024). Given that the agrifood sector in Africa accounts for more than 50% of the total employment (World Bank 2024), and contributes about 17% to the overall continental GDP compared to a 4% global average (World Bank 2024), adapting to climate change impacts on food systems is imperative. However, the gap between adaptation finance for developing countries and their needs continues to widen, with Africa facing particularly low access to international climate finance. Africa received approximately 20% of global adaptation finance in 2021-2022, which is a disproportionately low share considering the projected impacts of climate change (GCA and CPI 2023). Africa is projected to receive USD195 billion by 2035 at the current pace of adaptation finance flows. However, the total adaption financing needs could be as high as USD1.6 trillion, over eight times higher. The agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sector has the highest adaptation finance needs in Africa (GCA and CPI 2023). In light of the importance and urgency of adapting to climate change, it is positive to see recent global initiatives, such as the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action, underlining the need to scale up adaptation to support sustainable agriculture (COP28 2025). However, the limited mobilisation of climate adaptation finance is only one of several pressing challenges: the limited funds are not sufficiently dedicated to and absorbed at the local level and have not sufficiently translated into better outcomes on the ground. Research conducted over the years has put the portion of global adaptation finance intended for the local level and to enhance the agency of local actors at between 10 and 20%. Based on recent estimates, a meagre 17% of total adaptation finance allocated between 2017 and 2021 was reported for climate change adaptation projects specifically targeting local communities (UNEP 2023). Amidst mounting pressure for equality, accountability and justice in climate finance, and the sluggish progress on food systems adaptation, there have been increasing calls for localisation of climate finance management and the need to effectively deliver impact to the local level. This call is supported by growing evidence of the success of locally led development beyond the food and agriculture sector (Devex 2024; OECD 2023). Yet little progress has been made, as the tendency to overlook local realities and contextual nuances in adaptation finance remains prevalent (OECD 2023). Externally driven agendas and initiatives lacking in appropriateness and local buy-in continue to dominate. While innovative finance mechanisms such as blended finance, and technological innovations such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, could help address the gap in local-level food system adaptation financing, creative strategies to reconfigure the role and approach of donors and philanthropic funding agencies are also required. Progress in channelling adaptation finance for food systems to the local level will not only be an issue of scaling up finance, but more about the careful design of the governance and administration mechanisms of such financing to allow for equitable allocation, subsidiarity and local ownership.