February 8, 2025

The African Development Bank and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) presented two new mechanisms for scaling up adaptation action and finance during a joint event held on 1 September 2022 on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Week in Libreville, Gabon .

The moderator, Gareth Phillips, African Development Bank Manager for Climate and Environment Finance, noted that the current level of adaptation finance is not sufficient to meet the needs of developing countries. However, the private sector and local governments can play an important role in filling this gap, he said.

He said the African Development Bank and UNCDF will also help to: address the lack of credible measures and indicators of adaptation by developing and using methodological tools; create incentives to attract a wide range of actors to participate in adaptation; and opening up new financial streams.

Ludovica Amatucci, a program analyst at UNCDF, made a presentation on the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL mechanism). The tool helps local governments and communities to use climate finance for local leadership in adaptation, contributing to the implementation of Nationally Defined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, as well as National Adaptation Plans and Sustainable Development Goal 13 (Making and urgent action to combat climate change and its effects).

Amatucci mentioned that the LoCAL mechanism supports inter-governmental systems to transfer fiscal target adaptation actions to the local level while strengthening transparency and reporting through the systems.

Kidanua Gizaw, Senior Climate Finance Officer at the African Development Bank, says the Bank is piloting an Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM) as a non-market, results-based financial instrument to promote investments. which can improve the resilience of vulnerable communities and ecosystems.

Ines Josten, Project Manager of the Green Cooling Initiative of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), explained that higher temperatures due to climate change mean that traditional potato storage techniques in Kenya are no longer sufficient. and potato plants cannot be preserved as long. Storing potatoes in a cool place will prevent the plant from rotting.

The first approved ABM method “Saving potatoes using green cooling technology”, developed by the Perspectives Climate Group and funded by GIZ, presents a way to measure and quantify the benefits of modern, clean energy-based storage solutions in terms of saved wealth due to reduced risk. in potato rot. Applying this methodology to an ABM project will further demonstrate its added value and help mobilize finance for clean technology to secure the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Kenya and the region.

Omar Saleh, Managing Director of Zephyr Consulting, representing SLAMDAM, a Dutch private sector organization, presented the new ABM method, “Flood damage reduction using a mobile flood barrier,” based on an ABM demonstration project in Lagos, Nigeria. The ABM approach can mobilize funds by linking adaptation benefits to investments in mobile flood barriers.

Mr. Kouassi Amani, a Project Lead of the “Cocoa Climate Resilience” ABM demonstration project implemented by the International Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) in Cote d’Ivoire, illustrates how the project uses ABM to encourage private sector investment in cocoa. agroforestry for climate change adaptation in West Africa. ICRAF used the extensive knowledge of climate change within their organization to prepare a new ABM methodology for stable and sustainable cocoa production, using a participatory approach by involving a wide stakeholders, including local smallholder cocoa farmers and women organizations.

Africa Climate Week, forms part of a series of regional climate weeks held around the world. Participants gathered to outline Africa’s goals for the upcoming COP27 in Egypt and unify and amplify Africa’s voice to ensure action.

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