Climate Finance for Transboundary Adaptation and Natural Resource Management: How the NDC Delivery Lab is Mobilizing Resources
Partner (s): African Group of Negotiators Experts Support (AGNES), the Alliance of Biodiversity and CIAT, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI).
Type of Organization: Non-governmental organizations and Governmental organizations
Country of Operation: Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Sudan
Climate Adaptation Sector Thematic Area: New and Innovative Finance Mechanisms
Activities
The NDC Delivery Lab is an approach being used to translate policy into actionable and bankable investments that achieve implementation of climate action. The NDC Delivery Lab approach brings together a range of stakeholders to jointly identify and prioritize problems and then co-create solutions with the aid of innovations and inventions from research and innovation centres. This is translated into high-impact bankable investment plans which are implemented as projects on the ground. The NDC Delivery Lab provides a novel way of solving key issues around climate change adaptation and mitigation through a multi-stakeholder forum that brings forth and connects key actors/partners within different sectors including agriculture, water, environment, planning and development sectors. The approach perfectly fits the climate change adaptation cycle as it can identify vulnerable populations, develop the required solutions, support the uptake of the solutions, and evaluate its overall impact on the communities for further learning and improvements.
The NDC Delivery Lab is currently focusing in the Karamoja-Turkana/Pokot-Eastern Equatorial-SNNPR Region in the greater horn of Africa, covering a total area of about 177,650 square kilometers and comprising north-eastern Uganda (Karamoja), north- western part of Kenya (Turkana/Pokot), south-western Ethiopia (SNNPR), and south-eastern of South Sudan (Eastern Equatorial). The region is predominantly arid and semi-arid (ASAL) with the main source of livelihoods being pastoralism. The NDC Delivery Lab is implemented by the African Group of Negotiators Experts Support (AGNES) and is co-funded by grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the Open Society Foundation (OSF). The CGIAR as a partner also co-funds some of the Delivery Lab activities.
The key partners of the project include the African Group of Negotiators Experts Support (AGNES), the Alliance of Biodiversity and CIAT, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). Key stakeholders the project will engage include government, international organisations, international finance and investment groups, non- governmental organisations, civil societies, the private sector, local farmers with their representatives and consumers.
The Karamoja-Turkana/West Pokot-Eastern Equatoria-Southwest Ethiopia Cluster is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change and climate variability shocks and stressors. Cycles of droughts have negatively affected the livelihoods of people living in this region leading to other cascading impacts such as conflicts among the different communities. To get a better understanding of the region, a situational analysis and ground truthing exercise were conducted and results show that the region is one of the most heavily invested clusters in the IGAD region.
There have been several stakeholders including NGOs, international financing, bilateral and multilateral financing, and INGOs among others who have set up several programmes and projects with an aim of providing solutions to the problems experienced in this region. But still, the problems of food and water security, livelihood disruptions and conflicts persist. Through the NDC Delivery Lab, several stakeholders at the country level have been engaged to craft innovative solutions and priorities which will then feed into a Green Climate Fund (GCF) proposal for funding. The intention is to ensure we engage local-level stakeholders as well as the national level for country ownership and ensure sustainability and replicability. The first of four GCF proposals which was crafted using the NDC Delivery Lab for Kenya will be submitted within the course of this year.
The NDC Delivery Lab has an understanding that climate change is not gender or age- neutral: there are those that are more exposed and more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The social dynamics and structure that exist within the region are as unique and complex as its environment and ecosystem. Equally complex is gender relations. Gender analysis investigates roles and power among both women and men within the region. For centuries culture and traditions have dictated gender roles. These gendered roles dictate power relations. Through a granular gender and climate change vulnerability hotspot mapping the project will be able to map out hotspots where the climate change and gender nexus exists in the region to custom fit activities that will build on their adaptive capacities and resilience. Since the lab is built on the idea of multi-stakeholder engagement, it will bring together all relevant stakeholders in its quest to identify the best local and national interventions that will have the most impact and also ensure sustainability.
The intention of the partners and stakeholders is to address transboundary climate and adaptation risks that are becoming rampant in the borderland regions of the Horn of Africa and the Sahel. To start this off, the lab is using a two-prong approach, first unlocking national-level climate funding (GCF) for the four countries (Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia). The second is to take a programmatic approach that will be anchored on the four GCF projects with a focus on the transboundary climate risks. The programmatic approach will be an avenue to reel in more funding from the private sector and international sources. Once successful in the HoA, we will domesticate the same strategies to address the TCARs in the Sahel region.
Further information
For further information: https://agnesafrica.org/