Mitigation, adaptation and resilience to climate change: the real battle-horse of African countries faced with climate change, resulting in an increase of drought outbreaks, variations in timing of seasonal changes and floods with impacts on the development process. As the African Climate Week 2023 kicks off on 4 September, AFRIK 21 takes a look at the West African Development Bank's initiatives to promote resilience and adaptation to climate change.
[PARTNER ARTICLE] From Taoudénit to Agadez, by way of Dakar, Abidjan and Lomé, the Sahel and the whole of West Africa is facing up to climate change, which requires urgent responses to ensure the resilience and adaptation of populations. The response is primarily infrastructural and financial. The West African Development Bank (BOAD) has made this its priority in a global context marked by limited climate financing.
Against this backdrop, the bank based in Lomé, Togo, has been implementing its strategic plan Djoliba, which outlines its priorities within the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) for the 2021-2025 timeframe. To this end, BOAD has decided to allocate 25% of its financial commitments, or XOF825 billion (€1.2 billion), to build the resilience of populations to climate change.
Financing for climate change adaptation
The third area of BOAD’s Strategic Plan also provides for “the mobilization of XOF175 billion (over €266 million) from climate funds for the funding of climate mitigation and adaptation projects, in line with the issue of biodiversity. These forecasts reflect a project portfolio pending appraisal for a total amount of XOF 1,000 billion (slightly over €1.5 billion), over the implementation period of the strategic plan”, explains Dr. Komlanvi Moglo, environment and climate finance expert at BOAD.
On the ground, this strategy is being deployed through the financing of structuring projects in several key sectors, including agriculture, energy, eco-construction, waste management and electric mobility. For example, as of March 2023, the Bank granted €35 million to the State of Niger for the implementation of the hydro agricultural development project with climate-resilient smart agricultural practices (PAHA-AIC).
Financing agriculture in the face of climate change
The PAHA-AIC will help to improve agricultural yields, thereby reducing food insecurity exacerbated by drought, flooding and erosion. In Niger, agriculture accounts for almost 40% of gross domestic product (GDP) according to the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
To build the resilience of farmers in the regions of Agadez, Tahoua, Maradi, Zinder and Diffa, the PAHA-AIC project will enable the development of 1,750 hectares of farmland through the installation of drip and Californian irrigation systems. The project also includes the construction of boreholes equipped with solar pumps and the building of storage tanks. The technical and organizational capacities of farmers’ groups will also be built to manage these facilities and implement other actions to promote resilience to climate change.
Mali, Niger’s neighboring country, also received BOAD’s support for the adaptation of its agricultural sector to climate change. In January 2023, the Bank granted a funding of €12 million for the rehabilitation and extension of agricultural areas damaged by the rising waters of the river Niger, which flows through the towns of Bamako, Koulikoro, Ségou, Mopti, Timbuktu, Gao and Ansongo.
In December 2020, for example, the dike on the rice-growing plain of Daye broke after heavy rains, flooding 2,829 hectares of crops in 126 villages, with over 50 hectares of rice at maturity. Market garden crops were also flooded on plots of land outside the ponds, causing 5,502 households to lose all their production. BOAD’s funding will be used to rehabilitate the agricultural areas of Korioumé (430 hectares), Daye (417 hectares) and Hamadja (620 hectares), all located in the Timbuktu circle.
A Marketplace to catalyze climate finance
Over the coming months, BOAD intends to increase its climate finance tenfold, notably through the Marketplace, a new initiative currently being implemented in Africa. The first phase will take place at the West African Carbon Market Hub, to be held from 26 to 28 September 2023 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. A call for projects will then be launched with a view to identifying a pipeline of projects likely to be supported by BOAD or other financial institutions.
The second phase will involve submitting the shortlisted projects to a panel of financial analysts and engineers. They will then improve the selected projects and strengthen them with legibility criteria. This phase will be implemented at the 5th Climate Chance Summit scheduled for 23-25 October 2023 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The final phase will be implemented at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) from 30 November to 12 December 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The six best Marketplace projects will be presented to a panel of climate finance experts at an event organized on the sidelines of the COP28. The purpose is to find appropriate funding for such projects.
“The Marketplace is designed to correct the shortcomings observed among certain project proponents in Africa. Many are confronted with funding sources. They are not always familiar with the mechanisms for project studies funding, loans or project monitoring. Sometime, others manage to raise resources, but such resources are not necessarily adapted to their needs, and this has a detrimental effect on project implementation”, explains Moubarak Moukaila, Head of the Regional Collaboration Centre (CRC) in Lomé, Togo, the body promoting the Marketplace initiative.
Created in January 2013, the CRC is the result of a partnership between the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and BOAD. The CRC of Lomé is the first of six that currently operate worldwide. It covers twenty-six countries in French-speaking West and Central Africa. As the secular arm of BOAD in climate finance, the Lomé CRC’s mission is to provide support to governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector in the preparation and implementation of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects. This mission was part of the Kyoto Protocol and subsequently of the implementation of the Paris Agreement, through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and other UNFCCC mechanisms.
A New accreditation by the GCF
The funding allocated by BOAD to climate change mitigation and adaptation projects is intended for the implementation of member countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the contribution to the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the achievement of the objectives of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). At its 36th meeting, held from 10 to 13 July 2023 in South Korea, the GCF Board of Directors reaccredited the Bank and increased its mobilization capacity. The financial institution can now mobilize up to US$250 million, or around XOF146 billion per project, for the benefit of WAEMU member countries.
“The Bank will be able to benefit from grants and loans at rates of between 0 and 1.75%, as well as guarantees and refinancing lines to combat the harmful effects of climate change”, explains Dr. Komlanvi Moglo, climate finance specialist at BOAD. He added that this re-accreditation applies to the GCF’s areas of results, such as infrastructure, energy production and access, livelihoods of people and communities, forests and land use, ecosystems and ecosystem services, health, food and water security.
In addition, ” BOAD is strengthening private sector participation by promoting the greening of the financial sector and financial innovation to increase private investment in favour of the climate”, says Dr. Komlanvi Moglo. This is the second accreditation granted to BOAD by the GCF, following the first in October 2016. The new resources allocated by the GCF will strengthen the Bank’s intervention in the fight against climate change, in line with its current and future Strategic Plan.
Boris Ngounou
