Climate resilient growth and adaptation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Project details

The project aims to promote climate change adaptation in the DRC through an improved enabling environment and improved agroecological production practices in the eastern part of the country, helping the authorities and the local population to respond to climate change threats. 

While the country has been ranked as having the second highest agriculture potential on the continent, with sufficient arable land, water resources, and labour force to meet the global food shortage, it is also designated as one of the poorest countries in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index (UN-HDI). 

In 2022, the DRC was ranked 180 out of 193 countries with 0.481 HDI. From an economic standpoint, the country has recorded an average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 5.6 percent over 2002-2021 supported by a strong mining sector.  However, the DRC has suffered enormous loss of life and livelihoods due to nearly two decades of war and insecurity, and is now undergoing the second largest hunger crisis in the world after Yemen. 

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), especially in the east of the country (including North Kivu and South Kivu), the long running crisis as forced some 6.9 million internally displaced persons to flee from their villages and lose their agricultural livelihoods and jobs. The number of food-insecure people in 2024, was 25.6 million, making access to food a daily struggle for a significant part of the Congolese population and an estimated 4.5 million children are acutely malnourished. A resurgence of fighting  started in 2024 between January and march and since February 2025, there are conflicts between Congolese security forces and militant groups led by M23 in the eastern provinces of the  DRC (North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri).

In 2020, the country had the second highest level of deforestation of primary forests in the world, due to shifting slash-and-burn agriculture and land use changes.  

The country is facing important climate adverse effects that are foreseen to become greater in the coming years. According to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2014), the DRC will be affected by climate change in a variety of ways. With a probable increase in temperatures of 3ºC to 5ºC over the next century, the duration of the rainy seasons could become shorter and more unpredictable, with heavy rains, seriously impacting the country's main climate-sensitive economic sectors (including agriculture and hydroelectricity). In addition, the DRC’s National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) highlights that the expected increase in heavy rains, besides leading to infrastructure and human losses, will be causing soil erosion, inducing a loss in soil efficiency and a decline in crop yields and in livelihoods. This increased uncertainty – combined with the prevailing low capacity to manage climate risks and the limited number of available coping mechanisms – is likely to create additional obstacles to achieving food security and social development among the poor, and particularly in rural communities.    

Given the uncertainties on future climate and economic circumstances and the high risks that need to be accounted for, the country is investing in building the resilience of its economy and its people, using a proactive, medium-term approach, in order to reduce their vulnerability to climate risks as part of integrated planning.  

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Key results & output

Component 1: Addressing adaptation in the context of the national and provincial planning and budgeting processes

Outcome 1: Medium and long-term climate change risks and adaptation measures integrated into existing national and provincial development plans, policies and budgets

Output 1.1: A NAP framework for the priority sectors of agriculture and rural development and water is set up.

Output 1.2: A knowledge management and stock-taking web-based information platform is established to organize social, economic, and environmental data relevant to CCA from a variety of sources, at the national level and including information from the provinces targeted

Output 1.3: Gender responsive climate change adaptation is integrated into the PDPs (and their budgets) of the provinces of NK, SK and Maniema

Output 1.4: Gender-responsive fully-fledged NAP pilots are implemented in SK, NK and Maniema

Component 2: Enhancing productivity, sustainability, and resilience of rural farmers, in particular women and youth, in Eastern DRC

Outcome 2: Tested and adapted agroecological production practices address the foreseen impacts of climate change and advance the NAP process on the ground in North Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema

Output 2.1: The landscape of three provinces is rehabilitated through an agroecological approach focused on sustainable land management, encompassing soil erosion control, water harvesting techniques and soil and water conservation

Output 2.2: The supply chain of locally adapted fertilizers and adapted seeds is developed for distribution channels in key production basins at an agreed cost between farmers’ associations/ cooperatives

Output 2.3: The production and dissemination of agrometeorological information is improved

Output 2.4: Women and young entrepreneurs develop financially sustainable business models related to the processing, conservation and marketing of agricultural products

Component 3: Project monitoring, and evaluation and knowledge management

Outcome 3: Project Implementation based on results-based management and application of project lessons learned in future operations facilitated

Output 3.1: Project monitoring system is setup providing systematic information on progress in meeting project outcomes and output targets including gender results

Output 3.2: Project-related “best-practices” and “lessons learned” are disseminated

Output 3.3: Capacity Building and Training on Climate-Health Integration are implemented

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Monitoring & evaluation

Project-level monitoring and evaluation will be undertaken in compliance with UNDP requirements as outlined in the UNDP POPP and UNDP Evaluation Policy. The UNDP Country Office is responsible for ensuring full compliance with all UNDP project monitoring, quality assurance, risk management, and evaluation requirements.

The project results, corresponding indicators and mid-term and end-of-project targets in the project results framework will be monitored annually and evaluated periodically during project implementation. If baseline data for some of the results indicators is not yet available, it will be collected during the first year of project implementation. The Monitoring Plan included in Annex details the roles, responsibilities, frequency of monitoring project results.

Additional mandatory GEF-specific M&E requirements will be undertaken in accordance with the GEF Monitoring Policy and the GEF Evaluation Policy and other relevant GEF policies. The costed M&E plan included below, and the Monitoring plan in Annex, will guide the GEF-specific M&E activities to be undertaken by this project.

In addition to these mandatory UNDP and GEF M&E requirements, other M&E activities deemed necessary to support project-level adaptive management will be agreed during the Project Inception Workshop and will be detailed in the Inception Report.

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