Promoting Innovative Finance, Community Based Adaptation in Communes Surrounding Community in Senegal

Project details

The LDCF-funded initiative will assist Senegal to pursue a "transformational" pathway towards resilience. Under this approach, in the long term, local institutions will be able to provide adaptation services to vulnerable communities.

To achieve the project goals, changes in practices are needed, specifically to establish attractive funding mechanisms , linked to existing local financing systems, to cover the incremental costs of climate change adaptation, and to provide investments and capacities to vulnerable households and community groups for holistic responses to climate vulnerability and future changes.

The project will complement the existing baseline by promoting long-term planning on climate changes and facilitating budgeting and establishment of innovative financing mechanisms to support climate change governance at communes’ levels. More specifically, the project will review local development plans (including RNC plans) to (i) integrate climate adaptation priorities and resilience, (ii) set up innovative & sustainable financial mechanisms, (iii) improve the capacity of local credit and saving mutuals to finance adaptation projects and also the performance of local leaders in managing adaptations finances.

The response to climate vulnerability and changes will be oriented toward investing on the restoration of key livelihood resources (natural reserves, pastures, water points, etc.), establishing minimum community based early warning systems and sustaining climate-resilient agro pastoral and diversification activities. Target communities, local government leaders and other supporting institutions, will receive support to build capacity on climate change to inform improved decision making. This is critical for informing the design of feasible, credible and useful adaptation options and support. 

This innovative approach allows local government to make changes to planning instruments that affect existing local developments by incorporating climate change considerations. Through the project, communities will have access to funding from a number of competitive grants (public & private) to address adaptation issues.

The coordination arrangement, involving policy makers, extension services, private sector and community based organisations, is a major innovation and will help to articulate institutional communication - both educational and social - at different levels.

The overall project will also generate socio-economic benefits at the local level by involving communities in the 203 villages (at least 50,000 households) in a much more transitional approach in the use of natural resources through the dissemination of practices, technologies and techniques, which are expected to improve the productivity and the resilience of agro-sylvo -pastoral activities.

Long-term benefits are also expected with investment aiming at restoring communities' "Natural Capital," and providing relevant climate information. In term of sustainability , the decentralized entities (councils and villages) will be empowered in implementing adaptation investments, strengthening community organizations in order to ensure that physical infrastructure and other investments are well managed and maintained after the project closure.

Capacity-building initiatives and awareness-raising will achieved through the social and environmental sustainability, and stakeholder involvement will be strengthened through adequate social mobilization and sensitization initiatives (workshops, forums, publications, community radios’ programmes, etc.). In addition, the knowledge base will be improved, and the project will define and implement an adequate system for knowledge management and information sharing.

The natural regions of Ferlo, Niokolo Koba, Bas Delta Senegal, and Delta du Saloum play a key role for livelihoods, as the communities are directly dependent on their natural assets, such as water, pasture, forests and fertile soil for a living.

Recognizing this richness, the communities of 203 villages established about 26 Community Natural Reserves (RNC) as well as nine credit and saving mutuals to improve the living conditions of households, specifically women groups.

However, with the effects climate change, both the natural capital maintained under these RNC and people’s economic assets will reach a tipping point. Indeed, in Senegal, droughts are the result of climate variability that more recently has manifested by a late onset of the rainy season, irregular spatial distribution of rains, and an early end to the rainy season.

Projections of mean annual rainfall averaged over the country show a trend towards decreases, particularly in the wet season. The drastic reductions in water availability at critical times (e.g. in the dry season or in drought years) and at critical locations (e.g. in the more populous areas or where livestock congregates) have direct and catastrophic impact on livelihoods of communities.

Natural grazing grounds in Niokolo Koba & Ferlo will be significantly diminished and livestock watering made difficult under climate change scenarios. This situation leads to localized conflicts between transhumant and sedentary communities, especially during the drought periods, when grazing grounds and water resources are particularly scarce.

Among other predictable impacts, climate change is also expected to result in a marked increase in the incidence and intensity of bushfires in Niokolo Koba & Ferlo. Fire can have catastrophic impacts on livelihoods, notably because of the importance of pastoral resources in target regions . 

In Bas Delta Senegal , most of villages are facing a serious coastal erosion problem; the outer row of fisher folk houses has already been destroyed by the sea and thus abandoned by the population

Finally, in Saloum Delta, the reduction of water table leads to the salinization of agricultural lands. Many valleys in Saloum are now affected by salted water intrusion resulting from reduced rainfall and lack of appropriate storage under changed conditions. Under these conditions, the capacity of communities will remain weak to sustain current efforts in preserving natural capital and increasing economical capital.

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Key results and output

Outcome 1 - C reate financial incentives linked with local government and communities financing systems to cover the incremental costs of climate change adaptation

Output 1.1. Identify and integrate climate resilience related performance measures into local development plans, including community plans

Output 1.2. Set up sustainable financial mechanisms at sub-national level (e.g. Local Resilience budget lines/funds, Eco taxes, etc.) to attract climate finance

Output 1.3. Sustainability & performance of the nine community based credit and saving mutuals improved to attract, manage and finance priority adaptation measures identified by vulnerable communities

Output 1.4. Capacity of communes and villages leaders developed to (i) access incremental funding from non-governmental sour ces, (ii) manage and (iii) monitor adaptation investments

Outcome 2 - Investments and capacities provided to vulnerable households and community groups for holistic responses to climate vulnerability and future changes

Output 2.1. Investments for structural adaptation measures channelled trough local budget (e.g. restoration of natural reserves/pastoral areas/water points, research development, Early Warning Systems, management of supply chains, etc.

Output 2.2. Create revolving investment funds, through credit & saving mutuals, for profitable community based climate resilient agro-pastoral investments and other diversification activities

Output 2.3. Community based organisation groups (women, youth and other producers) provided with capacity to (i) understand climate impacts; (ii) identify resilient growth production areas, (ii) manage adaptation initiatives (iii) access to rural finance, and (iv) improve entrepreneurship and organizational skills

Output 2.4. Mechanisms for capturing and dissemination of key experiences and good practices established for replication.

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