Implementing Partners

BOAD: Adaptation Fund Presents Opportunity to Support Development Efforts in Context of Climate Change

By Ibrahim Traore, Senior Environmental Economist, West African Development Bank (BOAD)

Ibrahim Traore, West African Development Bank (BOAD)

Ibrahim Traore, West African Development Bank (BOAD)

The costs to be borne by developing countries for adaptation are very high, estimated at up to US$ 150 billion per year in 2020. For example, between 2000 and 2008, the effects of flooding in the UEMOA (West African Economic and Monetary Union) zone were characterized by more than 1.2 million affected people, plus material damage, increased risk of disease, loss of infrastructure, and more. The damage was estimated at between US$ 189 million and US$ 388 million.

These situations have highlighted the profound vulnerability of populations and ecosystems in a context where countries should focus on poverty reduction, quality basic education for all, promotion of youth, health and employment, and so on. At the same time, these countries are facing fiscal constraints at the national level and a scarcity of concessional resources at the international level.

BOAD – First Regional Implementation Entity of the Adaptation Fund

The UEMOA Joint Facility for Development Financing, whose eight states are poor and vulnerable countries suffering from the adverse effects of climate change, is composed of stakeholders in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol. Conscious of the vulnerability of populations to the adverse effects of climate change and the need to increase financing of development actions, UEMOA states have seized the opportunities offered by the mechanisms of the Convention, namely the Adaptation Fund and its Direct Access approach to ask The West African Development Bank (BOAD) at the 15th Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen in 2009 to be their Regional Implementation Entity with the Fund. Once the Member States’ requests were received, the Bank submitted an application for accreditation to the Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat in 2011 and followed the accreditation process.

At the end of this process, the Adaptation Fund Board in June 2011 approved the accreditation of BOAD as a Regional Implementing Entity of the Adaptation Fund with the capability to develop and propose Fund projects. This accreditation was renewed in June 2016.

Operations Since Accreditation to the Adaptation Fund

Several actions have been initiated since the Bank’s accreditation as part of its mission to develop adaptation projects. These include:

  • The mobilization of African expertise to support BOAD in identifying opportunities for adaptation projects in the UEMOA area;
  • The organization of institutional awareness-raising missions in the UEMOA countries on the role of the BOAD as a regional implementation entity of the Adaptation Fund;
  • The organization of technical missions to identify projects in Niger, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea Bissau;
  • Preparation of national and regional projects summarized below:

Niger: Program for the promotion of irrigated agriculture by solar pumping system in the context of strengthening the resilience of rural communities; US$ 9.9 million (Adaptation Fund grant financing); US$ 21.4 million (expected BOAD co-financing); Funding for the project has been approved by the Adaptation Fund Board for an amount of US$ 9.9 million. The Grant Agreement was signed in December 2016. BOAD’s co-financing was approved by the Board of Directors in March 2017. A start-up advance of US$ 1,269,000 and fees in the amount of US$ 107,000 has already been paid to the Bank, March 2017.

Togo: Project to increase the level of resilience of vulnerable actors in the Mandouri agricultural sector in Togo; The concept note for the project was prepared and submitted to the Adaptation Fund Board; due diligence is in progress for the preparation of the full project document.

Guinea Bissau: Climate-intelligent agriculture development project in eastern Guinea Bissau; the concept note for the project was endorsed by the Adaptation Fund Board.

Regional: Project to promote climate-smart agriculture in Burkina Faso-Benin-Ghana-Niger and Togo; the concept note for the project was prepared and submitted to the Adaptation Fund Board; due diligence is in progress for the preparation of the full project document.