Argentina: Increasing climate resilience and enhancing sustainable land management in the southwest of Buenos Aires Province (World Bank) (ARG/MIE/Rural/2011/1, US$4,456,638)

Having considered the comments and recommendations of the Projects and Programme Review Committee, the Adaptation Fund Board decided to:

(a) Endorse the project concept, as supplemented by the clarification response provided by the World Bank to the request made by the technical review;

(b) Request the secretariat to transmit to the World Bank the following observations:

(i) The fully-developed proposal should expand on the information provided in the project concept, particularly on the Part III of the proposal;

(ii) The fully-developed proposal should clarify how the climate change observatory (Component 1) would be elementally supportive to the project goals already during the life of the project, and in relationship to the institutional arrangements for project implementation;

(iii) The climate change observatory (Component 1) should include both meteorological and hydrological elements in the network being developed;

(iv) It should also be ensured and clarified that knowledge management measures (Component 4) are ones that are genuinely aimed at knowledge management in support of project impact, and do not represent monitoring and evaluation (M&E) which should be covered by execution costs;

(v) The continuity strategy (Component 5) should be reduced in budget and its integration in all project activities from the beginning should be illustrated in the fullydeveloped proposal; 

(vi) The proponent should clarify the linkages between the components to show how they contribute to the overall goal of the project, arrange all the training elements under a single training component, and strengthen the Early Warning System; and

(vii)The consultative process during project preparation should encourage upstream participation and ensure adequate coverage and inclusion of vulnerable groups. 

(c) Request the World Bank to transmit the observations under item (b) to the Government of Argentina; and 

(d) Encourage the Government of Argentina to submit through the World Bank a fullydeveloped project proposal that would address the observations under item (b).