Mauritania: Enhancing Resilience of Communities to the Adverse Effects of Climate Change on Food Security in Mauritania (WFP) (MTN/MIE/Food/2011/1, US $9,995,145)

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

(a) Not endorse the project concept, as supplemented by the clarification response provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) to the request made by the technical review; 

(b) Request that the WFP reformulates the proposal taking into account the following: 

(i) The proponent should further demonstrate the cost effectiveness and relevance of the village-level approach, especially in a context of pastoral migration;

(ii) Accordingly, the proponent should revise the project‟s budget and look for synergies, especially regarding the ecosystem based adaptation measures, the training and community mobilization activities;

(iii) More information on the current status of the main technical services that will be supported by the project, such as the name, size, level of coverage at the communal, regional, national level, is needed;

(iv) Training and awareness raising in the communities should be harmonized at least at practical level, whether it is related to more general issues of climate change or individual coping mechanisms, as all of these activities aim to improve the resilience of the communities;

(v) The project should emphasize on the sustainability of the proposed income generating activities (IGA) and explore different approaches to that aim. This includes

(i) capacity building of community organizations and technical services, to exploit the economic potential of the proposed value-chains,

(ii) exploring the establishment of economic interest groups,

(iii) undertake market study for the most promising of the IGA identified or

(iv) explore the establishment of a micro-credit scheme to support the income generating activities, as compared to providing grants 

with funds from the Adaptation Fund, to ensure a financial sustainability of the IGA;

(vi) The proponent should explain how the project will ensure institutional sustainability especially at the local level, as local leadership is needed to facilitate diffusion of knowledge and expertise for rehabilitation techniques and the maintenance of ecosystems, as well as sound exploitation of natural resources;

(vii) Based on an analysis of the results framework, the project should describe the areas of synergy and complementarity with the International Fund for Agricultural Development/Global Environment Facility (IFAD/GEF) adaptation project “Support to the adaptation of agricultural production systems  that are vulnerable to climate change” and IFAD/GEF sustainable land-use management project “Participatory Environmental Protection and Poverty Reduction in the Oasis of Mauritania”; and 

(viii) Finally, this project should build on the UNDP/GEF project “Conservation of Biodiversity Through Participatory Rehabilitation of Degraded Land in Arid and SemiArid Cross-Border Zones of Mauritania and Senegal”, because that project has brought up valuable lessons learned pertaining to community ecosystem rehabilitation and livelihoods improvement through development of potentially lucrative IGAs.

(c) Further request  the  WFP to transmit the observations referred to under item (b) above to the Government of Mauritania, on the understanding that a revised concept might be submitted at a later date.