News

Source: Construct Africa

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched its first call for climate adaptation proposals under its Climate Action Window (CAW).

The call is open to ministries, departments, agencies and public enterprises of African governments, departments of the AfDB, civil society organisations and inter-governmental organisations (UN bodies, regional economic communities, regional river basin organisations and regional climate centres).

The projects should originate from one or a combination of six priority sectors: 
1)    agriculture, food, and nutrition security
2)    water security and sanitation 
3)    climate information services and early warning systems
4)    transport and infrastructure 
5)    energy access and renewable energy
6)    green finance.

The allocation for this call is US$258 million, to be disbursed as grants. 

The amount requested for a single project or programme can range from US$5 million to US$15 million. In exceptional cases and upon the recommendation of the independent evaluation committee, financing beyond or under these limits can be granted.

Proposals must be submitted by 2 February 2024 by AfDB eligible countries.

The AfDB eligible countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé & Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The CAW seeks to accelerate climate adaptation measures in 37 low-income African countries. It aims to raise US$4 billion by 2025 towards an ultimate target of US$13 billion. Its initial funding of US$429 million has been pledged by the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.

The CAW is structured around three sub-windows: adaptation; mitigation; and technical assistance. The allocation of funding between these sub-windows is 75% for adaptation, 15% for mitigation, and 10% for technical assistance. Calls focused on mitigation and technical assistance will be launched at a later date.

AfDB group chief economist Kevin Urama said, “Access to climate finance is one of the continent’s great challenges. Indeed, the more vulnerable a country you are to climate, the less access you have to climate finance since the capacity to develop high quality projects is often lacking. We must reexamine the world’s climate finance architecture and significantly increase low-cost concessional finance.” 

The call for proposals was launched at COP28 in the UAE.