The cash pay out was approved by the UN Adaptation Fund Board at a meeting in Bonn, Germany this week
Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as Uganda are among countries that will benefit from a $6.8 million fund to build agricultural resilience against climate change in the Horn of Africa.
The cash pay out was approved by the United Nations climate Adaptation Fund Board at a meeting in Bonn, Germany this week.
It becomes the first proposal of its kind to be approved by the board under the Fund's pilot programme for regional projects.
The World Meteorological Organisation proposed that the funds be handed to the three countries which have become extremely vulnerable to climate change over the past 30 – 60 years.
WMO presented a project titled Agricultural Climate Resilience Enhancement Initiative, that seeks to develop strategies that will help vulnerable groups such as smallholder farmers, agro-pastoralists and pastoralists in the Horn of Africa cope with the changing climate. This will be done in partnership with the Inter Governmental Agency on Development (IGAD) Drought Disaster and Sustainability Initiative, in line with each country’s plan of action.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation and Igad will execute the project, working alongside each country’s meteorological department.
The Adaptation Fund was established under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, with the sole purpose of financing projects and programmes that help vulnerable communities to build resilience and adapt to climate change. Between 2010 and today, the fund has financed projects worth $357.5 million in 63 countries.