The African Development Bank (AfDB) has signed an agreement with Comoros, Djibouti, Somalia and South Sudan for a US$35 million climate resilience project aimed at strengthening responses to climate shocks in these countries.
The agreement was signed by Comoros Finance Minister Mzé Abdou Mohamed Chanfiou, Djibouti Finance Minister Ilyas Moussa Daweleh, Somalia Finance Minister Bihi Iman Egeh, and South Sudan’s central bank governor James Alic Garang, with AfDB Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Beth Dunford.
The signing ceremony, held on Tuesday on the sidelines of the African Development Bank’s 2024 Annual Meetings in Nairobi, followed the approval of the Multi-National Climate Disaster Risk Financing Project by the bank’s board of directors.
The project, developed under AfDB’s Africa Disaster Risk Financing Programme, is expected to support the four countries in adopting climate risk financing instruments, enhancing the uptake of pre-arranged climate and disaster risk financing instruments and strengthening the adaptation and resilience against climate risks.
The ministers hailed the agreement as a game-changer in the target countries’ efforts to build resilience against climate shocks.
“The Comoros is regularly hit by floods. This has an impact on economic growth and the mobilisation of public resources, but at the same time, people have to be relieved of their burden and help with reconstruction, and all this requires a lot of resources,” Chanfiou said.
Daweleh said the AfDB support would go a long way in addressing some of the challenges faced by the Horn of Africa, noting that “the climate is a fragile factor for this region, creating inter-ethnic conflicts and causing major migrations.”
“We see 28,000 migrants a month going to the Gulf States. The capital Djibouti has the particularity of being a peninsula facing rising sea levels,” Daweleh said.
He added: “That’s why we welcome the bank’s approach. This insurance will be useful for livestock farmers in the event of the loss of their livestock.”
Dunford noted that climate change has become one of the most serious threats affecting lives and livelihoods on the continent, particularly the Horn of Africa and small island nations such as Comoros.
“This often comes in the form highly variable and erratic rainfall patterns, along with rising temperatures, droughts, floods and tropical cyclones that have increased in frequency and intensity.”
