GCF National Adaptation Plan project in Benin

With financing from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the "Advancing the National Adaptation Plan Process in Benin" project supported the Government of Benin to overcome several barriers identified in their climate change adaptation (CCA) planning and development. At the end of the project, adaptation planning became easier thanks to the guide and guidelines combined with budget coding that have been adopted by the Ministry of Environment and that allow for the programming and monitoring of climate expenditures at both the local and national levels. Climate finance has also been strengthened thanks to exchanges with the private sector and updating the eco-taxes and other revenues collected for environmental actions as recommended in the study identifying new environmental fiscal instruments. The project also provided sensitization sessions with the members of parliament on climate finance. The National Environment and Climate Fund will now be able to respond to more requests from the communities through the various projects that it can support. 

PROJECT RATIONALE 

Benin was reported as one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change (155th out of 181 countries) in 2018. Temperatures are expected to rise by 2.6°C to 3.27°C by 2100, and changes in rainfall patterns and intensity will further exacerbate droughts and floods in the country. Drought, floods, and changes in rainfall patterns and intensity are the major climate risks faced by the country. In the last three decades, these phenomena have resulted in substantial losses in the infrastructure, energy and forestry sectors. In Cotonou, the economic capital city, coastal erosion and sea level rise have led to a loss of more than 400 meters of shoreline, engulfing houses and damaging tourism infrastructure.

Several barriers were identified in the 2016 initial Stocktaking Report and subsequent consultations of stakeholders: the insufficient quality or absence of economic analyses and in-depth risks and vulnerability assessments in key PAG socio-economic target sectors, the limitations of climate change coordination mechanisms to facilitate mainstreaming and monitoring of CCA, the failure to align the M&E system for climate change with the National Statistical System; and the weak capacity of the National Environment and Climate Fund (FNEC) to support sustainable funding for CCA. Benin’s main challenge related to adaptation planning is the limited technical expertise to ensure integration of CCA mainstreaming into budgeting and planning processes. 

PROJECT RESULTS 
 
The project has delivered the following results under the three outcomes 

• Thirteen studies were carried out, in partnership with three local universities 

• Four climate risk and vulnerability assessments conducted in the energy, forestry, tourism, infrastructure and urban development sector

• The Climate Change Mainstreaming Guidelines and Guidebook produced under the project, facilitating the integration of climate change into national and local planning documents 

• The climate change website updated to provide a space to channel climate information produced in Benin

• The mapping of the needs and interests of the private sector provided entry points for the private sector contribution to climate change actions

• A better distribution of domestic climate finance to the National Environment and Climate Fund (FNEC) proposed after the study that identified new environmental fiscal instruments

• Decree drafted to integrate CCA into planning and budgeting and to facilitate the implementation of the climate change law

• 14 training sessions organised for 604 actors as a part of capacity building activities

• NAPs for the energy, infrastructure and urban development, tourism and forestry sectors developed and validated

• The multi-sectoral NAP, which takes into account eight key development sectors and cross-cutting terms such as gender, local knowledge and climate migration, developed and validated in synergy with GIZ 

• Four sessions to prepare the private sector to invest in the fight against climate change held with private sector actors including (a) the agri-food sector, (b) the association of medical equipment distributors, (c) the construction industry association and (d) the cotton inter-professional grouping of agricultural producers, ginners and distributors