Sustainable housing initiative honoured as a finalist in the 2024 Global Center on Adaptation’s Local Adaptation Champions Award

12 November 2024 – A pioneering housing initiative in West Africa has been named a finalist in the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) Local Adaptation Champions Award, set to be announced at a high-level event on November 13 at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Association la Voûte Nubienne (AVN)’s initiative is among 21 nominees to be honoured for their commitment to scaling up innovative adaptation solutions to climate change. Attending the event will be former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, the Director General of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and heads of state from Bangladesh, Somalia and the Marshall Islands, among other high level speakers. 

AVN is transforming sustainable housing by reviving an ancient Nubian building technique from Upper Egypt. Using locally sourced natural materials such as stones and water, the initiative creates climate-resilient homes with earthen roofs that naturally cool interiors by up to 7 degrees Celsius compared to conventional metal roofing. 

“Being a finalist for the Global Champion for Locally Led Adaptation award is a tremendous honour that validates our work and amplifies awareness of the Nubian Vault's climate resilience solution. We hope that this spotlight on the Nubian Vault solution will open the door to new partnerships and financial support, enabling us to expand our impact on communities facing the urgent challenges of climate change”, said Sylvia Maeght, Project Development Manager at the organization. 

As a finalist in the ‘Urban Adaptation Solutions’ category, the AVN has built over 7,000 climate-resilient homes across Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, Ghana and Benin since 2000. Supported by a grant under the UNDP-Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator (AFCIA), AVN has constructed 2,391 Nubian Vaults, providing durable, climate-adaptive homes for 11,955 people—half of whom are women and girls—while helping to avoid approximately 47,820 tonnes of carbon emissions. 

The grants also enabled the organization to leverage voluntary carbon credits to create sustainable financing for these homes. In 2024 AVN also started expanding operations to Cote d'Ivoire with support from UNDP; a great example of the replicability potential that many of these resilience-building solutions can have in similar contexts. 

This year, the GCA received 870 applications for the awards, with 21 finalists selected across categories including water security, food security, local entrepreneurship and urban adaptation solutions. Winners in each category will receive €15,000 from the Adaptation Fund, along with opportunities to engage in the Fund’s readiness and knowledge-sharing events to further amplify their impact. In 2024, AVN issued 49 construction incentive coupons, each valued at around US$490, making sustainable housing more accessible through carbon credit sales. 

Last year, at COP28 in Dubai, the Local Adaptation Champions Award honoured UNDP-AFCIA grantee Espacio de Encuentro de las Culturas Originarias (EECO), a community initiative in Mexico, for its exceptional work in preserving ancestral practices to develop sustainable water systems that benefit 15,000 families. EECO received the award for its innovative use of “waru warus,” traditional water channels designed to create microclimates that protect crops from frost. This technique is complemented by fog-capture methods to ensure a continuous water supply. 

Several other initiatives supported by UNDP-AFCIA were also recognized as finalists in 2023, including the South Asian Forum for Environment in India, Footsteps Bangladesh and INMED in South Africa, reflecting the significant contributions of local actors in addressing climate challenges. 

Initiatives supported by UNDP-AFCIA are also prominently featured in the GCA’s ‘"Stories of Resilience’" 2024 report, under the chapter, ‘"Small Grants to Bridge Big Gaps’". To be launched on 14 November at COP29, the report highlights transformative solutions from Cambodia, Micronesia, Brazil, India, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda and delves into funding structures, social impact, and local and global partnerships. It also emphasizes capacity-building efforts and initiatives aimed at promoting gender and youth empowerment. 

Learn more about the award and nominees here.

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About UNDP- Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator (AFCIA) and the Adaptation Innovation Marketplace (AIM) 

Supported by the financial contributions from the Adaptation Fund and the European Union, the UNDP-AFCIA programme has awarded 44 micro and small grants to locally led organizations across 33 countries worldwide, accelerating their innovative solutions to build resilience in the most vulnerable communities. 

UNDP-AFCIA is one of the funding windows anchored under the Adaptation Innovation Marketplace (AIM), a multi-stakeholder strategic platform that promotes scaled-up adaptation at the local level, launched by UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner at the Climate Adaptation Summit in January 2021.