AfDB secures 151 mln USD to aid climate action in Horn of Africa

NAIROBI, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) — The United Nations-backed Green Climate Fund has approved 151 million U.S. dollars in financing for a major program to address climate resilience in the Horn of Africa, an African lender announced Monday.
The program, supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB), will back the bank group’s “Building Climate Resilience for Food and Livelihoods in the Horn of Africa program,” benefiting 4.6 million people across Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
“The new financing will support community-driven and gender-balanced resilience solutions,” the AfDB said in a statement.
The bank said that these solutions include sustainable land management practices, access to climate-smart technologies, renewable energy, capacity-building for cooperatives, agribusiness and micro, small, and medium enterprises, as well as credit, climate services, early warning systems and index insurance.
Martin Fregene, the bank’s director for agriculture and agro-industry, said the AfDB is committed to building climate resilience. “The mobilization of the Green Climate Fund support shows the continued commitment of the African Development Bank Group to scale up climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture systems in the Horn of Africa, thereby improving food security in one of the most vulnerable regions of the planet,” Fregene said.
The approved financing consists of a grant of 90.7 million dollars and a loan of 60.3 million dollars. The AfDB will administer the funds and oversee the program, set to begin in the first quarter of 2025.
According to the AfDB, the Horn of Africa is highly susceptible to climate-related risks, including erratic rainfall, rising temperatures and increasingly frequent droughts and floods. These conditions have exacerbated socioeconomic challenges and threatened the livelihoods of agro-pastoral communities dependent on rain-fed agriculture. Climate change has also led to increased livestock, crop and human diseases, as well as land degradation, reducing productivity.
It said that the investment is expected to significantly reduce carbon emissions, potentially sequestering 14.1 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over the project’s 25-year lifespan, which is comparable to the lifetime emissions of 600,000 cars. ■