The African Development Bank (AfDB) has secured and will implement additional resources amounting to USD 43 million to stimulate Africa's climate resilience. These resources were obtained at the Global Environment Facility (GEF) 42nd Council Meeting (5-7 June 2012), which approved three initiatives that will offer far-reaching benefits to African nations for better forest management, climate technology transfer and private sector engagement in renewable energy. In addition, these resources are expected to leverage USD 360 million in co-financing.
The Mano River Union Ecosytem Conservation and International Water Resources Management Project aims to strengthen ongoing and introduce new conservation efforts in the Upper Guinea Forest, which covers part of Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia. This unique biodiversity hotspot has an estimated 9,000 vascular plants, 25 percent of which are endemic. Increased population, limited economic opportunities for local populations and a lack of institutional capacity to design and enforce ecosystem management measures are threatening this important ecosystem, which has shrunk to a mere 15 percent of its original size (current remaining surface is estimated at 93,000 Km2). The Bank will channel a GEF grant of USD 6.3 million to the Mano River Union Secretariat to implement plans for integrated land management and agroforestry and to develop sustainable management of transboundary waters, including a diagnostic analysis and strategy.
The Climate Change Center of Technology Project is designed to support the development and transfer of climate technologies in African countries as a way to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vulnerability to climate change. The three-year project will provide a platform for disseminating knowledge and bring together key stakeholders to develop innovative financing mechanisms for both mitigation and adaptation technology transfer across the continent. The project will be co-financed by the GEF for USD 15.8 million.
Finally, the AfDB's program for a Public-Private Partnership Platform for Renewable Energy Technologies will promote scaling up renewable energy technologies in Africa through non-grant co-financing. By supporting projects that increase the power supply from renewable energy sources, this three-year program will help expand the GEF's reach and contribute to delivery of universal power supply and GHG reductions continent-wide. The GEF will contribute up to USD 21.6 million to this program while AfDB co-financing is estimated at USD 70 million, which will leverage approximately USD 170 million from the private sector. In addition, synergies will be found with other Bank-sponsored instruments promoting renewable energy technologies such as the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), the Program on Scaling-Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries (SREP) and the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA).
