REGION: Niger Basin COUNTRIES: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria FOCUS: Basin-level investment planning, capacity building for investment preparation, and improved understanding of climate related financing opportunities RESULTS • Nine countries in West Africa’s Niger Basin, led by the Niger Basin Authority, prepared a climate resilience-focused, regional investment plan with a prioritized list of urgent actions. CIWA facilitated extensive dialogue and technical ©Dominic Chavez consultations among countries to highlight common interests and evaluate tradeoffs. This STRENGTHENING process enabled collaborative selection of investments that are sustainable and optimized at the basin level, generating shared benefits and INVESTMENT minimizing negative consequences. • A team of experts provided training for PLANNING TO BUILD regional and national officials on investment preparation and packaging with the aim of helping them better understand and articulate their resilience needs towards securing CLIMATE RESILIENCE financing for investments planned along the 4,200-kilometer Niger River. IN THE NIGER BASIN • The plan, endorsed by heads of states of the basin countries at COP21 in Paris, presents many implementation-ready investments to a diversified pool of investors. This Climate change imposes stark challenges for the food-insecure Sahel and demonstration of high-level political cooperation particularly for the Niger Basin’s already highly vulnerable population of 112 boosts investor confidence for the inherently million. Six of the nine basin countries are among the world’s least developed, with complex regional projects that are often risky yet high poverty and weak social and economic safety nets. Water is a fundamental offer potentially high rewards. pathway through which climate change is impacting people and environment, making water-related resilience-building interventions a top priority. • The technical and political dialogue continuously undertaken by the Niger Basin countries shows a Because the basin countries share surface and groundwater, a coordinated strong cooperative basis, allowing the countries approach presents significant opportunities to more effectively build resilience to identify shared priorities and collaborate and avoid maladaptation. Recognizing this, the Niger Basin countries, led on regionally beneficial projects. As a result, by the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) and supported by the CIWA program, cooperative management has increased trust the World Bank, and African Development Bank, joined together in 2015 to and reduced risk of unilateral acts that could develop a Climate Resilience Investment Plan. have negative externalities or foreclose optimal development options. The plan consists of 246 resilience-building investments estimated at $3.1 billion. Identified in existing regional and national development plans, the • Multiple investments from the plan have secured resilience-building investments are diverse – ranging from climate insurance for financing commitments and are included in farmers, adapting gender policies to free more productive time, enacting anti- the pipelines of investors such as the World erosion and silting measures to protect lands, to rehabilitating water-storage Bank, the African Development Bank, and other structures to preserve supplies and improve flood protection. Prioritizing bilateral development partners. across transboundary, national, and community levels allows the region to improve its ability to reduce risks and develop amid a changing climate. July 2016 “In the absence of resilience-building actions, environmental, social, and political changes could compound climate challenges and overwhelm Africa’s ability to cope.” —Jennifer Sara, Director of Water Global Practice, World Bank Group CONTEXT M E D I T E R RA N E A N S E A MOROCCO Cairo ^ N SAHARA The people of the Niger Basin depend on the river: about 70 percent ALGERIA of the 130 million L I B YA people in the basin live in rural areas where food A R A B R E P. security and social well-being E G largely O Fare YPT dependent Nyimur-Aswa Multipurpose Project on rainfall and river ! flow. Climate change increases uncertainty of the frequency, location, quantity, and quality of water availability, and people are unable to prepare adequate responses due to weak monitoring and information RE D A systems, absence of infrastructure, and limited institutional capacity. M A U R I TA N I A SE MALI A This threatens food and energy SUDA security, N economic development, ^ Khartoum E R I T R E A NIGER ecosystem health, CHAD and overall regional stability. CHAD N Niamey F OF A DE ^ Current security threats in the region add to its fragility, which, coupled GUL ^ B U R K IN A Bamako FA S O with resource scarcity, drive migration and exacerbate Baro-Akobo-Sobat ^ the challenges SOMALIA GU INE A S O U T H Multipurpose Project BENIN of daily life. Mobilizing resources SUDAN for investments to help Addis Ababa ! overcome NIGERIA CEN. AFRICAN resource-related R E P Uconflict BLIC and reduce resource-driven E T H I O P I migration A can TO GO ^ Abuja SIERRA GHANA potentially secure lives and livelihoods ^ Juba and contribute to keeping LEONE CO TE D 'IVO IRE fragility and growing insecurity D E M . R E P. at bay. LIBERIA OF CONGO NAMIBI Kampala CAMEROON UGANDA ^ K E N YA Lake Victoria Kigali Rusumo Falls APPROACH RWAN DA ^ ! Hydropower Project INDIAN OCEAN Bujumbura GULF O F GUINEA BURUNDI ^ TA N Z A N I A Acknowledging 0 1,000 importance the Km. of integrating climate change 0 1,000 Km. 0 considerations into development efforts, the Niger Basin countries agreed to develop an investment plan based on their shared vision M E D I T E R RA N E A N S E A for regional climate resilience and development. Cairo ^ Together, they built investments in one place, the plan aids donor coordination and a coherent ensemble of actions and investments to strengthen the improves the efficiency of development financing and implementation. resilience to Lclimate I B YA change across the basin, with the objective of The plan’s endorsement by water and finance ministers and heads of A R A B R E P. mobilizing resources for climate-related development. state of the basin countries lends confidence to prospective investors OF EGYPT ! Aswan Dam to support sustainable development of the region. To ensure alignment with country priorities, le the plan was built from Ni the bottom up, using existing planning documents. Investments RE selected emerged from a rigorous screening of actions for their NEXT STEPS D SE Atb ara contribution to resilience and readiness for investment by all basin A SUDAN countries. CIWA supported both technical ^ Khartoum ERITREA andTepolitical consultations CHAD ke ze Moving forward, CIWA will work with the NBA to develop a monitoring for countries to jointly formulate and endorse the plan. CIWA and evaluation methodology for the plan to support accountability White Nile DE N OF A also backed capacity-building workshops focused ! Roseires Dam on Gimproving UL F and capture lessons emerging from its implementation. CIWA will Blu eN participants’ ability to identify complexities introduced by climate continue to enhance capacity of governments and the NBA, paying ile So SOMALIA ba ^ change, recognize the range SOU T Hopportunities available of t Baro Addis Ababa to mitigate particular attention to the institutional ability to better understand SUDAN A C Eand climate risk, understand N. AF RICAN REPUBLIC the climatekobfinancing o landscape. ETHIOPIA and articulate climate resilience investment needs, apply sound ^ Juba methodologies for investment planning, and strengthen targeted The development of the plan demonstrates that the prospect of skill-sets aimed at packaging investments and securing financing. D E M . R E P. O F advance securing financing to CONGO mutually-beneficial investments can CIWA will also support organization of donor round-tables to raise Kampala motivate countries to reach U G A Nagreement DA ^on complex multi-state, multi- K E N YA financing for investments in the plan. Lake Victoria sector development plans. RWAN DA By consolidating Kigali ^ regionally prioritized Bujumbura INDIAN OCEAN BURUNDI ^ TA N Z A N I A 0 1,000 Km. ABOUT CIWA CIWA, the Cooperation in International Waters in Africa program, is a multi-donor trust fund representing a partnership between the World Bank and the governments of Denmark, the European Union, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. CIWA supports the governments in Sub- Saharan Africa in unlocking the potential for sustainable and inclusive growth, climate resilience, and poverty reduction through cooperative transboundary water management and development. Since 2011, CIWA has supported improving the social, environmental, and economic sustainability of transboundary investments worth US$8.9 billion across Sub-Saharan Africa.