CCDARE Country Output in Ethopia

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CC DARE Adaptation Stimulus Works

Ethiopia is one of the eleven countries under the CC DARE Programme jointly implemented by UNEP and UNDP using funds from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. In an effort to speed up the integration of climate risk consideration into policy and national planning to curb vulnerability to climate impacts, CC DARE provided timely-targeted support to 9 nationally driven projects with most of them linked to the agricultural sector and thereby addressing food security, which constitutes the first national priority for NAPA project developments and an important Millennium Development Goal. There was a great diversity in the nature of the projects with a unique geographical distributions and the engagement of new sectors and actors. One of the agricultural projects was on the ‘identification of adaptive traits in indigenous cattle adapted to drought prone arid and semi arid areas’. The second was addressing ‘Local solutions for the challenge of unemployment and food-insecurity based on the adaptation of the climate change’. The third is looking at the ‘Identification, documentation and dissemination of control and management of rangeland invading alien plant species for enhancing the communities resilience to climate change adaptation in Jijiga Zone of Somali Region, Eastern Ethiopia’ while the fourth is on ‘Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change for Ethiopian Agriculture: Identification of Impacts, Coping Mechanisms, and Adaptation Options: A Case of the North Western Lowlands of Ethiopia’. The last project under the agricultural sector titled ‘Adapting Mechanism for Climate Change Impact on Hydrological Extremes and Crop Production’ is identifying adaptation options under hydrological extremes and crop production in creating possibilities of integrating this into the development plan and decision-making processes.

There were three projects outside of the agricultural sector and one of them was presented from a nontraditional ministry (Ministry of Mines & Power) that is not normally involved with climate change activities. This was quite a strategic opportunity in bringing the energy ministry onboard and mainstreaming climate change into their activities. Through this project, the communities around the Buffer Zone are now engaged in conservation and income generating activities that have encouraged them to maintain the buffer zone for the sustainability of their livelihoods. The appropriate and effective management of the buffer zone have provided more water for the hydropower plant. The second project in this category of non-agricultural projects was addressing health issues titled ‘Development of National Acute Watery Diarrhea Prevention and Control (NAWDPC) Strategy’ which is quite strategic following the outbreak and prevalence of diarrhea as a water borne disease highly linked to fluxes in quality and quantity of clean water supply under climate impacts. Finally, there was a project on ‘Improving Water Harvesting Capacity in Schools in Central Rift valley’. This project highly complements a similar project ongoing in Seychelles primary schools, which demonstrates the demand-driven needs of countries in Sub Saharan Africa and Small Island countries in addressing water challenges posed by climate change. Under the Ministry of Education, this has provided an opportunity in curriculum development with the potentials of sustainability in the adaptation measures put in place .

These nine projects swiftly and timely implemented over six months period have paved the way to bigger actions by guiding the Ethiopian EPA for up scaling using their own funds as indicated by the national project team, for the expansion of the actions into other provinces and sectors of the country. This is a demonstration of the potential catalytic effects CC DARE small funding actions can trigger. The buildup of national interest and the mobilization of the national government, civil society, together with other stakeholders following the implementation of this project provided the type of enabling environment for country project implementation and the opportunity for capitalizing on the momentum of the beneficiaries of the CC DARE programme. The peculiarities of the funding approach used by CC DARE are a true testament that every action counts irrespective of size. That even with smaller funds, adaptation can still be implemented especially where it serves as a stimulus of targeted actions that remove barriers to bigger actions. This success story from Ethiopia is just one amongst many under the CC DARE programme that has helped removed barriers for the implementation of climate change adaptation actions in Sub Saharan Africa.

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