CAR Inclusive and Resilient Cities Project

active

The proposed additional finance will enhance the impact of the project by increasing investments nature-based solutions to further reduce the risk of flooding and erosion while providing co-benefits to local populations. Additional finance will provide a crucial additional financing to integrate NBS and combine them to grey infrastructure identified in Bangui and Berberati. The nature of interventions proposed will vary based on local needs and may cover actions such as local retention basins, agroforestry and urban agriculture, as well as capacity building for local activities (e.g., fisheries or silvopastoral activities). The proposed LDCF funded intervention will further increase the rainwater run off retention capacity in Bangui and Berberati, which in turn is expected to lower the risk of flooding and soil erosion. In addition to climate risk reduction, LDCF funded activities will provide biodiversity benefits well as contributing to socioeconomic benefits like food security and health. The additional finance will also contribute to improving integrated and sustainable urban planning and management with the integration of NBS. To address the climate-fragility nexus, the proposed project will provide necessary capacity building to plan, execute, and monitor the integration of grey and green infrastructure interventions. Per GEF STAP guidance[1], a coherent approach to mitigate climate change vulnerability and drivers of conflict will be developed through climate-risk-informed integrated urban planning. This comprises of urban planning, drainage, and flood and erosion risk management, that integrates climate change impact as well as fragility aspects such as displacement. NBS will be an inherent part of these planning activities as well as supporting capacity building. The AF will support (i) the protection and regeneration of urban forests and their interconnections, (ii) planting of roads and urban public spaces, and (iii) technical assistance and capacity building on integrated urban planning and management and using instruments such as nature-based solutions. Investments will be sequenced based on their readiness. A first series of activities is at the draft ToR stage (see Table 1); technical studies are expected to be completed by effectiveness. The contract of supervision firm recruited for the parent project will be amended to include NBS investments. The amount of AF is US$9,175,000.