Lowlands Livelihood Resilience Project, Phase Two (LLRP II)

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DescriptionThe project rests on four complementary components that aim to improve the livelihood and climate resilience of PAP households, communities, and ecosystems. Resilience is defined as “The ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management.” In the context of LLRP II, improving livelihood and climate resilience rests on enhancing the capacity of lowland PAP households, communities, and production systems to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform, or recover from climate shocks in a timely and efficient manner, while (and including by) ensuring the health and regeneration of lowland ecosystems and natural resources. Increases in production and productivity; better access to markets, roads, services, health, education, diversified diets, energy, and sustainable sources of income; and enhanced capacity to manage local resource-related conflicts are expected, among other improvements, to contribute to these outcomes. Annex 1 explains how livelihood and climate resilience will be measured by the project. Component 1: Pastoral Risk Management for Resilience (PRMR) (US$228 million, including US$184 million IDA and US$44 million IFAD)This component will enhance the absorptive and adaptive capacities of PAP communities and their ecosystems by strengthening DRM capacities and developing public infrastructure that supports disaster preparedness and climate resilience.Subcomponent 1.1: Strengthening Lowlands Early Warning and Response System and Climate Information Services (US$9 million, including US$7 million IDA and US$2 million IFAD) This subcomponent will finance activities that relate to strengthening the early warning and response system and CIS in Ethiopia’s lowlands with a focus on ‘last mile connectivity’. This focus will ensure that information and advice about impending climate change-exacerbated hazards (including drought, floods, conflicts, livestock disease outbreaks, higher temperatures, and pest infestations) reach households across PAP areas in a timely fashion. To strengthen the early warning and response system, the project will finance the preparation of Woreda Disaster Risk Profiles (WDRPs). In a process led by the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC), WDRPs will be prepared using participatory processes involving community representatives and key stakeholders at the woreda level. Experienced international organizations, such as the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), will facilitate the process and prepare a report using an interactive online platform to be hosted by the EDRMC. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), through the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) Project, will support the integration of climate information into WDRPs. The subcomponent will also (a) build the Government’s and community’s awareness of DRM; (b) support the EDRMC in rolling out the new Multi-Hazard, Impact-Based Early Warning and Early Action System (MH-IB-EW-EAS) roadmap for 2023–2030, in the lowlands, including by helping it develop region-specific implementation plans; (c) support the implementation of the National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS) in the lowlands by the Ethiopian Meteorology Institute (EMI); (d) strengthen partnerships and coordination among the Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands (MILLs), EDRMC, and EMI, to ensure the successful implementation of the MH-IB-EW-EAS and NFCS in the lowlands; and (e) build the institutional, organizational, and human resource capacity of key stakeholders including the EDRMC and EMI (at the federal, regional, and woreda levels), with a focus on forecasting and last mile communications in the lowlands of Ethiopia. In relation to CIS, the project will build capacities to collect, analyze, process, and disseminate information. Subcomponent 1.2: Implementing Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Investments (US$219 million, including US$177 million IDA and US$42 million IFAD)This subcomponent will support the identification of, and selectively fund, a range of investments in climate-smart public economic infrastructure (PEI), that is, physical infrastructure that can help mitigate the impacts of climate-related (and other) hazards on PAP systems and communities. The identification, selection, planning and implementation of the PEI investments will follow three steps. These are (a) preparation Regional Disaster Preparedness and Resilience-building Strategic Investment Plans (DPRSIPs) for each of the eight project regions, (b) preparation of specific Climate-smart PEI investment plan for LLRP II, which will emanate from the wider DPRSIPs, and (c) implementation of Climate-smart PEI investments. Eligible climate-smart PEI investments to be financed under this subcomponent include the construction, upgrading, or rehabilitation of (i) drought-resilient water resource infrastructure for both human and livestock consumption (such as deep water well, small, and micro-dams), (ii) efficient and innovative small-scale irrigation schemes (up to 500 ha per scheme), (iii) all-weather feeder roads, (iv) cold storage and feed stores, (v) livestock market facilities, (vi) veterinary service facilities, and (vii) wetland and flood management works. The PEI investments will be strategically sited along key migration and trade corridors and water supply infrastructure will be sited with careful consideration of available grazing resources to avoid overgrazing and degradation in their vicinity. Component 2: Integrated Rangeland Management (IRM) (US$64.48 million, including US$52.16 million IDA and US$12.32 million IFAD)Building on the success of LLRP I, the project will continue to use rangelands as the entry point for investments. Component 2 aims to improve the absorptive and adaptive capacities of PAP ecosystems by monitoring and improving the health and productivity of natural rangeland resources (improving their soil stability, hydrologic function, vegetation productivity, and biotic integrity) and attenuate community-level conflict in PAP areas. Healthier and more productive rangelands, in turn, will increase livestock productivity, PAP households’ livelihoods, and PAP systems’ overall resilience. They will also increase above- and below-ground soil carbon stocks, contributing to climate change mitigation and resilience. To achieve these results, the component will apply integrated, participatory, nature-based, and climate-smart approaches and leverage renewable and efficient energy sources and technologies. It will also leverage selected research outputs and innovations generated by ILRI’s AICCRA Project on feed, pasture management, and integrated rangeland management in the lowlands. When possible, the project will promote NBS with guidance from the World Bank’s NBS Invest Program. The component will have three subcomponents. Subcomponent 2.1: Rangeland Health Monitoring and Institutional Capacity Building (US$4.35 million, including US$3.48 million IDA and US$0.87 million IFAD)The subcomponent will support (a) the establishment of a national rangeland monitoring system (RMS) and (b) rangeland monitoring and management institutions, proactively targeting women in capacity-building efforts. Subcomponent 2.2: Participatory Rangeland and Pasture Management (PRPM) (US$52.5 million, including US$42.5 million IDA and US$10.0 million IFAD)This subcomponent will support (a) the preparation of rangeland management plans (RMPs), (b) the implementation of rangeland and pasture development activities, and (c) the production and marketing of forage and feed. of fodder and feed production in PAP areas. Subcomponent 2.3: Resource-Related Conflict Management