NEWSLETTER Nordic
Development
Fund
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Water resources are critical to Africa’s development to climate change in Africa. When the call closed, AWF had received a total of 234 submissions. The call was open for all African countries and applications were received from 31 countries. Kenya was well-represented as well as Tanzania and Uganda, and a large share of the applications covered several countries. AWF is in the process of reviewing the applications. NDF is providing EUR 6 million of the EUR 16 million that has been allocated for the call. Supporting resilience in West Africa coastal areas: NDF will assist four West African countries in strengthening their regional and national governance in improving their knowledge about coastal erosion, flooding and other climate change hazards that threaten the coastlines. Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Benin have an interconnected coastal and marine environment which forms diversified ecosystems. The rapid population and economic growth along the coast presents both an opportunity and a
challenge for the sustainability of coastal ecosystems and manmade environments. The project is co-financed with the World Bank and aims at strengthening the resilience of the private and the public sector to climate-related impacts, and at the same time it will serve as the first building block of a future technical assistance and investment programme in the West Africa coastal area. Climate-resilient water sector in Zambia: Despite good progress in the past decade, there are still 5.2 million people (over a third of the population) in Zambia who do not have access to safe water. Eight million people (over half the population) do not have access to adequate sanitation and more than 5,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation in Zambia. NDF and the African Development Bank will cofinance the second phase of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation
Programme in Western Province. The NDF support will contribute to making rural water and sanitation installations more climateresilient. This entails assessment of local level water resources management, flood control measures, deforestation issues, weather information and design standards for water supply and sanitation installations. NDF’s project will include capacity and tools development and field testing of climate-resilient approaches and methods in 80-100 communities in both flood- and droughtprone rural communities to ensure climate-resilience of water and sanitation infrastructure. The results will be integrated into the planned national water and sanitation strategy.
Largest rooftop photovoltaic system set up in Latin America, see page 3.
Photo: Julien Harnels/Creative Commons
Water is central to many of the development activities in Africa. Access to safe water will alleviate poverty and spur growth in some of the poorest countries in the world. The region encompasses a wide variety of climatic zones, from the Sahara Desert to the rainforests of the Congo Basin. The region’s economy and livelihoods are very susceptible to climate variability and droughts, floods, and storms undermine the progress the region is making. For many African countries, climate change threatens to exacerbate the uncertainty in planning for the future. NDF provides support to address some of the impacts and uncertainties including the new initiatives described below. African Water Facility draws enthusiastic response: The African Water Facility (AWF) has launched a call for proposal, inviting African organisations to submit proposals for the preparation of water projects and programmes aimed at building resilience
NDF
Newsletter
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2015
Photo: Makunje/village
NCF fifth call well-received by Nordic organisations
The fifth call for proposals of the Nordic Climate Facility (NCF) under the theme Climate resilience in urban and private sector contexts attracted a total of 58 applications from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The proposals show a strong focus on Asia, while many were also
targeting countries in subSaharan Africa and NDF’s partner countries in central and South America. The short-listed applicants will be invited to submit their full proposals tentatively by the end of March, after the applications have been scored by the NCF evaluation team.
NCF has selected over 50 climate projects for funding in Africa, Asia and Latin America since the financing scheme was established in 2009. The implemented projects relate to mitigation of greenhouse gases as well as to adaptation to the impacts of climate change.
Towards COP21
In December 2015, countries will gather in Paris to finalise a new global agreement to tackle climate change. The Nordic Development Fund will participate in several events at COP21, including Transport Day, Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) Day, and Climate and Health. At COP20 in Lima in December 2014, the EcoMicro programme, funded together by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank and NDF, received the UN Momentum for Change Lighthouse climate award. The awards ceremony was hosted by the UN SecretaryGeneral Dr Ban Ki-moon. Also at COP20 in Lima, NDF contributed to a NAMA seminar organised jointly by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam. NDF was also active at COP20’s Transport Day, presenting our support to transport NAMA development and adaptation initiatives in the transport sector in Central America, Africa and South East Asia. Likewise, NDF was one of the 14 development financiers who jointly launched the new Geothermal Development Facility (GDF) for Latin America at COP20.
NDF
Newsletter
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2015
Photo: Klaus Holsting
When business as usual is not enough
NDF financed a research project 2012 to 2014 on climate change adaptation and development challenges. Researchers from Nordic institutions used recent findings to highlight that the social dimensions of vulnerability and adaptation
will need to move to the forefront of development policies and practices since climate change affects lives and livelihoods, infrastructure and institutions, as well as beliefs, cultures and identities. The research project recommends seeing adaptation
as a process, placing priority on better understanding of local context when preparing adaptation activities, use of rights-based approaches, longer time perspectives in adaptation support, and include more social and process oriented indicators in M&E systems.
The results are found in a publication with the title: Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices, Routledge 2015.
Transition towards low-carbon development
Photo: Som Energia Cooperativa/ Creative Commons
thermal training facility in El Salvador. Together with the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), NDF is cofinancing a geothermal training programme in El Salvador which serves all of Latin America. The geothermal training facility is now inviting new students to a geothermal training course in El Salvador. The next course is to be given between June and November 2015 and scholarships are available for 10 local and 10 international students. The deadline for submitting applications is 24 April 2015. More information can be found on www.ndf.fi
Photo: University of El Salvador Regional Geothermal Training Program
Low-carbon development is a priority for NDF and several new initiatives support this transition. NDF, along with 13 other financing institutions, supports the new Geothermal Development Facility (GDF) for Latin America. GDF will provide at least USD 75 million in grant-based risk mitigation instruments and USD 1 billion in tailored financing to geothermal projects in a range of Latin American countries. The GDF seeks to incentivise at least 350 MW of geothermal generation capacity, help to save 50 million tonnes of CO2 in total and provide clean electricity to 2 million people. NDF contributes to the GDF with the existing regional geo-
Largest rooftop photovoltaic (PV) system in Latin America: NDF and IDB support a USD 50 million Energy Efficiency Finance Facility offering loans and guarantees so companies can reduce their energy use or generate some or all of their own energy from renewable sources. A technical assistance fund established under the programme provides grants for energy efficiency audits, engineering studies, and cost-benefit analyses to determine
what might be the most attractive green solutions for a particular company. One of the first clients to benefit is a bottling plant in Honduras where a USD 5 million loan from the facility will enable Corporaci贸n Industrial del Norte, SA (Corinsa) to install PV solar panels on the roofs of its industrial buildings in San Pedro Sula. The project will - when completed - be the largest rooftop PV system in Latin America.
NDF
Newsletter
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2015
Photo: Thearat Touch
Climate change and health
Climate change will have impacts on public health. Greater rates of heat stress will result as heat waves become more common. Malnutrition will grow as extreme events like coastal flooding and drought affect food production. Flooding will also spread more waterand vector-borne diseases, with diarrhoeal illnesses and tropical fevers likely to spread. It is expected that these impacts will be greatest in regions where the population is most dense, most vulnerable, and least equipped to adapt. Often it will be the poor and disenfranchised groups, women, and children that are most at risk. NDF supports several initiatives that seek to ad-
dress the linkages between climate change and health. Through a new project with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), NDF provides EUR 4 million to strengthen the national and regional capacity of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam to cope with adverse health impacts of climate change. There is evidence that climate change has a significant impact on health outcomes in developing countries and the Mekong is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world. In addition, extreme weather events cause injuries, deaths and water contamination. The project will contribute to poverty alleviation indirectly by reducing the vulnerability of the poor and disadvantaged
groups (women, children and minority ethnic groups) to climate change-induced diseases. The expected improvement in the beneficiaries’ health status will enhance their productivity. Although the main focus of the proposed project is on the health sector, the project also seeks to establish and reinforce linkages with other sectors, such as water and sanitation, agriculture and environment. In sub-Saharan Africa, NDF and the World Bank support a regional project on climate and health which will in its pilot phase focus on Mosambique. In Guatemala, in late March 2015 there will be a two-day seminar and technical meeting between
health officials and climate experts. The seminar will focus on climate change and health risks to identify policy options and institutional responses. The seminar forms part of the NDFInter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) Economics of Climate Change Project for Central America implemented by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Through these different projects, NDF seeks to catalyse exchange between institutions and continents on the important topic of climate change and health impacts.
FINANCING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE PROJECTS IN LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES The Nordic Development Fund (NDF) provides financing for climate change interventions in low-income developing countries. NDF is the joint development finance institution of the Nordic countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden—and finances projects in cooperation with other development institutions.
Nordic Development Fund NORDIC DEVELOPMENT FUND, P.O. Box 185, FIN-00171 Helsinki, Finland (Visiting address: Fabianinkatu 34), Tel: +358 10 618 002, Fax: +358 9 622 1491, E-mail: info.ndf@ndf.fi, www.ndf.fi NDF Newsletter presents NDF's operations. The newsletter is published as needed. Layout Kubik, print Erweko Oy.