The Zambezi Watercourse is set to benefit from a global USD350 million fund disbursed through the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) to finance nature-based solutions to climate change threats.
At the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, in November 2022, the Zambezi Watercourse region was named one of only five countries or regions to be funded by the CIF’s Nature, People and Climate (NPC) investment platform launched in June 2022.
The CIF NPC pilots and scales transformative nature-based climate solutions in developing countries. The four other states of this first set of countries and regions to benefit from the CIF NPC fund are Egypt, the Dominican Republic, Fiji and Kenya.
Five of the Zambezi’s riparian states – Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania - will benefit, with regional support for the inter-governmental Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM), and positive impact on the entire watercourse which spans eight countries. ZAMCOM is an intergovernmental organization set up through the ZAMCOM Agreement of 2004 by the eight riparian states that share the Zambezi Watercourse. These are Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In particular, the funds for the Zambezi Watercourse region will be directed at restoration of 30 000 hectares of degraded wetlands. This financial boost will add impetus to multi-pronged, trans-boundary efforts in this critical southern African watercourse ecosystem which includes the riparian states making up ZAMCOM. ZAMCOM works to ensure equitable and reasonable utilization, as well as the efficient management and sustainable development of the Zambezi Watercourse.
ZAMCOM Executive Secretary Felix Ngamlagosi said the watercourse organization and Riparian States were excited for the region to have been selected to access finances for nature-based solutions to the climate crisis.
“The selection process for project proposals was highly competitive. After the program was announced in June 2022, a total of 55 emerging countries, equivalent to one-third of all the developing world, formally applied for CIF NPC funding. These countries span six continents and represent a population of more than 2 billion people,” he said in an interview.
In particular, he pointed out, the integrated and multi-sectoral investment initiative, Programme for Integrated Development and Adaptation to Climate Change (PIDACC) Zambezi as having “a significant and sizeable financial and technical resource requirement for implementation of the planned climate change activities in the Zambezi watercourse.”
“In this regard, the CIF funds shall play a crucial role in reducing the financing gap. The CIF funding support will enable the scaled development of climate change adaptation projects that bring development benefits, at the national level in participating countries, and at a regional scale across the Zambezi Watercourse. PIDACC Zambezi is a huge Investment programme covering eight riparian states, 13 sub-basins and touching lives of over 40 million watercourse inhabitants,” Ngamlagosi said.
Further explaining how the entire watercourse stood to gain, Ngamlagosi said, “The project in the five countries will be used to promote transformational change and great environmental sustainability in land management by establishing a shared vision based on a “nested” approach. This approach considers not only each country’s own national-level goals and commitments but reaches both ‘downward’ to key sub-national geographies and ‘upward’ across borders, with an emphasis on key trans-boundary watersheds and sub-basins, trans-boundary conservation areas; as well as an upstream-downstream, systems-based approach that considers the needs of those that conserve and use/benefit from ecosystem services and how land use change may impact these”.
The five-country regional approach requires landscape-scale work in both sub-national and trans-boundary/regional geographies. Therefore, there is immense potential for transformational change that is highly relevant, delivering co-benefits for climate, communities, and biodiversity; systemic, using the multi-country partnership to address barriers to achieving climate-resilient development; and implemented at scale within and between countries and leverages resources to focus on landscape scale.
As part of implementation of the ZAMCOM Agreement, the Riparian States, through ZAMCOM, have developed a 22-year Zambezi Watercourse Strategic Plan (ZSP) which runs up to the year 2040. The ZSP is a long-term plan with long-term aspirations. To roll out its implementation, ZAMCOM is in collaboration with its strategic partners, namely the African Development Bank (AfDB), Climate Resilient Infrastructure Development Facility of the United Kingdom Government (CRIDF) and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), in mobilizing resources for financing the implementing of PIDACC Zambezi.
“In pursuing the ZAMCOM Council of Ministers (CoM)’s directive to the ZAMCOM Secretariat to mobilise resources for implementation of the Strategic Plan for the Zambezi Watercourse (ZSP 2019-2040) and PIDACC Zambezi, the Secretariat is taking every opportunity that arises to seek financial resources from various funding organisations with the objective of meeting the expectations enshrined in the CoM’s directive and in the ZAMCOM Agreement of 2004.
“This achievement is, however, as a result of many collaborative efforts from ZAMCOM Riparian States and our strategic partners. I wish to thank the Republic of Zambia for submitting the Expression of Interest for ZAMCOM and the Riprian States.
“I would also like to thank our strategic partners AfDB, CRIDF, the UNCCD, and the Commonwealth Secretariat for their unwavering support in the preparation and submission of a competitive and successful Expression of Interest (EoI) which has enabled the region to access the much needed finances for the implementation of PIDACC Zambezi.”
For the CIF NPC platform, CEO Mafalda Duarte said the CIF NPC was thrilled to kickstart this first participating group in the new effort to invest in nature holistically, urgently and at scale.
“At CIF, we know few climate solutions are as effective, replicable or cost-efficient as those we derive from nature itself. They prevent harmful emissions and safeguard communities from climate change impacts all at the same time.”
“Together with partners we are investing in the success of rural and indigenous communities, sustainable supply chains, healthier coastlines and climate-smarter food production. We need to turn the tide and this is an important step in that direction.”
Sovereign donors of the fund, including Italy, the United Kingdom and Sweden, have pledged over $350 million to capitalize the fund.
The Zambezi Watercourse is set to benefit from a global USD350 million fund disbursed through the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) to finance nature-based solutions to climate change threats.
At the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, in November 2022, the Zambezi Watercourse region was named one of only five countries or regions to be funded by the CIF’s Nature, People and Climate (NPC) investment platform launched in June 2022.
The CIF NPC pilots and scales transformative nature-based climate solutions in developing countries. The four other states of this first set of countries and regions to benefit from the CIF NPC fund are Egypt, the Dominican Republic, Fiji and Kenya.
Five of the Zambezi’s riparian states – Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania - will benefit, with regional support for the inter-governmental Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM), and positive impact on the entire watercourse which spans eight countries. ZAMCOM is an intergovernmental organization set up through the ZAMCOM Agreement of 2004 by the eight riparian states that share the Zambezi Watercourse. These are Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In particular, the funds for the Zambezi Watercourse region will be directed at restoration of 30 000 hectares of degraded wetlands. This financial boost will add impetus to multi-pronged, trans-boundary efforts in this critical southern African watercourse ecosystem which includes the riparian states making up ZAMCOM. ZAMCOM works to ensure equitable and reasonable utilization, as well as the efficient management and sustainable development of the Zambezi Watercourse.
ZAMCOM Executive Secretary Felix Ngamlagosi said the watercourse organization and Riparian States were excited for the region to have been selected to access finances for nature-based solutions to the climate crisis.
“The selection process for project proposals was highly competitive. After the program was announced in June 2022, a total of 55 emerging countries, equivalent to one-third of all the developing world, formally applied for CIF NPC funding. These countries span six continents and represent a population of more than 2 billion people,” he said in an interview.
In particular, he pointed out, the integrated and multi-sectoral investment initiative, Programme for Integrated Development and Adaptation to Climate Change (PIDACC) Zambezi as having “a significant and sizeable financial and technical resource requirement for implementation of the planned climate change activities in the Zambezi watercourse.”
“In this regard, the CIF funds shall play a crucial role in reducing the financing gap. The CIF funding support will enable the scaled development of climate change adaptation projects that bring development benefits, at the national level in participating countries, and at a regional scale across the Zambezi Watercourse. PIDACC Zambezi is a huge Investment programme covering eight riparian states, 13 sub-basins and touching lives of over 40 million watercourse inhabitants,” Ngamlagosi said.
Further explaining how the entire watercourse stood to gain, Ngamlagosi said, “The project in the five countries will be used to promote transformational change and great environmental sustainability in land management by establishing a shared vision based on a “nested” approach. This approach considers not only each country’s own national-level goals and commitments but reaches both ‘downward’ to key sub-national geographies and ‘upward’ across borders, with an emphasis on key trans-boundary watersheds and sub-basins, trans-boundary conservation areas; as well as an upstream-downstream, systems-based approach that considers the needs of those that conserve and use/benefit from ecosystem services and how land use change may impact these”.
The five-country regional approach requires landscape-scale work in both sub-national and trans-boundary/regional geographies. Therefore, there is immense potential for transformational change that is highly relevant, delivering co-benefits for climate, communities, and biodiversity; systemic, using the multi-country partnership to address barriers to achieving climate-resilient development; and implemented at scale within and between countries and leverages resources to focus on landscape scale.
As part of implementation of the ZAMCOM Agreement, the Riparian States, through ZAMCOM, have developed a 22-year Zambezi Watercourse Strategic Plan (ZSP) which runs up to the year 2040. The ZSP is a long-term plan with long-term aspirations. To roll out its implementation, ZAMCOM is in collaboration with its strategic partners, namely the African Development Bank (AfDB), Climate Resilient Infrastructure Development Facility of the United Kingdom Government (CRIDF) and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), in mobilizing resources for financing the implementing of PIDACC Zambezi.
“In pursuing the ZAMCOM Council of Ministers (CoM)’s directive to the ZAMCOM Secretariat to mobilise resources for implementation of the Strategic Plan for the Zambezi Watercourse (ZSP 2019-2040) and PIDACC Zambezi, the Secretariat is taking every opportunity that arises to seek financial resources from various funding organisations with the objective of meeting the expectations enshrined in the CoM’s directive and in the ZAMCOM Agreement of 2004.
“This achievement is, however, as a result of many collaborative efforts from ZAMCOM Riparian States and our strategic partners. I wish to thank the Republic of Zambia for submitting the Expression of Interest for ZAMCOM and the Riprian States.
“I would also like to thank our strategic partners AfDB, CRIDF, the UNCCD, and the Commonwealth Secretariat for their unwavering support in the preparation and submission of a competitive and successful Expression of Interest (EoI) which has enabled the region to access the much needed finances for the implementation of PIDACC Zambezi.”
For the CIF NPC platform, CEO Mafalda Duarte said the CIF NPC was thrilled to kickstart this first participating group in the new effort to invest in nature holistically, urgently and at scale.
“At CIF, we know few climate solutions are as effective, replicable or cost-efficient as those we derive from nature itself. They prevent harmful emissions and safeguard communities from climate change impacts all at the same time.”
“Together with partners we are investing in the success of rural and indigenous communities, sustainable supply chains, healthier coastlines and climate-smarter food production. We need to turn the tide and this is an important step in that direction.”
Sovereign donors of the fund, including Italy, the United Kingdom and Sweden, have pledged over $350 million to capitalize the fund.