While drought has been starving tens of millions of people in the Horn of Africa for several years, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has finally decided to take action by disbursing $151 million. This funding will benefit five countries in the sub-region.
The funding of $151 million will be used to launch the activities of the Strengthening Climate Resilience for Food and Livelihoods in the Horn of Africa (BREFOL) project. This sub-regional initiative aims to improve the adaptive capacity of communities in the region on a large scale. This will be achieved by increasing the productivity of local agricultural and food systems and improving the management of land and agro-pastoral landscapes.
The funds allocated to the African Development Bank (AfDB) will finance adaptation projects in South Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti, countries that have been facing drought for the past five years. In response to this climate crisis, the BREFOL project is expected to provide a range of resilience-building solutions, such as infrastructure for water harvesting and agro-pastoral development, support for sustainable land management and access to innovative, climate-smart technologies.
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The project will also support access to renewable energy, capacity-building for cooperatives and agri-food SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) in terms of entrepreneurship, access to innovative financial instruments, including lines of credit, and access to climate information and early warning services, as well as agricultural insurance.
All that remains is for the AfDB to start disbursing funds to build people’s resilience. In 2023, more than 43 million people required humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Of these, 32 million were severely food insecure. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the damage caused by the 2020-2023 drought will continue to be felt for years to come.
Jean Marie Takouleu
