IOWater - International News

3 Information: Fax: +33 4 93 65 44 02 - E-mail: cooperation@iowater.org international events A training workshop for preparing bankable projects for climate change adaptation was organized by UNECE, in partnership with INBO, the African Water Facility, the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment and the Swiss Development Cooperation Agency. This workshop was hosted by the Organization for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS), which is in charge of the Secretariat of the African Network of Basin Organizations (ANBO). It gathered more than 30 participants, including representatives of the World Bank, African Development Bank, European Invest- ment Bank, French Development Agency and European Water Facility as well as of Trans- boundary Basin Organizations (TBOs) from Africa, Europe and Asia. The participants received practical training on how to prepare their request for financing climate change adaptation projects in trans- boundary basins. They were also trained to make the distinction between adaptation and resilience, as well as between adaptation and development projects. They were introduced to donors’ procedures and project financing cycles and trained on how to develop project proposals for adap- tation to climate change, including, in parti- cular, the identification of the impacts of climate change, the vulnerabilities and the needs for adaptation, while fitting their project proposal with the national or transboundary context and climate change adaptation priorities defined in other related sectors. TBOs should include in their project proposals actions that would deliver positive results for both mitigation and adaptation, as such “co-benefits” are highly valued by donors. Donors informed of the difficulties they encounter to finance TBOs as these often lack of proper financial resources to qualify as direct borrowers. The donors intervene more frequently with the riparian countries rather than with the international structures they created between them. This is why the Ministries of Finances of the riparian coun- tries, which are the contact point of the donors, should be involved in projects from the start. However, the TBOs provide a consistent framework at the regional level and allow for a real technical and economic integration enabling a sounder use of water resources throughout their basin, where unilateral actions of each riparian State taken separately might not be coordinated with those of other upstream and downstream countries of the basin. INBO presented the Incubation Platform of the Global Alliances for Water and Climate (GAfWaC-IP) that aims to bridge the gap between donors, looking for quality adaptation projects, and project holders, ignoring how to access climate funds and comply with their procedural requirements. GAfWaC-IP provides technical assistance to project holders, to help them build their proposals and reach access to funding. The training made it clear that there is a strong demand for GAfWaC-IP services. The workshop was highly interactive, with the presentation of projects for the Basins of the Lake Victoria and Niger River, of OSS (Sahara and Sahel Observatory) accreditation to the Adaptation Fund, of the European Investment Bank procedures. Exercises with individual or group work on drafting a project proposal to donors were much appreciated by the participants, who wished the continuation of this first training event. INBO and ANBO presented the AfriAlliance project for innovation in the water and climate sector, aiming at boosting research for the preparedness of Africa to climate change. 4 UNECE Training Preparing bankable projects for climate change adaptation in transboundary basins Dakar - Senegal - 23 June 2017 Workshop on project preparation in Dakar The News N° 28