AfDB has signed an $830,000 grant agreement for Ethiopia to help mainstream climate risk management, gender and resilience into economic planning and development in the Ziway-Shalla sub-basin.
Ziway-Shalla is a closed water sub-basin, comprising the catchments of Ziway, Langano, Abijatta and Shalla lake.
The funds will come from the Climate Investment Funds’ Pilot Program for Climate Resilience and the African Development Bank will administer the project.
The African bank said the grant will contribute to the development of a climate-aligned water resources development plan and investment strategy for the Ziway-Shalla sub-Basin in Ethiopia’s central rift valley. It will also fund a water allocation plan.
The signing was done on May 26 during the AfDB’s 2022 Annual Meetings, which are taking place in Accra.
Ethiopia’s Finance State Minister Semereta Sewasew signed on behalf of Ethiopia, while Kevin Kariuki, African Development Bank Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth, signed for the Bank.
Sewasew thanked the bank for its continued “strategic support” for Ethiopia’s planning and implementation.
“I am grateful for the Bank’s leadership and technical team in facilitating this financing,” she said.
Kariuki said the technical assistance grant underscores the bank’s commitment to deliver the High 5s through innovative solutions, including climate and environment finance, aimed at addressing climate challenges and harnessing climate finance opportunities to build inclusive climate-resilient development paths.
The High 5s are Light up and Power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialize Africa; Integrate Africa; and Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa.
“The project is expected to promote efficiency, long-term water security, and increase biodiversity in the area’s many lakes. It will also strengthen upstream watershed management. The overall goal is to build climate resilience. Beneficiaries include communities that depend on rain-fed agriculture,” the statement added.
The bank has supported Ethiopia in implementing Climate Investment Funds in renewable energy and resilience-building programs. The Climate Investment Funds, launched in 2008, is a global multilateral climate finance mechanism for developing countries seeking to shift to low carbon and climate-resilient development and to accelerate climate action.
The mechanism has invested $33 million of concessional loans and grants in Ethiopia and leveraged more than twice that amount from public, private, and other sources.
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