Promotion of Climate-Resilient Lifestyles Among Rural Families in Gutu
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Promotion of climate-resilient lifestyles among rural families in Gutu (Masvingo Province), Mutasa (Manicaland Province) and Shamva (Mashonaland Central Province) Districts | Zimbabwe Sahara and Sahel Observatory 26 November 2019 Promotion of climate-resilient lifestyles among rural families in Gutu Project/Programme title: (Masvingo Province), Mutasa (Manicaland Province) and Shamva (Mashonaland Central Province) Districts Country(ies): Zimbabwe National Designated Climate Change Management Department, Ministry of Authority(ies) (NDA): Environment, Water and Climate Development Aid from People to People in Zimbabwe (DAPP Executing Entities: Zimbabwe) Accredited Entity(ies) (AE): Sahara and Sahel Observatory Date of first submission/ 7/19/2019 V.1 version number: Date of current submission/ 11/26/2019 V.2 version number A. Project / Programme Information (max. 1 page) ☒ Project ☒ Public sector A.2. Public or A.1. Project or programme A.3 RFP Not applicable private sector ☐ Programme ☐ Private sector Mitigation: Reduced emissions from: ☐ Energy access and power generation: 0% ☐ Low emission transport: 0% ☐ Buildings, cities and industries and appliances: 0% A.4. Indicate the result ☒ Forestry and land use: 25% areas for the project/programme Adaptation: Increased resilience of: ☒ Most vulnerable people and communities: 25% ☒ Health and well-being, and food and water security: 25% ☐ Infrastructure and built environment: 0% ☒ Ecosystem and ecosystem services: 25% A.5.1. Estimated mitigation impact 399,223 tCO2eq (tCO2eq over project lifespan) A.5.2. Estimated adaptation impact 12,000 direct beneficiaries (number of direct beneficiaries) A.5. Impact potential A.5.3. Estimated adaptation impact 40,000 indirect beneficiaries (number of indirect beneficiaries) A.5.4. Estimated adaptation impact 0.28% of the country’s total population (% of total population) A.6. Financing information A.6.1. Indicative GCF funding requested (max Amount: 9,393,500 Currency: USD Financial Instrument: Grants 10M) A.6.2. Indicative co- Amount: 356,500 Currency: USD Financial Instrument: Grants financing Institution: DAPP A.6.3. Indicative total project cost (GCF + co- Amount: 9,750,000 Currency: USD finance) disbursement A.6. Estimated duration of period: 60 A.7.2. Estimated project/ 300 project/ programme: repayment period, if Programme lifespan applicable: A.8. Is funding from the A.9. Is the Environmental and ☒ Yes ☒ Yes Project Preparation Social Safeguards Category C or ☐ No No Facility needed? I-3? ☐ The project seeks to reduce the vulnerability of communities and A.10. Provide rationale for smallholders´ agricultural production to climate change. The project is the ESS categorization categorized as C given that all expected project activities are gender (100 words) inclusive, participatory and adapted to manage vulnerability and risk produced by changes in rainfall patterns and increasing intensity of Simplified Approval Process CONCEPT NOTE Template V.1.1 GREEN CLIMATE FUND | PAGE 2 OF 24 droughts. Adaptation activities are mainly related to the implementation of Climate Smart Agriculture practices as well as building of institutional and household adaptive capacities. A.11. Has the CN been ☒ Yes ☐ Confidential A.12. Confidentiality shared with the NDA? ☐ No ☒ Not confidential The project main objective is to improve the capacity of rural communities to adapt to climate change through promoting climate-smart agriculture practices, improving smallholder farmer's access to markets and improving A.13. Project/Programme stakeholders' capacities for participatory planning at district level. The rationale, objectives and approach combines enhancing institutional capacities for climate change approach of programme/project (max adaptation planning, scaling up climate-resilient agricultural production, 100 words) improving organization of farmers and facilitating access to markets, finance and insurance services. Project execution and coordination will be carried out by DAPP in partnership with MWEC, EMA and Agricultural Research Centre-ARC. B. Project / Programme details B.1. Context and Baseline (500 words) B1.1. Climate change vulnerabilities and impacts Zimbabwe has been experiencing a warming trend, evidenced by a 0.4ºC increase in annual mean temperatures, with most of the warming taking place over the last three decades [1]. The IPCC (2007) predicts a 3.1ºC temperature increase by 2100 together with a reduction in precipitation in Southern Africa of about 15%. According to the World Bank (2015), increase in temperature may result in evapotranspiration increases and runoff declines. The recent 1.5ºC IPCC Report (2018) projects that Zimbabwe will face precipitation deceases from 10 to 20%, with longer dry spells [2]. As such, Zimbabwe may become both hotter and drier, with huge implications for agricultural production.The most important agricultural risk in Zimbabwe is drought. It affects agricultural production and food security [3]. The country is divided into five agro-ecological regions based on a combination of factors including rainfall regime, temperature and the quantity and variability of average rainfall, as well as soil quality and vegetation. The suitability of cropping declines from Region I through to Region V [4]. The majority of the smallholder farmers are located in regions IV and V, where the risks of crop failure are extremely high and crop yields are generally low. Southern areas of Zimbabwe are projected to experience more significant climate change impacts than the rest of the country [5]. In addition, Zimbabwe is susceptible to an array of extreme weather events such as droughts, heatwaves, heavy rains, flash floods, strong winds and hailstorms. An example of this is the recent Cyclone Idai, which affected more than 270,000 people in Zimbabwe in March 2019 [6]. Agro-ecological Regions I and II are the most favourable for specialized and intensive farming, but comprise only 17% of the entire country. The rest of the country makes up natural Regions III, IV and V, where rainfall is erratic and inadequate, making rain-fed agriculture a risky venture. Gutu and Mwenezi districts were selected for this project since are particularly vulnerable to climate change [7]. Half of Gutu district land is under regions IV and V, while the whole Mwenezi district land falls into those vulnerable regions, with 90% of its area under region V [8]. Furthermore, drought proneness level is moderate in Gutu and severe in Mwenezi [9]. Farmers and their livelihoods are heavily dependent on rain fed agriculture and water resources. However, with increasing intensity of droughts and other hazards, this traditional coping strategy may no longer suffice in future without major interventions. In its effort to enhance water security for agricultural livelihoods, the government of Zimbabwe has been investing in smallholder irrigation schemes; however, the majority of rural population in communal areas remain with limited Simplified Approval Process CONCEPT NOTE Template V.1.1 GREEN CLIMATE FUND | PAGE 3 OF 24 access to irrigation. Unsustainable land use practices in the catchments and on farms degrade ecosystem services and exacerbate the impacts of climate change on water and crop productivity. Some examples of unsustainable practices are land clearing, deforestation, overgrazing, cultivation on steep slope, bush burning, among others. As a result, average dam storage capacity has been reduced [10]. Only 4.3% of cultivated land is irrigated at national level [11]. The prevalence of rain-fed agriculture and a lack of efficient water infrastructure, water scarcity significantly contributes to food insecurity and low household incomes. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) [12], Gutu and Mwenezi districts are projected to suffer severe food insecurity from October to December 2019. For this period, Gutu was classified in Crisis (ICP phase 3), while Mwenezi was classified in Emergency (ICP phase 4). While smallholders are also trying to move out of subsistence and commercialise their cropping activities, the lack of access to technical support, resilient agro- inputs, markets and finance is inhibiting these efforts. Accumulation of all these factors makes rural smallholder farmers, the poorest communities in Zimbabwe, extremely vulnerable to climate change. B1.2 Alignment with national priorities, plans and programmes The present project is aligned with the Comprehensive Agriculture Policy Framework (2012-2032), Food and Nutrition Security Policy (FNSP) (2012) and the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio- Economic Transformation (ZIMASSET) (2013 - 2018) since it addressed the main challenges with the aim of ensuring food security and livelihoods of small farmers. Zimbabwe is implementing the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Readiness Project with support from UN Environment as a Delivery Partner. Between July 2016 and June 2018, the country benefited from GCF support to strengthen the capacity of the WC. Furthermore, a 3-year Readiness Project titled “Building capacity to advance the National Adaptation Planning process in Zimbabwe” was approved in 2018 with the aim of building capacities to advance the National Adaptation Planning process, including the integration of climate change adaptation priorities into national and sub-national development planning. The present project will be complementary to the GCF Readiness in the Gutu and Mwenezi districts. Relevant consultations with the NDA were held in September and October 2019 to identify