Enhancing Climate Resilience of Smallholders in Middle Egypt
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Egypt World Food Programme (WFP)
24 August 2017 Project/Programme Title: Enhancing Climate Resilience of Smallholders in Middle Egypt
Country/Region: Egypt
Accredited Entity: World Food Programme
Mrs. Yasmine Fouad, Assistant Minister, Ministry of National Designated Authority: Environment for Sustainable Development and External Affairs
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Please submit the completed form to [email protected]
A. Project / Programme Information A.1. Project / programme title Enhancing Climate Resilience of Smallholders in Middle Egypt A.2. Project or programme Project A.3. Country (ies) / region Egypt A.4. National designated Ministry of Environment for Sustainable Development and External Affairs authority(ies) A.5. Accredited entity World Food Programme A.6. Executing entity / Executing Entity: Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation beneficiary A.7. Access modality Direct International x A.8. Project size category (total investment, million Micro (≤10) ☒ Small (10
A.13. Estimated Start: October 2017………………………... implementation start and end date End: October 2022………………………….
1 Please use the following naming convention for the file name: “[CN]-[Agency short name]-[Date]-[Serial number]” (e.g. CN-ABC- 20150101-1).
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B. Project/Programme Details The Fund requires the following preliminary information in order to promptly assess the eligibility of project/programme investment. These requirements may vary depending on the nature of the project/programme. COUNTRY BACKGROUND Egypt is comprised of three agro-ecological zones, namely Lower, Middle and Southern Egypt, with Middle and Southern Egypt collectively referred to as Upper Egypt2.
Upper Egypt is comprised of 10 Governorates, namely, Giza, Beni Suef, Fayoum, Menia, Assiut, Sohag, Qena, Luxor and Aswan and the New Valley.
Assuit, Sohag, Qena, Luxor and Aswan form Southern Egypt; while Middle Egypt is comprised of Giza, Beni Suef, Fayoum. Menia and the New Valley.
Upper Egypt is home to 37 percent of Egypt’s population and 45 percent of the B.1. Project / programme country’s rural population3. Forty percent of the Egyptian poor, and 66 per cent of the description (including country’s extreme poor live in Upper Egypt. With a poverty incidence of 41.2 per cent objectives) in Upper Egypt, almost the double of national average, Upper Egypt is the poorest region in the country. Within Upper Egypt, the percentage of poor and near poor in the rural areas is 75 per cent against 49 per cent for Rural Lower Egypt4.
Similar to poverty indicators, food security analysis indicates that Upper Egypt is the most food and nutrition insecure region in Egypt. According to 2016 calculations by the World Food Programme5, 31.7% of the households of Upper Egypt has poor access to food. This is almost double the national rate of 15.9%. The situation is particularly worse in the rural areas of Upper Egypt, where the recorded figure is 38.7%. Regarding nutrition, Upper Egypt is home to 56.2% of the country’s households with poor dietary diversity and 64.8% of the households with deficiency in calorie consumption.
2 Some references, publications and Government agencies refer to Upper Egypt as Southern Egypt only. Others refer to Upper Egypt as the area comprised of Southern and Middle Egypt. This proposal uses the latter definition for Upper Egypt. 3 Egyptian National Agricultural Adaptation Strategy, May 2010 Egypt Human Development Report (2010). Ministry of Planning and UNDP 4 Egypt Country Analysis Report (2016). The United Nations. 5 Calculations made by the Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping Unit, World Food Programme-Egypt Country office in 2016 based on data from the bi-annual National Household Income, Expenditure and Consumption Survey of 2015.
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Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt relies predominantly on agriculture. It accounts for 63% of the zone’s employment and contribute 40% of its rural income. While it is a source of income for 85% of the zone’s rural households, it is a sole source of income for 60% of its rural households. Overall, it secures 40% of the food needs of the zone6.
Studies indicate that Upper Egypt as a whole will be subject to progressive increases in temperature from 1.5-2oC by 2040 to 1.9-2.2oC and 3-3.50C by 2060 and 2100 respectively7.
Increases in temperatures subjects Upper Egypt (both Middle and Southern Egypt) to a minimum of 30 percent reduction in its food production by 2040 as a result of climate change impacts, including reduced crop and livestock productivity, increasing crop-water demand and reduced water use efficiency, increase in pest and disease infestations, etc. If no adaptation solutions are introduced. This will compound its already economically stressed and food –insecure state8.
The Ministry of Agriculture started its response to climate impacts on agriculture and livelihoods of Upper Egypt in 2013 through the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ Project. This project is implemented by the Government of Egypt in collaboration with the World Food Programme and aims to improve the adaptive capacity of the Southern zone in the face of climate- induced reduction in food production. To be completed in October 2018, the project is implemented in the 5 Governorates of the zone, namely Assuit, Sohag, Qena, Luxor and Aswan and is funded by the UNFCCC9 Adaptation Fund. The ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ Project proved to be a highly successful model for building resilience and enhancing livelihoods of vulnerable farms and rural communities of upper Egypt in the face of climate change. Its external mid-term evaluation ranked it as ‘Highly Satisfactory’.
6 Upper Egypt—Challenges and Priorities for Rural Development, World Bank Policy Note, 2006 7 Climate: Observations, projections and impacts, UK Met office, 2011 and Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the Egyptian Economy, UNDP, 2013 8 Analysis based on anticipated impacts of Climate Change on food production highlighted below . 9 The Adaptation Funds’ reasons for the selection of this project were: - It will help learn from a number of adaptation options in response to climate threats affecting water management and agricultural production in dry lands; - It will help learn from successful awareness raising strategies, participatory approaches to adaptation and community ownership; - It may allow drawing lessons from the project’s approach to gender-related issues.
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The UNFCCC Adaptation Fund (AF) also acknowledges the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ project as one of its successful models from which others can learn. Within AF’s strategy to use information from its funded projects/programmes under implementation to (i) enhance countries’ capacity and knowledge to improve the design and increase the effectiveness of future adaptation projects/programmes, and to (ii) inform its decision making, enhance transparency and improve the AF’s overall effectiveness, it selected the project for documentation of best practices in a knowledge sharing product that it is currently developing.
Consultations done for the preparation of this concept note indicate that farmers of Middle Egypt are already hard hit by negative impacts of climate change on their productivity and food security. Examples of this included that almost every year at least one extreme weather event occurs, destroying up to 30% of their crop which in turn dramatically affects their food security Irrigation water requirements were also reported to increase, where farmers had to increase the duration of irrigation from 5 hours to 7 hours per acre for most of their crops. A decline in the quality and quantity of their tomato cultivations was attributed to an evident rise in mean temperatures during summers, particularly in Beni Suef and Fayoum. Such impacts had substantially affected their food security because loss of crop reduced the quantities that they can use at home. It also, along with the increasing costs of irrigation and agriculture inputs such as seeds and fertilizer inflicted by the need to produce more to cover losses, reduced their income and limited their affordability of several food commodities such as dairy products and poultry. Building on its above-mentioned successful model of resilience building in Southern Egypt, the Ministry of Agriculture thus wishes to implement this proposed project to complete its response to climate change impacts in the whole of Upper Egypt region. The main objective of the proposed project is to increase resilience of vulnerable rural communities of old lands in Middle Egypt (the governorates of Beni Suef, Fayoum, Menia, Giza and the New Valley) to climate change impacts on agricultural productivity, livelihoods and food security.
PROPOSED INTERVENTION To meet its objective, the project shall have the following components: 1) Building climate resilience of vulnerable rural communities in Middle Egypt 2) Institutional capacity building at the central and local levels for scaling up climate resilience of farming communities in Middle Egypt To do so, the consultations with the various stakeholders as well as lessons learnt from similar resilience building efforts in Southern Egypt concluded that the project will be undertaking the following activities to improve the adaptive capacities, reduce vulnerability and empower at-risk communities of Middle Egypt: - Mobilizing project communities to raise awareness about the project, climate change as an issue that can be adapted to, possible adaptation mechanisms to ensure food security, etc. and encourage adoption of the project interventions, particularly in its early stages when farmers are usually hesitant to accept changes in the way they traditionally do things. - Introducing climate-resilient cropping practice for the main crops of the area, namely wheat, maize, berseem and tomatoes. Activities under this will include introducing new heat tolerant varieties and improved agricultural practices such as change of sowing dates and raised bed cultivation through demonstration fields and technical support - Establishing climate information centres and providing 5 days weather forecasts with recommendations of what to do to reduce losses in cases of foreseen extreme weather events for the main crops of the area - Diversifying sources of incomes as a means to reduce reliance on crop production as a sole livelihood. Activities under this will include 1)introducing
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scientifically proven models for intercropping where farmers get to grow new crops alongside their traditional crops (eg. onions with wheat and cowpea with maize); 2) introduce animal revolving loans as a complementary source of income; and 3) besides support to create adequate market links, introducing new high value crops such as medicinal and aromatic plants that farmers can be introducing alongside their staple crop production through intercropping or cultivation in inter-seasonal periods - Enhance incomes from non-staple crops planted in Middle Egypt such as tomatoes and citrus fruits through supply chain analysis and support in value addition by simple agro-processing - Introduce simple low-cost irrigation efficiency enhancement interventions including establishment of water user associations for participatory management of irrigation and reduction of water losses - Document lessons learnt and best practices and sharing results for replication throughout Middle Egypt. Documentation will be in different forms including documentaries, flyers and brochures. Dissemination will be through visibility events, use of social media, interviews in media, and presentations in relevant forums, among others. - Build capacity of local partner NGOs, as well as government officials at local, sub-national and national level for mainstreaming and upscaling of the climate adaptation techniques of the project - Mainstreaming climate adaptation in the curricula of local secondary Agricultural schools and Faculties of Agriculture in the Universities of Beni Suef, Fayoum, Menia and New Valley. Experts from local universities will be engaged in providing technical assistance and agreements will be signed with university management to engage students in field research, and use knowledge generated under the project in enriching university curricula. Government partner agencies for the project The Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) will be the Executing Entity of the proposed project. MALR is the ministerial body in charge of agriculture and land reclamation in Egypt. The mandate of the Ministry is to oversee and coordinate the implementation of the Sustainable Agricultural Development Strategy 2030 with 1) a vision to achieve a comprehensive economic and social development based on a dynamic agricultural sector capable of sustained and rapid growth, while paying a special attention to helping the underprivileged social groups and reducing rural poverty and 2) a mission of “Modernizing Egyptian agriculture based on achieving food security and improving the livelihood of the rural inhabitants, through the efficient use of development resources, the utilization of the geopolitical and environmental advantages, and the comparative advantages of the different agro- ecological regions”.
B.2. Background information Affiliated to it, the MALR has an Agricultural Research Centre comprised of 23 on project/programme research institutes and laboratories that support the Ministry’s policy development, sponsor implementation of its different programmes and provision of its different services to farmers, e.g. technical support, seeds through specialized breading programmes etc.
The Ministry of Agriculture has executed several donor-funded projects to support agriculture. Among these were water management reform activities and pilots on using drainage water in agriculture implemented with GIZ, as well as projects with FAO in support of institutional capacity, legislation development and policy support in the field of agriculture.
Since 2013, the Ministry of Agriculture has been successfully executing the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ Project. This project has concrete results in building resilience of vulnerable farmers.
WFP in Egypt
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The World Food Programme (WFP) is the Implementing Entity of the proposed project.
WFP has been cooperating with the Government of Egypt in supporting vulnerable groups since 1968. Through partnerships with the Ministries of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, International Cooperation, Education, Supply and Internal Trade, Manpower and Migration, Health and Population; and Foreign Affairs WFP has been able to reach some 8 millions in 20 Governorates through various capacity building, social protection and resilience building programmes.
WFP is the implementing entity of the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ Project. Through this project, WFP has been successfully supporting plans of the Government of Egypt to build resilience of vulnerable farmers of Southern Egypt to climate-induced impacts on their food security. This project is considered good model for how WFP has been able to deploy its systems, human resources and partnering capacities to support the governments’ efforts in effectively building resilience of vulnerable groups.
Globally, WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. It is part of the United Nations system and is voluntarily funded. Born in 1961, WFP reaches on average more than 80 million people with food assistance in 82 countries each year. 11,367 people work for the organization, most of them in remote areas, directly serving the hungry poor.
WFP’s Climate Expertise: WFP acknowledges that its vision to eradicate hunger by 2030 can only be achieved with urgent and ambitious action to address the challenges of climate change. In the past five years, 40 percent of WFP’s operations have included activities to reduce climate-related disaster risks, build resilience and help affected populations adapt to climate change. WFP is currently implementing climate change adaptation projects in Ecuador, Mauritania and Sri Lanka, helping more than 750,000 people adapt to climate change and build resilient food security systems. Specific activities include capacity building, livelihood diversification and increasing adaptive capacity through creation of physical assets.
Working with governments, international partners and local communities, WFP acquired substantial expertise in developing and delivering large-scale programmes and projects that help build the resilience of vulnerable households to climate risks. In 2015, its R4 Rural Resilience Initiative reached almost 200,000 people across Ethiopia, Senegal, Malawi and Zambia. R4 provided 2.2 million USD in micro insurance protection, through insurance-for-assets, to these farmers, while supporting them to reduce their exposure to climate disasters and improve their livelihoods.
WFP is also expanding its reach with climate services, providing almost 10,000 people in Malawi and Tanzania with downscaled climate forecasts and advisories that can help them make better livelihoods decisions and prepare for potential climate disasters.
Through FoodSECuRE10, which was fast-tracked in 2015 to address the potential impacts of El Niño, 1,000 households in Zimbabwe and Guatemala received anticipatory support to build their resilience ahead of the peak of the drought.
10 The Food Security Climate Resilience (FoodSECuRE) Facility is a multilateral, multi-year, replenishable fund being developed by WFP to financially and programmatically support community-centred action to reinforce and build climate resilience. More information can be found here http://www.wfp.org/climate-change/initiatives/foodsecure
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Strategies and Policies: Globally, WFP has comprehensive policies, strategies and tools to support nations to ensure sustainable food security, nutrition, disaster risk reduction, more specifically also climate change adaptation and resilience. WFP actively contributes to both the formulation and implementation of global policies, strategies and guidelines. These include:
a) WFP Policy on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (2011); b) WFP Policy on Climate Change; c) WFP Policy On Building Resilience For Food Security And Nutrition (2015) d) WFP’s Strategic Plan 2014 – 2017: e.g. Strategic Objective 3 “Strengthen the capacity of governments and communities to establish, manage and scale up sustainable, effective and equitable safety-net systems”; e) WFP’s 2004, and 2012: Update of WFP’s Safety Nets Policy – The Role of Food Assistance in Social Protection; f) The SDGs and Zero Hunger Challenge: “Eliminating hunger involves investments in decent work, social protection” g) The Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction; h) The High-level Panel of Experts of the Committee on World Food Security report on Social Protection for Food Security which recommends “...governments to formulate and implement social protection measures against hunger…”. i) WFP’s Gender Policy (2015) and WFP Gender Action Plan (20111116)
Other Strengths: Through its worldwide operations, WFP has gained significant experience in the following:
• Comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the root causes of food insecurity, including chronic poverty, disasters, climate change, under-nutrition, seasonality and local-level needs; • Identifying, prioritizing and implementing livelihood rehabilitation/restoration/creation through participatory community mobilization and participation of key stakeholders; • Optimization of food security and nutrition, social protection and safety net systems, including strategy and programme formulation, targeting, systems design and awareness raising and advocacy; • Robust Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, accountability, impact and a return on investments; • Support to capacity development through investments in institutional capacity and human capital; • Mainstreaming of gender, nutrition and environment/natural resource management; • As a member of the international Social Protection Inter-Agency Coordination Board to support governments in the design and implementation of the Social Protection Floor.
N/A. Most envisaged project activities focus on subsistence activities and only B.3. Market overview marginally on products which require certain market conditions. The project will be executed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, which is official body in charge of agriculture and land reclamation in Egypt. The Ministry will also be responsible to issue the permits and licenses needed for the different activities of the project.
B.4. Regulation, taxation and Needed licenses/permits will be issued upon the start of the project. insurance The project will be implemented by the World Food Programme within the framework of: 1) The BASIC AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME AND THE GOVERNMNET OF THE ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT signed in Cairo on 5 September 1968.
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2) The World Food Programme Country programme (2013-2017) and the World Food Programme Country Strategic Plan (2018-2022).
The project will be implemented in accordance with: (i) the Green Climate Fund Operational Policies and Guidelines; and (ii) the World Food Programme standard practices and procedures
Financial Market Overview is not applicable in this case. However, for activities related to procurement of services including training by WFP staff, Section 7 of UN Privileges and immunities state that the UN agencies are exempt from all direct taxes. If services are procured by government, national regulations on taxation may apply.
WFP is the project Implementing Entity. It will have financial oversight of the project and is accountable to the GCF Board. It will facilitate and supervise overall project implementation, oversee monitoring and evaluation; provide technical support; and report to the GCF. WFP’s principal role is fiduciary, supervisory, supporting, coaching, providing technical knowledge, monitoring and disseminating lessons learned.
The executing entity will be the Ministry of Agriculture. It will be responsible for ensuring the objectives and outcomes of the project are delivered effectively as per the project document. The Ministry is to contact governorates and local directorates of relevant Ministries (Irrigation, Education and Social Affairs) for the required technical inputs, as well as other national/ international agencies with which co- operation would be useful, for example, in training and extension. MALR will also be responsible for coordinating and collaborating with other governmental bodies at the national level. Chief among those is the Egyptian Meteorological Authority to facilitate data exchange and partner community organizations in villages where the project operates.
The Agricultural Research Centre will be providing technical support to the project and ensuring that the project is achieving the intended targets within the National Agricultural Climate Adaptation Strategy. The Centre will be responsible for managing climate monitoring and assist in the identification of suitable adaptation B.5. Implementation technologies. arrangements A Project Steering Committee, formed of representatives of the concerned Ministries and Authorities (Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment, Egyptian Metrological Authority, the relevant Institutes and Laboratories of the Agriculture Research Centre, and WFP) will be formed by official communication from the Minister of Agriculture and will meet periodically to review progress and make recommendations.
Local steering committees in each Governorate to carry out the below mentioned responsibilities will be formed to review progress, discuss challenge and guide next steps. The Committees will include Directors of Irrigation, Agriculture, Vet and Social Affairs and the partner community development organizations are to meet quarterly.
Execution of most activities will be undertaken by community development organizations after receiving training, and with assistance from consultants. More specifically, community organizations will undertake the following tasks:
• Community mobilization and organization of awareness activities and field trainings • Hosting and operation of the climate information centres to be established in the project villages • Supervising the works for improved irrigation • Soliciting technical expertise when needed on behalf of the community
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• Managing revolving funds for the animal lending schemes
Collaboration will be forged with the Agricultural Secondary Schools and Universities in the area, namely the universities of Menia, Beni Suef, Fayoum, and the New Valley to 1) Provide expertise as needed and 2) Integrate climate adaptation in their curricula.
A project management team shall be established and led by a project manager to execute the activities. It will be reporting to the Ministry of Agriculture and WFP.
To maximize benefits, synergies will be built with other projects active in the area, namely: 1) the ‘Sustainable Agriculture Investment and Livelihood Projet (SAIL) project of IFAD that aims to build climate resilience of settlers in newly reclaimed settlements in Menia and Beni Suef in Middle Egypt as well as other settlements in Lower Egypt and 2) the USAID Premium Project for Egyptian Small Growers that is helping Egyptian farmers comply with GLOBAL GAP and Fairtrade standards so farmers can access local and international fresh produce markets and 3) the Green Trade Initiative if UNIDO that supports value addition through technical support in simple agro-processing, packing, marketing and exporting. In addition, technical expertise regarding heat and drought tolerant varieties and livestock production will be sought from FAO.
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Workplan showing major scheduled outputs and completion for each of the major components of the project/programme. Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q16 Q17 Q18 Q19 Q20
Output 1.1. Community mobilization and awareness raising
Component 1: Building Output 1.2. Climate Information Centers and Early warning system climate resilience of vulnerable Output 1.3. Introduction and use of water rural saving techniques communities in Middle 1.4 Support adaptation in crop Egypt production, value addition and intercropping
1.5. Building resilience through animal production
2.1 Building capacity of NGOs and government technical staff Component 2: Institutional capacity 2.2. Documentation and sharing of lessons learned and best practices building for scaling up climate 2.3 Local Agricultural Schools and resilience in faculties of agriculture integrate climate Middle Egypt adaptation solutions in their academic curriculum
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C. Financing / Cost Information A breakdown of cost estimates analysed according to major cost categories Project Component Expected Outputs Amount Requested USD
Output 1.1. Community mobilization 300,000
Output 1.2. Climate Information Centers and 400,000 Early warning system 1.Adaptation Output 1.3. Introduction and use of water through technology saving 1,350,000 development and techniques transfer Output 1.4. Support Adaptation in crop 1,300,000 C.1. Description of financial production, value addition and intercropping elements of the project / Output 1.5. Building resilience through 1,523,481 programme animal lending schemes
Subtotal Component One 4,873,481 2. Institutional Output2.1 Training of partner NGOs and 500,000 capacity government technical staff building at the Output2.2. Documentation of lessons central and local learned and 708,000 levels for scaling best practices and results sharing up climate Output2.4. Local faculties of agriculture resilience of integrate climate adaptation 400,000 farming solutions into their academic curriculum communities Subtotal Component Two 1,608,000 6,481,481 TOTAL OPERATIONAL BUDGET Financial Amount Currency Tenor Pricing Instrument Total project financing ………………… Options (a) = (b) + (c)
(i) Senior Loans ………………… Options ( ) years ( ) % (ii) Subordinated ………………… Options Loans ( ) years ( ) % C.2. Project ………………… Options financing (iii) Equity ( ) % IRR information ………………… Options (iv) Guarantees ………………… Options (b) (v) Reimbursable Requested grants * million
GCF amount USD($) (vi) Grants * …7 ……………
* Please provide detailed economic and financial
justification in the case of grants.
Total Requested ………………… Options (i+ii+iii+iv+v+vi)
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Financial Name of Amount Currency Seniority Instrument Institution
Options ………………… Options ………………… Options (c) Co- financing Options ………………… Options ………………… Options Options ………………… Options ………………… Options Options ………………… Options ………………… Options
Lead financing institution: ………………………
(d)
Covenants (e) Conditions
precedent to disbursement
D. Expected Performance against Investment Criteria
The project interventions are a direct contribution to the following GCF results:
- Result 1.0 Increased resilience and enhanced livelihoods of the most vulnerable people, communities and regions. The project is providing an integrated package of adaptation solutions to help smallholders reduce their losses due to climate change. These smallholders are very vulnerable; they rely mostly on cultivating small plots of land to feed their households through self- consumption of their produce, and in case any, selling the meager surplus that they have. Through adopting the project interventions, these farmers will be reducing losses in their traditional crops, introducing high-value crops, augmenting their income sources, etc., ultimately safeguarding their already stressed livelihoods against climate impacts. The project is thus a direct contribution to increasing resilience and enhancing livelihoods of the most vulnerable people. On a larger scale, the project is supporting smallholders that constitute the majority (90%) of the most vulnerable (the rural) communities of Middle Egypt. Middle Egypt, with 48.5% of the population below the national poverty line, is one of the most vulnerable regions of the country. The project is thus also contributing directly to D.1. Climate impact potential increased resilience and enhanced livelihoods of the most vulnerable communities and [Potential to achieve the regions of Egypt. GCF's objectives and results] - Result 2.0 Increased resilience of health, well-being and food and water security. To build their resilience, the project will introduce interventions that help farmers reduce crop losses and enhance agricultural productivity. It also introduces means such as intercropping where farmers grow 2 crops on the same land, as well as providing animal loans for diversification of income. The project is thus increasing the quantities of food that are being produced by the farmers, directly contributing to increasing the resilience of their food security, and on a larger scale, the food security of Middle Egypt as whole. The project’s water saving techniques will contribute to water security similarly.
- The project will be raising farmer’s adaptive capacity through training, demonstrations, technical support and farm-to farm visits. For sustainability, replication and mainstreaming of the different adaptation techniques that it is introducing, the project will also be building the capacity of the local partner NGOs and cooperatives as well as concerned government staff at different levels. It will be working on with local universities and secondary agricultural schools to mainstream climate adaptation in their curricula. As such, it will be contributing directly to Result 5.0 Strengthened institutional and regulatory systems for climate-responsive planning and
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development and Result 7.0. Strengthened adaptive capacity and reduced exposure to climate risks
The project will be establishing centres that are to provide information on climate change and different means to reduce its impacts to farmers and agricultural directorates. Among the information provided will be 5 days weather forecasts with recommendations of what to do to reduce losses in cases of foreseen extreme weather events. Other information provided will include issues such as recommended changes in sowing dates, new varieties and where to get them, crops that can be intercropped, etc. Such information will support farmers in making decisions such as what to grow when, what to do to reduce risks, etc. It will also support the directorates in deciding on the recommendations that they are to relay to farmers through their extension support. As such, the project will contribute to result 6.0 Increased generation and use of climate information in decision-making. The project’s documentation of lessons learnt and best practices and sharing of results is a direct contribution to Result 8.0. Strengthened awareness of climate threats and risk reduction processes.
The immediate climate adaptation results of the projects are:
* At least one climate-resilient cropping practice introduced for each of the main crops of the area * Diversified agricultural production demonstrated in 15 target villages where farming communities are dependent on irrigated crops. * Analysis of supply chains for at least 3 different climate resilient crops and assessment of economic impacts market barriers. * Adaptive irrigation management introduced in at least 40% of target drought-prone districts where irrigation is declining or becoming more variable. * Sectoral planners in the ministries of agriculture, planning and investment, and environment are trained to understand climate change risks for agricultural production and review policy options for enhanced climate resilience. * At least 75% of agricultural officers, extension workers, and farmer cooperatives in target districts are trained in climate change impacts on agricultural production and potential community-based adaptation options.
Estimatedproject beneficiaries:
500,000 benefiting directly 1,000,000 benefiting indirectly
Project communities will be selected based on two main parameters, namely vulnerability and feasibility of working there. To this end, the following steps will be undertaken: - The WFP food security index11 will be used to identify the most food insecure district in each of the five project governorates. - Within the identified districts, village-level poverty data will be used to identify the 3 poorest villages (communities) - Field visits, local-level consultations and NGO capacity assessments will be then undertaken to finalize the selection based on feasibility to work in the named villages. Factors to be looked into will include the acceptance of the community members, presence of a plausible NGO to partner with, security, etc.
11 An index that scores district’s food security based on a set of composite indicators.
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The proposed project will be providing knowledge, demonstrations, technical support and exposure through farm-to-farm visits to learn change perceptions and practices of farmers and decisions makers for enhanced climate resilience. Among the new practices that will be introduced are: - The use of heat tolerant varieties of common crops. - The cultivation of high income crops that grow better in warmer climates, bring in additional income while conserving water e.g. medical aromatic plants - Changing the sowing dates so as to have the crop avoid expected weather shocks at sensitive periods of growth. - New agricultural treatments to increase crop heat tolerance and productivity under weather stress. Among these were modified irrigation schedules as well as fertilization schedules. - Access early-warnings (5 days) and implement recommendations of what to do to reduce losses in cases of foreseen extreme events. - Practice income diversification techniques such as intercropping and obtaining loans to start-up animal production projects - Practice small scale food processing and post-harvest practices to add value and augment income sources, such as improved post- harvest practices and small scale food processing - Adopt interventions to enhance irrigation water usage efficiency The project will be directly introducing the above practices in 2- 3 villages as models in each of the Governorates of the Middle Egypt. To support scaling-up and replication of throughout Middle Egypt, the project design also includes a component to: D.2. Paradigm shift potential [Potential to catalyze 1) Raise the capacity of concerned government staff. Extension workers and decision impact beyond a one-off makers at the directorial level will be particularly targeted as they will be able to project or programme disseminate the knowledge and skills they gain throughout the governorates of investment] Middle Egypt 2) Expose agriculture students of Middle Egypt to climate adaptation techniques through collaboration with the local agriculture secondary schools and faculties of Agriculture in the universities of the area 3) Document the lessons learned and best practices generated by the project and sharing them through different outreach mechanisms as highlighted in section B.1 above. Consultations undertaken during the preparation of this concept note revealed that the climate-impacts faced by farmers in Middle Egypt are very similar to those faced by Southern Egypt. Additionally, the farming practices and dominant cropping patterns were found very similar. Consequently, the proposed interventions to build farmers resilience in Middle Egypt are to a fairly large degree similar to those implemented and proven successful under the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ project. Experience showed that the effectual design and successful implementation of the Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region Project catalyzed impact well beyond a one-off project. The mid-term evaluation of this project has in particular recognized the effectiveness of its knowledge sharing and learning results on farmers in the Southern Region. The potentials for scaling-up and replication were also underlined, supported by the project’s evident spillover effect. The project’s participatory approach that engages and builds capacity of stakeholders (e.g. reliance on local NGOs, partnerships with Governments) for sustainability was also noted. Adoption by farmers throughout Southern Egypt was another indicator of strong replication potentials of the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ Project. Although it was difficult to find farmers that are willing to participate in the different activities at the start of the project in 2013 but this soon changed. Witnessing the concrete and substantial results achieved on the ground,
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farmers realized how they can effectively safeguard their production and livelihoods through the various new techniques that the project introduces. This resulted in a rapid surge in numbers of farmers requesting to participate in project activities and the development of waiting lists to accommodate the increase in demands. It also resulted in farmers adopting many of these techniques at their own costs. Farmers from neighboring villages also visited, expressing interest in replication of the interventions. The Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region Project also contributed to the creation of a more enabling environment for mainstreaming of climate adaptation in governmental planning, policies and services. Through tangibly demonstrating their positive results, this project built governmental confidence in the feasibility of several climate adaptation interventions, encouraging their adoption and mainstreaming. In parallel, it built staff and physical capacities of governmental structures, enabling the government to overcome one of the key barriers to such adoption. As a result, the Ministry of Agriculture adopted several of the project interventions. Replication of the NGO-hosted Climate Information Centers established by the project in the Agricultural Directorates is an example of this. Mainstreaming of climate adaptation in the National Wheat Campaign to disseminate the project interventions throughout Southern Egypt is another. With a very similar design, the proposed project is expected to have paradigm shift potentials that are similar to those of the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ Project. Firstly, it will provide knowledge and learning for smallholders of Middle Egypt on techniques to build resilience against climate-induced impacts on food production. Secondly, facing similar climate impacts, farmers of Middle Egypt are expected to adopt and replicate its interventions as farmers of the South did under the Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region Project. Thirdly, it will also enhance capacities of governmental and non-governmental stakeholders for sustainability and up-scaling throughout Middle Egypt as the Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region Project did and continues to do in Southern Egypt.
The project is expected to provide wider development co-benefits as follows: a) Economic benefits: Studies indicate that the main crops of Middle Egypt will be strongly affected by climate change, with reductions of 19.2% in wheat, 15.2% in maize, and 15.2% in Berseem (clover) by 206012.
Smallholders, estimated to be 90% of the farmers in Middle Egypt, will be particularly hard hit by this. Decrease in productivity will mean a decline in what smallholders produce for subsistence as well as the already limited surplus that they can sell, directly D.3. Sustainable impacting their food security and livelihoods. Besides the land holders, the landless development potential labor in the sector will also be affected. Low income from farming will reduce daily [Potential to provide wages and jobs, particularly seasonal ones, in agriculture will be at risk. wider development co- benefits] The project supports vulnerable communities reduce their losses and salvage revenue that would otherwise be lost due to climate impacts. Its economic benefits include the salvaged reductions in farm production on agricultural land and the resulting farmers’ income. With an estimated reduction in net farm revenue of US$ 1412.15/ acre at a 3.60C increase13 , and considering that 10,000 acres will benefit direct, the economic benefit of the project is calculated to be US$14,121,500.
Without adaptation, climate change is anticipated to increase the water demands by an average of 7% by 2060 for most of the crops in Middle Egypt14. This will translate in longer irrigation hours and an associated increase in costs of pumping fuel. The proposed water saving techniques will induce a 25-30% reduction in current water
12 Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the Egyptian Economy, UNDP, 2013 13 Helmy Eid, et al, Assessing the Economic Impacts of Climate Chance on Agriculture in Egypt: A Ricardian Approach, 2007 14 El Marsafawy, S., Climatic Changes and their Impact on Crop Water Productivity Under Limited Water Resources In Egypt, 2016
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consumption15. With a current average irrigation cost of L.E.1200/acre/season, the project is thus expected to save a total of L.E. 384-444/acre/season for farmers.
The project also helps smallholder farmers and landless labor to sustainably protect their livelihoods through income diversification and augmentation activities. This includes animal raising, which would benefit some 20,000 households. Detailed income calculations for these animal raising projects will be included in the full project document.
Intercropping has been reported to increase farmers’ income by 60% percent16. It allows farmers to maximize outputs per units of land and water, reducing their production costs and generating revenue from 2 instead of one crop.
The proposed value addition interventions are to increase the price of produce multi- fold. Experience from Southern Egypt shows that sun-bed drying of tomato proved to increase the price of a kilogram from L.E 0.5 to L.E. 2, and peeling doubled the value of pomegranate (from L.E. 1500 to L.E 3000 per ton)17.
Environmental Co-Benefits:
The project will have several environmental benefits.
Intercropping has positive environmental impacts. By simultaneously planting, growing 2 or more crops, farmers economize the use of water, fertilizer, and pesticides, reducing the negative impacts of their activities on the environment.
Without the project, farmers are expected to over-exploit water and increase fertilizer usage to enhance productivity in the face of climate-induced declines in productivity. Such practices affect the environment negatively. The project’s use of heat tolerant varieties, change of sowing date, and intercropping, will reduce climate-induced productivity losses, helping prevent or at least minimize such practices. Drawing from recordings made under the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ Project, it is envisaged that the proposed interventions will induce a 25-30% reduction in fertilizer and water usage.
Likewise, and as recorded under the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ project, the proposed irrigation rescheduling and canal lining interventions are also envisaged to induce a 25-30% reduction in water usage.
Social Co-Benefits:
As part of Upper Egypt, Middle Egypt suffers from chronic rural poverty that results in many social problems18, including child labor high school dropout and illiteracy rates reach as high as 70% in some communities, especially among girls19. Malnutrition and poor affordability of proper health care with resulting chronic diseases are also endemic in the area, along with domestic violence and early marriage20.
The expected climate-induced reduction of smallholders’ incomes from agriculture is expected to aggravate such problems. With decreasing affordability to sustain their
15 Interview with Eng. Othman El Shaikh, Project Manager of the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ Project, November 2016 16 Interview with Dr. Moris Twaflis , Intercropping research Station, Field Crops Research institute Agriculture Research Institute, September 2016 17 Interview with Eng. Othman El Shaikh, Project Manager of the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ Project, November 2016 18 Hassanien, Mahasen. (1999). Egypt: A poverty profile. Paper made for the ICSW Civil Society Forum on Poverty- 1999, New York 19 Guzzardi, Joe (2011), Egypt Faces Huge Social Problems of overpopulation and poverty, internet article 20 Kader, F.A and Hesham Makhlouf. (1998). Egypt: The Social and Behavioural Outcomes of Unintended Pregnancy
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livelihoods, vulnerable households will be adopting negative coping strategies such as marrying-off their adolescent girls to relief financial burdens, sending their children off to work for additional income and reducing their intake of relatively expensive foods such as meat, poultry and dairy products21.
The proposed animal raising projects and post- harvest agro-processing activities will help reduce the extent of these problems by increasing the incomes of the vulnerable smallholders. The animal raising projects will also improve access to high-cost food commodities such as meat, milk or eggs contributing to improved nutrition.
The social benefits of the project also include strengthened NGOs that are in a better position to serve their communities.
Land cultivation is predominantly an activity performed by males in Middle Egypt. Accordingly, the majority of those involved and benefiting from the project’s field agricultural activities will imperatively be men. To create a stronger gender-sensitive impact, the project will be specifically targeting female members of the households to benefit from the animal raising projects and the agro-processing activities. Unlike revenue from land cropping, the income from these activities will thus be in hands of women and will give them a stronger voice on priorities and patterns of expenditure. The project will also encourage the involvement of female students and teaching staff in its activities with the agricultural schools and universities.
Middle Egypt has a rural population of 10.11 million, of which 48.5% are poor and 10. 53% are extremely poor22. It has a 24.15% prevalence of households with poor access to food, which is significantly higher than the national rate of 15.9%. It has a total D.4. Needs of recipient cultivated area of 1.66 million acres and 72% of its rural population depends on [Vulnerability to climate agriculture for a living. 90% of the areas farmers are smallholders. change and financing needs of the recipients] As figure 2 reveals, the whole of Upper Egypt will be subject to a tempreture rise of 1.5- 2 degrees by 2040.
21 Ghoneim, M. (2010). Qualitative Community Assessment. A report for WFP/Egypt 22 Poverty data of the Central Authority for Public Mobilization and Statistics, 2015
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Food production and livelihoods of smallholders of Middle Egypt, being part of Upper Egypt, is expected to be profoundly impacted by the projected temperature rise in many ways.
Increase in water demands
Projected temperature rise will increase crop-water requirements and decrease crop water use efficiency. Crop water requirements the main crops cultivated in Middle Egypt are expected to increase from 6 to 8.16 percent in 2060 due to climate change.23. As depicted in the map below (Figure 3), climate-induced increase in evapotranspiration rates by 2040 in Middle Egypt are the second highest nationwide, following Southern Egypt.
23 Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the Egyptian Economy, UNDP, 2013
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Reduced crop productivity As table 2 shows, climate change is expected to significantly reduce the productivity of the main crops of Middle Egypt24. This will affect the incomes of the 63% percent of the labor force engaged in agriculture, and the millions more – especially women - engaged in micro-enterprises that depend on agriculture. Similar conclusions were announced in a study issued by the Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics in January 201725.
Table 2- expected change in Crop Yield by 2060 Crop % change in yield in 2060 due to Climate change Wheat -19.2 Maize -15.2 Sugar Beet -1.53 Clover -15.2 Citrus -15.2 Vegetables -28
Rising crop pests and disease levels: Higher temperature results in rising crop pest levels that negatively affect crop productivity.26 During consultations, farmers reported that Tuta Absoluta appeared in recent years. This is supported by research on this topic, indicating that the spread of Tuta Absoluta is linked closely to temperature rise, where the incidence of this
24 Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the Egyptian Economy, UNDP, 2013 25 http://agri.ahram.org.eg/News/58652.aspx 26 Egypt Second National Communication (2010)
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infestation is expected to be higher in warmer months compared to relatively cooler months27. Wheat leaf rust and stripe rust disease are also increasing due to rising temperature.28 Furthermore, downy mildew infestation was also reported by the farmers in focus groups to be more severe. Reduced livestock productivity Blue Tongue disease and Rift Valley fever, have emerged in Middle Egypt, with links made to climate temperature29. The International Union For Conservation Of Nature – Regional Office For West Asia reported similar findings, attributing harmful stress impacts on animals’ productivity to temperature increases. In the field, farmers in Etsa village of Fayoum, mentioned that "fever outbreaks in cattle spread recently around the village’. Farmers in Beni suef complained about chicks of high prices (reaching L.E. 80) and often die because of their low tolerance to hot weather. Likewise, studies indicate that high temperatures increase mortality rates of laying hens, while reducing the number and quality of their eggs. Increases of 1-2 degrees have also been reported to reduce metabolic and growth rates as well as evidently reducing birds' reproduction rates due to semen characteristics and retardation of testicular development. Fodder availability is expected to be negatively affected due to adverse impacts of climate change on crop productivity. Farmers in Elmenia expressed their dissatisfaction due to stunted growth of clover subjected to cold waves at early stages. Increasing intensity and frequency of Extreme Weather Events Studies correlate an increase in intensity and frequency of extreme weather spells to climate change. Heat waves and chill waves as well strong wind episodes are the most common of these spells. Farmers of Middle Egypt are already witnessing such spells. According to Mr. Atef Abdallah, Director of Agriculture in New Valley governorate, during the winter season of 2014/2015, the temperature rose unexpectedly, and led to a reduction in wheat productivity by about 40% in the Governorate. In conclusion, Middle Egypt stands to lose up to a minimum of 30 percent of its food production by 2060 as a result of climate change impacts, including reduced crop and livestock productivity, increasing crop-water demand and reduced water use efficiency, increase in pest and disease infestations, etc. This will compound the already economically stressed and food –insecure state of the region .It will also have substantially negative impacts on the vulnerable smallholders who constitute the vast majority of the region’s rural population. Although Egypt is categorized as a middle income country, there are several financial challenges that limit its ability to allocate funds to support smallholders in adapting to climate change. Among these is increasing pressures on importing food and non- food commodities, especially after the flotation of the Egyptian pound in November 2016, a fiscal deficit of US$17.7 billion, and external debt of US$ 67.3 billion and an internal debt of US$166 billion30. In light of such a financial situation, the government was able to allocate only US$298 million dollars to the agricultural sector in the 2017-2018 budget Of this, 96.6% is already directed to the purchase of staple crops namely wheat, sugar cane and maize from farmers. The remaining 3.4% is pegged to land reclamation, research, extension and vet services. Due to the narrow fiscal space, there is no capacity to support additional programmes, including those related to climate adaptation.
27 Abolmaaty S.M; M.K. Hassanein; *A.A. Khalil and A.F Abou-Hadid. Impact of Climatic Changes in Egypt on Degree Day’s Units and Generation Number for Tomato Leaf miner Moth Tuta absoluta, (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera gelechiidae). Nature and Science, 2010;8(11) 28 Abolmaaty, S.M. (2006), Assessment of the Impact of Climate Change on Some Rust Diseases for Wheat Crop Under Egyptian Environmental Conditions, PhD Thesis, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University. 29 Dr. Ayman Farid Abou Hadid, Presntation to the 1st Meeting on the National Adaptation Plan, Cairo, 2017. 30 2017-2018 State Budget, Ministry of Finance
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Without GCF involvement to complement ongoing efforts and address this funding gap, the government cannot take adequate steps to address its priority of helping vulnerable communities adapt to climate-related risks and impacts, making them more susceptible to food insecurity.
The project is in line with the Egypt’s National Sustainable Strategy 2030 that mentions good governance and sustainable natural resource management to support the economy as one of its main pillars.
The project is also a direct contribution to the implementation of Egypt’s National Adaptation Strategy in the Agriculture Sector. In particular, it responds directly to the following priorities of this strategy:
- Develop systems, programs and policies to protect the rural community, and to promote its adaptation capacities to the anticipated change in land use, plant production, animal production and internal migration caused by changing indicators of climate: Study, characterization, and follow up the current status of the rural community, traditional knowledge and adaptation capacity (monitoring and evaluation programs for vulnerability and risk assessment facing different rural communities). Select programs to empower small farmers to adapt to climate change. Promote capacities of rural communities to manage their resources and outcomes, and to participate in relevant decision-making. Build capacities of rural communities to participate in development and implementation of national adaptation policies and disaster and crisis management.
The project also addresses the following priority areas of the National Adaptation Plan D.5. Country ownership issued in 2012: [Beneficiary country ownership of project or 1. Establishment of early warning system. programme and capacity 2. Improvement of irrigation systems. to implement the 3. Introduce heat tolerant varieties. proposed activities] 4. Introduce simple agriculture technique to increase resilience. 5. Diversification of householder income through animal keeping activities. 6. Small land holding consolidation. 9. Community mobilization and awareness toward climate adaptation activities.
In addition, the proposed project is strongly related to Strategy for Sustainable Agricultural Development 2030. In line with its commitment to support them, the project was developed by the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture to build smallholder’s resilience of against climate change. The Ministry considers it a second phase of the implementation of its strategy to address climate change impacts in the whole of Upper Egypt.
Preliminary consultations were undertaken with several diversified stakeholders groups to seek views on the need for the project, viable interventions, the potential for replication and up-scaling of the interventions, potential risks and mitigation measures and mechanisms for sustainability. Stakeholders consulted included senior officials of the Ministry of Agriculture at the Central level (the Director of the Extension Sector, Director of the Climate Information Center, Supervisor General of the Rural Comprehensive Development Projects) and at the local level (Directors of Agriculture in Sohag and Beni Suef, and extension officers in Luxor and Menia). It also included Board members of NGOs and agricultural cooperatives in Luxor and Beni Suef as well as farmers from Beni Suef and FAO in Egypt.
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The project was endorsed by the National Adaptation Committee as a high national priority. The committee is comprised of representatives of ministers of agriculture, social solidarity, electricity, environment, transportation, irrigation and industry.
The project is to build on the successful approach of the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt’ project to inclusively engage stakeholders and build ownership for sustainability. As mentioned in Section x above, it will be implemented through the Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with the Agriculture Research Center (including its different relevant Research Institutes), the concerned Governorates, Directorates of Agricultures, Vet, Irrigation, Social Solidarity and Education in the project Governorates, the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, the Egyptian Metrology Authority, local CDAs and local community members, the Universities of the region and the Agricultural Secondary Schools in the project Districts.
The project focuses on a defined set of high priority issues and implements concrete adaptation interventions in locations that are representative of the majority of Middle Egypt. In parallel, the project also supports policy making and capacity building that will help the government to scale up through knowledge transfer and appropriate policies to the rest of Middle Egypt.
Drawing on positive indicators of efficiency and effectiveness under the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ project, the project will:
- Use awareness and reach out techniques to provide information to a much higher number of indirect beneficiaries. Among the techniques to be used will be electronic dissemination in the form of a website and Facebook page, which is a virtually expense- free and widespread method. As noted by the evaluation of the Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ project, this approach ‘amounts to a cost-benefit relation in favor of the project’.
- Focus on on-farm small-scale low-cost technological solutions for water conservation, in addition to soft management solutions such as introducing irrigation D.6. Effectiveness and rotation/schedules, self-clearing of canals, among others. The project will set up efficiency demonstration pilots and will train local technicians who can participate in building, [Economic and financial operating and maintaining those systems. soundness and
effectiveness of the - Select activities with low expenses, such as duck and goat raising proposed activities]
- Train farmers on choice of appropriate crops and introduction of heat and drought
tolerant varieties that were already developed after many years of research. This will bring quick results to farmers within the life of the project and will be more cost effective. It is also quicker to scale up.
- Use cost-efficient channels for procurement of services and goods e.g. carrying out irrigation works by the partner NGO at below market price as they work on the basis of cost recovery (non-profit).
- Recruit community volunteers to assist in implementation and ensure sustainability, with the project supporting the negligible costs they incur in the process, mostly in the form of transport costs and consumables. This approach is expected to be reliable and effective, lowering the budget while anchoring the project within communities.
The project will also learn from lessons under the ‘Building Resilient Food Security Systems to Benefit the Southern Egypt Region’ to enhance efficiency. Among these will be improving the cost-benefit rates through a few complementary procedures that are low in costs but high in effectiveness, such as providing more regular veterinary services or providing fodder for the loan goats in the initial period during which beneficiaries have no income as yet.
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Overall the project has a budget of US $7 million and around 1.5 million beneficiaries. It will thus be building resilience of farmers at an average cost of US$4.6 per farmer, which is considered highly efficient and effective.
As studies indicate, it is estimated that climate impacts are expected to inflict reductions of US$ 1,412.15 if no adaptation techniques are used. Working in approximately 10,000 acres, the project will thus be salvaging a loss of US 14,120, 000 with U$ 7 million.
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E. Brief Rationale for GCF Involvement and Exit Strategy This project is aligned with several aspects of the GCF’s mandate as follows:
1. As highlighted in section D.2 above, the project is to promote, in several ways, paradigm shifts towards climate-resilience of highly vulnerable communities. As these communities constitute a significant proportion of Egypt, their vulnerability to climate change is a main driver of the country’s vulnerability as a whole. Within this context, the project is thus a direct contribution to the Fund’s mandate of ‘Promoting the paradigm shift towards low-emission and climate- resilient development pathways by providing support to developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change, taking into account the needs of those developing countries particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change’. 2. The project provides new resources that support the Government of Egypt in overcoming a financial barrier in addressing national climate change adaptation priorities. It is thus in line with Funds’ mandate of ‘Playing a key role in channelling new, additional, adequate and predictable financial resources to developing countries and will catalyse climate finance, both public and private, and at the international and national levels.’ 3. As highlighted in Section D.6 above, the project has several indicators of efficiency and effectiveness. As such, the GCF’s investment is allowing for cost-efficient and effective implementation of national proprieties and is thus directly aligned with the Fund’s mandate of ‘Operating in a transparent and accountable manner guided by efficiency and effectiveness’.
Several measures will be undertaken to ensure project sustainability, including: - Extensive baseline work will be undertaken in the FP phase to ensure that the project is working those communities where the uptake of project interventions would be ensured through appropriate conditions, especially the commitment of beneficiaries and availability of appropriate technical service providers. - Capacity building needs in NGOs/CDAs with whom the project will partner will be identified. In response, the project will be providing institutional support to address these needs, empowering the NGOs to successfully fulfil their roles explicitly during project implementation as well as after its completion, thus increasing sustainability Project beneficiaries will be active stakeholders in all phases of the project design and implementation as a means to ensure their commitment to maintaining the different interventions. Technical and capacity building support will be included in the project design as a key element to ensure that beneficiaries sustain their projects/activities. An example is the training in animal care and project management that will be provided for animal raising loan beneficiaries The project comes as a second phase to a previous resilience building experience in Southern Egypt, which the Government considered to be a pillar of its adaptation and poverty reduction strategy. To that end, the Government’s demonstrated interest in adoption and replication of the different project interventions (e.g. their replication of the Climate Information Centres in the directorates of the Southern Egypt Governorates) will be utilised to ensure sustained operations. Most of the income generation approaches and technologies focus on women beneficiaries who in the country and region (as elsewhere in the world) have a track record of diligence, accountability and perseverance. The project loans mechanisms are designed to generate income that will make them self-sustaining. Loan values, repayments schedules, interest rates etc., will be calculated to sustainably generate revenue for the beneficiary, encouraging him/her to uphold it. Similar to past experience in the South, agreements with the partner NGO/CDAs shall stipulate that a portion of the interest funds from the loans shall be used by the NGO/CDA in covering its loan administration costs, thus ensuring sustainability of this lending facility. The remaining portion of the accrued interest shall be used by the NGO/CDA to follow-up on the other activities of the project after its lifetime. This will include inviting technical experts to visit farmers by-annually to support their project-introduced crops, varieties, practices, etc. It will also include organizing seasonal
PROJECT / PROGRAMME CONCEPT NOTE GREEN CLIMATE FUND | PAGE 23 OF 23 harvest days where project-introduced benefits will be celebrated to encourage adoption by other farmers and community members. The project will create strong linkages with stakeholders through coordinating committees, from the central level to the grassroots level, includes representatives from many ministries and governmental authorities. It will also partner with local academic and research institutions such as local universities and agricultural schools. Such linkages were witnessed to create ownership, enhancing potentials for sustainability in the South. The project will cooperate with permanent official research bodies, some of which are affiliated with regional universities, while other are affiliated to governmental research centers (most of them are affiliated with the agricultural research centers affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture) for its technical aspects. The project will use domestic varieties, which were recommended by Egyptian research institutes, rather than imported crops. This increases the chances of sustaining execution through the existing mechanisms, whereby it would have been much more complicated and difficult had the project relied on imported seeds, especially as the seeds used are breeding (fundamental) seeds, which means they can be used for replanting for 4-5 years Finally, the project shall develop a participatory plan with arrangements and agreements for handover after the completion of the project.
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F. Risk Analysis The following table summarises the risks identified and the proposed measures for their mitigation: Risk Likelihood Mitigation measure In spite of the different capacity building Low To mitigate this risk, the project will be entrusting its other and support provided to partner NGOS, more active partner NGOs with some of the potentially the performance of some of them will delayed activities. highly likely remain below expected due to several reasons beyond the project's control Problems in procurement due to Medium Alternative suppliers will be sought. Such suppliers could specialised nature of goods and/or include research Institutes, with whom the project can large volumes requested partner to produce the needed goods e.g. through intensive breeding for supply of needed goats Non-sustainability of the project due to Low The substantially positive results achieved so far in Southern institutional or financial factors Egypt have well demonstrated the economic feasibility of the project interventions. Increasing numbers of farmers are now replicating and up scaling in their lands, mostly at their own expenses. The Ministry of Agriculture is already adopting the interventions in its programmes in the area- wheat cultivation so far. Through trainings as well as on-the-job support, the project is also building technical and institutional capacities of partner NGOs to anchor the project at the local level. It also started enhancing capacities of loans beneficiaries through specialized trainings to help them sustainably manage their projects. At the governorate level, the project is using the established climate centres in the agricultural directorates for replication and up scaling. Training of extension officers on climate-related adaptation started and one officer was assigned as the focal point for climate- related information exchange. Similar activities in the proposed project will be undertaken to enhance the potentials for sustainability in Middle Egypt. Targeting women in the animal loans low Awareness sessions will be undertaken to encourage males might create in-family tension to allow women of their families to access loans
Intercropping practices introduce new Low To mitigate this risk, all intercropping models of the project plant pests and diseases in the shall be scientifically selected, with due consideration of the agricultural environment of the project disease patterns of the different crops being used. communities
G. Multi-Stakeholder Engagement
Multi-stakeholders have already been consulted in the formulation of the project idea and the development of this concept note.
Further consultations will be conducted with a wider range of stakeholders for the preparation of the full project proposal. Different groups of stakeholders will be consulted, including civil society and community members, as well as government officials at central, governorate, district and village levels. Focus group discussions, in-depth meetings, and semi-structured interviews will be conducted to finalize the selection of the villages where the project will work, establish baselines, and finalize the agreement on the interventions, activities, roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders, work plan and budget of work in each village. Furthermore, a rapid survey will be undertaken where opinions of a sample of 100 community members from each village will be sought.
An institutional assessment will be undertaken to identify competent Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the different project locations that could, with limited capacity building if needed, be entrusted with the management of activities.
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Tools to be used in these consultations are annexed for reference.
Climate change adaptation is a multidimensional issue in which several stakeholders have different, yet complementary roles to play. To effectively achieve its objectives, the project will thus to cooperate with numerous stakeholders, at the central, regional and local levels. Innately, each of these stakeholder groups had its own needs, priorities, governance and/or governing regulations as well as way of doing things. Thus the project will thus take measures and develop tools to integrate inputs, create synergies and facilitate cooperation among these diversified players, towards the successful rand sustained realization of its objectives. In addition to the intensive consultations in the full project proposal development phase, the tools to be used in this regards will be: - Project support committees at the village level to meet monthly during the project lifetime - Local steering committees at the district level to meet quarterly and engage middle-management government officials - Governorate-level steering committees that convene quarterly for guiding the project, leveraging additional resources and overcoming challenges - A Cairo-based national steering committee comprised of the stakeholders at the central level. Meeting semi- annually, this committee will engage central senior-level officials to offer strategic guidance and support.
The project will organise an annual event to bring together representatives of the different partners to share experiences, discuss challenges faced and lessons learned, during the year and develop the project work plan for the upcoming year. Participants will include representatives of the partner NGOs in the all the project villages, the concerned government officials from the project Governorates, as well as he technical experts of different project interventions.
In parallel to the different engagement tools, the project will also raise capacities of the different stakeholders to enable them to play their expected roles in implementing and sustaining the project interventions. To that end, local partner NGOs capacity will be raised through trainings as well as the physical upgrading of the NGOs buildings as well as equipment. Loans management unit were also established in these NGOs.
Capacity of the relevant governmental staff will also be developed for their enhanced engagement and adoption of project activities. Extension workers will be involved in the different crop and animal production trainings as well as the operationalization of the project-developed software for support in foreseen extreme weather spells. Likewise, involvement of the staff from the different directorates in the wide range of awareness raising activities as well as trainings is planned to enhance their capacity to support the project. Continuous on-the-job training will be offered to the different stakeholders during implementation, enhancing their buy-in.
H. Status of Project / Programme
1) A pre-feasibility study is expected to be completed at this stage. Please provide the report in section J. 2) Please indicate whether a feasibility study and/or environmental and social impact assessment has been conducted for the proposed project/programme: Yes ☐ No ☒ (If ‘Yes’, please provide them in section J.)
3) Will the proposed project/programme be developed as an extension of a previous project (e.g. subsequent phase), or based on a previous project/programme (e.g. scale up or replication)? Yes x No ☐ (If yes, please provide an evaluation report of the previous project in section J, if available.)
I. Remarks
PROJECT / PROGRAMME CONCEPT NOTE GREEN CLIMATE FUND | PAGE 23 OF 23
J. Supporting Documents for Concept Note
√ Map indicating the location of the project/programme ☐ Financial Model √ Pre-feasibility Study ☐ Feasibility Study (if applicable) ☐ Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (if applicable) √ Evaluation Report (if applicable)