Strengthening the resilience of ecosystems and populations in four regional hubs in northern Application Title Mauritania Country/ Region Mauritania Accredited Entity United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Approval Date 24 June 2020 GREEN CLIMATE FUND | PAGE 0 OF 2 Request for Support from the Project Preparation Facility (PPF) Application Title Strengthening the resilience of ecosystems and populations in four regional hubs in northern Mauritania Country(ies) Mauritania Accredited Entity United Nations Environment (UNEP) Date of first submission/ 24 June 2019 (V1) Version number Date of current submission/ version 8 January 2020 (V3) number Please submit the completed form to [email protected], using the following naming convention in the subject line and the file name: “PPF-[Accredited Entity]- [Country]-yyyymmdd” 2017 Project Preparation Facility GREEN CLIMATE FUND | PAGE 1 OF 9 Version 2.0 Notes • The PPF supports the development of projects and programmes and enhance their quality at entry into the Fund’s pipeline. With a view to enhancing the balance and diversity of the project pipeline, the PPF is designed to especially support Direct Access Entities for projects in the micro-to-small size category. International Accredited Entities seeking project preparation support from the PPF are encouraged to do so especially for LDCs, SIDS and African countries where no Direct Access Entity is accredited. All Accredited Entities are encouraged to articulate counterpart support for project preparation within their requests for support from the PPF. • A PPF submission should include below documents: 1. PPF request (this form) 2. PPF No-Objection letter1 3. Concept Note • Please copy the National Designated Authority (ies) when submitting this PPF request. • Requests for support from the PPF should be submitted at the same time or following submission of a GCF Concept Note for a project or programme. • Further information on GCF PPF can be found on GCF website Project Preparation Facility Guidelines. 1 Please note that the PPF No-Objection Letter is different from the Funding Proposal No-Objection Letter. PPF No-Objection Letter template can be downloaded from here. Project Preparation Facility A. Executive Summary Name: Ermira Fida Position: Senior Programme Officer & UNEP-GCF Coordinator Accredited Entity Email: [email protected], [email protected] (AE) Tel: +254-20 76 23113 Full Office address: PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya, Yes ☒ No ☐ If yes, please indicate Has a No-Objection Letter3 Has a Concept Note2 been Project/Programme title: been submitted for this Yes ☒ No ☐ submitted in association Strengthening the resilience of request for support from the with this request for ecosystems and populations in PPF? (Please note that a PPF No- support from the PPF? four regional hubs in northern Objection Letter is a requirement Mauritania for the submission of this request) Total cost of Project Preparation activities: 756, 892 US$ Total Cost Amount requested from the PPF: 556.892US$ Co- finance from the AE & GoM: 200,000 US$ in kind Anticipated Duration 24 Months GCF resources are requested to support the preparation of the Full Funding Proposal for the project: Strengthening the resilience of ecosystems and populations in four regional hubs in northern Mauritania and specifically the implementation of a set of activities that will deliver: 1. Improved information on the causal linkages between climate and non-climate drivers and climate impacts; 2. Information on the economic impacts of climate change and an economic appraisal of the possible solutions to address the problem; 3. An assessment of good practice that could be scaled up for adaptation benefits; 4. A comprehensive strategy to meet the Fund’s investment criteria relating to paradigm shift, contribution to sustainable development, and efficiency and effectiveness. The outputs will be: Summary of the request 1. A fully evidenced climate rationale for the project; for Project Preparation 2. A feasibility study; support 3. An economic and financial appraisal study; 4. Gender assessment and action plan; 5. Social and environmental risk assessment; 6. Finalisation of the Funding Proposal and annexes. Observed climate changes are resulting in an intense process of desertification in Mauritania, putting additional pressure in the extremely fragile oases of the Sahara and moving the desert conditions further south, threatening the country’s very fragile and most fertile and populated lands in the Sahelian region. The climate-change induced desertification process is taken place in a robust and not well-managed urbanisation context. Driven by a complex set of factors, this is expanding regional hubs, which are becoming complex rural-urban hybrids with very vulnerable populations to climate change. This project focuses on four regional hubs or poles along the strip or band of the country where the desertification process is more severe and stopping it more strategic. In particular, from north to 2 See here to download the Concept Note template. 3 Template for PPF No-Objection Letter can be downloaded here. Project Preparation Facility south and from west to east, the project focuses on Aoujeft, in the province of Adrar; Rachid, in the province of Tagant; Tamchekett, in the province of Hodh el Gharbi; and Nema, in the province of Hodh El Chargui. The proposed project aims to increase the resilience to the current and projected impacts of climate change of the populations living in these hubs, contributing at the same time to stop desertification moving further south. In this sense, it seeks to ensure that awareness and knowledge on the impacts, risks and vulnerability to climate change are strategically mainstreamed in participatory development planning and implementation at meso and micro levels and that, on that basis, substantive investment are made in a systemic way on the ground to increase resilience, including land rehabilitation, water infrastructure and management, and adapted and diversified livelihoods. To facilitate this, the project also seeks to strengthen the enabling environment for mainstreaming climate change in key national policies, strategies and guidelines. B. Description of Project Preparation Activities Month Outputs and Activities (Please shade the implementation period from the starting month of the 4 Output and Activity in the schedule. Please also indicate the month of (Please select Activity Areas , activities, and deliverables as completion of each deliverable with “X” in the corresponding cell) needed) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 Activity and deliverable 1: PPF activity area: Pre-feasibility, feasibility studies and project designPre-feasibility, feasibility studies and project design a-Development of the climate rationale through primary data collection and modelling of impacts and climate change risks This will develop a comprehensively evidenced climate rationale for the project including: trend analysis to show the links between climate and non- climate drivers and impacts; modelling of climate change risks; stakeholder surveys to further inform the climate rationale and adaptation strategies. The climate rationale will focus on the interactions between climate change and environmental and infrastructure parameters such as surface water flows; land degradation and sand movements; forest productivity; water storage capacities; flood events and heat stress events, crop production and livestock productivity to provide a robust problem statement as the basis for the intervention strategy.. b- Develop the feasibility studies and (excluding the financial and economic appraisal which will be commissioned separately), which will underpin the Full Proposal, that outlines the following elements: social and 4 The PPF can provide support within the following project preparation activity areas: i. Pre-feasibility and feasibility studies ii. Environmental, social and gender studies iii. Risk Assessments iv. Identification of programme and project level indicators Other activities of direct relevance for Direct Access Entities that the PPF can support are as follows: v. Pre-contract services, including the revision of tender documents vi. Advisory services and/or other services to financially structure a proposed activity vii. Other project preparation activities, where necessary, and with sufficient justification Project Preparation Facility economic context; institutional and policy context; the available evidence on non-climate drivers causing vulnerability to climate change and an analysis of how climate change interacts with those drivers including projections over the next 20 years; an analysis of current and past initiatives with similar aims as proposed by the FP; a best practice and lessons learned analysis of similar interventions in the range of project countries; a description of the project interventions and where they have been used successfully, a clear analysis of the barriers preventing the preferred adaptation solutions from being implemented or scaled up; Theory of Change diagram and rationale; a project logframe: definition of goal, objective, outcomes, outputs and related, SMART indicators that align with the GCF Result Management Framework for adaptation, means of verification, costed monitoring and evaluation plans and roles and responsibilities c- Develop the financial and economic appraisal of the intervention strategy integrating available information on a cost-benefit analysis