REGIONAL PROJECT PROPOSAL Title of Project: Strengthening Resilience to Climate and Covid-19 shocks through Integrated Water Management on the Sudan – Chad Border area (SCCIWM) Countries: Chad, Sudan Thematic Focal Area1: Food Security, Disaster Risk Reduction and Early Warning Systems Type of Implementing Entity: Multilateral Implementing Entity (MIE) Implementing Entity: Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Executing Entities: Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources (Sudan) Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Sudan) Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources (Sudan) Ministry of Environment and Fisheries (Chad) Ministry of Agriculture (Chad) Amount of Financing Requested: 14,000,000 (in U.S Dollars Equivalent) 1 Thematic areas are: Food security; Disaster risk reduction and early warning systems; Transboundary water management; Innovation in adaptation finance. Table of Contents Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... ii List of Acronyms .......................................................................................................................... iii PART I: PROJECT INFORMATION ............................................................................................... 1 A. Project Background and Context: .................................................................................................... 1 Sahel Region ............................................................................................................................... 1 National Contexts ........................................................................................................................ 2 Early Warning Early Action (EWEA), ........................................................................................... 6 Sanitation and Climate Change .................................................................................................. 7 COVID-19 .................................................................................................................................... 8 SMART Irrigation – SMART WASH ............................................................................................ 8 Project Area ................................................................................................................................. 9 B. Project Objectives: ......................................................................................................................... 14 C. Project Components and Financing: .............................................................................................. 15 D. Projected Calendar: ....................................................................................................................... 16 PART II: PROJECT JUSTIFICATION ......................................................................................... 17 A. Project Components ....................................................................................................................... 17 B. Innovative Approaches, Technologies and Mechanisms .............................................................. 28 C. Economic, Social and Environmental Benefits .............................................................................. 29 D. Cost-effectiveness .......................................................................................................................... 31 E. Strategic Alignment ........................................................................................................................ 31 F. National Technical Standards and Environmental and Social Policy ............................................ 35 G. Duplication ...................................................................................................................................... 35 H. Learning, Knowledge Management and Lessons Learned ........................................................... 36 I. Consultative Process ..................................................................................................................... 37 J. Justification for Funding ................................................................................................................. 38 K. Sustainability .................................................................................................................................. 40 L. Environmental and Social Impact Risks......................................................................................... 41 PART IV: ENDORSEMENT BY GOVERNMENTS AND CERTIFICATION BY THE IMPLEMENTING ENTITY ............................................................................................................. 43 Annex 1 Endorsement Letters ................................................................................................................ 45 Annex 2 Project Command Area ............................................................................................................ 47 Annex 3 List of People Met ..................................................................................................................... 49 List of Acronyms AF Adaptation Fund AfDB African Development Bank CBO Community-Based Organisations COP Conference of the Parties COVID-19 Coronavirus Disease 2019 CWU Conjunctive Water Use DRR Disaster Risk Reduction ECHO European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations EWEA Early Warning Early Action EWS Early Warning System FAO United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation FSTS Food Security Technical Secretariat GCF Green Climate Fund GDP Gross Domestic Product GEF Global Environmental Facility HDI Human Development Index IDP Internally Displaced People IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development INDC Intended Nationally Determined Contributions ITCZ Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone IWM Integrated Water Management MWU Multiple Water Use NAPA National Adaptation Programme of Action NDC Nationally Determined Contributions NGO Non-Governmental Organisations SP Service Provider SREX Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNFCCC United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees VAT Village Agriculture Technicians VDC Village Development Committees WAM West African Monsoon WASH Water, Sanitation and Hygiene WFP World Food Programme WUA Water User Associations iii PART I: PROJECT INFORMATION A. Project Background and Context: Provide brief information on the problem the proposed project is aiming to solve, including both the regional and the country perspective. Outline the economic social, development and environmental context in which the project would operate in those countries. Sahel Region 1. Geography. The Sahel spans around 6,000 km from the Atlantic Ocean and Senegal in West Africa to Sudan and Ethiopia by the Red Sea in East Africa, in a belt covering an area of around 3 million square kilometres. It is a semi‐arid region stretching longitudinally and latitudinally from just north of the tropical forests to just south of the Sahara Desert; it is a transitional ecoregion between the Saharan desert and the wet climate of tropical Africa comprising semi-arid grasslands, savannas, steppes, and thorn shrublands. The Sahel is mainly flat and most of the region lies between 200 and 400 meters above sea level and is known to be particularly vulnerable to natural variability as most human activities in the region depend on the highly volatile single annual rainfall season, June through September peaking in August. 2. Precipitation. Annual precipitation in the Sahel region averages between 250 and 500 mm.2 Rainfall distribution can be roughly divided into different homogeneous regions: one along the west coast, a weaker one around Lake Chad and one over the western Ethiopian plateau. The dominant feature of the climate of this region is the West African Monsoon (WAM) system, which is a recurrent low latitude large-scale circulation pattern arising from the meridional boundary layer gradient of dry and moist static energy between the warm sub-Saharan continent and the tropical Atlantic Ocean. The WAM system develops from April to October, bringing the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and associated rainfall peak in August.3 The predominant weather in the eastern Sahel, particularly south of Khartoum, are significantly influenced by weather patterns deflected around and over the Ethiopian Highlands to the southeast.4 Along with the transcontinental south-westerly winds carrying moisture from the South Atlantic, the moisture-laden weather systems entering from the Indian Ocean through the Turkana depression south of the Ethiopian Highlands, and circulating around the southwest corner of the latter, are significant players in the development of convective systems over the plains of East Sudan.5 3. Climate change. The Sahelian region is experiencing the full impact of climate change with rainfall deficits and severe droughts, but also heavy rains and severe flooding with devastating consequences on people’s livelihoods. The region is one of the most severely affected from land degradation and desertification in the world.6 It has experienced severe drought and increasing deterioration of soil