AFB/PPRC.25/11 30 September, 2019 Adaptation Fund Board Project and Programme Review Committee Twenty-Fifth Meeting Bonn, Germany, 7-11 October, 2019 Agenda Item 4 h) PROPOSAL FOR TUNISIA Background 1. The Operational Policies and Guidelines (OPG) for Parties to Access Resources from the Adaptation Fund (the Fund), adopted by the Adaptation Fund Board (the Board), state in paragraph 45 that regular adaptation project and programme proposals, i.e. those that request funding exceeding US$ 1 million, would undergo either a one-step, or a two-step approval process. In case of the one-step process, the proponent would directly submit a fully-developed project proposal. In the two-step process, the proponent would first submit a brief project concept, which would be reviewed by the Project and Programme Review Committee (PPRC) and would have to receive the endorsement of the Board. In the second step, the fully- developed project/programme document would be reviewed by the PPRC, and would ultimately require the Board’s approval. 2. The Templates approved by the Board (Annex 5 of the OPG, as amended in March 2016) do not include a separate template for project and programme concepts but provide that these are to be submitted using the project and programme proposal template. The section on Adaptation Fund Project Review Criteria states: For regular projects using the two-step approval process, only the first four criteria will be applied when reviewing the 1st step for regular project concept. In addition, the information provided in the 1st step approval process with respect to the review criteria for the regular project concept could be less detailed than the information in the request for approval template submitted at the 2nd step approval process. Furthermore, a final project document is required for regular projects for the 2nd step approval, in addition to the approval template. 3. The first four criteria mentioned above are: (i) Country Eligibility, (ii) Project Eligibility, (iii) Resource Availability, and (iv) Eligibility of NIE/MIE. 4. The fifth criterion, applied when reviewing a fully-developed project document, is: (v) Implementation Arrangements. 5. It is worth noting that at the twenty-second Board meeting, the Environmental and Social Policy (ESP) of the Fund was approved and at the twenty-seventh Board meeting, the Gender Policy (GP) of the Fund was also approved. Consequently, compliance with both the ESP and the GP has been included in the review criteria both for concept documents and fully-developed project documents. The proposal template was revised as well, to include sections requesting demonstration of compliance of the project/programme with the ESP and the GP. 6. At its seventeenth meeting, the Board decided (Decision B.17/7) to approve “Instructions for preparing a request for project or programme funding from the Adaptation Fund”, contained in the Annex to document AFB/PPRC.8/4, which further outlines applicable review criteria for 2 both concepts and fully-developed proposals. The latest version of this document was launched in conjunction with the revision of the Operational Policies and Guidelines in November 2013. 7. Based on the Board Decision B.9/2, the first call for project and programme proposals was issued and an invitation letter to eligible Parties to submit project and programme proposals to the Fund was sent out on April 8, 2010. 8. According to the Board Decision B.12/10, a project or programme proposal needs to be received by the secretariat no less than nine weeks before a Board meeting, in order to be considered by the Board in that meeting. 9. The following fully-developed project document titled “Economic, Social and Solidarity Insertion for Resilience in the Governorate of Kairouan - IESS-Adapt“ was submitted for Tunisia by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which is a Multilateral Implementing Entity of the Adaptation Fund. 10. This is the first submission of the project proposal using the one-step submission process. 11. The current submission was received by the secretariat in time to be considered in the thirty-fourth Board meeting. The secretariat carried out a technical review of the project proposal, assigned it the diary number TUN/MIE/Rural/2019/1, and completed a review sheet. 12. In accordance with a request to the secretariat made by the Board in its 10th meeting, the secretariat shared this review sheet with IFAD, and offered it the opportunity of providing responses before the review sheet was sent to the PPRC. 13. The secretariat is submitting to the PPRC the summary and, pursuant to decision B.17/15, the final technical review of the project, both prepared by the secretariat, along with the final submission of the proposal in the following section. In accordance with decision B.25.15, the proposal is submitted with changes between the initial submission and the revised version highlighted. 3 ADAPTATION FUND BOARD SECRETARIAT TECHNICAL REVIEW OF PROJECT/PROGRAMME PROPOSAL PROJECT/PROGRAMME CATEGORY: REGULAR PROJECT/PROGRAMME _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Country/Region: Tunisia Project Title: Insertion économique, sociale et solidaire pour la résilience dans le Gouvernorat de Kairouan ("Economic, social and solidarity insertion for resilience in the Governorate of Kairouan") - IESS-Adapt Thematic Focal Area: Rural Development Implementing Entity: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) AF Project ID: TUN/MIE/Rural/2019/1 IE Project ID: Requested Financing from Adaptation Fund (US Dollars): 9,997,190 Reviewer and contact person: Ahmad Ghosn Co-reviewer(s): Avril Benchimol, Saliha Dobardzic IE Contact Person: Ms Margarita Astralaga Technical The overall objective is to improve the climate resilience of vulnerable ecosystems, vulnerable populations Summary and the livelihood infrastructure of the rural poor in the Kairouan region. This objective will be achieved through the successful implementation of the activities covered by the following three components: 1. Access to basic services and strengthening of livelihoods. 2. Sustainable value chains through climate resilient water infrastructure. 3. Knowledge management. The proposed project intends to scale up and build upon a previous USD 7.8 million project by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in the governorate of Kairouan. The financing requested seeks to scale up the lessons learned from the AfDB IADP project. Concreted adaptation measures include: (i) Climate-proofing of 50 km of rural access roads; 1 (ii) Training and capacity building program implemented (2,100 FIN and 4,200 LIF - 65% women, 50 % youth.) 400 beneficiaries have developed new climate resilient income-generating activities (65% women 50% youth). (iii) 400ha of dry, vulnerable and degraded land stabilised with cactus plantations (400 beneficiaries) (iv) 300 seasonal water reservoirs ("citernes enterrées") are constructed (total capacity 15,000 m3) minimum 65% women. (v) 7 additional groundwater monitoring stations installed in key locations (vi) Adaptive technologies are demonstrated 14 demo plots are established and around 3500 farmers trained in climate adaptive agricultural techniques. The project design is likely to achieve its objective in reaching integrated natural resource management and livelihoods project will help ensure sustainable land management and improve the climate resilience of the rural climate vulnerable poor. Upon the review of the resubmitted revised project document, it was concluded that the comments from the initial technical review were addressed satisfactorily, except in relation to the Gender Policy, as no Gender Assessment, as such, has been provided. However, the project reflects and mainstreams gender considerations, and it could be recommended for approval conditionally, such that the signing of the project agreement would be conditional upon a satisfactory submission of a consolidated Gender Assessment to the AFB Secretariat. Date: 16 September, 2019 Review Questions Comments of August 21, 2019 Comments on September 16, 2019 Criteria 1. Is the country Yes. party to the Country Kyoto Protocol? Eligibility 2. Is the country a Yes. Tunisia is a Mediterranean developing country that is highly vulnerable to country climate change. Key climate 2 particularly change risks include temperature - vulnerable to increases, reduced precipitation, the adverse rising sea levels and extreme effects of weather events (torrential rains, climate change? floods and droughts). These risks are likely to imply significant environmental and socio- economic impacts, particularly on water resources, agriculture and natural ecosystems. The majority of Tunisia’s agricultural production occurs in coastal zones Tunisia will be among the 33 countries most likely to experience water stress (or water scarcity) by 2040 and lose more than 80% of its non-renewable water resources. 1. Has the Yes, as per the Tunisia’s designated Adaptation Fund Designated - government Authority Endorsement letter authority for the dated May 9th, 2019 (Annex 1, Adaptation Fund page 75). endorsed the Project project/program Eligibility me? 2. Does the length Yes. However, please address of the proposal the follow editorial/ document amount to no content/ format remarks: more than fifty pages for the CR1: revise paragraphs 24-25 for project/program CR1: Addressed, paragraphs 24-25. 3 me concept, clarity of the statistics (values and including its units),