Adaptation of West African Coastal Areas

General

Name of initiative West African Coastal Areas Program (WACA)
LPAA initiative Yes
NAZCA Initiative Yes
Website address http://www.wacaprogram.org
Related initiatives
Starting year 2015
End year
Secretariat The World Bank has assigned the following to liaise with partners interested in supporting the WACA Program: Peter Kristensen, Lead Environment Specialist (pkristensen@worldbank.org), Nicolas Desramaut, Senior Environmental Engineer (ndesramaut@worldbank.org), and Sajid Anwar, Environmental Specialist (sanwar@worldbank.org).
Organisational structure The WACA Program is hosted by the World Bank. The WACA Program consists of country projects, regional integration and support activities, and a WACA Platform as mechanism to scale-up knowledge, dialogue and finance.
Geographical coverage West Africa
Name of lead organisation World Bank
Type of lead organisation Financial institution
Location/Nationality of lead organisation United States of America

Description

Description WACA supports West Africa countries’ effort to improve the management of their shared coastal resources and reduce the natural and man-made risks affecting coastal communities. WACA boosts the transfer of knowledge, foster political dialogue among countries, and mobilize public and private finance to tackle coastal erosion, flooding, pollution and climate change adaptation.
Objectives The objective is to strengthen the resilience of targeted communities and areas in coastal Western Africa.

In that respect, WACA aims to enhance the absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacities of the beneficiary countries and to reduce the shared risks to which they are exposed, either natural or man-made, and that are similar for all or most countries or transboundary in nature.

Activities Interventions include:

1) WACA national Resilience Investment projects: These include each regional integration and support activities (WAEMU, IUCN, Centre de Suivi Ecologique, Abidjan Convention), strengthening of national policy and institutions, and strengthening national physical and social investments.

2) WACA Regional Scale-Up Platform:

- On knowledge, WACA engages international expertise hubs, the African Center of Excellence for Coastal Resilience, the West Africa Coastal Observatory, “Call for Innovations”, and knowledge exchanges between countries and people.

- On finance, the WACA Marketplace is in place as a simplified investment mechanism that aims to match the demand for coastal resilience investments with the supply of partner financing. WACA is engaging the private sector to help develop the relationships, tools and mechanisms needed to support their engagement in strengthened coastal resilience for the region.

- On Dialogue, the 2018 WACA Country Communique provided the authorizing environment to pursue the three critical streams of work for WACA. First, regional integration by working via regional economic commissions (WAEMU and ECOWAS, the Abidjan Convention and its protocols, and the pursuit of a regional observatory for coastal resilience continuing the work by the Centre de Suivi Ecologique. Second, national scale-up through expanding on the WACA Multi-Sector Investment Plans. Third, mobilizing financial resources from partners in support of new WACA projects or in complement to existing WACA projects for strengthened coastal resilience. In addition, the WACA Local Action and Citizen Engagement (LACE) is about supporting a pro-poor, people-centered approach to promoting sustainable, inclusive and resilient development in the West African coast. Finally, the WACA Forum brings it all together and is at the center of the dialogue and engagement. It ensures inclusiveness and transparency and is convened once a year, hosted by one of the WACA countries. The Forum provides a space for a joint discussion of topics pertaining to knowledge and finance, and takes up special themes (e.g., ports or coastal observation) as they relate to coastal resilience to explore and address bottlenecks or opportunities for that specific theme.

One or two success stories achieved Total mobilized financing resources: World Bank $190 million, Global Environment Facility $25 million, Nordic Development Fund $18 milion, in additional to several Bank-executes trust funds sposored by Japan, Korea, Norway and France.

Protected people and natural assets: 3,600 households with increased resilience to erosion and flooding (Benin), 3 km of dunes strengthened for natural storm protection (Mauritania), and Formal political & technical transboundary cooperation mechanism - (between Benin & Togo)

Leveraged commitments, funds, and partnerships: 13 countries adopted WACA Communique, committing to regional integration and cooperation, $6m Education P-for-R: Africa Center of Excellence for Coastal Resilience, Co-financing and parallel investments from development partners (Spain, NDF, FFEM, GEF, GCF, AFD)

Mobilized expertise, civil society and knowledge: Cost of Coastal Zone Degradation (report), Coastal radio in Senegal, Knowledge exchange with Netherlands.

Monitoring and Impacts

Function of initiative Funding, Technical dialogue
Activity of initiative Financing, Knowledge dissemination and exchange
Indicators
Goals
Comments on indicators and goals
How will goals be achieved
Have you changed or strenghtened your goals
Progress towards the goals
How are you tracking progress of your initiative
Available reporting

Participants

Participants Number Names
Members 30  
Companies 0
Business organisations 0
Research and educational organisations 2 University of Cape Coast (Ghana),  European Space Agency (France)
Non-governmental organisations 0
National states 11 Benin,  Cote d'Ivoire,  Gambia,  Ghana,  Guinea,  Guinea Bissau,  Mauritania,  Nigeria,  Sao Tome & Principe,  Senegal,  and Togo
Governmental actors 4 Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition (France),  Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Spain),  French Global Environment Facility (France),  French Development Agency (France),  GIZ (Germany)
Regional / state / county actors 3 West Africa Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU),  Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),  Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS),  Abidjan Convention
City / municipal actors 0
Intergovernmental organisations 6 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),  Center for Ecological Monitoring (CSE),  Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recover (USA),  Global Infrastructure Facility (USA),  Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services-Waves (USA),  Quality Infrastructure Investment Partnership (Japan) .
Financial Institutions 4 World Bank Group - PROBLUE (USA),  Global Environment Facility (USA),  Nordic Development Fund (Finland),  French Development Agency (France)
Faith based organisations 0
Other members 0
Supporting partners 1 Netherlands Water Partnership
Number of members in the years
Have only national states as participators No


Theme

Transport Agriculture Forestry Business Financial institutions Buildings Industry Waste Cities and subnational governments Short Term Pollutants International maritime transport Energy Supply Fluorinated gases Energy efficiency Renewable energy Supply chain emission reductions Adaptation Other Resilience Innovation Energy Access and Efficiency Private Finance
No No No No Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes
Last update: 7 March 2022 15:14:34

Not only have national states as participators