The Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA - SAP006) recently concluded a nationwide training workshop in the regional towns of Keetmanshoop (/Kharas Region), Otjiwarongo (Otjozondjupa Region), Khorixas (Kunene North Region), Opuwo (Kunene East Region), Ondangwa (Oshana Region), Rundu (Kavango East Region) and Katima Mulilo (Zambezi Region), respectively.

The Ecosystem - based Adaptation (EbA) project, is the first to be approved in ecosystem restoration and is a project of the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT), implemented by the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia (EIF) through a Project Management Unit (PMU), and is spearheaded by a multi-stakeholder Project Steering Committee (PSC). It is a product of the proposal “Building resilience of communities living in Landscapes threatened under climate change through an Ecosystem-based Adaptation approach in Namibia”.

The workshops highlighted the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia’s (EIF) and Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism’s (MEFT) commitment towards addressing the issues of climate change. It further highlights the two parties’ contribution towards the realization of Namibia’s obligations to national and international climate change frameworks. It is aimed at informing Community Based Organisations (CBO’s) or participants about the project objectives and it activated participants to identify the need priorities of their respective communities, as well as to familiarise participants with some technical tools in planning and climate change related issues.

Leading the facilitation, Project Manager, Mr. Bryan Gaomab, said the emphasis was to develop feasible answers on how to address known gaps and challenges in the different landscapes. To strengthen the knowledge of the participants about the EbA project and the roles of the different stakeholders, to ensure better understanding technical terms, to seek community inputs on adaptation mechanisms, to highlight matters on environmental and social safeguards, and gender mainstreaming and to effectively introduce the EbA grants and application procedures” he said.

EbA project was approved by GCF on 28 February 2019 and is implemented under The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) funded by Green Climate Fund (GCF) through the Environmental Investment Fund (EIF) of Namibia. The EbA (SAP006) project is financed to the tune of Eight Million Nine Hundred and Four Thousand US Dollars (U$ 8,904,000). The project aims towards increasing landscape productivity across targeted 8 landscapes of Namibia to strengthen social and ecological systems that sustain livelihoods at local levels and facilitate value chains of natural resources. 

According to the Technical Expert on climate change, from the Ministry of Environment Forestry and Tourism, Mr. Johannes Munango, Namibia’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change stems from the fact that Namibia is one of the driest countries in Sub- Sharan Africa where it faces problems like water scarcity coupled with the changing climate therefore making us more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. “During the vulnerability assessment that we conducted in 2020 for the regions in Namibia, we found that most regions are actually dependant on ecological based enterprises in the form of livelihood and are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.” Munango said. He further alluded to the vulnerability to climate change being region specific and that they follow different factors which informs them about the contributing factors like livelihood income per household, taking into consideration women led households, services in that region like school facilities. These amongst others, determine the vulnerabilities of these regions to the impact of climate change.

“We used four indexes, to inform our vulnerability which were the exposure index, where we look at the impacts of climate change and how the regions are exposed to those impacts. There was also the sensitivity index, which then determines how that region is sensitive to the impacts of climate change, and then we looked at the adaptive capacity, how the region can cope with the impacts of climate change. Those three indexes then in turn informed the last index which was the national vulnerability index” he added. Fuhrer studies found that mostly regions in the north, to the North-eastern regions of Namibia are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, because in these regions they are mostly dependent on rain fed agriculture and rearing of animals as a livelihood making them more prone sensitive to the impacts of climate change. The Southern regions on the other hand already present drier conditions, which means that they are more adaptive to those conditions already with or without climate change. He also urged the nation to further read up on Namibia’s Fifth National Communication found on the website of by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) website. 

Furthermore, the EbA project aims to increase climate change resilience of productive landscapes in Namibia through implementation of Ecosystem-based Adaption actions that strengthen social and ecological systems to sustain livelihoods at local levels and facilitate value chains of natural resources. The project’ action responds to declarations and processes of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that promotes investing in low emission and climate-resilient development that have high impact on local development and community livelihoods while increasing conservation of the ecosystem.

The regions of Namibia are clustered into eight (8) landscapes which make up the Southern landscape, Kunene South and Daures landscape, Kunene North landscape, Lower-Eastern landscape, North Central landscape, Kavango East and West landscape, Zambezi East and West and Ovitoto and Otjimbingwe landscapes.

The Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia (EIF), in 2015, obtained accreditation from the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The GCF is a unique global fund, established within the rubric of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as a response to climate change for investing in low-emission and climate-resilient development. The status of accreditation makes EIF eligible for accessing climate change funding from the GCF.

The workshop was attended by Community Based Organisations, chairpersons, treasurers, secretaries, and administrators, as well company representatives who make up the team of facilitators of the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia, Namibia Development Trust (NDT), and Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism. The call for proposal from the SAP006 Small Grants Facility is encouraging Namibians to respond to the call made public by apply for a grant under the respective windows. The deadline for this application is on 13 May 2022 at 17:00PM and more information on the application process and requirements can be found on the EIF website on http://www.eif.org.na or the EbA webpage on https://eba.eif.org.na/

The training workshop commenced on 16 March 2022 to 10 April 2022.