Benin is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change with low levels of readiness and adaptive capacity. Climate change has already been felt in the country in recent decades, with increases in temperature, frequency and intensity of droughts and floods. Impacts on livelihoods and key sectors are expected to be significant if appropriate adaptation measures are not taken. The narrow fiscal space in Benin exacerbates the adverse impacts in the face of multiple development challenges, including high poverty rates as well as limited infrastructure and basic services, which could further aggravate the climate challenges.

To address these challenges, the project proposes to empower local governments and their communities to increase their capability of making adaptation measures and increase the share of climate-compatible investments at the local level through scaling up the existing “Local climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) initiative launched by Benin and the United Nations Capital Development Fund in 2014. The project will focus strengthening local climate governance to enable local stakeholders to take climate adaptation into consideration in its development planning. The project will give local level access to climate finance to increase adaptation investments in key climate sensitive sectors to address the financial gap between existing and needed adaptation measures.