Climate change resilience in road sector in Zambia
NDF has approved EUR 4.0 million to support Zambia in the development of climate resilient infrastructure standards
NDF will support the Strategic Program for Climate Resilience (SPCR) in Zambia. The SPCR is a multi-donor long-term investment programme, led by the World Bank, which will play a catalytic role in promoting climate-resilient growth strategies in Zambia. The NDF support forms part of a larger component addressing climate resilient infrastructure policies and piloting their effective implementation. NDF support will increase the capacity of the Government of Zambia to plan for a climate change resilient road transport sector.
Due to its high levels of poverty and dependency on agriculture and natural resources – both climate-sensitive sectors - Zambia is particularly vulnerable to climate change and climate variability.Extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heavy rainfall are already happening, and are expected to increase in intensity and frequency. In the recent past, Zambia has experienced unpredictable floods, flash floods and intense rain which has impacted road and bridge foundations and in some cases damaged and washed away roads and bridges. Further, these intense weather events have affected the capacity of drainage and overflow systems, resulting in the deterioration of the structural integrity of roads, bridges and culverts. The main causes for road infrastructure damages are poor maintenance, construction quality and standards and the increase of extreme weather events. Addressing these issues will require a strengthening of technical knowledge, skills and experience in these areas.
Furthermore, there is a need to develop appropriate institutional tools and capacity including road asset management inventories, risk based planning and rapid response mechanisms, which are necessary for prioritizing expenditures in the road sector. But in order to make climate change resiliency more effective it will need to be integrated throughout the national transport policy, planning and management system.The NDF financing will focus on these aspects. The NDF grant will be parallel co-financing. The implementation of the NDF financed component will require technical assistance. NDF and World Bank procurement rules will be followed in the procurement of consulting services.
