Supporting resilience in West Africa coastal areas

Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Benin have an interconnected coastal and marine environment that yields highly productive ecosystems of significant terrestrial and marine biological diversity which have historically attracted major human settlements. Their littoral zone features major infrastructure and industrial facilities, important economic centres, small villages, agriculture, fisheries and tourism. The rapid population and economic growth along the coast of West Africa presents both an opportunity and a challenge for the sustainability of coastal ecosystems and manmade environments.

Coastal areas are, however, under significant pressure from natural and anthropogenic activities, which constitute major threats to human safety and to public and private infrastructure. A rise in the sea level has been observed during the past 100 years and the rate is expected to increase dramatically with climate change. The sea level rise combined with increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events will have serious consequences for the coastal zone. Many coastal areas will be submerged or subject to increasingly frequent flooding causing considerable damage.

NDF will assist four West African countries in strengthening their institutions and developing appropriate interventions which will strengthen the resilience of the private and the public sector to climate related impacts. The project aims at addressing technical, economic, and institutional factors with the aim of enhancing regional and national governance in the target countries and improving their knowledge base about coastal erosion, flooding, and other climate change hazards along the coastlines.  It will also serve as the first building block of a future technical assistance and investment program in the West Africa coastal area. Project activities include: 1) Building Awareness and Ownership; 2) Improving the Knowledge Base; and 3) Analysing Economics of Climate Change.