Climate Risk Management in Finnish Development Cooperation - Gaia

and addressed in the logical framework as assumptions (“No major change in climate affects
implementation”).
Project elements supporting local adaptation
FinnWASH project has several elements that support local climate adaptation, related to its core
objectives, i.e. i) Institutionalised community capacity to construct and maintain community
managed water supply and adopt appropriate technologies and behaviours related to sanitation and
hygiene sustainably, ii) CDF mechanism institutionalized as a mechanism to finance WASH
investments, iii) Institutionalised capacity at woreda level to support communities in implementing
WASH activities, including reinvestment, and iv) Institutionalised capacity at zonal and regional levels
to support WASH activities and replicate CDF approach.
The activities that will be undertaken to reach these objectives can be expected to contribute
positively to several pro-climate adaptation livelihoods assets (incl. human, social, natural, physical
and financial – see figure 1). Construction of water supply facilities will make fresh water resources
available in better quantity and quality and contribute to both improved natural and physical
livelihood assets that directly reduce immediate vulnerability to climate variability.
Institutionalized community capacity can be expected to have positive effects on social networks
and assets, on human capital and cultural transformation. Knowledge and skills obtained through
project activities can be beneficial in other (livelihood) activities, contribute to improved social
networks and relationships in the communities and support sustainable sanitation and hygiene
behavioural change. As experiences from RWSEP have demonstrated, the replication of the CDF
mechanism should have a positive effect on FinnWASH target communities’ financial assets and help
channel funds towards development efforts initiated by local stakeholders.
Overall, the project activities will have a positive effect on local and regional governance. Increased
local governance capacity, supporting local communities at initiating, managing and maintaining
water supply facilities, can be expected to contribute to a reduction of overall vulnerability of local
communities to climatic and non-climatic threats.
Project elements undermining local adaptation
The initial screening does not flag out project elements that would contribute negatively to local
adaptation capacity. On the contrary, as noted above, the overall framework for FinnWASH can be
expected to contribute to improved climate adaptive capacity in the programme areas.
Conclusions and potential entry points for interventions
In conclusion, the initial climate screening of FinnWASH BG reveals low - medium level risks for
project outcomes. Reportedly floods and droughts have so far not been frequent in the programme
woredas (figure 11). However, the already experienced variability in rainfall patterns as well as the
projected changes in rainfall patterns, which could a.o. entail changes in timing of rainfall/rainfall
periods as well as the intensity of rain events (see chapter 2) can pose real climate risks to local
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