AAAP in the Media
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Youth Adaptation Solutions Challenge Francophone Cohort
The Youth Adaptation Solutions Challenge is an annual competition and awards program for youth-led enterprises (50% women-led) organized by GCA and AfDB as part of the Youth Adapt Flagship Program.
The competition invites young entrepreneurs and Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Africa to submit innovative solutions on climate adaptation and resilience. The winners will be part of a 1-year incubator program, which will provide tailored training on business development and adaptation, coaching, networking opportunities, and grants to enable the youth-led enterprises to scale up their innovative businesses and build resilience among marginalized communities in Africa
The objective of the project is to deliver business development services (BDS) to and build the institutional capacity of youth-led enterprises, positioning them to effectively utilize grants offered and to also mobilize additional private capital, scale up climate action and create employment opportunities on the continent.
- Build youth capacity for employability and unlocking access to finance
- Deliver a 1-year incubator program tailored training on business development and adaptation
- Provide coaching and networking opportunities
- Equip young innovators and MSMEs with customized skills and resources to scale up climate adaptation innovations and boost the creation of jobs
- Grant disbursement to the 5 winners of the YouthADAPT winners
- 12-weeks training with practical skills in entrepreneurship and business development and climate adaptation
- Mentorship to enable the winners to execute their business plans, create jobs, and support the continental effort towards climate resilience
- Training materials developed and training workshops delivered tailored to the selected youth-led start-ups
- Support to the youth led-businesses to develop and implement their business plans and to mainstream adaptation and climate resilience in their businesses
- Delivered business development services (BDS) to and building the institutional capacity of youth-led enterprises
- Youth-led enterprises positioned to effectively utilize grants offered and to also mobilize additional private capital
- Scaled up climate action and ability create employment opportunities on the continent
USD 500 Million
Benin - Port of Cotonou Expansion
The port of Cotonou has a strategic importance in the region, as it is also one of the main gateway ports for the sub-region, in particular the countries of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali. The port is the economic heart of Benin, handling an annual freight volume of around 11 million tonnes. The Port of Cotonou currently has a 546-metre quay. The 31.2-hectare container park has several modern equipment, including four quay gantries, one mobile crane, 12 RTG (Park Gantries), and 15 reach stackers. With a full container storage capacity of nearly 20,000 TEUs, it has 24-hour docking services
The aim of the sea Port expansion is to part of Benin’s larger plan to enlarge and enhance the Port of Cotonou and strengthen the country's role as a guiding force of local economic development.
- Utilizing cutting-edge climate analytics to identify and quantify the impacts of physical climate risk on the investment
- Delivering high resolution climate risks assessments, adaptation and resilience investment options to climate-proof the investment against the impacts of physical climate risks
- Renovation and deepening of the existing North dock along its 1,391-metre length (16 metres deep with a pile/sheet piling structure)
- Extension of the North dock by 214 metres (16 metres deep with diaphragm walls) and construction of a roll-on roll-off (RoRo) ramp
- Extension of the South dock by 154 metres (15 metres deep with diaphragm walls)
- Extension of the harbour basin with the creation of a rubble mound breakwater at the end of the dock;
- Dredging of all berths to 16 metres, plus maintenance dredging of the basin
- Revamped port’s infrastructure to accommodate Post-Panamax container ships as from 2025
- Enlarge and enhance the Port of Cotonou with modern facilities to accommodate 20 million tonnes
- Strengthen Port of Cotonou role as the country's a guiding force of local economic development
AfDB Investment of USD 44.5 Million of total USD 115 Million
USD 300 Million (Estimate)
Reinforcing Resilience to Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Sahel (P2-P2RS)
The Sahel, which lies between the Sahara Desert to the north and tropical savannas to the south, is one of the largest semi-arid/arid sub-regions globally. As such, the region is highly vulnerable to climate change and other uncertainties. The impacts of climate change may have critical socio-economic consequences for the Sahel, including poor agricultural yields, increased frequency of natural disasters. Already, the number of people in the Sahel suffering from chronic food and nutrition insecurity, poverty and vulnerability to the effects of climate change is rising steadily.
A lasting solution to food and nutrition insecurity in the Sahel requires building resilience to climate change, long-term agricultural sector financing and developing trade and regional integration. Sustained, longer-term investments in household resilience can significantly reduce the cost of emergency assistance, ultimately breaking the cycle of recurring famine. This is the most cost-effective intervention option which meets the basic needs and preserves the dignity of the populations of the Sahel. This idea is central to the Programme to Build Resilience to Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Sahel (P2RS)
The overall objective of the P2-P2RS is to contribute to the substantial improvement of the living conditions and the food and nutritional security of the populations of the Sahel region.
Specifically, the program aims to i) strengthen the resilience to climate change of agro-sylvo-pastoral producers, including through promotion of climate-smart agricultural technologies in the Sahel and the development of climate intelligent villages; ii) develop the agro-sylvo-pastoral value chains, including through the development and improvement of hydro, meteorology and climate services; and iii) support regional institutions (CILSS, APGMV, CCRS) to strengthen adaptive capacity in the Sahel.
- Design digital adaptation solutions (Digital Climate Advisory Services, DCAS) for the Sahel context
- Investment readiness and infrastructure, institutional and farmer capacity needs for DCAS
- Feasibility study to integrate DCAS into agricultural extension and agrometeorological advisory to smallholder farmers and pastoralists
- 1 million rural households have access to digital or data-enabled climate-smart technologies
- 500,000 smallholders have adopted adaptation practices
- 5 million smallholders have access to climate services;
- Development and improvement of hydro, meteorology and climate services
- The development of climate-intelligent villages
- Promotion of climate-smart agricultural technologies in the Sahel
- Resilience to food and nutrition security built for the targeted populations
USD 300 million
Country Digital Agriculture and Adaptation Profile: Benin, DRC, Malawi and Tanzania
Food production in Africa is largely dominated by smallholder rain-fed agriculture and the sector is therefore particularly vulnerable to climate change and variability. The continent is already experiencing more frequent extreme weather events and higher-than-average temperature increases. According to a recent report by the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), the annual cost of adaptation actions is estimated at US$15 billion, while that of non-action is estimated at US$201 billion.
Digitalization offers the opportunity to help farmers adapt to some of the challenges arising from climate change and could lead to in-depth transformation of the agriculture sector. However, the dissemination of digital technology at the farm level risks widening the digital divide that exists for women and marginalized communities. Further, despite the rapid growth of digital technologies on the continent, youth potential as an asset to foster uptake and scale of digital agriculture is not fully exploited. However, in developing countries where wages are lower and farms generally smaller, digital technologies could help to improve management practices and access to markets.
The overall goal is to create a Digital Agriculture and Adaptation Profile (DAP) for the four countries. The study will respond to the question of how digital climate and advisory services (DCAS) can be mainstreamed in implementing the adaptation options and pathways in the National Adaptation Plan, and for the agricultural sector of selected countries. A gender lens will be applied to the studies.
Specifically, the work will include:
- Overview of the agricultural economy of the country, the main value chains, and key challenges facing each of the value chains.
- Analysis of climate vulnerability of major agricultural value chains.
- Evaluation of the landscape of digital agriculture/adaptation (infrastructure, tools, enabling environment, institutions, policies, services).
- Mapping of existing and promising initiatives related to DCAS in the country.
- Identifying key players (public, private, non-profit, international community) across value chains, in digital agriculture and DCAS in the country as well as their roles and solutions.
- Assessing the challenges, barriers and opportunities to the investment, adoption and scaling of DCAS.
- Developing a business case for DAP in relation to investment operations.
- Identifying and prioritizing promising digital climate adaptation solutions that are applicable to help producers in adapting to climate change and in building better resilience across value chains.
- Through the DAP, an assessment of the readiness of the four countries for digital agriculture.
- A holistic review of digital transformation articulated around six topics: the extent of climate challenges and adaptation potentials, digital infrastructure, digital penetration, policy and regulation, business environment, human capital and agro-innovation.
- An opportunity for investment banks to make informed decisions in the planning of ongoing and future projects.
- Developing a DAP can help to identify how to best harness the digital-agriculture-adaptation nexus to facilitate decision-making.
- The results will be used by countries and their partners in implementing DCAS (short-, medium- and long-term investments).
- In supporting the development of DAP, GCA is working with partners to plug the gaps in the information needed to provide contextual understanding of background issues, and to ensure that investments in climate adaptation projects are designed and founded on sound and robust information that provide adequate context of focal/selected countries.
Technical Assistance
Global Center on Adaptation and African Development Bank call for applications for the African Youth Adaptation Solutions Challenge
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) and the African Development Bank have launched a call for applications for the first edition of the African Youth Adaptation Solutions (YouthAdapt) Challenge.
The call encourages young entrepreneurs, innovators from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and other youth-led and youth-owned enterprises in Africa, to implement solutions for building resilience and adapting to the adverse impacts of climate change. Young entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35 are invited to respond to the call for the expression of interest and submit their business plan through the official submission portal.
With a strong focus on youth and gender, winners of the YouthAdapt Challenge will be awarded business grants of up to $100,000 each and the opportunity to participate in a 12-month business accelerator program to help them scale up their businesses, deepen their impact and create decent jobs. In addition, the winning youth-led enterprises will be provided with mentorship and support to expand partnerships, knowledge sharing and learning through a network of young entrepreneurs in climate adaptation.
The African Youth Adaptations Solutions Challenge is part of the ‘Empowering Youth through Jobs and Entrepreneurship’ pillar of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), a strategic partnership between the GCA and the African Development Bank aimed at galvanizing climate-resilient actions through a triple win approach to address the impacts of Covid-19, climate change and the economy.
The competition aims to leverage the resources, complementary expertise and networks of both organizations to support the ‘missing-middle’ of mid-sized companies in the areas of funding, thereby promoting sustainable climate adaptation and resilience practices on the African continent.
Announcing the YouthAdapt Challenge to a group of global leaders at the High-Level Dialogue: The Adaptation Acceleration Imperative for COP26 held in Rotterdam, Netherlands on Monday 6th September 2021, Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation said: “Our vision is to empower one million young people in Africa with the financing and skills they need to pursue jobs and careers in climate adaptation. With this new challenge we aim to unlock the business opportunities in adaptation action by innovative youth-owned enterprises and prepare a new generation of African youth for the transition towards green and climate-resilient development.”
“The YouthAdapt Challenge will unleash the entrepreneurial drive and capacities of African youth to grow their businesses, address the continent’s pressing climate challenge and create decent jobs, building a more climate-resilient Africa”, said Akinwumi Adesina, African Development Bank’s President, affirming the Bank’s commitment to invest in the youth.
Twenty youth-led enterprises will be shortlisted at the end of the application window on 6th October 2021 and invited to submit videos for a jury panel review ahead of the finals and an award ceremony at COP26 in Glasgow on November 8, 2021. At this event, ten winners will be selected, 50% of which will be women-led enterprises.