The impacts of climate change pose a significant threat to local livelihoods and economic activities across Tanzania including Zanzibar. In response, Tanzania is joining with partners from civil society and government institutions to officially launch the ‘Decentralised Climate Finance programme’ to get climate adaptation money to local communities, making sure they play a part in deciding how that money is spent.  

The 5-year programme will facilitate investments in improving responses to climate change across 15 test districts in mainland Tanzania and 3 districts in Zanzibar. The programme will generate lessons that can be applied across Tanzania more widely. It will accomplish this by linking financial capital from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) with local governments in communities where such investments are likely to have the greatest impact.

This programme is funded by UKAID with technical support by the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED) and UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).

The President’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG) has a mandate to manage the Decentralised Climate Finance Programme in collaboration with Vice President’s Office, Ministry of Finance and Planning, Institute of Rural Development Planning, Local Government Training Institute (Hombolo), Tanzania Meteorological Agency, Hakikazi and Tanzania Natural Resources Forum. Using the “Devolution by Decentralisation” framework, funds will be channeled effectively to local governments in a manner which contributes to good governance and accountability. PO-RALG will use the continuous learning and evidence generated from the project experience to facilitate dialogue at local, national and international levels.   The Programme will facilitate this process through capacity building with the PO-RALG, creating pilot funding programs, and conducting monitoring and evaluation activities. Specifically, intended goals can be summarized as follows:

• Establishing a Performance-based Climate Resilience Grant (LoCAL) system in Tanzania which will be operational for additional funding in the future.
• Establishing decentralised district climate finance and planning mechanisms in 15 district councils in mainland Tanzania and 3 districts in Zanzibar to finance community prioritized investments in public goods that build climate resilience.
• Ensuring that investments that build climate resilience are effectively and efficiently implemented and managed by the districts, and that their performance transparently assessed as part of the grant mechanism.
• Building the capacity of PO-RALG to develop the necessary competencies to scale-up decentralised climate finance in support of community-driven adaptation across Tanzania.
• Generate evidence and learning on the effectiveness of decentralised climate finance investments to improve community resilience, differentiated by gender, which can be used to inform policy.

“If successful by 2021, we will have helped Tanzanian communities to cope with the effect of climate change and learnt more about how this kind of approach be rolled our across Tanzania.” said Dr. Lucy Ssendi, Senior Climate Change Advisor – PO-RALG.

The International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED) is a policy and action research organisation. IIED promotes sustainable development to improve livelihoods and protect the environments on which these livelihoods are built. We specialise in linking local priorities to global challenges. IIED is based in London and works in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific, with some of the world’s most vulnerable people. We work with them to strengthen their voice in the decision-making arenas that affect them — from village councils to international conventions. 

The UNCDF Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL): LoCAL provides a mechanism to increase awareness and local response to climate change, integrate climate change adaptation into local governments’ planning and budgeting systems, and increase the amount of finance available to local governments for climate resilience. LoCAL combines performance-based climate resilience grants (PBCRGs) with technical and capacity building support. It uses the demonstration effect to trigger further flows for local adaptation, including global climate finance for local authorities, through their central governments. LoCAL is supported by the European Union Global Climate Change Alliance and the governments of Belgium, Liechtenstein and Sweden. 

The Haki Kazi Catalyst is a Tanzanian economic and social justice advocacy organisation based in Arusha. Since 2000, Hakikazi have developed an innovative approach to working for the social and economic rights of marginalized communities and individuals. Hakikazi aims at promoting public education that creates knowledge and understanding of poverty issues and policies and raise the awareness of the poor about their social and economic rights and responsibilities; Facilitating processes of participation, transparency, and accountability that ensure choices and voices of poor communities are included in making decisions about key poverty reduction strategies; And promoting sustainable livelihoods and capabilities through processes that foster constructive dialogue and actions between the poor and all levels of government on issues affecting income and capability poverty. (website: www.hakikazi.org )

Tanzania Natural Resources Forum The Tanzania Natural Resource Forum is a network organization registered in 2006 as a Non-Governmental Organization, with the aim of promoting the improvement of natural resource governance to achieve more sustainable rural livelihoods and better conservation outcomes.  TNRF works for improved natural resources governance by helping to bridge the gap between, People’s local natural resource management needs and practices, and National natural resource management priorities, policies, laws and programs.