The vast arid nation of Niger is highly vulnerable to the varied impacts of climate change, which are already taking a heavy toll on the country’s 24 million-strong population located mostly in the far south of the country. Adaptation in these fringes of the Sahara desert is vital and urgent, but investments with a focus on Nature Based Solutions can reap valuable results and prepare communities for managing risk and building resilience, using the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL).

In 2021, LoCAL consolidated adaptation activities in the country and extended to three regions: Dosso, Tahoua and Zinder, which lie along a rough line some 900km long that stretches east of the capital Niamey along the country’s southern border with Nigeria. The people who live in these communities are mostly subsistence farmers, dependent on rain-fed agriculture in a region where rainfall patterns are increasingly erratic.

The LoCAL Facility launched in Niger in 2015 and following a successful pilot phase in two communes has since rolled out to nine communes, realising 64 adaptation investments benefitting 118,000 people. LoCAL is a mechanism for channelling climate finance to local governments for adaptation actions that are identified and led by local populations, ensuring they meet community needs. LoCAL has mobilised US$ 125 million to date and is currently active or being designed for roll-out in some 31 countries across Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Caribbean.

On reviewing activities in 2021, Mr Moussa and the technical team from the UN Capital Development Fund have been encouraged by the strength of the participation from all stakeholders.

“Whether it’s the local authority representatives, elected councillors or the beneficiary populations themselves – all the key stakeholders in this process have demonstrated that they strongly committed and engaged in this process,” said Mr Moussa. “Communities are seeing the results.”

Through 2020 and 2021 in Dosso, Tahoua and Zinder, LoCAL distributed a total of US $450,000 in grants. Those funds were used primarily for land regeneration activities and reconstituting livestock, but also for building fire breaks to protect against wildfires and dykes to protect against flash floods.

Following consultation with local communities to determine the priority adaptation needs in each commune, local governments choose from a menu of adaptation investments for their Performance Based Climate Resilience Grants delivered through LoCAL. Most grants were spent on land and livestock regeneration activities, with a focus on actions that deployed nature based solutions like bio-engineering conservation measures, such as the half-moon technique a traditional Sahel planting method that creates contours to prevent rainwater run-off. All nine communes lie in a region where desertification is a significant and growing problem and is linked to increased incidences of child malnutrition and hunger.

Typically, work is done by the community themselves. Through a Cash for Work programme these communities of subsistence farmers were able to earn a competitive daily wage of US$ 2,6 a day by providing the labour for regenerate work on some 380 ha of land. Over 42% of the 5,838 workers were women. Activities also included training for some 100 people on assisted natural regeneration, blending active planting and passive restoration, where local people intervene to help trees and native vegetation to naturally recover.

Reconstitution of depleted livestock was the next most popular investment. Recipients typically received two or three young breeding female goats and a juvenile male or buckling. As part of the package, recipients also received training in animal husbandry, including animal nutrition. In total, 1309 goats were distributed.

An important activity focused on averting risk from fire and flood. Again, using Cash for Work communities created fire breaks – strips of cleared bush designed to protect communities and stop a rapid spread of fires. As temperatures rise in this part of West Africa and dry periods lengthen, wildfires are becoming more commonplace making such natural defences increasingly important. And while mean rainfall is decreasing, rainfall patterns are becoming more erratic with precious rains falling in increasingly concentrated and intense periods, which can lead to devastating flooding. Communities constructed dykes to protect against such floods and better harness the precious water for rain-fed agriculture.

Meetings are underway in Niger to determine activities for the coming year, but one of the priorities is already clear: further and continued efforts to build understanding and ability to adapt to climate risk at the community level.