The Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility officially launched today in Senegal, West Africa. The Sahelian country is one of 32 currently designing or implementing resilience-building activities using LoCAL, a mechanism that channels climate finance to local governments for community-level adaptation.

LoCAL in Senegal will be implemented by the Local Development Agency (ADL) under the supervision of the Ministry of Territorial Communities, Development and Land Use Planning (MCTDAT) in partnership with the Department of Environment and Classified Establishments of the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development in charge of technical support. The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) will provide the technical assistance necessary for its implementation.

"Climate Change and its induced effects has become one of the most important considerations in regard to economic policies," said HE Mr Oumar Gueye, Minister of MCTDAT during the official launch of LoCAL at the Radisson Blu in Dakar on 1st July 2022. He also added that "the perspective of decentralization in Senegal is to build territories that are viable, competitive and bearers of sustainable development".

Mr. Malal Camara, Director General of the ADL, for his part, underlined the importance of supporting public policies for territorial management in terms of adaptation to climate change, in line with the Green Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE).

The launching of LoCAL-Senegal with Mr. Malal Camara, Director General of the AD and Ronan Pecheur, Senior Programme Specialist, Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility, UNCDF. © UNCDF LoCAL, Gregoire Borchard 2022

Two local government authorities are currently being selected for a pilot phase of LoCAL implementation, which will improve the design of the mechanism in-country before scaled-up and, ultimately, national roll-out.

"This pilot phase will allow us to test the system and adapt it to the realities encountered at the level of local communities", said Christel Alvergne, Regional Coordinator of UNCDF.

The LoCAL Facility, is designed and hosted by the UN Capital Development Fund to integrate climate change adaptation into local governments’ planning and budgeting systems, increase awareness of and response to climate change at the local level, and boost the amount of finance available to local governments and communities for locally led adaptation action.

Local government authorities are in a unique position to identify climate change adaptation responses that best meet local needs in a way that is aligned with established local decision-making processes and planning and budgeting cycles. While they are typically mandated to undertake the small to medium- sized adaptation investments needed to build climate resilience, in developing and least developed countries, they frequently lack the resources to deliver on this mandate.

LoCAL combines performance-based climate resilience grants (PBCRGs) with technical and capacity-building support. Monitoring and evaluation ensures programming and verification of climate change expenditures at the local level while offering strong incentives for performance improvements in enhanced resilience. LoCAL ensures that all grants are, where possible, channeled through established national systems, rather than parallel or ad hoc structures, and assessed on the basis of outputs and outcomes achieved.

The mechanism uses the demonstration effect of its pilot actions to attract other funding for adaptation to the local level, in the form of additional national budget transfers or funding from international sources. LoCAL provides an effective solution to develop synergies between all the partners committed to facilitating adaptation at the local level.

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