The impacts of climate change are most acutely experienced at the local level, making sub-national government a potentially powerful player in driving adaptation to the impacts of climate change. Yet in many developing and least developed countries, local government authorities lack the resources needed to make the climate-resilient investments their communities are calling for.

Each year, climate change is taking a growing toll on communities in The Gambia, a narrow strip of land where most residents make their living as farmers. Unpredictable rainfall, rising temperatures and increasing number of climate chocks like drought and heatwaves, are making it ever harder for farming communities to survive. Ward Development Committee (WDC) members are the local government representatives closest to the community and in The Gambia, they played a key role in delivering results through the Jobs, Skills and Finance for Women and Youth in The Gambia Programme, funded by the European Union.

Demba Njie, born and bred in Central River Region, is a licensed Gambian construction worker and a WDC member. He has spent the past four years representing his community in planning, decision-making, development and administration of community affairs, at the local government level.

As an agent of change in the decentralized process, Gambian local government representatives such as Mr Njie are well positioned to understand the diversity and complexity of local realities as well as to identify the needs and priorities of local communities in developing responses. The demanding role provides the legitimacy and convening power of linking community and government by driving change within wards.

Through the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility, the JSF Programme channels Performance-Based Climate Resilience Grants to local governments to cover the additional costs associated with making investments climate-resilient and durable. PBCRGs come with capacity building as well as monitoring and evaluations, which help to build robust and transparent financial systems and support the government’s decentralisation process. This is where Demba comes in: as a local government representative, he helps to identify green decisions and implementing financial, environmental and management expertise through climate-resilient projects.

These grants also reinvigorate community contributions to deliver social, environmental and economic outcomes—a key step in augmenting ownership both at government and community level.

Through this initiative, Mr Njie experienced a unique position in this programme as he serves as both a WDC member and a Cash for Work beneficiary in 2020. Mr Njie attested to the fact that Banni Ward members were part of the process from the beginning and felt empowered to reach ambitious climate and sustainability goals.

The project within his ward supported community-based labour-intensive work by:
• Creating direct employment for 50 community members - including Demba - in the establishment of a vegetable garden project;
• Learning opportunities like construction and farming skills;
• Investing in community equipment and infrastructure which created indirect employment (such as assembling of fences to keep animals away); and
• Ensuring community-based monitoring.

Through a communal lens, this was done through three phases. The first phase included consultations with all 50 selected WDCs in the 25 communities that make up Banni Ward. The WDCs, in consultation with the local council, identified the climate change adaptation needs such as water management, and irrigation. As representatives of communities WDCs are the closest aggregated local government entity with a planning function able to reach out and coordinate communities. Therefore, they are able to mobilise local-level capacity to plan and implement local responses. In this particular ward Mr Njie and 49 WDCs selected a harvesting project with water supply through a climate-resilient borehole as it was the biggest single climate change-related need for the ward.

Phase two included selecting a community. This was difficult and required assessing the soil, temperature and relative distance from all communities within the ward. Participation by representatives from all communities in the ward made the process easier, as they took the lead on decisions. Before long, the ward was able to finalize and agree on the selection of a community using the results of the assessment to guide them.

Lastly, phase three includes signing up of 50 CfW beneficiaries who work on the project for roughly three months with payment delivered through existing financial service providers. Once the Performance-Based Climate Resilience Grants are allocated to the WDCs they present simple activity programmes with the support of LoCAL. UNCDF then comes in as a supporting agent to work with the Accountant General to issue guidance on accounting and reporting at ward level.

This community driven process ensures community members are able to play a critical role in facilitating climate adaptative results in The Gambia. As the third phase of the PBCRGs process has commenced, major mechanisms for scaling up adaptive capacity and resilience are taking place across the nation with the goal of continued reduction in poverty through improved inclusive and sustainable growth and employment, targeting specifically youth and women.

For more information about LoCAL in The Gambia:

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