Context
Climate vulnerabilities: The destructive impact of climate change is in evident in 60 per cent of the country in the form of droughts, floods, sea level rise and increased water-borne diseases. Tanzania’s economic growth depends heavily on its environmental and natural resources, with more than 80 per cent of the population dependent on them for income generation. Critical challenges threaten these resources, including their unsustainable harvesting and use, unchecked cultivation practices, degradation of and encroachment on water sources, and the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events.
National response: The government sees an urgent need to protect and manage the environment and its natural resources in the face of climate change. In 2012, Tanzania launched its National Climate Change Strategy covering adaptation, mitigation and cross-cutting interventions. The strategy also the importance of establishing institutions and policies for climate change planning at the national level, including a climate change finance mechanism. With UNCDF support, Tanzania has both an efficiently functioning system of local governments and a well-developed intergovernmental fiscal transfer system, which has introduced performance-based elements over the past decade. A policy of decentralization by devolution gives local governments significant roles and responsibilities in implementing government policies and programmes.
