Boost for Zambia’s ability to manage climate risk

Genesis was contracted by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) to integrate a climate adaptation and risk financing concept into one of its Zambian projects.

The AGRICA project entails climate risk analyses (CRA) for adaptation planning in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is implemented by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The aim of this integration was to increase the usability of the CRA by enabling Zambian government partners to move closer to implementation of risk management measures.

Genesis was tasked with identifying and analysing:

• Financing options for adaption measures identified by the core CRA. These adaptation measures are conservation agriculture, including water availability and strengthening early warning systems, in particular the provision of seasonal weather forecasts to inform climate adaptation. Read the report here.
• Risk financing instruments to manage and transfer residual climate risks. Read the report here.

Genesis presented the preliminary results of the analysis financing options for adaption measures identified by the core CRA on 7 February 2023 in Lusaka.

Workshop participants shared their valuable feedback on the shortlisted instruments. They also validated the scoring of nine shortlisted financial instruments for adaptation. As a result, four financing instruments have been prioritised: the National Climate Financing Vehicle, the TerraFund, Carbon Credits, and ideally the CREWS initiative.

The next day Genesis launched the identification and analysis of risk financing instruments to manage and transfer residual climate risks to assess Zambia’s interest in and opportunities for establishing a Climate and Disaster Risk Finance Strategy. A lot of interest was garnered from key stakeholders, including Zambia’s Ministry of Finance and National Planning, its Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit, the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Programme and the African Risk Capacity. Valuable insights were collected to conduct an initial assessment on the protection gap and present a roadmap for the development of the risk financing strategy.