The Adaptation Fund Board has approved a climate package worth nearly $35 million for two projects in Rwanda and the Horn of Africa, the New Times reported via AllAfrica. The larger share, $30 million, goes to a regional project for pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities in the Mandera Triangle. The area spans border zones of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.
According to the New Times, communities in the region face recurring droughts, floods and displacement. Competition for water and grazing land is also growing. The governments of the three countries will run the project with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). It will strengthen community-led early warning systems and cross-border climate risk management. It will also restore degraded rangelands and support climate-resilient livelihoods. Women and pastoralists will get more ways to earn an income.
The remaining $4.97 million goes to Rwanda. It targets smallholder farmers in Kayonza, Gatsibo and Nyagatare districts in Eastern Province. UNDP will carry out the project with Rwanda's Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources. It aims to reach at least 10,000 farmers. They will get local climate information, climate-smart farming methods and better advisory services.
Olivier Kamana, Permanent Secretary at Rwanda's agriculture ministry, told the New Times that the project will focus on sectors hit repeatedly by climate change over the past five years. In 2025, long dry spells in Kayonza caused crop failures. More than 97,951 people from over 23,000 families needed food relief. Evariste Tugirinshuti, president of the Rwanda Maize Farmer Cooperatives Federation, said some farmers got rain only in mid-October this year. Maize planted in September struggled to germinate as a result.
The new money arrives as global adaptation funding stalls. A UN Environment Programme report published on Wednesday found that flows from rich to poor countries have been flat or falling since 2022, The Guardian reported. They reached at most $32 billion in 2024, short of a $40 billion goal for 2025. Developing nations will need $305 billion a year by 2035, the report said.
Least developed countries received 16% less adaptation support in 2024 than two years earlier, according to the report. Even the Cop30 pledge in Belem to triple adaptation finance by 2035 would cover only 20-29% of needs. UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen urged rich nations to "honour commitments in full". She warned that delays raise long-term costs.
Climate justice groups say adaptation finance is the most urgent issue for the COP31 summit, The Guardian reported. The summit will run in Antalya, Turkey, from November 9 to 20. The groups want grants or concessionary loans rather than high-interest debt.