Flood, drought resilience get attention in Dominican Republic
THE ADAPTATION Fund project in the rural and vulnerable San Cristóbal Province in the Dominican Republic is providing clean water access directly to homes for the first time.
Funded by the Adaptation Fund (AF) and implemented by its national implementing partner in the country, the Dominican Institute of Integral Development, the project is also offering sustainable forestry farming which includes intercropping and tree planting t o stabilise hilly forest areas against mudslides, and improve water and food security against drought and heavy rains due to climate change.
“The project has successfully provided training and j obs to community based eco-promoters in adaptation, engineering and maintenance while installing a new water system. [The system is] managed by gravity with rainwater flowing down from a reservoir at the mountaintop, passing through a purification system and eventually reaching a water tank below and outdoor faucets next to each home,” reads a release from the AF.
“The project was communityled and empowered local women and youth leaders in the process. In total, the project is empowering 24,000 beneficiaries (50 per cent women) across over 30 vulnerable neighbourhoods of the Dominican Republic, which is a small island developing state,” it added.
The Adaptation Fund team visited the project site in the hilly forest community of San Francisco as part of its 2023 Annual National Implementing Entity (NIE) seminar last September for the Fund’s NIEs under its pioneering Direct Access modality that fosters country ownership in adaptation.
The project visit was preceded by a three-day seminar held in the capital city of Santo Domingo that brought together AF’s accredited NIEs from around the globe to share lessons and experiences in project development and accessing climate finance through the Fund’s accreditation and grant funding processes.
It is part of a series of workshops from the Fund to foster climate finance readiness and knowledge sharing among its community of practice of NIEs.
The AF has committed more than US$1.1 billion for climate change adaptation and resilience projects and programmes since 2010. There have been more than 43 million beneficiaries while about a half of the projects are in least developed countries or small island developing states.