The International Development Association (IDA) plans to finance the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to implement Phase 1 of the Regional Climate Resilience Program for Eastern and Southern Africa / AFE. The Program is envisioned as a regional multi-phase engagement (Series of Projects - SOP) with the higher-level aim of strengthening the resilience of populations to climate-related shocks in Eastern and Southern Africa / AFE. SADC is a regional organization.
The overall Program focuses on catalytic medium to large scale investments to reduce people exposure to climate shocks, with a focus on high return storage and protective water infrastructure and safety nets. The first phase, the SOP 1 project, will be focused on strengthening systems for the proper design, implementation, and Operations & Maintenance (O&M) of these investments for climate resilience, on increasing their readiness for implementation, on improving preparedness to manage climate risks, and on expanding the scope for adaptive safety nets to protect the most vulnerable.
Through a Series of Projects (SOP), four countries, the Republic of Madagascar, the Republic of Mozambique, the Republic of South Sudan, the Union of Comoros, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) are eligible to receive funding under this Program. The proposed Program is expected to include at least three operations, overlapping in time, over a period of 10 years (2023 – 2032).
SADC will provide Technical Assistance (TA) to the Program. Assistance will include enhancing early warning systems; strengthening of capacity of members countries to access mitigation and adaptation funding; strengthening of regional capacities, partnerships and data sharing for Hydromet; and transboundary water and natural resource management.
The World Bank’s Environmental and Social Standard 10 recognizes the importance of open and transparent engagement with all Program stakeholders, based on the recognition that effective stakeholder engagement can improve E&S sustainability of Program activities, enhance Program acceptance, and implementation, and allow stakeholders to contribute to Program design. The key objectives of stakeholder engagement include a) an assessment of the level of interest and support of the Program by stakeholders to promote effective and inclusive engagement with all project-affected parties and b) to ensure that Program information on E&S risks and impacts is disclosed in a timely and understandable way.
This Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP) outlines all stakeholder engagements for the SADC activities under the Program in a systematic way. It defines legal and policy requirements in regard to stakeholder engagements, lists stakeholder engagements that have already been undertaken, provides a stakeholder analysis of all relevant project-
affected parties, including members of vulnerable groups, to the NBI activities and lays out the means of dissemination of information to different parties as well as means and ways to continue to consult different stakeholder groups throughout the Program cycle. It also includes a Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM), by which people affected by SADC’s project-related activities can bring their grievances and concerns to project management’s attention, and which describes how those grievances and concerns will be considered and addressed. Furthermore, it contains a monitoring plan for the implementation of the SEP.
This SEP applies exclusively to the SADC - RCRP and the identified beneficiaries do not involve those covered by participating Member States. Activities involving direct community engagement, physical works, or local beneficiaries are covered under country-level SEPs.
The Program Development Objective (PDO) is to improve the management of waterrelated climate impacts in Eastern and Southern Africa/AFE and strengthen the resilience of populations to climate-related shocks. As already mentioned, the project aims to serve as a first step towards a regional platform to tackle climate adaptation through a common and coordinated approach, including on fund raising and consolidating multi-lateral and bi-lateral support – which is critical to ensure alignment, development, and scaled-up financing of critical adaptive interventions.
