Financing Climate Change Adaptation in Transboundary Basins

37 Financing Climate Change Adaptation in Transboundary Basins Chapter 4 Conclusions I n transboundary contexts, working cooperatively and with basin organizations is critical to supporting successful adaptation and resilience strategies, access- ing much-needed financial resources for climate action, and making the best use of limited national resources available for the most critical issues. Basins’ abilities to respond effectively to the onset of climate change depend on a broad range of factors including access to information on potential impacts, institutional capacity to prepare and deploy adaptation strategies, monitoring and information gathering to respond appropriately and rapidly to climate impacts, and access to financing and absorption capacity, among others. The issues covered in this paper aim to provide a better understanding of available climate financing for adaptation and resilience building in transbound- ary contexts, and recommendations on how to pre- pare bankable projects to successfully accessing these resources. The challenges of climate change impacts for countries in transboundary river basins are compounded further by the complexity of multinational decision making, legal and political challenges, and additional risks unique to a geographical context in which water resources are shared yet crossed by national borders. Transboundary cooper- ation improves the eventual quality of adaptation measures thanks to stakeholder involvement and multicountry support. Cooperation can furthermore improve the bankability of projects because of the enhanced ability to manage certain investment risks (e.g., maladaptation) and opti- mize benefits. Conversely, transboundary projects often have higher transaction costs and tend to take more time because endorsement from all riparian countries is usually needed by the climate funds and multilateral development banks (MDBs). Implementation can be more complex because river basin organizations (RBOs) often cannot receive direct funding and may lack the required legal and financial status and capac- ity to manage complex projects, therefore requiring the involvement of individual riparian countries and further parties for implementation. Each basin is different, and basin organizations need to identify the most suitable role in supporting climate financing for their region . Their role may include estab- lishing the basis for successful financing strategies by developing transboundary adaptation plans (through cooperative decision making), prioritizing measures to support countries in fundraising efforts by sharing knowledge, and, in some cases, receiving and imple- menting funds for investment directly, such as done by L’Organisation pour la Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Sénégal (OMVS). Some RBOs become very active in this field, such as the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) and the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS). They can participate in different stages of the project cycle for needs assessment, implementation, coordi- nation, and monitoring and evaluation. RBOs consistently underline their need for capacity building and technical assistance to develop bankable projects. Training, advisory support, and further opportunities to exchange experiences among basins can make a major contribution to supporting trans- boundary adaptation and resilience building.