The full project proposal is a part of the US$137 million in new projects approved by the Adaptation Fund during its 44th board of directors meeting held in April 2025. The regional project with funding of US$ 11.6 million covers Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Niger and Nigeria and will be implemented by the World Meteorological Organization in collaboration with GWP-Central Africa and the Lake Chad Basin Commission.
The Lake Chad basin faces serious climate-related challenges, including shrinking of the lake size, desertification, extreme droughts and floods leading to devastating human and material loss. These changes greatly affect the livelihoods of thousands of people in the region who rely on the lake for subsistence. The early warning system project will provide relevant and timely information which will allow the collection and transmission of local, accurate and timely climate data to users to facilitate adaptation and reduce the impact of climate-related hazards.
Speaking on the approval of the adaptation projects, Mikko Ollikainen, Head of the Adaptation Fund, said, “I am very pleased with these outcomes, which endorse the great work the Fund is already doing in delivering tangible impacts to developing countries and will help us fund more and larger projects to meet their growing adaptation needs.” (Source: Adaptation Fund website)
This approval is the result of a process that began in 2014 with the elaboration of the concept note by GWP-Central Africa and Lake Chad Basin Commission titled “Strengthening Hydro meteorological information and Early Warning Systems (SHMI-EWS) in the Lake Chad Basin.” In the years that followed, in partnership with WMO, a stakeholder workshop was held in 2016 to validate the project inception report, followed by the submission of a pre-concept note which was validated by the Adaptation Fund in 2021. A regional stakeholder workshop was held in February 2022 to enrich the concept note, paying keen attention to community engagement. Following the validation of the concept note in July 2022, the full project proposal was prepared, validated and submitted to the Adaptation Fund for approval in April 2023.
The project implementation is scheduled to begin in the last quarter of 2025.
Download the full project proposal here.