This Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) has been prepared in support of the project proposal on “Responding to the increasing risk of drought: building gender-responsive resilience of the most vulnerable communities” by the Government of Ethiopia to the Green Climate Fund. As this project is supported by UNDP in its role as a GCF Accredited Entity, the project has been screened against the UNDP’s Social and Environmental Standards Procedure and deemed a Medium Risk (International Finance Corporation/World Bank Category B) project.

Background on the project

The aim of the project is to build the resilience of vulnerable communities to drought that have been exacerbated by climate change. Fundamentally, this requires that the predominately rural communities achieve diversification from their existing reliance on agriculture, in climate smart ways and adapt to the future impacts of climate change.

The proposed project responds to the underlying causes of low resilience within Ethiopia’s rural communities by using a landscape approach to systematically build resilience to drought and variability in rainfall though adapting this particularly circumstances of each targeted community (or landscape).

To ensure current knowledge and future learnings are gained across the diverse sectors and communities of Ehtiopia, the project will work in at least one Woreda (District) in each region - a total of 22 Woredas will be targeted across the ten regions (Figure 1), thereby benefitting a population of about 2.5 million people (Table 1). The project design assumes that implementation will be supported in an average of eight Kebeles (Sub-Woredas) per Woreda. Woredas have been selected based on their vulnerability and susceptibility to drought or increasing variability of rainfall, all as a result of changes in climatic patterns, as well as satisfy core feasibility criteria; specifically adequate availability of water and physical access to markets, as well as the commitment of communities and other stakeholders to participate in the proposed initiatives.

UNDP in Ethiopia