Nine African Island States Get $4.9 Million Climate-Risk Push as Access to Finance Remains a Barrier

Nine African island states and territories are set to receive new support aimed at strengthening climate-risk information, institutional capacity and access to climate finance through a Green Climate Fund-backed regional programme.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa is launching the RESIslands programme in Comoros with a budget of about $4.943 million over 30 months. The programme covers Cabo Verde, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles and Zanzibar.

The initiative addresses a persistent problem for climate-vulnerable economies: access to finance often depends on having reliable hazard data, investment-ready projects and institutions capable of meeting the technical requirements of international climate funds.

For small island economies, the challenge is particularly acute. Exposure to coastal erosion, extreme weather, sea-level rise, flooding and other climate-related risks can be high, while public institutions often operate with limited fiscal and technical capacity.

RESIslands is intended to strengthen climate and disaster-risk information, improve institutional coordination and support the preparation of stronger financing proposals. In practice, that means helping participating countries move from identifying climate threats to building the systems and project pipelines required to attract investment.

The programme should not be read as a $4.9 million infrastructure investment package. Its purpose is readiness and capacity building. The longer-term objective is to improve the ability of participating countries to unlock larger pools of climate finance by strengthening the evidence, planning and institutional architecture behind their proposals.

That distinction matters because Africa’s climate-finance gap is not only about the global availability of money. It is also about whether countries have the data, technical expertise and institutional capacity to convert urgent climate needs into projects that can meet funders’ requirements.

For the participating island economies, better risk mapping and stronger institutions could improve both domestic planning and the credibility of future funding requests. The real measure of success will be whether the programme ultimately helps countries move from readiness support into larger, implementable resilience investments.

Source

• United Nations Economic Commission for Africa: RESIslands project launch