Couffo

Alibori

Littoral

Atlantique

Mono

Borgou

Ouémé

Collines

Plateau

Donga

Atacora

Benin

Avoid the emission of at least 12 million tonnes of CO2eq by 2030 against a 2016 baseline

Sequestration of at least 163 million tonnes of CO2eq by 2030

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The project objective is to support climate adaptation for women-led MSMEs, cooperatives, and smallholder farmers in Benin and Burkina Faso through inclusive digital services, CSA training, and institutional support that improve access to information, technology, and finance.

Climate change has caused $1.5 trillion in global losses, hitting vulnerable communities in least developed countries hardest. Droughts, floods, and health crises threaten food security and incomes, disproportionately affecting women. Only a fraction of climate adaptation funding reaches these communities, partly due to ineffective delivery channels. Credit union networks in Benin and Senegal, with over 7 million members, could bridge this gap, but their efforts to finance specific climate adaptation solutions (like solar pumps) have struggled to scale.

The World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) and its partner YAPU Solutions will pilot Adaptation Climatique et Transformation Économique (ACTE), an innovative approach to enhance the adaptive capacity and climate resilience of vulnerable communities in Benin and Senegal to address localized climate risks through increased access to gender-responsive climate adaption finance, reaching 4,000 people with green loans and an additional 61,000 people whose businesses have been assessed for climate risk as part of their loan application (45% women) over two years. Its customer-centric, holistic and scalable methodology aims to redefine how credit union networks assess borrower climate risk and deliver gender-responsive climate adaptation finance and prepare them to secure climate funding for future growth by:

Delivering capacity building, digital tools, and performance-based incentives: ACTE will pilot with six credit unions affiliated with FECECAM (Benin) and UM-PAMECAS (Senegal), two prominent credit union networks together comprising 161 credit unions with 2.4 million members (48% women) and 1.2 million borrowers (36% women). Through training, policy guidance and user-friendly digital tools ACTE will equip them with the skills and resources to address evolving climate vulnerabilities. Performance-based incentives (PBIs) will foster active engagement while AI-supported gender-disaggregated data analytics will spur uptake, ensure impact for borrowers and enable credit unions to navigate a dynamically to shifting environmental and socioeconomic conditions.  

Increasing knowledge and defining best practices: The systematic documentation and dissemination of gender-responsive, data-driven lessons will create a foundation for future transformation through scaling and replication within FECECAM and UM-PAMECAS, across West Africa and - by leveraging WOCCU’s network - globally. 

The project's objective is to enhance the adaptive capacity and climate resilience of vulnerable communities in Benin and Senegal to address localized climate risks through increased access to gender-responsive climate adaption finance.

The project aims to support four countries: - Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Tuvalu to prepare and submit Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs) and combined Biennial Transparency Report / National Communication (BTR/NCs) that will comply with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement (PA) reporting requirements, while responding to national development goals.

The Adjohoun, Bonou and Dangbo (ABD) health zone in the lower Ouémé valley of south-eastern Benin is highly vulnerable to seasonal and extreme flooding, rising temperatures and humidity. They lead to multiple climate-related health impacts, most notably vector-borne diseases such as malaria, and non-communicable conditions including acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Flood events exacerbate challenges by damaging health infrastructure and equipment, disrupting essential health services, and restricting access for vulnerable populations. Women, children, persons with disabilities, and the elderly are among the groups most at risk.

Benin’s health sector is underfunded and ill-equipped to deal with how climate change affects people’s health. The country’s public resources are stretched thin, and there is limited flexibility to invest in building a climate-resilient health sector. Additional barriers include the lack of knowledge and awareness of climate-health linkages, limited health technologies, infrastructure, and early warning systems, reduced access of populations to health facilities in climatic events, and limited participation of vulnerable groups in decision-making processes.

The project seeks to address climate-sensitive health risks by strengthening the resilience of public health systems and vulnerable communities. This will be pursued through the integration of climate information into disease surveillance systems to improve health early warning systems; enhancing the operational capacities of health personnel to manage emergencies during extreme weather events; climate-proofing health infrastructure and providing essential equipment; supporting climate-resilient community livelihoods; and raising local awareness.

The project’s comprehensive, community-based model aims to address the critical nexus of climate change and health. Its multi-pronged design targets high-risk groups while strengthening local capacities and systems, positioning the project as an innovative model for Locally Led Adaptation.

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