Lakes

Eastern Equatoria

Upper Nile

Northern Bahr el Ghazal

Western Equatoria

Unity

Western Bahr el Ghazal

Jonglei

Warrap

Central Equatoria

South Sudan

This project will strengthen the resilience of educational systems in Cambodia, South Sudan, and Tonga by retrofitting schools with climate-resilient features, integrating early warning systems, and embedding climate risk into education policies and planning. It supports GCF’s ambition to scale up investments in early warning systems and resilient infrastructure in climate-vulnerable sectors, advancing replicable models for systemic adaptation.

Climate change is disrupting education systems in Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States, leading to school closures, higher absenteeism, and increased dropout rates due to rising temperatures, floods, and droughts. Addressing these challenges is essential to protect learning continuity and build long-term resilience for children and communities. 

 The BRACE project will strengthen educational systems by integrating climate resilience into school infrastructure, policy, and planning. It will retrofit schools with climate-smart features, implement early warning systems to reduce disruptions, and support curriculum reform. Ministries of education will be supported to access climate finance and embed education in national climate strategies, while knowledge-sharing platforms will promote learning and replication across countries. 

GCF will provide USD 40.75 million in grant funding to support implementation across Cambodia, South Sudan, and Tonga.  Co-designed with the Global Partnership for Education, BRACE is the Fund’s first education-focused climate resilience initiative. It sets a transformative precedent for integrating climate resilience into educational systems and unlocking global scale-up opportunities. 

 GCF's Project Preparation Facility (PPF) support was deployed to help develop the project.

Community-based and civil society organizations are technically and financially supported to design and deliver locally led initiatives that address complex socio-ecological challenges to foster resilience, enhance livelihoods and deliver global environmental benefits.

The Horn of Africa is one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world, with crippling food insecurity resulting from multiple hazards in the region. The region faces increased vulnerability due to increasing variability in rainfall patterns leading to extreme weather events such as floods and droughts, which result in intensifying humanitarian emergencies, food insecurity, and infrastructure damage.

To tackle these challenges, the project aims to improve the adaptive capacity of communities in the region at scale. This will be achieved by enhancing the productivity of local agricultural and food systems and improving the management of rangeland and agro-pastoral landscapes. The project includes a package of resilience-building solutions, such as infrastructure for water harvesting and agro-pastoral development, support for sustainable land management, and access to innovative climate-smart technologies and best practices. The project will also support access to renewable energy; capacity building for cooperatives and agribusiness MSMEs on entrepreneurship; access to innovative financial instruments including credit lines; and access to climate information and early warning services, and agricultural insurance.

To empower and support civil society organisations (CSOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) in Least Developed Countries to implement high-impact and innovative initiatives that deliver climate change adaptation and environmental benefits in an inclusive manner.

Geography

South Sudan

Recent documents

Adaptation Fund

Climate Investment Funds

Green Climate Fund

Global Environment Facility