Undeterred by lack of funding, fragile communities find ways to adapt to the climate crisis
Shoaib Sadaat is a climate activist from Afghanistan with a mission. He is at COP30 in Belém to advocate for adaptation money for his beleaguered country.
Afghanistan is not officially represented at the COP.
As the only participant from Afghanistan, Sadaat, who is the Project Manager at an Afghan non-governmental organization (NGO), The Liaison Office, said he felt he must speak up.
“We are forgotten. With almost 0 per cent emissions, we are among the most affected by the climate crisis, “he said. “People are struggling with drought forcing many to migrate to cities. No climate finance mechanism recognizes us.”
Since COP29 in Baku, Sadaat has been meeting with heads of various mechanisms and UN agencies. “We are trying to convince them to consider it as a non-political issue – work with international NGOs to provide us the resources to adapt.”
Sadaat was also one of the speakers at an official side event organized by OCHA, the World Food Programme, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
The event, From Pledges to Practice: Delivering Climate Finance in Vulnerable Situations, explored how communities are trying to find solutions to adapt and how climate finance providers can make resources more accessible to support them.
Determined to adapt
Some of the most vulnerable communities in Afghanistan have been undeterred by the lack of funding and are trying to find their own solutions, said Sadaat.
As a community in Paktika Province did. They needed to rehabilitate a canal – a main source of water for their crops. “They came to us, not for a handout, but for partnership,” said Sadaat. The community provided 20 per cent of the funding, labour and local knowledge.
“We provided technical guidance and material support. Today, that canal is almost complete. It was a human project, a survival project.
“This is the kind of community-driven work that is possible because communities understand the importance of building a climate resilient community, and we took the opportunity to act for a resilient community,” he said.
Need local level support
Farmers across the globe in eastern and southern Africa, are also taking charge.
They have set up “community-based learning platforms that promote peer-to-peer knowledge sharing on climate-resilient practices, such as drought-tolerant crops and water harvesting,” said Diane Sibanda, who wears two hats. She is the chairperson of East and Southern African Small Scale Farmers Forum and president of the Botswana Farmers Association.
Farmers are diversifying their means of income by growing various crops, keeping livestock and through agroforestry (such as growing fruit and nut trees).
Community-led adaptation builds on indigenous knowledge and also gives the farmers a sense of ownership, she pointed out.
Funding flows
The adaptation finance flow is woefully insufficient. The gap for developing countries is now between US$284 and $339 billion per year until 2035, with their needs that are already more than twelve times greater than the finance they receive today.
So, even if a vulnerable developing country is recognized by the funding mechanisms, the flow is inadequate. Sibanda also listed other blockages, “complex application procedures and slow disbursement of funds; and top-down approaches that bypass local priorities and structures”, at the event.
She advocated for “direct, simplified, and inclusive finance mechanisms that reach farmers’ organizations at the local level.”
Sadaat said there might be some hope for his people as the Global Environment Facility has signalled that it will be working with the UNDP in Afghanistan on adaptation.
The OCHA-managed UN Global Emergency Fund (CERF) has stepped in through a UN agency to initiate climate action in Afghanistan.
This year, CERF provided $1 million to UNICEF, from its Climate Action Account to construct and rehabilitate climate resilient water supply systems in drought and flood-affected communities and install solar-powered saline water treatment systems to benefit 25,000 people by next year.
The global community needs to act now. As Secretary-General, António Guterres, pointed out that the funding gap, “is a failure of global solidarity. It is measured in flooded homes, failed harvests, derailed development – and lost lives.”