RICAR II will scale up locally led climate adaptation and resilient rural livelihoods across The Gambia, building on the ongoing RICAR I investments in the Upper River and Central River Regions. The project will combine climate information and local adaptation planning with investments in climate-resilient agriculture, ecosystem restoration, water-efficient production, renewable-energy processing, storage and market development. It will also expand women- and youth-led climate enterprises, crop insurance, savings and access to finance. Investments will be selected through climate-risk screening, technical and economic feasibility, safeguards and Local Climate Change Action Plans, creating a scalable, market-linked model for resilient rural development.
Project overview
Investment opportunity
Investment types sought
Grant Funding; Concessional Finance; Co-Financing; Matching Grants; Results-Based Co-Investment; Portfolio Guarantees; Climate Risk Insurance; Savings and Credit Products; Private Sector Investment
Project status
Development stage
Implementation / scaling / financial close
Additional project information
- Lead agency
- Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources (MECCNAR)
Expected impact
Economic & development benefits
- The project will strengthen climate-resilient rural livelihoods, improve food and nutrition security, increase agricultural productivity and value addition, and expand access to markets, insurance and finance
- It will directly reach at least 50,000 climate-vulnerable participants, including a minimum of 60% women and 40% youth, and approximately 400,000 indirect beneficiaries
- Investments will support climate-smart production, ecosystem restoration, renewable-energy processing, storage and market linkages
- Phase I evidence demonstrates positive returns for investments including solar-irrigated gardens (BCR 3.30), fishing equipment (3.52), solar paste-making (2.21) and multi-grain milling (1.83)
Climate & resilience benefits
- In the short term, RICAR II will increase households’ capacity to manage drought, floods, heat, erratic rainfall, salinisation and ecosystem degradation through climate information, resilient agriculture, water-efficient production, ecosystem restoration and climate-risk finance
- In the longer term, the project will restore productive landscapes, strengthen climate-resilient food systems and diversify rural incomes, reducing vulnerability to recurrent climate shocks
- Climate insurance, savings and finance will help households manage residual risks that cannot be eliminated through physical adaptation, while renewable energy and resource-efficient technologies will support lower-emission, more resilient rural production systems
Contact
Contact team
For more information about this project, please contact the Commonwealth Investment Platform team.