The Green Climate Fund has approved $134 million for two major climate resilience projects in Somalia and Iraq to be led by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO.
Announced following the GCF board meeting last month, these projects will help build climate-resistant agricultural systems to safeguard food security in areas increasingly affected by climate-driven conflict and displacement.
In Somalia, where 60%-70% of the population relies on livestock and 15% on farming, the $95 million Ugbaad (meaning "hope" in Somali) project is FAO’s largest single-country GCF-funded initiative. Rising temperatures in Somalia, projected to increase by up to 3.4 degrees Celsius by 2080, threaten vital resources like arable land, water, and pasture. The Ugbaad project aims to improve sustainable land management, train farmers in climate-smart techniques, and restore 50,000 hectares of degraded land, which should benefit over 1.2 million people.
