Capacity building and training are important aspects of effective adaptation to climate change at the local government level, ensuring that funds are correctly managed, tracked and reported on. The Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility in Lesotho recently organised a two-day refresher training workshop with the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftainship (MoLGC) and Public Financial Management (PFM) was one of the key topics on the agenda.

The training brought together some 38 members of Mohale’s Hoek district and community councils in March 2022. The aim of the training was to provide local government officers with the skills they need to support community councils as they access LoCAL grants for locally led adaptation, activities that might include climate-proofed investments in water provision or basic infrastructure.

LoCAL uses Performance Based Climate Resilience Grants to channel funds to local governments for adaptation investments, that are selected and prioritised through consultations with local communities. As well as PFM training that included audit and internal controls, the March event also covered planning procedures, rules and regulations and an introduction to the LoCAL approach.

The overall outcome of LoCAL-Lesotho is to improve the climate change resilience of the communities in the selected councils as a result of climate change adaptation activities funded through the performance-based climate resilience grant (PBCRG) and capacity development support.

By promoting climate change–resilient communities and economies via increasing financing for and investment in climate change adaptation at the local level, LoCAL-Lesotho will directly contribute to one of the country’s development plan pillars – reversing environmental degradation and adapting to climate change. The objectives for LoCAL-Lesotho are (i) increased transfer of climate finance to local governments through national institutions and systems for building verifiable climate change adaptation and resilience, and (ii) a standard and recognized country-based mechanism which supports direct access to international climate finance
Four outputs are envisaged: (i) inclusive and accountable climate change adaptation is mainstreamed into local council planning; (ii) government, local authority and population awareness of and capacities in adaptation and resilience planning are improved; (iii) an effective country PBCRG finance mechanism is established and operational, providing additional funding to targeted community councils; and (iv) experience and lessons learned are consolidated and shared.

Water, a national adaptation priority
Community councils, in close consultation with communities, have identified adaptation investments to be financed with PBCRGs, covering areas such as improved water-related infrastructure and pasture-land management.
Indeed, one of the major challenges facing the community councils of Senqunyane, Qhoasing, Lithipeng and Khoelenya is scarcity of water supply. Although some initiatives have been undertaken to supply clean water, climate change, combined with a lack of sufficient resources to ensure proper management, has left tanks empty or dilapidated, with limited water storage capacity. This situation is expected to worsen with the impacts of climate change. There is thus a need to harvest and capture several sources/springs to preserve water and ensure sufficient clean water for the communities during droughts. Improvements to water catchment and storage systems are being proposed under LoCAL to increase the resilience of communities in the target villages.
The first PBCRG cycle financed climate proofing of 9 water-related infrastructure activities and one pasture-land management project in the four pilot community councils, providing access to clean water – especially in periods of prolonged drought and the drying up of water springs – to more than 1,800 people.

For more information please contact us here: local.facility@uncdf.org or Mabohlokoa Tau, UNCDF LoCAL Lesotho: mabohlokoa.tau@uncdf.org

For full details about the LoCAL Facility in Lesotho, please download the latest LoCAL Annual Report here

Additional Background:

About LoCAL:

The Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) was designed to promote climate change–resilient communities and local economies by establishing a standard, internationally recognized country-based mechanism to channel climate finance to local government authorities in least developed countries. It thus aims to contribute through the local level to country achievement of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals – particularly poverty eradication (SDG 1), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) and climate action (SDG 13). LoCAL increases local-level climate change awareness and capacities, integrates climate change adaptation into local government planning and budgeting in a participatory and gender-sensitive manner, and increases the financing available to local governments for climate change adaptation. LoCAL combines performance- based climate resilience grants – which ensure programming and verification of climate change expenditures at the local level while offering strong incentives for performance improvements in enhanced resilience – with technical and capacity- building support.

About UNCDF:

The UN Capital Development Fund makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 46 least developed countries (LDCs).
UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development.
UNCDF’s financing models work through three channels: (1) inclusive digital economies, which connects individuals, households, and small businesses with financial eco-systems that catalyze participation in the local economy, and provide tools to climb out of poverty and manage financial lives; (2) local development finance, which capacitates localities through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance to drive local economic expansion and sustainable development; and (3) investment finance, which provides catalytic financial structuring, de-risking, and capital deployment to drive SDG impact and domestic resource mobilization.