From rainwater harvesting to seawater quality monitoring, waste recycling to energy saving street-lights – communities across Tunisia are developing climate adaptation and mitigation plans that best meet residents’ needs as they respond to the pressures of climate change. The variety of proposed projects illustrate that there is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to tackling climate change and why flexible financing is crucial for delivering sustainable results.

In Tunisia, the UN Capital Development Fund is working with the government to strengthen local level adaptation and mitigation of climate change through the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL), with funding from the European Union. A mechanism for channelling climate finance to communities, LoCAL is a standard approach that can be flexibly applied according to local needs. Experts from the Ministry of Environment and a UNCDF team recently visited the six communes participating in a new pilot as they finalise their plans for investing their forthcoming grants.

“After meeting with commune representatives, we are confident that the plans drafted at the community level will significantly contribute to adaptation and mitigation of climate change impact in Tunisia,” said Mohamed Zmerli, Climate Change Specialist, who led the team from UNCDF. “We were excited by the broad range of activities that have been identified, which, I believe illustrates why it’s so important to bring community voices into the project design and decision-making process as early as possible.”

Street lights in a city street in Tunisia - Photo UNCDF LoCAL Ronan Pecheur 2024

The pilot communes are set to receive their first allocations of funds in 2024, delivered as grants transferred to the local governmental authorities in compliance with the national fiscal systems. The mission sought to guide the potential beneficiaries and provide assurances over the eligibility of their proposed actions for financing, as well as ensure their alignment with regional local climate plans to tackle adaptation and mitigation to climate change.

The LoCAL Facility channels climate finance to local governments in the form of Performance Based Climate Resilience Grants (PBCRGs). The funds provide an incentive for local governments to prioritise climate-proof local development. Minimum conditions are put into place and the extent to which those conditions are met influences the size of subsequent grants. Each commune had to organise and conduct a series of community meetups to gather resident’s inputs and ideas on what climate projects they want to see in their neighbourhood.

The six communes selected for the LoCAL pilot phase in Tunisia are Beni Khedech, Bizerte, Douz, Nabeul, Sfax, and Tbarka. The communities were chosen as they represent a variety of topographies and economic activities dealing with a mixture of climate change challenges.

For instance, the mountainous agricultural commune of Beni Khedech, decided to focus their actions on the creation of an integrated photovoltaic lighting project, a rainwater harvesting system and reforestation with local fig trees in eleven public establishments, all grouped as a first climate action. There are also plans to introduce LED for street lighting along with the renovation and improvement of four regional water streams from mountains with the potential to develop agricultural activity.

In urban Bizerte, the northern-most city in Africa, the community has proposed a variety of individual actions, making it the commune with the highest number of project proposals. They include a plan to mobilize a civilian unit (managed by young volunteers) to monitor seawater quality, creation of green zones next to the local hospital, as well as collection points for both organic and plastic waste. There are also plans to set up a recycling facility in the region.

Photo: The site proposed for planting and linear green spaces © UNCDF LoCAL Tunisia Mohamed Zmerli 2024.

The commune of Douz in southern Tunisia, a one-time stopping point for traders crossing the Sahara, has chosen to work on three separate actions. These include reforestation using treated wastewater and cisterns, energy-saving lighting for municipal buildings and the creation of an ecological village in the southern oasis of Ksar Ghilene. The latter aims to build on the exclusive charm of the place and promote a green environmental footprint.

For the commune of Nabeul on Tunisia’s northern coast and a popular destination for tourists, community representatives and leaders highlighted a series of needs from water-saving, preventing extreme weather events, combating beach erosion, and preserving fragile ecosystems vulnerable to climate change.

Tunisia's coastline is a popular touristic destination © UNCDF LoCAL Tunisia Ronan Pecheur 2024.

For the commune of Sfax a mostly urban commune that sits on Tunisia’s southerly Mediterranean coast, the plans focus on waste and waste reduction. In this regard, the commune plans to use the full amount of their grant for this year on setting up a recycling station for green waste, to be located at the wholesale market of Sfax. The local government has identified a site with an overall surface area of 3,600 m2 and is developing plans to purchase equipment needed for monitoring quality, packaging, and certification of recycled materials.

Photo: General view of the organic waste recycling station © UNCDF LoCAL Tunisia Mohamed Zmerli 2024.

The discussions in the commune of Tbarka, which lies on the northern coast close to the Algerian border, identified two separate actions. One aims to improve the region’s public lighting system by replacing street lights with energy-saving lamps in the centre of town, in touristic areas and in three green parks. The other is to improve recycling and waste management with the acquisition and installation of around 40-50 special refuse bins. These are to be distributed across ten “hot spots” suffering from fragile waste collection systems.

Tunisia is a middle-income country which recently released economic projections that highlight a number of challenges, including the aggravating effects of a four-year drought that has driven up water prices and threatens food security. Tunisian farmers and the agricultural sector as a whole face significant constraints related to recurrent droughts and declining water reserves.

The funding scheme, to be mobilized by the Communal Climate Action Fund (CCAF), has been granted by the European Union, totalling 7,12 million euros, to be allocated over four budget cycles.

Thanks to our partners in Tunisia.

Find out more about LoCAL here

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