Representatives from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) visited the Thmorkol District, Battambang in Cambodia for a courtesy visit to ongoing project partnerships in the area.

The Tapoung Commune in the district is a site of two projects, which were co-financed by PBCR Grants from LGCC projects. A water gate and a laterite road are being constructed that will help the area become more resilient to floods. Tapoung Commune suffered from floods in 2011 and 2012, damaging hectares of rice paddy that the farmers, who make up around 85 percent of its population, were relying on for their income and livelihoods.

Ola Sahlén, Programme Manager / Thematic Coordinator for the Sustainable Inclusive Growth Unit for Global Economy and Environment Department for International Organizations and Policy Support for Programme Cooperation at SIDA in Stockholm visited Cambodia from 21^st to 22^nd May, 2017. The programme is fully-funded by SIDA in support of the ‘last mile’ of Cambodia.

The projects in the commune support the flood-resilience efforts taking part in the district, which is 27 kilometers from the center of Battambang Municipality. Recent numbers show that the permanent residents of the area consist of 3,169 families (from a total population of 13,235). Both projects, the water gate and the laterite road, aim to have a total number of beneficiaries of 3,445 people, 1,631 of which are women.

There are several benefits that will result from the completion of both projects. Mainly, the purpose is to build a community resilient to the flooding by the river water. The project protects farmers and enables them to farm crops twice a year and to transport the agricultural products to market. Moreover, it would make the healthcare center more accessible to women, children and other vulnerable groups during flooding periods or other climate change challenges.

Fakri Karim, Global Programme Manager at UNCDF, explained: “Climate change adaptation interventions should take place at the local and individual level. Local governments are playing a critical role in increasing their community resilience to the effects of climate change, therefore it is very important that we empower local governments to be able to access climate finance and deliver it as part of their own development agenda. The LoCAL programme provides a mechanism to allow local government to be able to do so.”

The purpose of Local Governments and Climate Change (LGCC) project is to demonstrate the role of local governments in fostering climate change resilience and to identify practical ways to mainstream climate change resilience into subnational planning and finance systems. An important focus is how to strengthen institutions and systems at both national and subnational levels.

For more information, please contact:

Fakri Karim
LoCAL Programme Manager
fakri.karim@uncdf.org