LoCAL launched in Benin in 2013 and has since recorded a series of notable achievements:

- The performance-based climate resilience grant (PBCRG) mechanism has been developed and includes minimum conditions for access, performance criteria and an indicative investment menu to inform the process of integrating adaptation into local planning and budgeting.

- A LoCAL-Benin Technical Committee is up and running within the Ministry of Living Environment and Sustainable Development to guide and support the LoCAL actions.

- LoCAL was first piloted in the northern communes of Boukoumbé, Copargo and Toukountouna (total population: 195,068), which are located in Benin’s most vulnerable agro-ecological areas and have the institutional capacity to handle climate change– related concerns. In the first PBCRG cycle, LoCAL supplemented the regular funding transfers the communes were receiving through the FADeC by around 8.5 per cent.

- The positive pilot experience secured the backing of the National Fund for Environment and Climate (FNEC, Fonds National pour l’Environnement et le Climat) in 2017, when three additional communes – Cobly, Matéri and Ouaké in the Atacora and Donga Departments – received $200,000 to plan and budget climate change adaptation activities with LoCAL support. The communes of Banikoara, Karimana and Malanville initiated implementation of a cycle of adaptation measures in 2017. In 2019, FNEC co-financed PBCRGs in the communes of Matéri and Ouaké; the $120,000 provided was obtained in part from ecotax revenues.

- FNEC, with LoCAL support, has been accredited as Benin’s national implementing entity with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) with a view to scaling up LoCAL. In 2019, FNEC officially submitted a GCF concept note for LoCAL scale-up to 30 communes.

- A LoCAL Phase II framework has been developed.

- LoCAL piloted localized climate risk assessments and established a system that will enable local governments to collect, archive and analyse meteorological, climate and socioeconomic data and undertake local climate projections to inform their planning.

- LoCAL-Benin has partnered with the Training Centre for Local Administration (CeFAL, Centre de Formation pour l’Administration Locale) to scale up basic short-term training to all LoCAL- implementing local government staff.

- Government officials have participated in several workshops and seminars to share experience and lessons learned through LoCAL implementation, including at the 2019 Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Madrid.

- Several information and awareness workshops have been held, including one on lessons learned in which local governments exchanged their experiences regarding climate change adaptation. At another, technical staff in participating local governments were trained in improving their understanding of existing tools to integrate climate change adaptation into local planning and budgeting processes. Local government staff in Benin have also benefited from training on data collection and archiving, which has improved local capacity in monitoring climate change adaptation–related interventions.

- The LoCAL PBCRG system has been cited as a key measure to support achievement of NDC goals at the subnational level – clear evidence of the institutionalization and ownership of the PBCRG system in Benin.

- The Adaptation Climate Change Fund of the African Development Bank approved a grant envelop to support LoCAL-Benin in (i) development of high-quality, bankable projects aligned with the NDCs; (ii) identification and strengthening of national institutions and stakeholders to access the GCF; and (iii) small-scale adaptation initiatives targeting vulnerable communities via the PBCRG system.