Building resilience through infrastructure investments
The Climate Investment Funds’ resilience programming helped build or rehabilitate more than 12,000 units of small-scale infrastructure and almost 3,000 km of roads. A new Results Deep Dive publication looks into what was delivered in 15 countries.
Infrastructure investments are central to building countries’ resilience to climate shocks and are an important part of CIF’s Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR). Overall, PPCR supported 12,131 units of small-scale infrastructure, with almost half of these units constructed or rehabilitated for projects focused on water-resources management and 30% for agriculture and landscape management. Out of the total number of small-scale infrastructure units built or supported, most are in Haiti (36%), Nepal (24%), Jamaica (16%), and Zambia (11%).
The majority of CIF investments contributed to building climate-proof infrastructure. Schools or health clinics designed to withstand climate-related shocks, such as floods, cyclones, storm surge, extreme heat, and other extreme weather events, are one example of this approach. This was the case in Tonga, where the Asian Development Bank (ADB) invested in climate-proofing five schools with enhanced roofing and building structures, roads, and drainage systems.
Building resilient roads
Access disruptions on roads following a disaster can cause significant social and economic losses. Risk informed infrastructure investment is critical to ensure the construction and maintenance of resilient road networks.
View more resources
The program also helped deliver infrastructure to support climate-vulnerable communities, economies, and environments. For example, in Haiti and Jamaica, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) supported the construction of more than 6,300 components of watershed protection infrastructure, check dams, and communal rainwater harvesting systems. In Mozambique, an African Development Bank (AfDB) project supported farming communities’ resilience through investments in 21 earth dams, 15 multifunctional boreholes, 10 water troughs, and five tree nurseries. In Cambodia’s Koh Kong and Mondulkiri provinces, ADB helped finance the construction of 30 rainwater and other water-related harvesting ponds to support high-value crop production.
Resilient transportation systems, such as bridges and roads designed to withstand extreme weather events, are essential for facilitating the sustainable mobility of people, goods, and services under all climate conditions. During disasters, they are especially important to ensure the continuity of supply chains and emergency response efforts. PPCR exceeded expectations by enabling the construction or rehabilitation of almost 3,000 km of climate-resilient roads, notably in Cambodia, Bangladesh, Mozambique, and Zambia.
These results were achieved despite major challenges that occurred during implementation. For instance, some PPCR projects had to be restructured due to weather events slowing down infrastructure building efforts. “PPCR’s experience demonstrates that results related to climate resilience and infrastructure are often more dynamic and multi-dimensional than what is most commonly measured,” explains the Results Deep Dive.