Growing Resilience

Unlocking the potential of nature-based solutions forclimate resilience in sub-Saharan Africa Authors:Natasha Collins, Boris van Zanten, Innocent Onah, Lizzie Marsters, Laura Jungman, Rory Hunter, Natalie vonTurkovich, James Anderson, Gabriela Vidad, Todd Gartner, Brenden Jongman Acknowledgements Note: This report was jointly prepared by the Cities4Forests initiative at World Resources Institute and the Global Facility for DisasterReduction and Recovery (GFDRR) at the World Bank, with key contributions from the African Development Bank (AfDB), support from theGreen Growth Knowledge Partnership (GGKP), and funding contributions from the Swedish International Development CooperationAgency (SIDA), the MAVA Foundation, GFDRR, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the German Federal Ministry forEconomic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). We would like to thank our peers who provided critical review and feedback, including Niels Holm-Nielsen (World Bank, GFDRR), FrancisGhesquiere (World Bank), Pieter Waalewijn (World Bank), Ana Campos Garcia (World Bank, GFDRR), Chiwimbo P. Mwika (World Bank), DijiChandrasekharan Behr (World Bank), Lorenzo Carrera (World Bank), Larissa Duma (World Bank, GFDRR), Irene Rehberger Bescos (WorldBank), Clementine Marie Stip (World Bank), Sally Lees Polk Judson (World Bank, GFDRR), Moussa Sidibe (World Bank, GFDRR), Marie-Flore Michel (World Bank, GFDRR), Bianca Reichel (World Bank, GFDRR), Sun Cho (GGKP), Brittany King (GGKP), John Maughan (GGKP),Koeun Lee (GGKP), Jerry Ahadjie Kwame (AfDB), Julius Tieguhong (AfDB), Aliou Diouf (AfDB), Julia Lacal Bereslawski (AfDB), ShimelisFekadu Admasu (AfDB), Remi Evaliste Jiagho (AfDB), Fia Molander (SIDA), Jan Wärnbäck (SIDA), Cecilia Brumér (SIDA), Renée Ankarfjärd(SIDA), and Ulrika Åkesson (SIDA). Ian Smith (World Bank, GFDRR) helped create the figures in section “Intersecting challenges of natureloss, climate risk, and development needs.” Thank you to our external reviewers for their valuable feedback: Gena Gammie (Forest Trends),Suzanne Ozment (The Nature Conservancy), Rowan Palmer (UNEP), Morgan Richmond (CPI), Eva Mayerhofer (EIB), and Jane Feehan(EIB). Natasha Vizcarra provided helpful copy editing. Fred Kabanda (AfDB), Vanessa Ushie (AfDB), Desire Vencatachellum (AfDB), ArmandNzeyimana (AfBD), and Al-Hamdou Dorsouma (AfDB) helped make valuable connections at AfDB. Lastly, we thank the long list of inter-viewees who took the time to share their valuable insights. A full list of names and organizations is in Appendix B. At WRI, additional support for fundraising and the report's inception was provided by Suzanne Ozment and John-Rob Pool. Renee Pineda,Emilia Suarez, Allison Meyer, Romain Warnault, Laura Malaguzzi Valeri, Carlos Muñoz Pina, Gregory Taff, Robin King, Anjali Mahendra,and Sarah DeLucia helped us navigate the publication planning, peer review, and production process, and with copy editing. In addition,we thank the colleagues that took the time to review the report including Sadof Alexander, Nisha Krishnan, John-Rob Pool, Aklilu Fikresilas-sie, and Hellen Wanjohi-Opil. Members from WRI’s Aqueduct Alliance team including Samantha Kuzma and Liz Saccoccia provided datafrom WRI Aqueduct. John Wamagata Nduru developed illustrations for some of the figures. Finally, the authors would like to thank andcredit a team of current and previous WRI staff and interns who contributed immensely to the data scanning collection processes for thisreport, including Emmie Oliver, Maria Santarelli, Ken Schell-Smith, and Golden Tayebwa. Thank you to Sally Lees Polk Judson (World Bank)and Innocent Onah (AfDB) for providing data on MDB projects for 2022 to 2023. Authors Natasha Collins, Conservation Finance Associate, World Resources Institute; Boris van Zanten, Disaster Risk Management Specialist, WorldBank , GFDRR; Innocent Onah, Chief Natural Resources Officer, African Development Bank; Lizzie Marsters, Senior Environmental FinanceManager, World Resources Institute; Laura Jungman, Consultant, World Bank, GFDRR; Rory Hunter, formerly WRI; Natalie von Turkovich,formerly WRI; James Anderson, Senior Program Manager, World Resources Institute; Gabriela Vidad, Monitoring, Evaluation, and LearningCoordinator, World Resources Institute; Todd Gartner, Director of Cities4Forests, World Resources Institute; Brenden Jongman, SeniorDisaster Risk Management Specialist, World Bank, GFDRR. Author Contribution Note: Lizzie Marsters, Boris van Zanten, Brenden Jongman, Innocent Onah, and Todd Gartner conceived this report and secured the funding forits production. Natalie von Turkovich, Lizzie Marsters, Natasha Collins, and Gabriela Vidad led project data collection and analysis. LauraJungman and Boris van Zanten led project data collection for the World Bank’s portfolio. Innocent Onah led project data collection for theAfrican Development Bank’s portfolio. Rory Hunter, Lizzie Marsters, a