Climate Change Adaptation and Flood and Drought Management Project in the Volta Basin

The Volta Basin, shared by Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, and Togo, like other river basins in West Africa and beyond, experiences the effects of climate change through extreme events such as floods and droughts, which have detrimental impacts on ecosystems and communities.

In this context, the project titled “Integrating Flood and Drought Management and Early Warning for Climate Change Adaptation in the Volta Basin” or Volta Flood and Drought Management (VFDM) Project, funded by the Adaptation Fund, was developed and implemented by the WMO, ABV, and GWP/AO from June 2019 to June 2024. The project aimed to:

1. Develop capacities and decision-making frameworks for climate risk management at local, national, and regional levels,
   
2. Implement concrete, environmentally-friendly adaptation actions, including Nature-Based Solutions (NbS), using an integrated approach,
   
3. Strengthen political and institutional capacities for integrated flood and drought management at local, national, and transboundary levels.
   

The project improved knowledge of flood and drought risks, established and operationalized local and national flood and drought prevention and management committees in the Volta Basin, strengthened the hydrometeorological data collection network, created multidimensional mapping of vulnerable areas and communities, and enhanced the capacities of local actors to disseminate and respond to flood and drought alerts across ten pilot sites.