Burundi CREI

Adaptation Need

Burundi ranks among the world’s most impoverished and most climate-vulnerable countries—14th in exposure and 17th in lack of readiness—making it exceptionally ill-equipped to cope with escalating climate impacts. The WASH and irrigation sectors face a compounded crisis marked by insufficient infrastructure, fragmented institutional leadership, overlapping mandates, and chronic underfunding. These structural gaps are further strained by frequent climate shocks. Addressing these challenges demands urgent, climate-smart investment and the strategic mobilization of climate finance to stabilize and strengthen Burundi’s WASH and irrigation systems for long-term resilience.

GCA’s Added Value

To ensure PASEREC’s investments are climate-resilient, GCA supported a detailed climate risk assessment for Burundi, which identified four climate hotspots and identified key risks—floods (flash and plain), droughts, erosion, and landslides—to water infrastructure, agriculture, and local livelihoods. These insights guided local stakeholder dialogues and informed a suite of adaptation measures tailored to site-specific risks. Proposed measures include reforestation, catchment restoration, riverbank stabilization, spring protection, rainwater harvesting, and Water Safety Plans—all prioritized based on local adaptive capacity, climate exposure, and cost-effectiveness. GCA’s support enabled PASEREC to secure funding from AfDB’s Climate Action Window, unlocking an additional USD 8.3 million to integrate climate resilience across its components. GCA also supported the preparation of a USD 3 million grant proposal awaiting submission through the GEF STAR-8 country allocation.