GCA is an international organization that works as a solutions broker to catalyze action and support for climate adaptation solutions, from the international to the local, in partnership with the public and private sector. This is to ensure that we learn from each other and work together for a climate resilient future. Adapting to the impacts of climate change provides a “win-win” for livelihoods, food security, water supply, health, security, and economic growth. GCA’s work elevates the visibility and political importance of climate adaptation and facilitates solutions, such as smarter investments, new technologies and better planning for more resilience to climate related threats. GCA is a rapidly growing organization with offices in Abidjan, Beijing, Dhaka, Groningen, and Rotterdam and a planned new office in Nairobi in 2025. 

GCA’s 2020-2025 business plan and strategy have three pillars:  

• Programs: Food Security; Using Nature for more resilient infrastructure; Water for Urban Growth and Resilience; Climate Finance; Youth Leadership.
• Knowledge: Building adaptation knowledge globally through cutting edge products such as the State and Trends in Adaptation Report and the Adaptation Knowledge Portal.
• Advocacy and Awareness: Formulating policy messages to move the global, regional, and local adaptation agendas forward.

The GCA’s Youth and Jobs program aims to mainstream adaptation jobs on the African continent by scaling-up youth innovation and supporting youth-led enterprises in climate adaptation and resilience with the goal of enhancing the entrepreneurial skills of 1 million youth and influencing $2 billion worth of projects by 2025. This is done through two strategic business lines:

Business Line 1: YouthADAPT Program in scaling up youth-led innovation in adaptation through enterprise strengthening: a. YouthADAPT Challenge. b. In-country YouthADAPT for Investment Projects.
Business Line 2: Institutionalizing adaptation curricula in Investment projects: a. Skills Development: Adaptation capacity building via embedding curricula in universities, vocational (TVET) centers and higher institutions.

Within the framework of the AAAP program and under business line 2, the GCA is offering technical assistance support to the Djibouti – Youth Entrepreneurship for Climate Change Adaptation Project (PEJACC) which is financed by the AFDB, IFAD, partner financial institutions and the Government of Djibouti.

Rural youth in Djibouti face various challenges, in particular, limited access to agricultural land, lack of training and technical knowledge, difficulties in accessing financing, challenges regarding marketing, the lack of appropriate infrastructure and technologies and rising youth unemployment now at 62.8%. In the absence of jobs, self-employment and entrepreneurship are among the few possibilities for young people. Moreover, mindsets about agriculture, its climate challenges and rudimentary practices dissuade many young people from engaging in this sector. In addition, difficulties in accessing financing, markets, technical expertise and affordable, high-quality business development services (advisory support, incubation and acceleration) discourage the few adults and young people wishing to become agripreneurs or develop their businesses. Despite the aforementioned constraints, Djibouti has an opportunity to increase its agricultural production by ensuring greater private sector participation (SMSE) and adopting more efficient and climate-smart methods to address climate change. Support in terms of awareness-raising, entrepreneurship, technical support and adequate financing could have a significant leverage effect in creating jobs, especially for youth and women.

The project development objective is to increase the productivity and production of horticultural and goat value chains and create decent jobs for young people and women. The specific objectives are to: (i) strengthen the capacity of horticultural and goat breeding production systems in targeted areas to adapt to climate change; (ii) support the development of inclusive agribusiness that will create jobs and is adapted to climate change; and (iii) build the local capacity of central and decentralized structures to overcome institutional barriers to adaptation and reduce the risks associated with climate change.

The project aims to enhance youth entrepreneurship and agricultural skills development to support climate adaptation, increasing climate resilience and economic opportunities for youth and women in targeted areas through strengthened agricultural systems, inclusive agribusiness development, and enhanced institutional capacity for climate adaptation.

The implementing partner will contribute to achieving the outputs detailed in the table below and must have the capacity to produce outputs in English and French.

• Output 1 Djibouti Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment
• Output 2 Capacity Building Needs Assessment for Women and Youth-led Enterprises
• Output 3 Training Curriculum developed and customized based on stakeholder feedback, needs and priorities
• Output 4 Monitoring and Evaluation

• Only registered non-profit organizations (INGO, NGO, CBO, Company Limited by Guarantee) are eligible to receive a sub-grant from GCA.
• The organizations responding to this call must meet the minimum eligibility criteria and demonstrate their capacity to implement all the technical criteria.
• Proposals and all supporting documents must be submitted as a PDF, no later than 1st April 2025, 5 pm, Central European Time (CET) to subgrants@gca.org and cc’d to gloria.gowal@gca.org.
• The proposal must include:

• Important to note:

• Proposals received after the closing date and time will not be considered. Organizations will be notified once a decision about the Sub-Grant is made.
• For all questions or requests for additional information contact gloria.gowal@gca.org The email subject heading should be clearly marked with the following information: Djibouti PEJACC Project – Request for Information
• If an interested organization has concerns about completing the template, please reach out to subgrants@gca.org.
• Proposals and all supporting documents must be drafted in English.
• GCA reserves the right to decline disclosure of the specificity of decision derived by GCA mission due to reasons related to confidentiality.
• GCA reserves the right to accept or reject any submissions, and to annul the selection process and reject all submissions at any time, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected implementing partners.