From Risk to Resilience: Mainstreaming Climate Adaptation in Ethiopia’s Borana Water Program
How GCA’s technical assistance helped transform a traditional water infrastructure project into a climate-resilient investment for pastoralist communities
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n Ethiopia’s Borana Zone—an arid and drought-prone region where pastoralist communities depend on fragile water systems for survival—climate change is no longer a distant concern. It is a lived reality. Increasingly frequent droughts, erratic rainfall, and flash floods are affecting lives, livelihoods, and the region’s economic foundations.
To address these challenges, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Government of Ethiopia launched the Borana Resilient Water Development for Improved Livelihoods Program. Its goal: to enhance water access for tens of thousands of people and livestock, reinforcing the critical link between water security, nutrition, health, and climate resilience in one of the country’s most climate vulnerable zones.
Through the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) provided upstream technical assistance to embed climate adaptation into the project’s core—ensuring it was not merely a development intervention, but a climate-resilient investment from the outset.
Grounding Adaptation in Evidence
Central to GCA’s role was a climate risk assessment of the Borana watershed—an analysis that informed community consultations and underpinned the identification of adaptation priorities. Using high-resolution modeling and future climate scenarios, the study pinpointed six climate hotspots across the Borana region. To assess future climate variability and drought risk, three indicators—warm spell duration, maximum consecutive dry days and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI)—were analyzed for 2030, 2050, and 2070 under two emission scenarios: SSP2-4.5 (business as usual) and SSP5-8.5 (high emissions). The results show a clear trend: longer warm spells and extended dry periods, with southern Borana most at risk—especially under SSP5-8.5, where drought conditions are projected to worsen for the three-time horizons due to rising temperatures.
These findings informed the design of climate-smart infrastructure and natural resource management interventions, such as contour bunds, recharge pits, and vegetative cover. These measures will help reduce soil erosion, improve water infiltration, and enhance groundwater recharge—fortifying the landscape against future shocks.
One of the most critical components analyzed was the Gelchet-Sarite water transmission route, a vital pipeline serving over 100,000 people and livestock. GCA’s modeling confirmed the resilience of its baseline design, but also recommended targeted enhancements: small-scale flood defenses, groundwater recharge structures, surface and rainwater storage systems and erosion controls using indigenous vegetation. These refinements are essential to protect this lifeline under worsening climate conditions.
Locally Anchored, Gender-Responsive Solutions
GCA’s adaptation support went beyond technical assessments. Working in partnership with zonal authorities, local communities, and women’s groups, the team ensured that solutions were both culturally appropriate and socially inclusive. Traditional knowledge and local water governance systems were integrated into the design, increasing community ownership and long-term sustainability.
A gender vulnerability assessment identified the disproportionate climate impacts faced by women, who are often primary water collectors and household caregivers. The assessment also included a gender action plan including an indicator framework to facilitate integration of the action plan’s recommendations within the AfDB project. In response, the project incorporated targeted safeguards and actions, including promoting women’s participation in water management committees, strengthening women-led small enterprises and cooperatives through capacity building and awareness programs, and addressing gender-specific vulnerabilities linked to climate stress.
Unlocking Adaptation Finance
One of the clearest outcomes of GCA’s engagement was the successful mobilization of an additional USD 9.4 million in climate adaptation finance through AfDB’s Climate Action Window—an 18% increase in total project financing. These additional funds will go directly toward implementing the climate resilience measures identified through the technical assistance, ensuring that all identified resilience measures can be fully implemented.
This experience underscores a powerful lesson: investments grounded in robust climate data and community-driven design are more likely to attract financing. Climate resilience, when built into the project development process early and credibly, unlocks the capital needed to scale impact.
A Scalable Model for Resilient Development
The Borana program is more than a water infrastructure project. It is a practical demonstration of how to mainstream climate adaptation into development planning at scale. With the support of AAAP, GCA helped shift the project’s orientation—from reacting to climate risks to anticipating and managing them systematically.
As Ethiopia and its partners confront escalating climate threats, the Borana program offers a replicable model for resilience: one that is grounded in science, owned by communities, and enabled by targeted climate finance.
This is the future of development in a climate-changed world: not business as usual, but adaptation by design.
The ideas presented in this article aim to inspire adaptation action – they are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Global Center on Adaptation.
