Africa Green, Resilient and Inclusive Housing De-Risking (GRIHD) Facility

Adaptation Need

Africa’s rapid urbanization and soaring demand for housing requires an estimated US$2.5 billion in annual investments to close the housing gap. With the public sector unable to meet this demand alone, most urban housing will continue to be developed and owned by private actors. Local financial institutions have the potential to increase the privately-built housing stock but currently lack the technical capacity to assess climate-related risks and resilience benefits of adaptation solutions. Tools to link climate risk to practical adaptation solutions, paired with targeted capacity building for these institutions, will be essential to unlock private capital for climate-resilient housing investment.

GCA’s Added Value

GCA’s technical assistance bolsters the capacity of financial institutions to make informed financing decisions that support climate resilient investments in the housing sector. GCA will achieve this by (a) building climate resilience across the housing sector value chain, by (i) developing a standardized market assessment methodology to identify country-specific climate risks to housing, and tailored adaptation solutions; and (ii) testing it in a single country to ensure applicability and further refinement of the approach; and (b) building long-term capacity of key financial institutions, GCA will develop a masterclass module on financing climate resilient housing, complementing GCA’s Masterclass on Adaptation Finance for the banking sector. Outputs will include a 1-day training module and supporting materials. A training-of-trainers will be rolled out across the local financial institutions under GRIHD.