GCA Supports the World Bank to Build Climate-Resilient Cities in Gabon
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otterdam, the Netherlands, 20 May 2025 — The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is partnering with the World Bank on the Gabon Urban Development Project to strengthen climate resilience in the country’s rapidly growing secondary cities. Backed by a US$150 million IBRD loan, the project will improve access to climate-resilient urban infrastructure and public facilities and reduce flood risk, ultimately benefiting an estimated 301,000 people across seven cities, roughly half of whom are women.
Gabon is highly vulnerable to climate change, facing projected temperature increases of up to 4°C by the end of the century and intensified rainfall events that threaten urban infrastructure, livelihoods, and vulnerable communities. With over 75 percent of the population concentrated in low-lying coastal areas, climate risks such as flooding and erosion pose major challenges.
The World Bank–financed program focuses on practical, high-impact investments: upgrading priority urban roads to all-weather, climate-resilient standards; rehabilitating public facilities such as schools and community centers; and creating or enhancing green and public spaces that cool neighborhoods and absorb stormwater. In the first four cities preparing works packages—Franceville, Lambaréné, Koulamoutou and Oyem—pre-feasibility has identified about 32.5 km of roads for rehabilitation, 788 meters of footbridges, upgrades to 24 schools and 12 other community facilities, with similar diagnostics to follow in Mouila, Lébamba and Ndendé.
At the heart of the project is smarter flood risk management. Stormwater drainage and flood-reduction measures will combine gray infrastructure with nature-based solutions (NbS), optimizing protection for frequent flood events and anticipating more intense rainfall under climate change. Designs will be informed by city-wide risk analyses and will integrate NbS where suitable—for example, tree-lined corridors, infiltration areas, and slope stabilization—to reduce runoff, erosion and heat.
GCA’s contribution centers on integrating NbS into the project’s design and delivery and on building lasting capacity to implement them. Working with national and municipal authorities, GCA is developing a Compendium of Soil and Water Management Investments that catalogs home-grown practices in Gabon and the wider Congo Basin, complete with first-order costs, technical specifications and guidance for implementation and maintenance. A simple decision-support framework will help planners and communities—especially women and vulnerable groups—select the best-fit measures for different terrains, soils and settlement types, and combine them effectively with engineered drainage.
To embed these approaches, GCA will facilitate peer-to-peer learning workshops and field visits for government counterparts and produce a tailored community training manual that supports hands-on adoption and upkeep of NbS at neighborhood level. This capacity-building emphasis complements the World Bank’s physical investments and helps ensure that resilience is sustained in contexts with limited institutional bandwidth.
“Gabon’s cities are on the frontlines of climate risk, but they are also engines of opportunity,” said Professor Patrick V. Verkooijen, President and CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation. “By pairing robust infrastructure with nature-based solutions and investing in local capacity, this partnership will protect people and assets from floods, lower urban heat, and generate co-benefits—from safer schools to greener public spaces—that improve daily life. It is a practical blueprint for resilient, inclusive urban growth in the Congo Basin and beyond.”
The project aligns with Gabon’s Nationally Determined Contribution and with the World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework, advancing resilient infrastructure, watershed management and low-carbon urban development. By strengthening planning tools (such as land-use plans and drainage master plans), improving maintenance practices, and elevating community leadership—particularly women’s voices—the program aims to translate plans into durable, climate-smart services on the ground.
This collaboration in Gabon is part of a broader GCA umbrella of technical assistance supporting World Bank urban resilience operations across five Congo Basin countries—Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo—so that proven NbS and risk-informed planning approaches can scale regionally while reflecting local realities.
