GCA’s AAAP Upstream Financing Facility to Climate Proof Uganda’s Railroad to Climate Resilient Growth

R otterdam, the Netherlands, 2nd December 2022 – The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) today announced it will deploy resources under the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program’s (AAAP) Upstream Financing Facility to enhance the climate resilience of Uganda’s rail infrastructure by mainstreaming climate adaptation through the Kampala-Malaba Meter Gauge Railway Refurbishment Project. The project represents a $413 million total investment, including $301 million recently approved by the African Development Bank’s Board and will include the rehabilitation of 271km of existing railway lines.      
  
Uganda faces significant risks due to climate change: high levels of rainfall can lead to the flooding of transport infrastructure including railroads, while high temperatures can cause rail, bridges, and protective structures to develop cracks and degrade more quickly, with potential damages to physical assets and disruptions to services and trade, including agricultural goods.

The Kampala-Malaba Meter Gauge Railway line is operated by the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC). It is part of the Northern Corridor, which crosses Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda, and is anchored by the port of Mombasa in Kenya. Climate-proofing this critical rail network will contribute to ensuring resilient trade in East Africa and across the continent to help stimulate regional trade and economic growth.

GCA’s support in collaboration with the African Development Bank and URC will help de-risk the investment through the identification, analysis, and evaluation of grey and green adaptation investment options to mitigate the current and projected risks posed by climate change.

In line with the priorities of the AAAP, GCA will work with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to design and finance complementary nature-based solutions such as tree planting, to enhance the climate resilience of the tracks.

GCA will also work with the University of Nairobi to provide a masterclass on climate-resilient infrastructure to participants from URC.

Rail is viewed as a safer and more affordable mode of transport than road, but currently, more than 90% of the traffic along the Northern Corridor is carried by road, with a mere 7% moving by rail because of poor infrastructure. As a result, transport costs along the corridor are comparatively high.

The project is expected to directly benefit nearly 1.2 million people, about 40% of them women as well as bring about a significant reduction in transport costs and increase the safety and reliability of transport services. The project is also expected to create about 2000 temporary jobs during construction (this includes both direct and indirect jobs) and about 700 permanent jobs after construction to be retained for maintenance of the railway line.

The project is aligned with Uganda’s Vision 2040 National strategy as well as the East African Community’s Vision 2050, which aims to deepen trade and transform East Africa into a globally competitive upper-middle-income region.

Notes to Editors
About the Global Center on Adaptation
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an international organization that works as a solutions broker to accelerate action and support for adaptation solutions, from the international to the local, in partnership with the public and private sectors. Founded in 2018, GCA operates from its headquarters in the largest floating office in the world, located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. GCA has a worldwide network of regional offices in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Beijing, China.

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