Green Climate Fund approves $28 million Yemen water early warning project

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INCHEON, South Korea — The Green Climate Fund approved a $28 million project to build climate and water early warning systems in Yemen, the Yemeni water ministry said.

The fund took the decision at its 46th board meeting, held at its headquarters in the Songdo district of Incheon from Oct. 26 to Oct. 29.

The project is called Climate and Water Information Management and Early Warning Systems in Yemen, shortened to CWIMEWS.

The ministry said the fund is providing a grant of $24.73 million.

The remaining $3.647 million comes from the Trust Fund for Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction in Yemen, which the World Bank manages.

Tawfiq al-Sharjabi, Yemen’s minister of water and environment, said the project matters for national capacity to monitor and predict climate risks.

He said it would support decisions in the water and agriculture sectors.

The ministry said the project aims to improve Yemen’s ability to handle climate risks and manage water resources, and to protect the communities most exposed to them.

The ministry said the project will build a national information system covering climate, water and early warning.

It said the work includes upgrading and expanding climate and water monitoring networks.

The project is also to create an integrated national information platform.

It is to develop forecasting and warning services for irrigation, agriculture, the protection of water sources and preparation for climate disasters.

The ministry put the number of people who stand to benefit at about 9.2 million.

It said they include farmers, displaced people, people with disabilities and residents of rural and remote areas.

The account of the approval rests on the ministry’s announcement, carried by Saba, the state news agency of Yemen’s internationally recognised government. The fund has not published its own confirmation of the decision, and Yemen Herald found no second independent origin for it.

The fund’s published agenda for the meeting does list a Yemen funding proposal, numbered SAP074, with the World Bank as the accredited entity. The agenda gives no project title and no figures.

The fund said on Oct. 22 that its board would consider a slate of new climate projects and accreditation proposals at the meeting, which it set in the run-up to the COP31 climate conference.

The agenda listed proposals from accredited entities including the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and conservation groups.

Those proposals covered Ethiopia, Algeria, Cameroon, Namibia, South Africa, Bhutan, Fiji, Indonesia, Moldova, Colombia and Mexico. The agenda also carried status reports on five proposals approved earlier, among them those numbered FP211, FP086 and FP286.

The fund describes itself as the world’s largest dedicated climate fund for developing countries. It was established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

A separate water programme for Yemen began this month. The World Bank Group, the Netherlands, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Office for Project Services started implementing a $150 million project on Oct. 18 in Amman.

That project is called Improved Water Management and Irrigation for Sustainability and Efficiency, or I-WISE, and is the first phase of a 10-year programme, according to UNDP.

UNDP said it leads a Climate and Water Information Management System within I-WISE, alongside watershed management and climate-resilient irrigation.

Yemen Herald could not establish whether that system and the project approved in Incheon are the same workstream. The ministry’s announcement did not refer to I-WISE.

I-WISE is funded by the World Bank Group’s International Development Association and by the Netherlands through the Yemen Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction Umbrella Trust Fund, UNDP said.

It covers the Aden-Tuban and Wadi Hajir basins and is expected to reach more than 850,000 people, including 375,000 through infrastructure, according to UNDP.

UNOPS is restoring and expanding water supply and sanitation infrastructure under the programme, UNDP said.

Al-Sharjabi attended the Amman event with Salem al-Socatri, the minister of agriculture, irrigation and fisheries, UNDP said. Dina Abu-Ghaida, the World Bank Group country manager for Yemen, also attended.

UNDP describes Yemen as one of the world’s most water-stressed countries and cites droughts and flash floods among the climate shocks it faces.

The United Nations humanitarian plan for 2026 counts more than 22 million people in Yemen in need of assistance and 5.2 million people displaced inside the country.

The plan puts the number facing acute food insecurity at 18.3 million and the number of children under five who are acutely malnourished at more than 2.2 million, of whom 516,157 are severely malnourished. It seeks $2.16 billion to reach 12 million people.

The ministry did not say when CWIMEWS would start or how long it would run, and named no implementing partner beyond the funding sources.

The fund listed the funding proposals under item 10 of the meeting agenda, grouping the Yemen proposal with one submitted by Ethiopia’s finance ministry.

Zena Ali Ahmed, UNDP’s deputy regional director for the Arab states bureau, and Muhammad Usman Akram, who heads the UNOPS multi-country office in Amman, were also at the Amman event, UNDP said.

Yemen’s water and environment ministry is based in Aden, the seat of the internationally recognised government.

Saba dated its report on the approval Oct. 27.