Project Description

Client: ADB and MoECCT |   Duration:  June 2023 – December 2024 |   Location: Maldives |   Partners: EPOCH

Maldives’ physical vulnerability and limited adaptive capacity combined with a reliance on climate-sensitive sectors such as tourism, fisheries and subsistence farming puts the country at high risk to adverse consequences of climate change. The country faces natural hazards including coastal erosion, rainfall flooding, storm surges, tsunamis and strong winds. Climate modelling shows a consistent upward trend in warming and rainfall and a likelihood of more frequent and intense extreme weather events. While coral reefs protect island communities to some extent, the majority of the country’s critical infrastructure is very close to the coast and vulnerable to storms and swells. Economic losses due to climate change are estimated at 2.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2050 and 12.6% of GDP by 2100.

To overcome these challenges, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Technology are developing an investment project focused on climate change adaptation and resilience. The investment project is intended to fill the current gaps in adaptive capacity through the implementation of a comprehensive, integrated approach that reduces flood risk, strengthens early-warning systems and improves agri-food resilience. The project will have three outputs:

1. Capacity and awareness to plan, adapt and respond to climate change strengthened
2. Infrastructure for urban flood protection and nature-based solutions developed
3. Solutions for improved resilience of islands agri-food system introduced

The ICEM-EPOCH Joint Venture has been commissioned by ADB to develop and prepare the proposed investment project for climate change adaptation and resilience in line with ADB and Government requirements, including all necessary studies and draft documentation for ADB Board consideration. The Transaction Technical Assistance (TRTA) assignment will support the:

• Development of extensive country-wide climate diagnostics to better understand the present and future climate pathways based on the latest CMIP6 global climate models and Shared Socio-Economic Pathways, and a detailed climate risk and adaptation assessment for the country as well as the selected project sites;
• Preparation of project feasibility studies, including procedures and criteria to identify and develop subprojects;
• Review, enhancement and quality assurance of detailed project design;
• Preparation of bid documents (for the goods, works, and non-consulting and consulting services) and frameworks, procedures, and templates for the remaining goods, works and non-consulting and consulting service packages;
• Preparation of safeguards documents in accordance with ADB’s Safeguards Policy Statement 2009 and required environmental and social due diligence;
• Project start-up activities such as advanced procurement of works packages and recruitment of project implementation support consults;
• Appropriate implementing arrangements.

The development of the investment project and associated documents is the primary output of the TRTA. As part of this, a prioritization exercise will be carried out to identify a short list of sub-projects for the final investment project, for which feasibility studies will be prepared. The final project outputs will include all investment project documentation as required by the ADB Board.

Photo credits: ADB, Flickr, 2013: 39099-013: Tsunami Emergency Assistance Project in Maldives