The Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Environment Protection Agency, with support from UNDP, has formally launched the implementation of the Sinoe coastal resilience project.
The project funded by the Global Environment Facility will protect coastal communities in Sinoe and their livelihood assets from climate change by implementing sea and river defense and risk management approaches while enhancing income streams through livelihood diversification.
The project, Enhancing the resilience of vulnerable coastal communities in Sinoe County of Liberia, will be mainly implemented in Greenville but will extend some soft services like the provision of micro-finance, value addition, and sustainable agriculture to other coastal counties.
Speaking at the launch of the project recently, Mines and Energy Minister Gesler Murray said the start of this project is a milestone that comes after rigorous negotiation as coastal communities continue to be threatened by sea level rise and intense rainfall.
Reinforcing the Mines and Energy Minister’s statement, EPA Executive Director Wilson Tarpeh stressed that the situation in Sinoe remains critical and requires urgent and immediate actions.
Professor Tarpeh also said he is excited about the strategic partnership with UNDP and the project management arrangements which give communities and Liberian experts the opportunity to be involved and support the rollout and implementation of the project.
For his part, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative for Operations Thabani Mabodoko called for the need to collectively work to change the current short-term approach to addressing the impacts of climate change to long-term integrated and participatory planning that involves the public sector, private sector, and communities at all levels of governance.
The project he added has adopted an integrated approach that involves micro-finance, value-chain addition, sustainable agriculture as well as coastal protection measures while applauding the Government for its continuous commitment to providing co-financing for the mobilization of these funds, which are very critical in driving the country towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Government Pro-poor Agenda.
