The Republic of Tajikistan, as a small landlocked country, is the most climate vulnerable country in the Central Asia region. Increasing temperatures and late frost events are threatening agricultural productivity; changing rainfall patterns are modifying the grazing and cropping seasons; higher risks of droughts and mudslides are further reducing the health and productivity of soils and calling for integrated disaster management measures. Concrete potential risks include lower productivity of agriculture, food insecurity, poor nutrition, and worsened livelihoods of the rural population, especially women, young women and men, and vulnerable groups, who are less able to cope and less likely to have access to information and resources. This readiness project is a small step in continuing to strengthen the capacity of National Designated Authority (NDA) and key partners to leverage Green Climate Fund (GCF) resources to reduce the impact of climate change on the vulnerable communities in the Agriculture, Forestry and other Land Use (AFOLU) sector.

This readiness project seeks to overcome the following 5 technical, informational and knowledge barriers:

1. Inadequate technical capacity of NDA to engage and support key stakeholders to access and deploy climate finance in Tajikistan
2. Inadequate institutional, technical capacity and limited financial resources of Technical Expert Group (TEG) as line ministries to meet GCF requirements to develop high-quality Concept Notes (CNs), develop and implement high-quality funding proposals
3. Limited capability of AFOLU stakeholder to translate the Nationally Designated Contribution (NDC) and NDC implementation plan into tangible investment through a costed AFOLU Action Plan to guide partners to invest in scalable climate adaptation and mitigation solutions
4. Limited capacity and financial resources of AFOLU stakeholder to collect accurate data and information to be used as science-based evidence to design and implement high-quality CNs and decision-making tools for planning and investments
5. Inadequate capacity of NDA and lack of resources to update the NDA website and develop communication and knowledge products to be disseminated on a platform to improve Tajikistan’s ability to access and deploy climate finance.