Jordan Paves Way For US$60 Million Initiative To Adapt To Climate Change

In collaboration with the Government of Jordan and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Jordan Integrated Landscape Management Initiative (JILMI) project will combat the adverse effects of climate change in one of the most water scarce and drought prone countries in the world.  

With a total budget of US$60.5 million, the project has secured US$44.9 million in funding from the Green Climate Fund, supplemented by US$15.6 million from the Government of Jordan and a consortium of NGOs. 

The JILMI project is designed to address multiple climate impacts, in particular water scarcity in the northern Jordan Valley. It adopts an integrated land and water resources management approach, targeting small-scale farming communities in three sites in the north Jordan Valley – the Yarmouk, Amman Zarqa, and Jordan Rift Valley Basins.  

Through a combination of capacity building, climate-resilient agriculture, the restoration of degraded ecosystems, and improved water management, the initiative will boost water security and climate resilience for 750,000 people in the Jordan Valley. Local communities will expect to see improved food security and strengthened governance, all secured through the establishment of a Water Fund that will see industrial water users downstream pay communities upstream for sustainable land stewardship. 

At a ceremonial signing event at the GCF’s headquarters in Songdo, South Korea, government ministers, UN agencies and civil society groups gathered to applaud the new initiative. 

The initiative aims to increase the country's annual water supply by approximately 9 million cubic meters, with a potential cumulative increase of 163 million cubic meters over 25 years. 

With a projected increase in temperatures of 2–4°C by 2070, lower rainfall and evaporation rates of surface waters that already exceed 90%, extreme drought periods are expected to become increasingly frequent under future climate change scenarios. 

Using a holistic approach, the project will train local communities on new climate-resilient livelihoods such as vegetable gardening, beekeeping, and water-efficient agricultural practices. 

The project demonstrates the critical co-benefits between nature restoration, adaptation and mitigation, exemplified by the innovative establishment of a floating solar power system on the King Abdellah Canal, which aims to both reduce water loss from evaporation while simultaneously producing 1MW of renewable energy.