Recognizing the increasing coastal vulnerability of the country, the Government of Seychelles (GoS) developed in 2019 the first national Coastal Management Plan (CMP) with World Bank technical support. The CMP laid out a strategic framework for coastal resilience, including quantified priority investments to address flood and erosion risk and a capacity building and monitoring plan. The priority risk reduction investments were costed at $15 million, although potential interventions could absorb more than this. The plan was designed as a realistic and feasible strategy to address high priorities for coastal protection and erosion reduction over the coming five years (2019-2024).
Despite the endorsement of the CMP and the increase in flooding, coastal erosion, and ecosystem degradation at several sites around the country, strategic investments and institutional capacity building on coastal resilience are still limited. The implementation level of the CMP is currently marginal and only a few isolated adaptation interventions have been implemented in the last two years.
Besides the lack of technical capacity and coordination, another main challenge to further implementation of the CMP has been the financing gap between available public budget and climate resilience investment needs. In addition, the global COVID-19 crisis has caused significant economic impact in Seychelles, eroding the already limited Government’s financial capacity to respond to coastal vulnerability and reorienting immediate investment priorities.
Current coastal management financing falls far short of what is needed to meet priority risk reduction investments reflected in the CMP. Better planning, coordination, and identification of synergies are needed to make sure all projects contribute strategically and efficiently to address the impacts of coastal flooding, erosion, and sea level rise. This World Bank’s technical assistance has the objective to help Seychelles to become more resourceful in accessing existing funds, leveraging new finance, and working strategically and efficiently with national and regional development plans and budgets to meet increasing coastal management and adaption needs.