PROJECT BACKGROUND

The EPA is Liberia’s principal authority for environmental management. It coordinates, monitors, supervises, and consults with relevant stakeholders and sector Ministries, Agencies, and Commissions (MACs) on all activities related to protecting the environment and sustainable use of its natural resources.

The Government of Liberia (GoL), through the EPA and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and with funding from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), received funding for the project “Enhancing Resilience of Vulnerable Coastal Communities in Sinoe County of Liberia (ERVCCS).” EPA is the project’s Executing Entity. It is financed by a GEF Trust Fund grant and co-financed by UNDP and the GoL.

The project aims to build on existing projects to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable coastal communities and their livelihoods to the impacts of climate change, focusing on women and youth. Specifically, project interventions include the following:

Component 1: Strengthening Institutional Capacity for Climate Change Adaptation Planning

Component 2: Innovation, technologies, and climate information introduced for coastal adaptation planning.

Component 3: Introducing Engineered Hybrid Adaptation Solutions, and;

Component 4: Supporting Resilient Livelihood Diversification through Training and Improved Access to Finance.

The majority of the above interventions will target all coastal counties in Liberia. In contrast, hybrid adaptation interventions will be explicitly implemented in Sinoe County, one of the country’s most vulnerable coastal counties.

The impacts of climate change, combined with non-climatic drivers, such as sand mining, the expansion of agricultural areas, unsustainable fishing, pollution, and inadequate drainage systems, compromise the resilience of Liberian communities’ ecosystems along the coastline. Consequently, local communities and ecosystems are experiencing increased coastal flooding and erosion, saltwater intrusion into groundwater supplies, waterlogging of inland areas, and sedimentation of rivers and freshwater resources due to Sea Level Rise (SLR) and higher-intensity rainfall events. The vulnerability of communities and ecosystems occurs through I) inundation and consequent damage of coastal infrastructure, II) loss of fishery and agriculture-dependent livelihoods, III) decrease in stable income generation for coastal communities, IV) increase in conflict and competition over resources within communities, V) decrease in food and nutrition security, VI) increased risk of vector- and waterborne diseases through waterlogging, and VII) increased pressure on surrounding ecosystems to compensate for the reduced provision of services from coastal, wetland and mangrove ecosystems. In addition, the vulnerability of Liberia’s coastal communities and their resilience to climate change, particularly in Sinoe County, is exacerbated by the limited capacity of the GoL to provide essential services and adequate support for, among other things, water and sanitation, healthcare, utility-scale energy, and road infrastructure.

Objective of the Assignment

The primary objective of this assignment is to conduct detailed market studies within the target communities of Grand Cape Mount County to:

• Assess the current state of financial services (formal and informal) used by the population.
• Identify key barriers to accessing financial services (gender-based, geographic, socio-economic).
• Map existing providers and products in the local financial ecosystem.
• Understand the financial behaviors, needs, and preferences of community members.

Recommend strategies to improve access, inclusion, and utilization of financial services

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