The objective of the proposed LDCF project is to support resilient agriculture and livelihoods and to mainstream climate risk considerations into national and sub-national planning processes so that local communities are less vulnerable to climate change.To achieve this overall objective, the project is structured around 3 complementary and mutually reinforcing components:-Component 1 will strengthen the capacity of departments and municipalities in the targeted areas, as well as of all relevant Ministries, to fully integrate climate change risks and opportunities in their development planning and budgeting work.-Component 2 will reduce the targeted communities' vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change by providing technical training and smart investment in productive agriculture infrastructure for water harvest and management, as the alteration of rainfall patterns is the main climate change induced risk to Benin's mainly rain-fed agriculture. -Component 3 will equally improve the targeted communities' adaptive capacities by supporting the diversification of their income generating activities.The Republic of Benin is a Sub-Saharan African country of 116,622 km² and close to 11 million inhabitants. Despite moderate GDP growth of between 4 and 5% annually over the past two decades, Benin is still a least developed country and poverty remains widespread and on the rise in Benin, with national poverty rates of 40.1% in 2015, up from 35.2% in 2009. The country's economy relies heavily on agriculture, in particular cotton exports, which represents one third of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Approximately two thirds of the population relies on the agriculture for their livelihood. However, it is estimated that only 13% of the cultivated area of Benin is irrigated, and 80% of agricultural production takes place during the wet season. The dependence on good weather for sustaining livelihoods makes local communities very vulnerable to current and upcoming climate change impacts.In this context, the project is proposing effective and efficient measure by building among other things on the significant successes and results of the NAPA-1 project (Integrated Adaptation Program for Combating Adverse Effects of Climate Change on Agricultural Production and Food Security in Benin), which was implemented in nine pilot sites across Benin and resulted in enhanced adaptive capacities of many poor farmers, the introduction of adaptation technologies and innovation development, using a research-action approach. The proposed project will build on and scale up the positive impacts and the lessons learnt from this innovative approach, thereby proposing efficient and effective actions.In order to be as effective and efficient as possible, the proposed project also: i) fits in national priorities and answers local needs as identified during the thorough participatory analysis led during the preparatory phase, ii) builds on and reinforces national and sub national pre-existing structures and capacities, and iii) mainstreams gender in all its activities, outputs and outcomes, as well as makes sure that all beneficiaries will equally access the project's benefits.The project areas for components 2 and 3 cover 9 villages with a total of 12,936 inhabitants across five Municipalities (2 villages per Municipality except for Bohicon, where only one village is targeted): Avrankou, Bohicon, Bopa and Savalou in the South-East part of the country, and Ouaké in the Middle East part of the country. These Municipalities were chosen as they were in vulnerable agro-ecological zones. Three of these municipalities benefited of NAPA-1, with each of the two villages they comprise benefiting differently from the project. In these Municipalities, the current project will strengthen the results of NAPA-1 results by complimenting them and scaling them up without carrying out any redundant action. The two new Municipalities will benefit from the experience acquired though NAPA-1.The project will be implemented over a period of 5 years (2017-2022) and requests a 4,450,000 USD grant funding from the GEF. It has secured co-financing for 30,000,000 USD, mainly from the Government of Benin.