Delivering toward Paris by empowering nations

Direct Access Entities in Colombia, Fiji, Kenya and the Philippines accredited to the Green Climate Fund with support from innovative joint agency GCF Readiness Programme

9 November 2018 – To empower nations across the globe to deliver on goals for low-carbon, climate-resilient development, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) partnered with UN Environment and the World Resources Institute (WRI) to support countries in accessing the Green Climate Fund (GCF) through an innovative GCF Readiness Programme.

Five Direct Access Entities were accredited to the GCF with this support, including the National Environment Management Authority of Kenya, the Fiji Development Bank, the Land Bank of the Philippines, and Findeter and Fondo Accion in Colombia.

“This coalition, including UNDP, UN Environment, WRI, and other national and international actors, aims to empower nations to access climate finance, notably through the Green Climate Fund, the financial mechanism created by the nations of the world to deliver on the Paris Agreement. By facilitating direct access, we are building the national capacity, know-how and mechanisms to plan for, access and manage climate finance, and ensure it is catalyzed to strengthen resilience for our planet and mitigate the catastrophic risks that climate change brings,” said Jonathan Duwyn, Technology Needs Assessment Advisor and Manager at UN Environment.

The GCF Readiness Programme, funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), has supported nine countries over the past three years in building the capacity and tools they need to access the Green Climate Fund directly and through international partners. During last month’s Board Meeting of the GCF, Land Bank of the Philippines and Colombia’s Findeter and Fondo Accion were accredited.

The Land Bank is the first Direct Access Entity in the Philippines. The GCF Readiness Programme provided technical assistance to address technical issues raised by the accreditation panel; formulate policies for monitoring and evaluation, environment and social safeguard compliance; conduct gender training; develop project idea notes on different sectors such as agriculture and fisheries, biogas and sustainable transport; establish a stakeholder engagement processes; and develop a full-fledged GCF proposal on sustainable transport.

“The accreditation of Land Bank of the Philippines will open up additional opportunities for mobilizing much needed climate finance from GCF, local government units and the private sector. This development is very timely as the Philippines needs to deepen its efforts to invest in adaptation and low-carbon projects to avert the predicted impacts of a 1.5⁰C scenario,” said Titon Mitra, Country Director, UNDP Philippines. “UNDP is pleased that we were able to, through the provision of technical assistance, support Land Bank in securing its accreditation. We will work with other national entities to also secure their accreditation and thereby position the Philippines to effectively access climate finance and help to strengthen the country’s long-term resilience.”

In Colombia, where a new GCF-financed "Scaling up Climate Resilient Water Management Practices for Vulnerable Communities in La Mojana, Colombia" project will benefit more than 400,000 people, the GCF Readiness Programme significantly increased the understanding of national stakeholders (including Findeter and Fondo Accion) on GCF processes and requirements for direct access and funding proposals.

"This joint programme enabled the government to prioritize GCF-financed proposals and map them against the best-suited national and international entities to design and deliver such projects,” said Edgar Cruz, Climate Finance Coordinator at the National Planning Department (NDA of Colombia). “As part of this process, the programme helped maintain the commitment of the direct access entities (Fondo Acción and Findeter) to the accreditation process.”

Findeter and Fondo Accion were supported to structure public-private partnerships for climate adaptation and mitigation projects, including exploring co-financing mechanisms and blended finance options. They also received technical advice from UNDP and UN Environment in the formulation of their first approved GCF Readiness proposals for Adaptation Planning and for the Solid Waste NAMA Proposal (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action).

Across the globe, UNDP works with governments to accelerate and mainstream support and access to vertical funds such as the Green Climate Fund. Recent analysis indicates that UNDP-supported projects accounts for 44 percent of the total beneficiaries of GCF-financed climate actions, which are set to increase the resilience of 217 million people worldwide. In the last GCF Board, two new projects were approved for projects in Comoros and India that will offset 3.5 million tons of carbon, protect vulnerable ecosystems, and ensure climate resilient lives for millions of people threatened by climate change.

“UNDP stands ready to support countries in directly accessing finance from the Green Climate Fund, to deliver on climate priorities. Thanks to the support of the German government and the GCF-funded readiness portfolio, we are partnering with national institutions in Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Nepal and other countries to build their capacities, not only towards accreditation, but also to design bankable project pipelines with public and private stakeholders to accelerate climate action across the globe,” said Pradeep Kurukulasuriya, Executive Coordinator (ai), Global Environmental Finance Unit, UNDP.