A new report by the African Development Bank in collaboration with Vivid
Economics, makes concrete proposals that will facilitate access by African
countries to the Green Climate Fund
DOHA, Qatar December 6, 2012/ -- A new report by the African Development
Bank (http://www.afdb.org), in collaboration with Vivid Economics, makes
concrete proposals that will facilitate access by African countries to the
Green Climate Fund.
Launched in Doha on the sidelines of the UN climate change conference
(COP18), the "Getting Africa Ready for the Green Climate Fund" report makes
a series of recommendations for the Green Climate Fund board and African
nations that will increase the likelihood that African countries, with the
support of the African Development Bank, will be able to access increased
flows of climate finance from this source.
"African countries are not fully prepared to effectively benefit from all
the possibilities the Green Climate Fund might allow," said Anthony Nyong,
AfDB’s Manager in charge of Safeguards and Compliance. “This report
highlights actions that will help African countries overcome those
challenges, with adequate assistance from the African Development Bank.”
"While the GCF might provide domestic institutions greater responsibility
and accountability for flows of public climate finance raised from
international sources, the existing experience of direct access demonstrates
that many countries, including some in Africa, have had challenges in
realizing the opportunities provided by direct access," said John Ward from
Vivid Economics.
Drawing on the experience of existing funds, the report has identified a
number of key steps that can be taken for African countries to maximize the
possibilities offered by the GCF.
As regards the GCF Board, the report has listed 10 actions that should be
triggered in order to better meet African countries' needs. Among those
actions, the report recommends that capacity building resources be
fast-tracked while more difficult design aspects of the GCF are reviewed.
The report also makes a very strong case to allow direct access and project
applications to be processed and evaluated in a range of languages,
including French. Currently, applications for the Adaptation Fund, another
global climate finance mechanism of the UNFCCC, can be done only in English.
“For countries where English is not the first language,” the report says,
"this has been criticized for putting off some countries from even
applying." Some 200 million people who are most vulnerable to climate change
on the continent do not have English as a main language. The GCF can learn
from this.
The report also puts an important chunk of responsibility on African
countries. The report strongly encourages African countries to prepare a
credible, robust pipeline of funding opportunities (and related
documentation) derived from national or regional green growth or climate
change action plans.
It also recommends that they take early steps to prepare the infrastructure
needed to access the GCF. Each country will have to establish a Designated
Authority who will be the focal point for interaction with the GCF. In the
case of the equivalent body for the Adaptation Fund, only around half of
African countries have created such a body.
The report invites African countries to build a cross-departmental dialogue,
on the opportunities provided by direct access, also engaging with civil
society and the private sector and, as appropriate, link this to broader
fiscal reform processes.
In order to help African countries overcome all those challenges, the report
has identified six areas of action for the AfDB. “The African Development
Bank can play an important role in enhancing direct access to the GCF by
African countries,"says the report, which sees the Green Facility for
Africa advocated by the AfDB as a possible platform for action.
The report recommends that the AfDB put a strong emphasis on supporting the
capacity of the national bodies, before and after accreditation. “An often
missed point is that this capacity building support may be required even
after accreditation of a national body," notes the report.
The report also says the AfDB should also support the development of
Africa-specific climate change and/or green growth action plans. "The work
that the AfDB is already doing to support green growth in some countries
(e.g. Sierra Leone, Mozambique) can provide an excellent platform for the
development of a pipeline of projects. This could be a core role for the
Green Facility for Africa that the African Development Bank wishes to help
establish," says the report.