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L-R: Marcia Levaggi, Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat; Alejandra Mujica, Uruguay National Agency of Research and Innovation; Hopeton Peterson, Planning Institute of Jamaica; Farrukh Iqbal Khan, Adaptation Fund Board; and Assize Toure, Centre du Suivi Ecologique.
December 3, 2010 - Cancun, Mexico - This event discussed the Adaptation Fund (AF) accreditation process for National Implementing Entities (NIEs). Farrukh Iqbal Khan, Adaptation Fund Board, presented on the current status and future of the Board’s work, saying the Board was in a “state of learning” but is accepting project proposals. He said the AF was the first direct access climate funding project in the world, but lamented that it is limited in nature, and expressed uncertainty about its ability to fund the 20 proposals it had received. He called for new ideas and new support, emphasizing that direct access builds capacity in developing countries.
Assize Toure, Centre du Suivi Ecologique (CSE), presented Senegal’s experience with NIE accreditation, noting it was accredited in March 2010. He said as an NIE, Senegal is empowered to switch from a “passive victim” to a dynamic actor in the fight against climate change. He described the role of CSE as working across sectors and cross-cutting environmental issues, highlighting a project on coastal erosion in vulnerable areas, which is likely to become part of Senegal’s National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA).
Hopeton Peterson, Planning Institute of Jamaica, discussed Jamaica’s accreditation experience, saying climate change is a development issue, not only an environmental issue for his country. He said Jamaica earned accreditation in September 2010 after demonstrating “competence” in: financial integrity and management; institutional capacity; transparency; self-investigative powers; and anti-corruption measures. He said currently Jamaica is in the formative stage of a climate change adaptation program.
Alejandra Mujica, Uruguay National Agency of Research and Innovation, described progress in development of science and policy in her country as an NIE. She noted the Timbó Portal, an open access science publication site, as one of the projects funded by the government, and also described a number of agency and sectoral funds used for climate change adaptation work. She said Uruguay received accreditation in September 2010.
Participants questioned, inter alia: the NIE eligibility rules; Small Island Developing States accreditation; and the ceiling of AF funding. On eligibility, Khan explained that the Board is “not afraid of making mistakes but is afraid of not knowing they are making mistakes.”
Text and Images for IISD Reporting Service