Fast-track financing
9 December 2009
While there have been positive developments at the recent Adaptation Fund Board (AFB) meeting, funding needs to be allocated and delivered at this COP!
The Adaptation Fund is already special: Its innovative features include priorisation of most vulnerable people, increasing developing country ownership and a funding mechanism that creates money additional to Official Development Assistance (ODA) targets. These features cannot even begin to be compared with other climate funds.
ECO is pleased to report that at its eighth meeting the AFB continued its (unexpected) good pace towards full operationalisation. It issued an invitation to developing countries to nominate National Implementing Entities (NIEs). This will help implement another of its innovative features – direct (funding) access by developing countries.
Further, the AFB accepted the offer of the German government to be the fund’s host country. This means the AFB will soon have its own legal capacity. The AFB also held discussions on the future results-based management framework, another important element in a credible funding system.
Though no money has flowed so far, a call for proposals is expected to sent out to Parties in early 2010 with the first projects to be approved soon after.
The AF as it is developing has the potential to become the central institution for long-term adaptation funds under the Copenhagen agreement. Just additional fast track funds need to be put into the pot. However, channelling repackaged non-additional money through inappropriate institutions would be serious back-tracking.