AfDB steps up moves to fund agencies

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is working diligently to join the Green Climate Fund’s (GCF) seven newly accredited agencies, in order to become a key multi-lateral implementing agency to channel much-needed funding into the continent.

In a statement to the GNA, AfDB said the move would bring the Green Climate Fund one step closer to its goal of financing adaptation and mitigation projects in developing countries.

It said the GCF Board accredited seven entities during its March 2015 Board meeting and these organisations were now eligible to submit project funding proposals for consideration later this year.

The newly accredited agencies include non-profit global venture fund Acumen, Senegal’s Centre de Suivi Ecologique, German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, the United Nations Development Programme, the Asian Development Bank, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program, and the Peruvian Trust Fund For National Parks and Protected Areas.

The statement disclosed that the Fund, established at the 16th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2010, and approved the following year, had mobilized 10.2 billion dollars to finance adaptation and mitigation projects in developing countries.

It noted that the funds may be accessed in two ways: directly through accredited sub-national, national or regional implementing entities, or indirectly via accredited international entities, such as UN agencies, multilateral development banks, and international financial institutions.

The Board further narrowed down the Fund’s investment priorities, which target many of the continent’s challenges such as sustainable climate-smart agriculture, transforming energy generation access, scaling-up finance for forests and climate change, and enhancing resilience of small island developing states.

According to Kurt Lonsway, AfDB Manager of the Environment and Climate Change Division, “The AfDB has been engaging with the GCF Secretariat on Bank accreditation, initiating the Fund management preparation, and discussing the Bank’s project pipeline.

Eligible for fast track accreditation, we are aiming for the Bank to be granted accreditation during the July Board meeting following completion of the application process.”

Other decisions necessary to operationalize the Fund were also made by the Board, such as the initial investment framework, a policy on ethics and conflicts of interest, and the financial terms and conditions of the Fund’s instruments.

The GCF is overseen by a board of 24 members, each with an alternate, composed of an equal number of members from developing and developed countries.