Green Climate Fund launches GCF 101 for Stakeholders

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New Delhi (ABC Live): GCF 101 :The Green Climate Fund launches “GCF 101” – a new web-based guide that provides Partners with detailed information on how to access the Fund’s resources. The guide aims to help GCF stakeholders better navigate the many elements of engaging with the Fund.

GCF 101 is simple. Four distinct chapters address the different opportunities the Fund provides to help developing countries respond to climate change: (1) Empowering countries; (2) Getting Accredited; (3) Funding projects; and (4) Implementing projects.

Each chapter provides a short overview, a simple step-by-step guide explaining how to apply or access the Fund; and a series of frequently asked questions that tease out more information. Through this approach, the guide increases clarity on the Fund’s main processes as well as transparency.

GCF 101 uses non-technical language to make GCF processes easy to understand for non-expert audiences. This approach accords with the GCF mandate to support country ownership of climate finance and recognizes the personnel capacity challenges facing many of the targets of GCF support – such as Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and African States.

Like the GCF itself, the ‘101’ is a work in progress. It will be updated and modified as processes evolve.

It is crucial that developing countries are able to effectively access and deploy resources from the Green Climate Fund. That is why the Fund provides early support for readiness and preparatory activities to enhance country ownership and access. This “country readiness” funding is a dedicated and cross-cutting programme that maximizes the effectiveness of the Fund by empowering developing countries.

Readiness and preparatory support activities are not one-off measures, but part of an ongoing process to strengthen a country’s engagement with the Fund. GCF focuses its readiness support on particularly vulnerable countries, including Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and African States – a minimum of 50% of country readiness funding is targeted at supporting these countries.

The Fund has a total of USD 16 million available to immediately provide such support to countries, and may seek the release of further resources depending on the needs of countries. Support for these activities in individual developing countries is capped at USD 1 million per calendar year. This support may be delivered to countries directly through National Designated Authorities (NDAs) or Focal Points through a wide range of delivery partners with relevant expertise and experience. Alternatively, countries may select another institution that is well-versed in readiness activities as its delivery partner. These institutions can be international, regional, national, or sub-national, public or private.

Led by the NDAs or Focal Points, the Fund may also deploy readiness and preparatory support to prospective regional, national, or sub-national entities seeking accreditation with the Fund to prepare them to apply for accreditation, as well as to Accredited Entities to develop project and programme pipelines.