The mission of the Adaptation Fund includes assisting vulnerable communities in developing countries in building climate change resilience and adaptive capacity. That includes Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and the Adaptation Fund recognizes the particular challenges that many of these nations face in addressing climate change.
From the Maldives, where the Fund is financing an initiative to strengthen water resources management in light of increasing water scarcity, to Jamaica, where the Fund’s resources are going toward enhancing climate resilience in agricultural areas, the Adaptation Fund is active in working to ensure its resources are accessible by SIDS.
In the Fund’s governance, seats on the Adaptation Fund Board reserved for special representatives of SIDS are currently filled by Grenada and Fiji.
To date, projects have been approved for Adaptation Fund financing in nine SIDS, including Belize, Cook Islands, Cuba, Jamaica, Maldives, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Seychelles, and Solomon Islands.
The Fund has accredited two National Implementing Entities (NIEs) among Small Island Developing States – Belize and Jamaica. NIEs are national organisations that pass the Fund’s rigorous accreditation review and are then able to design and propose climate adaptation projects and programmes, and upon proposal approval, implement those initiatives.
The Fund is always seeking ways to make its financing and other resources available to all developing countries. To provide additional avenues for SIDS to access resources from the Fund, the Fund has accredited the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) as a Regional Implementing Entities (RIE). As such, SPREP can work with its member Pacific island developing nations to design, propose and implement climate resilience activities.
SPREP, based in Apia, Samoa, has been charged by the governments and administrations of the Pacific region with the protection and sustainable development of the region’s environment.
SPREP’s members are American Samoa, Australia, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, France, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, United Kingdom, United States of America, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna.