Adaptation Fund Annual NIE Seminar to Draw More Than 20 National Partners from Around Globe

First Time Global Seminar Held in Partner Country, As Costa Rica Co-Hosts

July 24, 2017 (Washington, DC) — The Adaptation Fund will bring its 4^th Annual Global NIE Seminar directly to the field this year, as it co-hosts the event in Costa Rica — the home country of one of its 25 accredited National Implementing Entities (NIEs).

It marks the first time the annual seminar will be held away from the Adaptation Fund’s Washington, D.C. headquarters.  The seminar brings together the Fund’s NIEs from around the world to foster knowledge in climate change adaptation practice and finance.

Held in Puntarenas Province, Costa Rica from July 26-28, the event will be co-hosted with Fundecooperación para el Desarrollo Sostenible, the Fund’s accredited NIE in Costa Rica. It is on track to have close to full attendance, with 22 of the Fund’s 25 NIEs scheduled to participate and nearly 50 attendees expected from across the globe.

“The Annual NIE Seminar is an excellent opportunity for the Adaptation Fund and its community of NIEs to share knowledge, skills, experiences and best practices in all stages of the project development and accreditation processes,” said Michael Kracht, Chair of the Adaptation Fund Board.

The seminar will provide overviews of the Fund’s programs and developing strategies, the complete project development process, as well as accreditation and re-accreditation processes. The Fund’s Environmental, Social and Gender policies will be discussed, and a panel of NIEs will provide country experiences in a peer-to-peer interactive format.

“We consider the lessons and interactions that the NIEs bring to the seminar invaluable in advancing our growing NIE community and the important work that they carry out to advance climate adaptation in the field,” advised Mikko Ollikainen, Manager of the Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat.

A site visit to an Adaptation Fund project in Costa Rica will also be included at the conclusion of the seminar. An innovative multi-sector project, it is aimed at helping vulnerable populations adapt to warming temperatures, longer dry periods and increasing rainfall intensity. The US$ 9.9 million project builds resilience to climate change in the agriculture, water resources, and coastal zone management sectors by enabling localized solutions to reach many communities with urgent adaptation needs.

“We are honored to be the first NIE to co-host the Adaptation Fund’s annual seminar,” said Marianella Feoli, Director of Fundecooperación. “The global seminar is very important in bringing all of the NIEs together to share expertise and experiences, and also maintain a network in which we can collaborate on important adaptation themes going forward.”

The Honorable Luis Felipe Arauz, Costa Rica’s Minister for Agriculture and Livestock, will also speak during the seminar.

Although a smaller country covering just 0.03 per cent of the world’s surface, Costa Rica is among the top 20 countries with the greatest biodiversity on Earth. The Adaptation Fund’s Environmental and Social Policy counts biodiversity conservation among the guiding principles in its adaptation projects – together with human rights, gender equality and fighting climate change. The policy has been praised by the UN Special Rapporteur as a potential international model.

The Costa Rica project is a good example of the Fund’s many localized projects being implemented by NIEs around the world. Direct Access remains the pioneering hallmark of the Fund, giving developing countries the opportunity to develop projects and access climate finance directly through accredited NIEs while building their own capacity to adapt to climate change.

The Fund has not only grown to accredit 25 NIEs to date, but has been emulated by other climate funds allowing NIEs to be fast-tracked to additional accreditations and access to further resources. Many Adaptation Fund projects are also replicable and being scaled up by other funds in several instances.

The seminar will encompass some of the key themes of the Fund’s forthcoming 10^th anniversary of the launching of its operations being commemorated later this year, which will highlight its pioneering innovations in climate finance and concrete actions on the ground over the years.

In its goal to provide an open forum for sharing knowledge and fostering collaboration, the seminar also covers a swiftly growing third pillar of the Fund – Learning and Sharing.

With a newly approved Knowledge Management Strategy and a robust Climate Finance Readiness Programme, the Fund seeks to help build institutional capacities through many regional seminars and global webinars that provide guidance for NIEs through the project development and accreditation processes, as well as small technical assistance and south to south grants that facilitate cooperation.

The Adaptation Fund has gained considerable momentum within the international climate finance landscape over the past year. It surpassed its 2016 resource mobilization goal of US$ 80 million during COP22 in Morocco, and made significant progress toward formally serving the landmark Paris Agreement with conference parties agreeing the Fund ‘should’ serve the agreement and preparatory work now well underway to move the process further forward.

The Fund continues to be in high demand, with a record US$ 60.3 million in new funding approved for projects at its March board meeting, and over $438 million committed for 66 concrete adaptation projects to date. Its alternative, streamlined accreditation process adopted in 2015 has also opened doors to climate finance for smaller entities — as three NIEs have since been accredited through the process.

Adaptation Fund Communications: Matthew Pueschel, mpueschel@adaptation-fund.org or +1-202-473-6743

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