The Adaptation Fund (the Fund) Medium-Term Strategy (2018-2022) includes in its implementation plan, activities to scale-up projects/programmes approved by the Adaptation Fund Board (the Board) for implementation by accredited national implementing entities (NIEs) of the Fund. These activities are funded through Project Scale-up Grants under the Fund’s Readiness Programme for Climate. The grants provide readiness funding to NIEs to support project/programme planning, design and development for scaling up Adaptation Fund projects/programmes currently under implementation. The grants are expected to enable expansion or replication of concrete adaptation activities that are based on country needs, views and priorities, in order to reach more people and/or broaden the effectiveness of resilience measures to help vulnerable communities in developing countries adapt to the adverse effects of climate change.

Project Scale-up Grants are funded under the Readiness Programme for Climate Finance and through the grants, NIEs may finance activities that may include, but are not limited to: planning, assessment, capacity enhancement (individual, organization and institutional) for designing and developing scaling up pathways for project scale up; and public and private partnerships and collaborations to support project development for scale up. The grant amount that can be accessed by an accredited NIE is up to a maximum of US$ 100,000 per project/programme.

Project Scale-up Grants provide readiness funding to NIEs to support planning, design and development of scale-up activities. The overall goal of Project Scale-up Grants is to increase the readiness of accredited national implementing entities (NIEs) to expand or replicate quality projects that are based on country needs, views and priorities, in order to reach more people and / or broaden project/programme effectiveness to help vulnerable communities in developing countries adapt to the adverse effects of climate change.

The objective of the Project Scale-up Grants is to provide readiness funding to support planning, assessment, capacity enhancement (individual, organization and institutional) for designing and developing scaling up pathways for Adaptation Fund projects/programmes under implementation and nearing completion or completed.

It is expected that implementation of project/programme scale-up would be funded by various sources, such as other climate funds but also from other finance channels (including private sector).

NIEs eligible to receive Project Scale-up Grants are those entities that have tangible achievements on their project/programme with the Fund and are nearing completion as evidenced by the submission of at least two project performance reports (PPR) for projects with a life span of less than 4 years, or a mid-term evaluation/review (MTE/MTR) for projects with a life span of more than 4 years, or have completed implementation as demonstrated by the submission of the project/programme terminal evaluation report.

To be eligible to receive a project scale-up grant, the NIE must meet all of the below criteria. The NIE:

(i) Must be an accredited national implementing entity of the Adaptation Fund and have an accreditation status of “Accredited”;

(ii) Must have, at minimum, completed the medium-term review/evaluation or, for projects with a life span of less than 4 years, have submitted at least two project performance reports (PPR) for the project/programme being proposed for scale up;

(iii) Must submit together with the application form, a letter of endorsement by the Designated Authority to the Adaptation fund in support of the scale-up grant application;

(iv) Must have identified a potential source, or sources, where the entity could seek funding to scale up the proposed project/programme.

When completing the grant application, NIEs should provide information that allows for an evidence-based approach to project/programme scale-up, and information that takes into consideration any assessments done for project/programme scalability, research, evaluation and monitoring data consulted to inform the scale-up process. The NIE’s commitment for scaling up the project/programme should be clearly articulated in the submitted proposal for the project scale-up grant, and recognizable benefits to vulnerable communities of the proposed scaled-up activities should be clearly outlined.

The types of activities that could be funded include, but are not limited to the following options:

(i) Undertaking an assessment of project/programme scalability (which could include but is not limited to, for example, undertaking technical studies such as vulnerability assessment, feasibility study, socio-economic study, cost effectiveness study etc);

(ii) Consultation with public and private stakeholders for project/programme scale up;

(iii) Development and implementation of a scale-up strategy or development of a proposal for funding scaled-up activities;

(iv) Enhancing individual, organization or institutional capacity for scaling up through attending training, workshops, seminars and/or adapting policies and/or procedures in line with different contexts.

Upon receipt of the application and following closure of the application deadline, the Adaptation Fund Board secretariat will undertake a technical review of the proposal and will submit the proposal to the Project and Programme Review Committee (PPRC) for their review and recommendation to the Board for decision by the Board.

NIEs are responsible for managing the grant and implementation of the project, including management of all aspects of procurement as well as financial and non-financial reporting.

As is the standard practice of the fund, NIEs are expected to adhere to reporting requirements for grants under the Readiness Programme. NIEs must submit project monitoring and completion reports as well as financial reports. Reporting templates for Project Scale-up Grants can be downloaded through the list of attachments at the bottom of the page.

Apply for a project scale-up grant

The Adaptation Fund Board accepts and considers project proposals for Project Scale-up Grants twice a year. The proposals are considered at the regular meetings of the Board. The deadline for submission of proposals is the same as that for all other regular project and programme proposals submitted to the Fund and  can be found under Apply for Funding and on the calendar on this website. Please note that the deadline published for intersessional review of project and programme proposals is not applicable to Project Scale-up Grants as they can only be considered at the regular meetings of the Board.

To apply for a Project Scale-up Grant, please find below the instructions, where you can download and complete the application form. The application form must be submitted together with a signed letter of endorsement by the Designated Authority (DA) to the Adaptation Fund. Please submit proposals to afbsec@adaptation-fund.org with copy to idebnath@adaptation-fund.org and fmadziwa@adaptation-fund.org

Instructions for applying for a project scale-up grant

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