Adaptation Fund to Gather Climate-Vulnerable Countries at Annual Global Climate Finance Readiness Seminar in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. (July 12, 2016) — The Adaptation Fund will host its third annual Global Climate Finance Readiness Seminar July 13-15 at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., bringing together its accredited entities that are implementing adaptation projects in developing countries throughout the world, as well as partner organizations and interested stakeholders.

The event, organized as part of the Fund’s Climate Finance Readiness program, will welcome participants from the Fund’s newest National Implementing Entities (NIEs) in the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Antigua and Barbuda. Representatives from the Cook Islands (currently being considered by the Adaptation Fund Board for NIE accreditation) will also be present. In all, the Seminar will feature representatives from at least 19 of its 23 current NIEs that are serving climate-vulnerable countries across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.

NIEs benefit from the Fund’s pioneering Direct Access modality, which provides developing countries the opportunity to strengthen their local capacity to adapt and build resilience to climate change through direct financing, as well as self-identification and management of projects. Of the Fund’s currently accredited NIEs, 40% are in Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. To date, the Fund has 18 approved NIE projects in 13 countries through Direct Access that are expected to benefit more than 510,000 people.

Some of the Fund’s six accredited Regional Implementing Entities and 12 Multilateral Implementing Entities, as well as research institutions, NGOs and other international partners will also attend.

“This is an exciting time for the Adaptation Fund,” said Adaptation Fund Board Chair Naresh Sharma. “With momentum gained from last December’s Paris Climate Agreement, the Fund remains in high demand through the effective delivery of its country driven concrete, localized community-based projects and programs that are on the international cutting edge.”

The Paris Agreement incorporated adaptation as a crucial component in the global response to climate change and further included accompanying language recognizing that the Adaptation Fund may serve the Agreement, subject to a process that is already underway. There is additionally a new sustainable development mechanism included in the Agreement that provides a further potential opportunity to utilize the Fund’s experience and expertise with monetizing carbon assets.

The Fund underwent an independent evaluation last year that validated its projects and programs as relevant, efficient and effective, while also crediting the Fund as a learning institution that continues to innovate and respond to country needs through groundbreaking programs like Direct Access, and environmental and social policies that promote human rights and biodiversity.

The Fund also has adopted a gender policy and action plan that ensure equal access to project resources for women and men. Further, the Fund received record numbers of project proposals last year.

The Seminar will include presentations from Adaptation Fund staff on the full cycle of adaptation projects, and incorporating gender, social and environmental safeguards into projects. Countries will be given an overview of the Fund’s Readiness Program and its outreach workshops, webinars, technical assistance and south-south cooperation grants. Other topics will include the accreditation and reaccreditation processes, results-based management tools, and the project review process. Fund partners will also speak on establishing grievance handling mechanisms for project stakeholders, while NIEs will share country experiences, successes and lessons learned in the project submission and implementation process, and international media professionals will lead an interactive discussion on best practices in communicating adaptation project results to audiences through a variety of multimedia platforms.

“We are especially excited for this year’s Readiness Seminar, as we welcome several new NIEs, and hope that presenters and participants will share their experiences, best practices and replicability potential of projects in an interactive way to maximize the tremendous opportunity of having so many of our entities from around the world in one place,” said Adaptation Fund Manager Marcia Levaggi.

An added attraction at this year’s Seminar will be an exhibit featuring the 12 winning photos of the Adaptation Fund’s 2016 Global Photo Contest promoting coastal and inland watershed adaptation to climate change. The Fund received a total of 127 outstanding submissions to the contest depicting the effects of climate change and adaptation solutions from all over the globe. The winning photos include three top winners and eight honorable mentions selected through an independent jury, as well as a ‘People’s Champion’ voted by the public through Facebook.

For media interested in attending the Readiness Seminar in Washington, D.C., please contact Matt Pueschel, Adaptation Fund Communications, at mpueschel@adaptation-fund.org or +1-202-473-6743.

ABOUT the ADAPTATION FUND

Since 2010, the Adaptation Fund has committed US $354.89 million to support 54 concrete, localized climate adaptation and resilience projects in 48 countries, with more than 3.5 million direct beneficiaries.

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