Adaptation Fund Launches Campaign to Commemorate Its 10th Anniversary This Year

Adaptation Fund Launches Campaign to Commemorate Its 10^th Anniversary This Year

Campaign to Highlight Adaptation Fund’s Achievements and Innovations in Climate Finance, and Concrete Actions to Help Vulnerable Countries Adapt to Climate Change

 Washington, DC (April 7, 2017) — The Adaptation Fund is launching a program of activities to commemorate its 10^th anniversary this year to coincide with the COP23 international climate change conference in Bonn, Germany in November.

The program celebrates the Fund’s achievements, pioneering innovations in climate finance such as Direct Access, and concrete actions over the past 10 years to help vulnerable communities in developing countries adapt and build resilience to the negative effects of climate change.

The program will include a special website and print publication to be released in November that highlights key accomplishments and innovations of the Adaptation Fund in the past 10 years through original and guest articles, project photographs, videos and a timeline of milestones. Stories will be highlighted periodically on the Adaptation Fund website and via outreach efforts and social media channels throughout the year, with the program culminating in a special 10^th anniversary event to take place in Bonn during COP23 in November.

The campaign kicks off this week with the release of a special 10^th anniversary logo (pictured above). The Fund’s implementing and executing entities, project beneficiaries, partner governments, NGOs and other stakeholders are encouraged to participate and share stories of the Fund’s achievements using the campaign’s Twitter hashtag #10YearsofAF.

“We are pleased to commemorate the Adaptation Fund’s 10^th anniversary through a series of activities that highlight the Fund’s pioneering achievements and continuing value to the global climate finance landscape through its innovative programs and concrete projects,” said Adaptation Fund Board Chair Michael Kracht. “The Fund has been instrumental in building national capacities of implementing entities while fostering country-driven, transparent processes that help vulnerable countries adapt and build resilience to climate change.”

The Adaptation Fund was actually first established by the COP7 conference of parties in 2001 through decisions made in Marrakech, Morocco, although it was not launched until being operationalized and its board established in  follow-up decisions at COP13 in December 2007 in Bali, Indonesia.

The Fund has since pioneered Direct Access, allowing developing countries to access climate finance and develop projects directly through accredited national implementing entities (NIEs) while building their own capacity to adapt to climate change. The Fund accredited its first NIEs in 2010 while pioneering the way for similar direct access modalities to be developed by other climate funds. It now has 25 NIEs and 18 additional multilateral and regional implementing entities with the capability to develop adaptation projects across the globe in sectors such as agriculture, coastal management, disaster risk reduction, food security and water management.

The Adaptation Fund Board approved the Fund’s first two projects in Senegal and Honduras in 2010, and has continued to deliver concrete, effective community-based adaptation projects ever since. With US$ 417 million now committed for 63 projects in 53 countries, including a record US$ 60.3 million in new funding approved for projects at the board meeting last month, many projects also have great potential to be replicated or scaled up and are already doing so in places like Senegal, Pakistan and Costa Rica.

“The commemoration of the Adaptation Fund’s 10^th anniversary is all about its innovations in climate finance like Direct Access and concrete results that continue to improve the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable communities in developing countries around the world,” said Mikko Ollikainen, Manager of the Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat. “We are now serving more than 5.3 million direct beneficiaries, with 40% of our NIEs in Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. We continue to strive to reach even more climate-vulnerable people with urgent adaptation needs.”

Throughout its 10 years, the Adaptation Fund has continually demonstrated an ability to innovate in climate finance and adapt to countries’ needs. Early on, the Fund established a model in monetizing carbon emission reduction credits for adaptation through a levy on UN Clean Development Mechanism projects, which has raised US$ 197 million to date and is another innovative experience that the Fund could potentially apply in future years to emerging components of the 2015 landmark Paris Agreement.

The Fund has also been ahead of the curve in implementing forward-thinking environmental and social policies (November 2013) and a gender policy and action plan (March 2016) that promote human rights, gender equality, biodiversity and vulnerable groups while enhancing effectiveness of adaptation projects.

The Fund’s Readiness Programme for Climate Finance, created in May 2014, is strengthening the capacity of implementing entities to receive and manage climate finance through technical assistance and south-south cooperation grants, as well as several workshops each year.

Additionally, the Adaptation Fund Board approved a pioneering ‘Enhanced Direct Access’ small grants facility in South Africa in October 2014 that empowers rural farmers and vulnerable communities with local responses to climate change. The Fund established an alternative streamlined accreditation process in 2015 that has opened doors to climate finance for smaller implementing entities in small countries suffering from climate change. And its Program for Regional Projects, created in 2015 to address climate change issues that cross borders, has steadily grown with the Board approving its first regional project this March to improve food security in East Africa.

The Fund’s innovations and concrete work are being recognized. An Independent Evaluation in 2015 showed the Fund to be effective, efficient and relevant; the Fund raised nearly US$ 160 million from a growing number of contributor governments during the last two international COP climate conferences; and was included in language accompanying the historic Paris Agreement, with conference parties at COP22 in Marrakech last November further agreeing that the Adaptation Fund should find its home under the Agreement.

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