Adaptation Fund Readiness Webinar to Focus on Managing Environmental, Social and Gender Risks in Projects

Third Webinar to Foster Sharing of Best Practices among Fund’s National Implementing Entities across Globe

Washington, D.C. (October 27, 2016) — The Adaptation Fund holds its third Global Climate Finance Readiness Webinar for its accredited National Implementing Entities (NIEs) on October 27. The webinar, which is focused on the topic “Management of Environmental and Social Risks and Gender Risks in Adaptation Projects”, is part of the Fund’s webinar series launched last year.

The webinars provide the Fund’s 24 NIEs with one virtual place to meet and share ideas. The third webinar is aimed at imparting easy to use guidance on implementing the Fund’s environmental and social policy (ESP) and its gender policy, which together promote gender equity, vulnerable groups and conservation principles.

“The goal of this webinar is to provide a practical approach for NIEs of the Fund to apply the environmental and social policy and the gender policy to their projects and programmes and to share best practices for implementing related safeguards. The webinars are a focal point of the NIE community of practice with an emphasis on knowledge exchange, learning by doing and experience sharing,” said Adaptation Fund Readiness Programme Officer Farayi Madziwa.

Speakers include the Adaptation Fund’s ESP Specialist Dirk Lamberts, who will explain expectations in the concept and project proposal review phase with respect to the ESP and Gender policies. Two representatives from NIEs, Strategic Grant Manager Mike Jennings from the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and Knowledge Management Officer Sarah Muthoni Kamau of the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) in Kenya, will share their experiences on the topic.

The ESP was approved by the Adaptation Fund Board originally in 2013 and updated in March 2016. The Board approved the Gender Policy and Action Plan in March 2016. The policies serve as frameworks for mitigating environmental and social as well as gender-related risks posed by projects funded by the Fund. The Board furthered its operational policies for countries to access Fund resources under the new gender plan at its October 2016 meeting, as well.

“The capacity of the implementing entity to manage these risks needs to be demonstrated at both the accreditation stage and at the project proposal phase, which means that the evaluation of potential risks is carried out continuously throughout the Adaptation Fund’s project and funding cycle,” stated Senior Climate Change Specialist and acting Manager of the Adaptation Fund Board secretariat Mikko Ollikainen.

The Adaptation Fund introduced webinars in 2015 as an additional platform to workshops and seminars to facilitate learning for NIEs under its Readiness Programme for climate finance. The Readiness Programme has over the years carried out regional climate finance workshops directly in developing countries and issued grants for technical assistance as well as south-south cooperation grants. The first Readiness Webinar focused on community engagement and stakeholder consultation in adaptation projects while the second Readiness Webinar was centered on knowledge management.

ABOUT the ADAPTATION FUND

Since 2010, the Adaptation Fund has committed US $357.5 million to support 55 concrete, localized climate adaptation and resilience projects in 48 countries, with more than 3.6 million direct beneficiaries.

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

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