31 July 2018: During the month of July, several adaptation programmes around the world achieved access to climate finance. The Adaptation Fund approved a pilot South-South cooperation readiness support package to foster cooperation on adaptation project development, accreditation and access to climate finance. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) finalized its long-term corporate strategy to 2030, with 75% of its committed operations supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Adaptation Fund Enhances South-South Cooperation on Adaptation Project Development, Approves Projects Over US$35 Million Worth

The Adaptation Fund has a growing community of 28 accredited national implementing entities (NIEs) sharing similar intents and needs. According to Mikko Ollikainen, Manager of the Adaptation Fund Board (AFB) Secretariat, learning from each other’s lessons can be mutually beneficial in enhancing access to climate finance and improving adaptation practices.

In line with this idea, and building on the Fund’s South-South Grant Programme, the AFB approved a pilot South-South cooperation readiness support package, including a US$100,000 grant to enhance access to climate finance. Specifically, the Fund’s national implementing partner in Senegal will provide peer guidance to the Governments of Burundi and Mali throughout the process of having NIEs in each of those countries apply for accreditation with the Fund.

The AFB also approved US$35 million for four new climate change adaptation projects across Latin America, West Africa and Asia. The Board further endorsed three climate change adaptation project concepts with US$257,200 in project formulation grants for implementing partners in: Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana; Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; and Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan.

In Ecuador, the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) will implement a US$2.4 million project to strengthen adaptive capacity of local populations in the Toachi-Pilatón watershed with ecosystem- and community-based integrated adaptation approaches.

In Chile and Ecuador, the CAF will implement a US$13.9 million regional project to reduce climate vulnerability in urban and semi-urban areas in three coastal cities. The project also aims to lessen vulnerability to floods, mudflows and landslides by mainstreaming risk-based approaches to adaptation.

In Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger and Togo, the West African Development Bank (WADB) will implement a US$14 million regional project to promote climate-smart agriculture, disseminate innovative and regional agricultural best practices and knowledge.

In Mongolia, a US$4.5 million project by the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) seeks to enhance climate resilience to flooding in seven vulnerable Ger (nomadic tent) settlements in Ulaanbaatar, and to reduce their vulnerability to wind and dust storms and air pollution. [Adaptation Fund Press Release]