Durban, South Africa, December 15, 2011 – The number of National Implementing Entities (NIEs) eligible for direct access to the Adaptation Fund rose to eight following the Adaptation Fund Board’s 16th meeting, held December 12-14, 2011 in Durban, South Africa. At the meeting, the Board accredited the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC) of Jordan and Ministry of Natural Resources (MINIRENA) of Rwanda as NIEs. These accreditation decisions bring the count of NIEs to eight, including is the first for the Middle East and fourth for the African region. In addition, the Board also accredited the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a Multilateral Implementing Entity (MIE), making the entity the Board’s tenth MIE.
This was the first time the Board has accredited government ministries as NIEs. A common feature of the two accredited ministries is their capacity to engage all relevant actors across government units and different stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of projects. In both Jordan and Rwanda, the project implementation function will be carried out by a specific unit identified within the Ministry. Additionally, both entities demonstrate strong existing institutional policies and mechanisms, as well as a commitment to ensuring transparency, self-investigation, and anti-corruption measures.
In order to further facilitate direct access to its Funds, the Board has put strong emphasis on regional accreditation workshops, taking note of the lessons learned from the workshops held so far in Africa and the Latin America and Caribbean regions. Featuring detailed, interactive presentations on the accreditation process, the workshops emphasize the Board’s view that direct access offers an unprecedented opportunity for developing countries to exercise a greater degree of control over the implementation of projects in their countries. Two more workshops are expected to be convened in the first half of 2012, one for the Asia region and the other for the Pacific. The details about the places, venues, and dates of these workshops will be communicated in due course by the UNFCCC secretariat.
The Adaptation Fund Board also approved grant funding for six projects/programmes, with a total value of USD$39.5 million. Notably, the Board approved its second direct access project, which will be implemented in Uruguay by its National Implementing Entity, Agencia Nacional de Investigacion e Innovacion. Titled “Building Resilience to Climate Change and Variability in Vulnerable Smallholders,” the USD$9.97 million project contributes to building national capacity to adapt to climate change and variability by focusing on the extensive livestock sector and targeting specifically vulnerable stakeholders. The Board also approved three projects that will be implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in Georgia, Samoa, and the Cook Islands, as well as two projects that will be implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Tanzania and Madagascar.
Operational for slightly over a year, the Adaptation Fund Board has approved 17 project/programmes for funding to date, amounting to more than USD$108 million. The Board meets next in Bonn, Germany, from March 14 to 16, 2012.
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The Adaptation Fund is a self-standing fund established under the Kyoto Protocol of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which gets the main part of its funding from a two percent share of proceeds of all Certified Emission Reductions issued under the Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism projects. The Fund is designed to finance concrete climate change adaptation projects and programs based on the needs, views and priorities of developing countries. The Global Environment Facility provides secretariat services to the Adaptation Fund and the World Bank serves as its trustee, both on an interim basis.