Washington, DC ,  April 15, 2009 – The 5th meeting of the Adaptation Fund Board (AFB) successfully concluded on March 27 2009 in Bonn. During the 5th Meeting, the Board has been able to complete its deliberations on the operational policies and guidelines for parties to access resources from the Adaptation Fund. It will take a final decision on these operational policies and guidelines before calling for funding proposal in the near future.

This Board made significant progress in materializing the “direct access” modalities by allowing the National Implementing Entities to submit project and programme proposals directly to the Adaptation Fund Board. In addition, the Board also sent letters to Kyoto member States inviting them to confer legal capacity to the AFB in line with the decision taken during the 4th Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Poznan in December 2008. The Board agreed to establish two committees – one on finance and ethics and one on projects and programmes review– to support the work of the AFB.

With these significant developments, the AF will not only become operational in the near future but is also likely to call for Parties to submit funding proposals soon thereafter.

The meeting was led by the new Chair Mr Jan Cedergren (Sweden), who replaced Mr Richard Muyungi (Tanzania), and the new Vice-Chair Mr Farrukh Iqbal Khan (Pakistan). The recently appointed manager of the AFB Secretariat, Ms Marcia Levaggi, started her functions at this meeting.

The next meeting of the AFB will take place in Bonn by mid-June.