Accreditation Panel

Overview

Among the principles established for the Adaptation Fund (Decision 5/CMP.2) is “sound financial management, including the use of international fiduciary standards.” At its 7th meeting the Adaptation Fund Board adopted fiduciary standards governing the use, disbursement and reporting on funds issued by the Adaptation Fund covering three broad areas: Financial Integrity and Management; Institutional Capacity; and Transparency and Self-investigative Powers.

In order to ensure that organizations receiving Adaptation Fund money meet the fiduciary standards, the Board has established an Accreditation Panel. The Panel consists of three independent experts and two Board members.

Panel members shall be designated to serve on the panel for two (2) calendar years.

Panel members who are also Board members shall be eligible to serve two consecutive terms. However, in order to ensure continuity in the work of the Panel after its inaugural period, only one of these two members shall be replaced after his or her first term.

Panel members who are external experts may be reelected for two consecutive terms, as the Board deems appropriate, taking into account the performance of the expert.

The Board shall oversee the performance of the panel and its members, as necessary.Any organization that will implement Adaptation Fund projects must submit an application for accreditation providing documentation that it meets the fiduciary standards adopted by the Board. The two members of the Panel who are Board members will be designated by the Board as Chair and Vice-chair of the Panel.

Accreditation Panel Mandate

In accordance with the Operational Policies and Guidelines for Parties to Access Resources from the Adaptation Fund, the Panel shall make recommendations to the Board regarding:

  1. The accreditation of an implementing entity;
  2. 
The conditional accreditation of an implementing entity;
  3. 
The suspension of accreditation of an implementing entity;
  4. 
The cancellation of accreditation of an implementing entity; and
  5. 
The re-accreditation of an implementing entity.

The tasks identified in the paragraph above imply that, inter alia, the following activities are to be carried out by the Panel:

  1. Review and consideration of applications for accreditation of implementing entities, based on i.a. information provided in the Application Form.
  2. In case an application is not immediately approved the following considerations may be taken:
  3. Determination of whether technical support needs to be provided to an applicant implementing entity to improve its capacities in order to attain accreditation, and the extent of the required support;
  4. Determination of the existence of exceptional circumstances that would justify the use of an external assessor to help resolve difficult/contentious issues;
  5. Determination of the need to require additional information or resubmission of an application from an applicant implementing entity;
  6. Determination of whether an on-site visit and/or observation of the designated implementing entity is required;
  7.  Make recommendations to the Board on the issues above, as applicable.

Relevant Documentation