The Board took up the policy issue of ministries as National Implementation Entities, raised by the Accreditation Panel in its report. Following a discussion, in which some members stressed the need for coherent treatment of the issues and for the integration of those issues into the completion of the development of a tool-kit for NIEs, the Board decided to:

(a) Take note of the practical difficulties that the Accreditation Panel was encountering, based on experience to date, in accrediting government ministries;

(b) Take note of the view expressed by the Accreditation Panel on the need to identify a specific unit in a ministry, in case that ministry applies for accreditation as NIE, with required responsibility and accountability for implementing Adaptation Fund projects; and

(c) Adopt the Guidelines for Designated Authorities to select NIEs, outlined in Annex III, and ask the secretariat to include those guidelines on the Adaptation Fund website.