Eight Full Projects and Five Concepts Move Forward as Michael Kracht Becomes New Board Chair and Mikko Ollikainen is Selected as Fund’s Manager

Bonn, Germany (March 21, 2017) — The Adaptation Fund Board meeting concluded in Bonn on March 17 with the approvals and endorsements of 13 project submissions, further enhancing the Fund’s response to assist a rising number of vulnerable communities in developing countries with urgent adaptation needs build resilience to climate change.

The meeting set a record in funding approvals for a total amount of US$ 60.3 million.

Among the decisions was the first approval of a full project proposal under the Fund’s Pilot Program for Regional Projects and Programs, which is aimed at addressing climate change issues that cross borders. The project will help vulnerable farmers and pastoralists adapt to climate change in three countries in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda).

The Fund assumed new leadership, as Michael Kracht of Germany became the Board’s new Chair and Victor Viñas of the Dominican Republic was elected Vice-Chair. The Board additionally selected and approved the selection of Mikko Ollikainen as new Manager of the Adaptation Fund Board secretariat. Ollikainen had been serving as Interim Manager since last October, when longtime manager Marcia Levaggi left the Fund to become Argentina’s Director General of Environmental Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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