Adaptation Fund Board Approves Implementation Plan for Strategy Focused on Action, Innovation and Learning

Board Also Approves US$ 14M in New Projects and Programmes, and Activities to Enhance Access to Finance as New Board Leadership Assumes One-Year Terms

Bonn, Germany (March 28, 2018) – Among the key decisions of the Adaptation Fund Board during its 31st meeting on the UN Campus in Bonn, Germany last week were the approval of an implementation plan for its five-year Medium-Term Strategy (MTS) that calls for the creation of new grant funding windows that support the strategy’s pillars of Action, Innovation and Learning and Sharing.

The Board also approved US$ 14 million for new adaptation projects in the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Iraq while endorsing another six project concepts and pre-concepts.

It further approved steps to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the application process for organizations seeking accreditation with the Fund as implementing entities, and decided to advance complementarity and coherence with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) by continuing to explore options and concrete steps. It additionally approved US$ 60 million in new funding in the next fiscal year (from July 2018 to June 2019) for its innovative program of regional projects aimed at helping countries collaboratively address climate change issues that cross borders, while simplifying the regional project pipeline by merging categories of funding levels. The additional funding is aimed at meeting growing demand for regional projects, as three regional projects have been approved to date with another 19 endorsed regional concepts in the Fund’s pipeline.

The meeting featured a changing of the guard in annual leadership. Victor Viñas, of the Dominican Republic, presided over the meeting as the Board’s newly elected Chair, assuming the position from Michael Kracht, of Germany, who completed his one-year term. Ms. Sylviane Bilgischer, of Belgium, was also elected to take over the Vice-Chair seat which had been held by Viñas for the last year.

“We took several steps forward at the meeting to help the most vulnerable communities in developing countries adapt to climate change,” Viñas said. “Implementation of the Medium-Term Strategy will continue the Fund’s good work and empower the most vulnerable communities while advancing gender equality and accelerating and enhancing the quality of adaptation action in developing countries. It will support opportunities to scale up proven innovations and learning for effective adaptation.”

“The Board made several decisions that will empower many more vulnerable communities to adapt and build resilience to climate change through concrete actions, and help countries most at risk to the negative impacts of climate change access climate finance by enhancing the accreditation process,” said Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat Manager Mikko Ollikainen. “These steps will help the Fund continue to see excellent results.”

Viñas also expressed his gratitude to Kracht for his leadership through an historic year for the Fund, which included a significant decision by the Kyoto Protocol’s member country Parties (CMP13) that the Fund shall serve the Paris Agreement, a single-year record amount of resources mobilized, and a successful series of activities to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Fund becoming operational. Kracht commended the good spirit and cooperation of the Board and the dedicated hard work of the secretariat. He said the Fund demonstrated its important value and concrete adaptation results to the international community and its beneficiaries. Bilgischer said she looks forward to the good challenges ahead and great opportunities to further demonstrate the Fund’s added value and concrete results on the ground.

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