Background

Since 2016, under the umbrella of the Climate Change Asia initiative, the Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT RRC.AP) together with its partners has been building capacities of developing countries in the region to access, mobilize and manage climate finance from various sources with a focus on the Green Climate Fund (GCF). These capacity building activities include comprehensive and tailored training programmes, complemented by mentoring support and provision of knowledge products.

To date, more than 500 government officers and other stakeholders from 31 developing countries, including 9 least developed countries, have been trained under the Climate Change Asia initiative, with a reported twofold increased in trainees’ knowledge of the GCF operational policies and procedures as well as good practices in concept note and project development. During its 18th meeting held in October 2017, the GCF Board adopted the Simplified Approval Process (SAP) for financing small-scale low risk activities.

The simplifications included in the SAP procedure consist of reduced proposal documentation to be provided and a streamlined proposal approval processes. Funding proposals are eligible for the SAP if they meet the following three main eligibility criteria:

 

• The proposal is ready for scaling up and having the potential for transformation, promoting a paradigm shift to low- emission and climate-resilient development;

• A request for financing to GCF of up to USD 10 million of the total project budget; and

• The environmental and social risks and impacts are classified as minimal to none

In the adaptation area, eligible activities include, among others:

 

• Capacity development, planning support, institutional development, advisory services, communication and outreach, early warning and other monitoring systems;

• Household-level facilities and production within an already built-up area and with no additional footprint (basic post-harvest processing, rainwater harvesting, smallholder agroforestry and small-scale climate resilient agriculture;

• Small-scale rural and urban community-based projects, rural water supply and drainage at village level (including smallholder farm irrigation such as drip irrigation, shallow wells, etc.), small-scale infrastructure (including in-situ rehabilitation, upgrading and maintenance of existing public facilities where waste will not be an issue), small-scale community-based watershed and habitat management and rehabilitation, climate resilient agriculture, soil and water conservation, and community forest management activities.

The first step in the application procedure under the SAP includes completing a dedicated Concept Note template and ESS checklist which then need to be submitted to GCF by an Accredited Entity or National Designated Authority (NDA). GCF ensures that over time, 50% of the approved proposals under the SAP are from Direct Access Entities (DAEs)

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About the Training Programme​

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To assist countries eligible for GCF support in benefitting effectively from GCF’s SAP procedure, AIT RRC.AP with financial support from the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, is conducting a Training Programme on Developing Climate Change Adaptation Projects for the Green Climate Fund on 11-15 June 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand.
 

Objectives

To develop the capacity of DAE and NDA representatives as well as project developers designated by DAEs or NDAs from countries in Asia and the Pacific eligible for GCF support in developing GCF SAP Concept Notes in the area of climate change adaptation.

Expected results

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Upon completion of the Training Programme, participants will:

• Have elaborated one complete GCF SAP Concept Note per participating country, such that the completed Concept Note is ready for submission to the GCF Secretariat.

• Have elaborated a detailed road map for all steps required to achieve approval of the proposal by the GCF Board, including details on elaborating feasibility studies, stakeholder consultations, etc.

Outputs

3-6 completed SAP Concept Notes, which are ready for submission to the GCF Secretariat.

Targeted training participants

Six country teams, with each team composed of representatives from the NDA office, DAEs and key stakeholders involved in project development.

Methodology and training approaches

The proposed training methodology is based on a new and innovative approach developed and tested by AIT RRC.AP with financial support from the Ministry of the Environment of Japan. This approach was tested during four training workshops held in Bangkok, Thailand (December 2016), Tokyo and Kobe (October 2017), Suva, Fiji (December 2017) and Bangkok, Thailand (February 2018).

The proposed Training Programme will differ from the above-mentioned workshops in focus (focus will be adaptation, while the above-mentioned training programmes focused on mitigation) and GCF procedure (focus will be SAP, while the above-mentioned training programmes focused on regular GCF approval procedures). Apart from these two variations, the training relies fully on tested methodologies, which include:

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•  Provision of detailed information on GCF procedures relevant for proposal development;

•  Structured group work focusing on completing the GCF SAP Concept Note templates;

•  Plenary peer review, including structured feedback from other groups to further develop draft Concept Notes;

•  Presentation and integration of good practices from approved projects;

•  Group work focusing on developing detailed Road Maps leading to proposal approval;

•  Pre- and post-training evaluation;

•  Post-training support through a dedicated web-based helpdesk platform.

 

Agenda

 

• Download the tentative agenda for this training workshop here. 
   

Follow up

Potential follow up may include further refinement of the methodology based on training participants’ feedback and latest developments at GCF; continued availability of the web-based helpdesk platform for those participants who may wish to communicate with their fellow trainees from other countries to exchange experiences and access experts for further advice; and recommendations for additional future training workshops.

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​If you are interested in participating please email Ms.Qing Xia, Senior Programme Specialist, here.

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