Grants of US$ 250,000 or more for climate finance readiness activities in African countries
The new Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF), housed in the Energy, Environment and Climate Change Department of the African Development Bank (AfDB), is launching its first call for grant proposals.
African governments, NGOs, research and regional institutions are invited to apply by following the instructions and the structure of the attached form called "ACCF_funding request" and by filling the attached logframe, and submitting their proposals to africaclimatechangefund@afdb.org before midnight CET on August 8th, 2014. Grants will start from US$ 250,000 and will be dedicated to climate finance readiness projects, programmes or activities.
The first call for proposals objectives are, on the one hand, to enhance the capacity of African countries to improve their national institutional governance for direct and international access to climate finance, and on the other hand, to develop transformational policies, programs and projects for climate resilience and low carbon growth, in alignment with UNFCCC decisions.
As such, examples of activities to be supported include (although this list is not exhaustive):
Support for national climate finance institutions in relation to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) implementation, such as National Designated Authorities (NDA) and implementing entities like national development banks and other financial intermediaries;
Collating and reviewing existing country plans and strategies to prioritize transformational opportunities, and to identify thematic and geographic programmatic options;
Technical assistance in the implementation of National Adaptation Planning (NAP) processes, including through the support for projects consistent with NAP priorities;
Economic and technical evaluation of options for infrastructure development (in individual sectors, or across sectors) in as many climate scenarios as possible;
Preparation of programs and projects that promote low carbon development in sectors such as power, transport, forestry, and agriculture;
Technical assistance for the preparation of programs and projects that enhance the resilience of the current climatic variability and change in vulnerable areas and sectors (agriculture, water resource management, transport, urban development, etc.);
Development of frameworks to raise finance for climate action (e.g. investment plans to leverage climate finance, especially from the private sector);
Sharing knowledge and experiences through regional meetings and south-south dialogue, in cooperation with institutions and mechanisms under the UNFCCC, such as the Least Developed Countries Expert Group (LEG) or the Nairobi Work Programme.
ACCF grants can be used to fund the following type of activities: the recruitment of national and international consultants; trainings; consultation workshops; regional and international meetings; communication, advocacy and translation services; the provision of technical assistance in the preparation of studies and analytical pieces; and office equipment and transportation fees (these costs are eligible only if a direct beneficiary executes the grant after approval by the Bank).
Established in April 2014 by the AfDB, the ACCF was created with an initial contribution of €4.725 million from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The fund's objective is to scale up climate smart development in African countries by increasing the mobilization of international climate finance.
Interested eligible beneficiaries are invited to get in touch with the AfDB field office in their country or with the ACCF Secretariat for more information: africaclimatechangefund@afdb.org
