COP 23 BOLSTERING RESILIENCE AGAINST ACUTE RISK PART 1

Moderator:
Irwin LaRocque
Ambassador of Fiji
CARICOM Secretary-General

Speaker:
Pa Ousman Jarju
director of GCF’s Country Programming DivisionPa Ousman Jarju, director of GCF’s Country Programming Division spoke about GCF’s ongoing efforts to balance the speeding up of its funding approval with the overriding requirement of ensuring the projects it supports match best-practice fiduciary standards and conform to environmental and social safeguards.

He gave more details of the agreement at the most recent GCF Board for the Fund to implement a Simplified Approval Process Pilot Scheme – with an allocation of up to USD 80 million in GCF financing.

This new pilot streamlines and simplifies applications for certain small-scale projects of up to USD 10 million in GCF funding. It is particularly aimed at supporting project proposals from direct access Accredited Entities.

Mr Jarju said the simplified process was introduced to address capacity constrains by countries – especially Least Developing Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and African States.

He said the simplified process was introduced to address capacity constrains by countries – especially Least Developing Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and African States. “Under the SAP, the process is very simple,  as it cuts down the timeline and takes out most of the difficulties countries face when applying for funding,” he said. “I hope that once it is piloted and we can see the benefits, we can replicate it.”

Mr Jarju added that countries could also benefit from an enhanced ability to gather data, necessary in directing strategic climate finance, from accessing GCF’s Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme.

This programme, which strengthens the institutional capacities of key GCF partners, is representative of GCF’s approach that “everything is country driven,” he said.

Mr Jarju also appealed to the audience for proposals to access support from the Green Climate Fund’s pilot project.