October 16 – 18 2019, in Accra, Ghana, UNCDF attended and participated as panelists in 3 sessions at the Climate Chance Summit.

UNCDF kick started with its participation in a joint event with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Agence Française de Développement (AFD,) the French Development Agency on, “Mobilising Finance for Adaptation in Africa”. More than 70 participants from local governments, the private sector and non-governmental organizations, attended this interactive workshop on mobilizing finance for adaptation in Africa.

Ms. Lucy Naydenova from the AfDB, presented the objectives and work programme of the Africa NDC hub, as well as various funds and innovative initiatives of the Bank for mobilizing finance for adaptation, such as the Adaptation Benefits Mechanism.

Mr. Abdoul Tchalaou from AFD presented the Adapt’Action initiatives of the French Development Agency, a first development bank that is 100% compliant with the Paris Agreement, to support adaptation action in least developed and small island developing countries in Africa, under the umbrella of the Africa NDC Hub. Ms. Tara Caetano from ICLEI Africa moderated the event.

Ms. Angela Yayra Kwashie from the UNCDF shared how her organization facilitates the mobilization of finance for adaptation for local authorities in especially least developed African countries, such as through their global programme, the Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) Facility, a performance-based mechanism to increase awareness, build capacity and provide decentralized climate-finance; hence increasing the finance available to local governments for climate change adaptation and empowering them to undertake adaptation actions. LoCAL has been implementing in Ghana since 2016. LoCAL Ghana is using the national intergovernmental transfer system to channel financial resources to the local authorities to implement adaptation measures in building climate resilience in an efficient and transparent manner.

The need for collecting information on adaptation, awareness raising on risks, vulnerabilities and coping strategies, as well as and training of staff, farmers and women on adaptation and climate-smart practices was repeated by many local government representatives. Researchers emphasized that not only collecting, but also feeding back information on effective or unsuitable practices based on experience and traditional knowledge by the local governments would advance science.

The second session was on the topic “Facilitating access of African non-state actors to climate finance: Access to Climate Finance in Africa". This event provided an overview of the possibilities of access to climate finance for local authorities, but also for all non-state actors in Africa, particularly in relation to the coalition’s roadmap. The essence was to advance on the eligibility of the projects of the territories to the international, regional and national climate fund. Presenters in this session with UNCDF included Green Climate Fund Gender Monitors for Africa, Alliance of Civil Society for Clean Energy Access – ACCESS – partenaire WECF, ICLEI Africa, Groupement Intercommunal des Collines, Bénin and SEED.

The LoCAL approach was elaborated on together with the publication “Financing local adaptation to climate change: Experiences with performance-based climate resilience grants”, a collective experience of the mechanism across the LoCAL countries, which has been approved as a supplementary material to the National Adaptation Plan Technical Annexes. This invited questions from participants on what available tools are there for local authorities to adopt in readiness for funding opportunities from climate financing organizations.

On the final day, 18^th October, UNCDF was in the closing plenary on the theme “How to mobilize the local governments and non-state actors in all their diversity, including an increased mobilization of finance dedicated to climate action”. Ms. Christel Alvergne, UNCDF Regional Coordinator, participated as one of the plenary members. Other members included the Diana Acconcia, Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to Ghana, representing DG Climate Action Anthony Nyong, Director for Climate Change and Green Growth, African Development Bank and the Assistant Mayor of Jinja Municipality from Uganda.

Mr. Luc Gnacadja, President of the Governance and Policies for Sustainable Development think-thank (GPS-Dev), former Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and a former Minister of Environment of Benin, moderated the closing plenary with Tara Caetano of ICLEI Africa.