Switzerland has committed over US$ 4.5 million in funds for the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility, which channels finance to Least Developed Countries for locally led climate adaptation action. To date, LoCAL has mobilised over US $100 million for climate adaptation projects in 27 countries, with a commitment to double that action in the coming five years.

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation has signed a funding agreement for US$ 4.68 million over three years, beginning this month. This commitment is in addition to approximately US $70 million from the European Union and the Swedish development cooperation agency, Sida as more donors heed a recent call to grow funds for LoCAL action.

The LoCAL Facility launched in Cambodia and Bhutan in 2011, growing over ten years to become a leading approach for delivering climate adaptation action at the local level across Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Caribbean. LoCAL channels finance to local government authorities in the form of performance-based grants that can be used for locally identified climate adaptation projects. Given the proven results of LoCAL and the substantial need for increased investment in climate adaptation, UNCDF, which hosts LoCAL, recently committed to doubling the size of their flagship climate adaptation initiative every five years until 2030.

Participating countries welcomed the plan to grow the LoCAL mechanism and have demonstrated their own support for LoCAL by providing over 20% of committed resources to date. LoCAL is owned by participating countries, mainly least developed countries, small island developing states and African nations. Ministers from five countries, including cyclone-ravaged Mozambique, have become LoCAL Ambassadors and made appeals for increased international funding for LoCAL.

At the community level, LoCAL has enabled climate adaptation actions benefitting over 11 million people in some of the world’s most climate vulnerable regions. At the national level, LoCAL has supported a number of national bodies in participating countries in their successful applications to become accredited entities by the Green Climate Fund, enabling them to directly access much needed resources to address climate change.

Photos above - LoCAL enabled the rehabilitation and building of schools and health centers in Mozambique. © LoCAL-UNCDF Photos: Helvisney dos Reis Cardoso, 2021

Another specificity of LoCAL is its systemic approach and its proven scalability, which has enabled the mechanism to grow from two pilot countries in 2011 to 27 countries today, of which 22 are LDCs. The LoCAL publication ‘Financing local adaptation to climate change’ is recognised by the LDC Expert Group as annex to the National Adaptation Plan technical guidelines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, (UNFCCC).

For more information about LoCAL, read our online brochure or download the brochure.

For press queries, contact: sarah.harris.simpson -at- uncdf.org