Ministers and high-level representatives from the Least Developed Countries gathered at an event at the Fifth UN Conference on the LDCs, LDC5, today to highlight results on adaptation to climate change with the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL). Making his keynote speech, Hon Seve Paeniu, Minister of Finance for Tuvalu, announced his new role as a LoCAL Ministerial Ambassador, calling for more climate finance, more quickly for LDCs.

LDC5 is a once in a decade gathering of LDC leaders and partners to accelerate action on the world’s 46 LDCs’ development priorities. Those priorities are laid in the Doha Programme of Action, where the LoCAL Facility is named as an existing initiative that can help LDCs achieve results on adaptation to climate change.

"We know in Tuvalu that the terrible consequences of climate change are lived out at the local level – in our villages and coastal communities,” said Hon Paeniu, who’s island nation is at risk of being subsumed by climate change-related rising sea levels. “

LoCAL is working in the LDCs, delivering scalable adaptation. This is why LDCs have included LoCAL in the Doha Programme of Action. "Today, I want to announce that I will be joining 10 other esteemed ministers from around the world to become a LoCAL Ministerial Ambassador. And, in my first speech in this role, I would like to use this opportunity at LDC5, to say clearly and unequivocally, that there is no need for more political initiatives, big talks, or reinventing the wheel,” said Hon Paeniu. “We have the finance solutions in place. Let’s use them. And let us use them now."

Some 27 LDCs across Africa, Asia and the Pacific are implementing adaptation solutions with LoCAL, which channels finance to sub-national government for locally-led resilience building. Designed by UN Capital Development Fund over ten years ago, LoCAL is now an international ISO standard approach for climate finance delivery. LoCAL is owned by the countries that implement the mechanism, steering priorities through the annual LoCAL Board, which also brings countries together for capacity building and knowledge sharing as well as joint advocacy and strategizing.

Today’s event, ‘Practical solutions for enhancing access to climate finance in support of the new Programme of Action for the LDCs’, brought together representatives of Bhutan, The Gambia, Liberia, Malawi and Tuvalu.

H.E. Ms Rohey John-Manjang, Minister of Environment, Climate Change & Natural Resources in The Gambia and LoCAL Ministerial Ambassador, noted as the event took place on International Women’s Day, that most LoCAL beneficiaries in The Gambia are women.

“This is an investment in the whole of society as women typically stay in their communities,” said Hon John-Manjang. “In Gambia we are looking forward to extending LoCAL to every ward... for increased climate resilience across the country.”

LoCAL is implemented in The Gambia through the Jobs Skills and Finance for Women and Youth in The Gambia, and has delivered climate resilient results for communities in four wards and for thousands of people.

Prof Wilson K Tarpeh, Executive Director and Chief Executive Office of the Liberian Environmental Protection Agency, where LoCAL adaptation activities are currently in the design phase, focused on the appeal of LoCAL in the LDC context. Explaining that LoCAL’s three-fold focus on the most vulnerable, building capacity and empowerment of local communities makes it a good fit for the Liberia context, and many other LDCs.

While Mr. Ugyen Dorji, Chief of Social and Development Division, Department of Multilateral Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade in Bhutan highlighted the long history of results in Bhutan with LoCAL.

“One of LoCAL’s first ever investments was a climate resilient bridge in Phobji Gewog constructed over a decade ago. Every day for ten years 150 children have been able to access school via that bridge. Farmers are able to get their crops to market. The traditional wooden bridge it replaced was not sturdy enough to withstand the more extreme flood, rains and other weather events we now see in Bhutan,” said Mr Dorji.

In his closing comments, David Jackson, Director of Transformative Finance at UNCDF and co-moderator for the event, highlighted how far LoCAL has come since the building of the first bridge in Bhutan. He underscored how LoCAL implementing countries are working together to tackle their shared challenges on adaptation to climate change at an ever bigger scale.

“When we began that bridge… we soon realized we needed development partners to take it to scale,” said Mr Jackson. “As LoCAL has grown, our challenge has grown, and it is time to organize the world finance architecture to deliver on the scale we need using the instruments and mechanisms that are in place and delivering results.”

LoCAL Ministerial Ambassadors:

• H.E. Mr. José Didier Tonato, Minister of Living Environment and Sustainable Development of Benin
• H.E. Dr. Maminata Traore Coulibaly, Minister of Environment, Energy, Water and Sanitation or Burkina Faso,
• H.E. Dr. Say Samal, Minister for Environment of Cambodia
• H.E. Ms Rohey John-Manjang, Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources of The Gambia
• H.E. Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation of Ghana
• H.E. Mr. Matthew Samuda, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation of Jamaica
• H.E. Mr. Michael Usi, Minister for Natural Resources Forestry and Climate Change of Malawi
• H.E. Mr. Modibo Kone, Minister of Environment, Sanitation and Sustainable Development of Mali,
• H.E. Ms. Ivete Maibaze, Minister of Land and Environment of Mozambique,
• H.E. Mrs. Garama Saratou Rabiou Inoussa, Minister of Environment and of Combating Desertification of Niger
• H.E. Mr Seve Paeniu, Minister of Finance, Tuvalu

Our thanks to H.E. Ms Agnes Mary Chimbiri Molande, Co-chair of the LoCAL Board and global coordinator of the Bureau for the Least Developed Country Group and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative of the Republic of Malawi to the United Nations for co-moderating this event.

For more information about LoCAL:

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