By Oliver Mundy and Ilaria Firmian
Developed countries have committed to mobilising $100
billion in climate finance per year by 2020 to support climate adaptation and
mitigation in developing countries. A large part of the money is meant for
rural communities in developing countries, but how can the finance get to them?
This question was discussed at an event organised by IFAD as
part of the Climate
and Development Days in Bonn "How can communities access financial
support for strengthening resilience?"
Public institutions, especially local governments, are in
the best position to channel funding to vulnerable communities. They know the
specific needs of their often very diverse communities.
The county of Makueni in Kenya has established County
Adaptation Planning Committees to help prioritise investments. Grass-roots
committees guide the county by telling them what needs to be done. Alice
Caravani from the Overseas Development Institute explained that similar
activities are also being undertaken in Ethiopia.
IFAD's "Adaptation for
Smallholder Agriculture Programme" channels climate finance to
smallholder farmers by co-financing IFAD's regular agricultural
programmes.
Carl Wesselink, Director of South-South North said that
attain results at scale we have to work within the system and work together
with public institutions.
Many public institutions are often underfunded and lack the
capacities to access and manage climate funding. Most do not have mechanisms in
place to set up programmes and activities for their communities. At the same
time funding procedures are complex.
Local governments require massive capacity building to be
able to set up the right frameworks and design programmes that help their
communities to adapt. Local communities have to participate in this process to
express their diverse needs.
Financial institutions such as the Green Climate Fund,
Global Environment Facility and IFAD have to help set up effective mechanisms
to channel financing to communities through governments.