Climate Change Adaptation Financing

Very often it is vulnurable communities in developing countries that are most effected by climate change. These communites are also the least likely to to be able to spare the money needed to adapt to the change in the environment. To help resolve this situation, Irish Aid is supporting the Adaptation Finance Accountability Initiative to track adaptation finance flows in Uganda and Zambia and ensure the funds are going to most vulnerable.

The Adaptation Finance Accountability Initiative (AFAI) brings together Oxfam, the World Resources Institute, ODI, Climate Action Network Uganda and the Zambia Climate Change Network in an effort to help civil society organizations track and monitor adaptation finance flows from the national to local level. The objective is to strengthen civil society engagement in adaptation policy implementation and to ensure that climate change adaptation finance reaches the people and communities that are most at risk of climate change.

The amount of finance available for adaptation is increasing; sources of adaptation finance are multiplying. Large funders of climate adaptation projects include bilateral donors, multilateral organizations, development banks and specialized funds that focus specifically on climate finance such as the Adaptation Fund and the Green Climate Fund. National governments in developing countries are also increasingly investing in adaptation themselves using their own funds. Ensuring that this funding is programmed in a coordinated way and benefits poor people who need support for adaptation is getting more complex. Local institutions, such as local government offices and community based organizations, play an important role in ensuring that funding is spent effectively at the local level. Ensuring that local institutions play a role in programming and expenditure of adaptation funding is important to scale up climate adaptation practices.

Civil society organizations play an important role in monitoring adaptation finance flows and promoting accountable use of adaptation finance flows at the national level. With support from Irish Aid, the AFAI partners are working in Uganda and Zambia to:

-          Track climate adaptation finance from the national to local level

-          Engage with national stakeholders to better plan adaptation finance

-          Develop guidelines to track climate adaptation finance that can be used by civil society organizations

The project is contributing to enhanced transparency and accountability of adaptation finance flows in Uganda and Zambia. The lessons learned from this work will also inform the global climate finance architecture, specifically on how to reach local actors with climate adaptation finance and enhance the impact of adaptation finance flows.