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FAO First Entity to Be Accredited Through Fund’s ‘Fast Track’ Process
Washington, D.C. (July 1, 2020) — The Adaptation Fund expanded its potential reach to identify and develop further tangible adaptation projects in vulnerable countries with the Board’s approval of a new implementing partner in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in late June through a remote intersessional decision.
FAO becomes the Fund’s 13th multilateral implementing entity and 51st overall implementing entity to be accredited to develop and implement adaptation projects.
It also marked the first time the Fund has applied its ‘Fast Track Accreditation’ process for the accreditation of a new implementing entity. This process enables potential national, regional or multilateral implementing entities already accredited by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to more quickly and efficiently become accredited to the Adaptation Fund. There is further a reciprocal process in place for the GCF.
The GCF accredited FAO as an international implementing entity in 2016. The Adaptation Fund had previously used the fast track process for the reaccreditation of certain implementing entities, but this is its first application of the policy to a new accreditation.
FAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations focused on hunger eradication, poverty elimination, and sustainable management of natural resources. It includes 194 member states.
It has a long history of engaging on climate change issues, and since 2018 has had projects financed or co-financed by GCF in Paraguay, El Salvador, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Chile and Cuba. It was also accredited previously as an executing agency by the Global Environment Facility in 2002.
FAO additionally has prior experience working with the Adaptation Fund, including as an executing entity on its regional project implemented by the World Meteorological Organization to enhance resilience of small farmers in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
“FAO’s official accreditation to the Adaption Fund is a significant step forward in our work to promote food security and nutrition in countries particularly affected by climate change,” said Ms. Maria Helena Semedo, FAO’s Deputy Director General. “It will help boost the efforts of the Organization to enhance the resilience of rural communities to build back better in times of changing environmental conditions, degrading ecosystems, and increasing water scarcity.”
In becoming accredited, FAO showed it is in strong compliance with the Fund’s fiduciary, legal and ethical standards, as well as policies that foster environmental, social and gender principles, and has solid capacity to identify and develop effective adaptation projects.
“We are very pleased to have the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization join the Adaptation Fund’s growing comunity of implementing entities, which now numbers more than 50,” said Mr. Ibila Djibril, Adaptation Fund Board Chair. “We look forward to FAO developing new adaptation projects that will serve the most vulnerable countries to climate change.”
“This is further an excellent example of the Adaptation Fund enhancing synergies and complementarity with the Green Climate Fund, as FAO marks the first implementing entity to be accredited with the Fund through the Fast Track Accreditation process,” said Mr. Mikko Ollikainen. “It showed it is in strong compliance with the Fund’s stringent accreditation standards, and we look forward to working with FAO to continue to grow our portfolio of adaptation projects on the ground.”
Upon attaining accreditation, FAO took an additional step to establish a dedicated unit within its Land and Water Division to provide immediate assistance for the development and implementation of climate change adaptation projects in countries that might otherwise not have access to these climate-financing mechanisms.
“FAO is committed to support countries to unlock their growth potential and promote climate change adaptation for rural development and environment sustainability,” said Mr. Eduardo Mansur, Director of FAO’s Land and Water Division, adding that the new accreditation to the Fund is a highly significant step ahead in its work to promote food security in countries particularly affected by climate change. “It well aligns with the efforts of the Organization to enhance the resilience of rural communities in times of changing environmental conditions, degrading ecosystems, and increasing water scarcity.”
Senior UN economists warned on Wednesday that intersecting crises are likely to add further damage to the global economy, with growth set to slow from three per cent in 2022 to 1.9 per cent this year. This will be one of the lowest growth rates in recent decades, apart from during the 2007-8 financial crisis and the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Swiss ambassadors meeting in the Ivorian commercial capital Abidjan invited a senior management team from the African Development Bank Group to exchange views on development and cooperation.The envoys held a working luncheon, hosted by the Swiss assistant state secretary for Sub-Saharan Africa, Siri Walt, on Friday 20 January. Ambassador Walt is the head of the Africa Division at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.
The African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Development Bank Group have a concluded a technical session on how to conduct an upcoming joint study on driving development in Africa. The goal of the study, titled Key Actions to Drive Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development in Africa, is to identify key actions that will allow Africa to rise and remain at a growth level of 7% GDP.
As the world moves toward energy transition, it is important that Africa’s ongoing challenges with access to clean, affordable and inclusive energy be addressed for the continent to achieve a fair and just energy transition, panelists said during the 2022 African Economic Conference (AEC).
Abu Dhabi, 16 January 2023 – As the Earth warms at a dangerous pace, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)-led Cool Coalition, with the United Arab Emirates’ incoming presidency of COP28, announced the development of a Global Cooling Pledge and a “Cool COP Menu of Actions” that will feature prominently at COP28. The Menu will be defined over the coming months in close collaboration with partners including the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL).
A new law will ensure that a set of key goods placed on the EU market, such as cattle, beef or soya, will no longer contribute to deforestation and forest degradation in the EU and elsewhere in the world. Since the EU is a major economy and consumer of these commodities, this step will help stop a significant share of global deforestation and forest degradation, in turn reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and biodiversity loss, according to the commission. This major agreement comes just before the start of the Conference on Biodiversity (COP15) which is set to define protection goals for nature for decades to come.
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23 January 2023, Fern is launching a report which outlines options for partnerships to accompany the new EU Regulation on deforestation-free products. Partnerships will be an essential part of maximising the Regulation’s impact in decreasing deforestation on the ground. They will also help mitigate risks linked to the Regulation: that it would cause “leakage” of unsustainable production to other consumer markets, or that smallholders would bear the cost of implementation.
Call for inputs for the global Stocktake in 2023 In the run-up to the conclusion of the first global stocktake in COP 28, submissions on views on the approach to the consideration of the outputs component of the first global Stocktake are open until 15 February 2023. Also, submissions for the third technical dialogue, scheduled to be held during the June SB session, are open until 6 March.
At COP 27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, President Emmanuel Macron and President Ali Bongo announced that a One Forest Summit would be held in Libreville, Gabon, on 1st and 2nd of March, 2023. Tropical forests provide an invaluable service both to local populations and to humanity by offering many resources but also by sequestering carbon and hosting biodiversity hotspots.
Of previous editions, the Global Synthesis Report is composed of stand-alone analyses that can be read independently, for a more thematic or sectoral reading. Discover in the report: infographics on the evolution indicators of emissions and activities, the existing and emerging trends in the strategies of actors, signals of change in the various sectors, and case studies of exemplary initiatives.
Protect the Campo Ma’an national park and stop Cameroun Vert SARL (Camvert) from destroying Indigenious Bagyeli people’s and ancestral lands! More than 28 communities call the Campo Ma’an area home. Now, a palm oil company, Cameroun Vert SARL (Camvert), has started clear-cutting these ancestral lands about seven times the size of Dakar illegally.
In the aftermath of COP27, where global leaders have gathered for over two weeks in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, those of us who regularly engage directly with developing countries know that the path forward is clear. Developing countries are committed to climate-compatible development and ready to implement. However, driving climate action on the ground requires unprecedented finance.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced he will convene a Climate Ambition Summit in September 2023, to generate “new, tangible and credible climate action” to “accelerate action at the mid-way point” of the SDGs. Going forward, he said he will push for a Climate Solidarity Pact, for all big emitters to “make an extra effort” to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in line with the 1.5°C goal and provide support for those who need it.
The Sustainable Ocean Initiative (SOI), a capacity-building programme established by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2010, provides support, advice, and guidance to countries in their efforts to achieve global biodiversity targets in marine and coastal areas. The Initiative, the subject of an event held during the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 15), achieves these aims through such activities as the SOI Global Dialogue with Regional Seas Organizations and Regional Fishery Bodies and the SOI Training of Trainers programme.
The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) convened a three-day summit to take stock of the progress in implementing the Principles of Effective Development Co-operation since their endorsement in 2011, and to discuss the future of work. Stakeholders agreed to build on past commitments, achievements, and experiences and to address the “unfinished business of the aid effectiveness agenda.”
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Chad is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the effects of climate change. Because its economy is based mainly on the primary sector, Chad’s reliance on natural resources makes it particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events. Take for example the case of Lake Chad, where the water volume has decreased by 90% since the 1960s due to climate change and over-exploitation. Chad’s vulnerability to climate change is further exacerbated by the country’s relatively low level of preparedness when it comes to climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.
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New research by the University of East Anglia (UEA) highlights the risks of countries relying on nature-based solutions to achieve net zero. The article summarizes the findings of the study. For example, the study found that once the bulk of emissions have been reduced, countries plan to "cancel out" the leftover difficult-to-decarbonize emissions, such as those from agriculture, by using forests and soils to remove carbon from the atmosphere. However, this may prove risky because forests and soils are also threatened by a range of impacts, such as fire, disease, changes in farming practices, and deforestation.
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This article is giving an introduction to the paper "Has global deforestation accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic?". Analysis of tree cover loss over time was used to determine whether deforestation observed in 2020 deviated from expected trajectories after the first COVID-19 cases were reported; both at the regional level for the Americas, Africa and Asia and at the country level for Brazil, Colombia, Peru, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia.
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The statement made by the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Eve Bazaiba, at the press briefing on Monday 28 November, on the lifting of the moratorium has raised the roof. Like a shockwave, the affirmation of the lifting of the moratorium established by the DRC's sovereignty over its forests in 2002 has provoked strong reactions in public opinion.
The SW4SW Dialogue - Timber Value Chains for Resilience and Carbon Neutrality seeks to identify effective approaches, concrete actions, and actors to be mobilised to make timber value chains, especially those focused on the domestic market, a lever for a forest sector with high environmental, economic and social added value.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) framework for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) refers to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). However, not all REDD+ countries have legal systems that build on UNDRIP and few, especially in Africa, have ratified other relevant agreements such as the International Labour Organization Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.
Logging affects many of the world's tropical forests, and such forests are often considered degraded because they have lost vegetation structure, biomass and carbon stocks. But there has rarely been analysis of whether the ecological health and functionality of these ecosystems are similarly degraded. A new study by researchers at the University of Oxford, finds that logged rainforests are treasure-troves of healthy ecological function and should not be written off for oil palm plantations. This article gives some insights into the newly published paper.
Most global consumers have heard of palm oil – and if not, they’ve probably tasted it. The versatile commodity is used in almost half of the packaged products found in supermarkets, from chocolate to deodorant or lipstick, as well as for animal feed and biofuel.
Kinshasa is hosting from 28 November to 02 December 2022 the thematic workshops of the First Maritime Conference of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) under the theme: "Governance and Security of the ECCAS maritime space for the development of a sustainable Blue Economy in Central Africa". These meetings are organised under the high patronage of Félix Tshisekedi, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, President in Office of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
The African Women's Network for Sustainable Development (AWNSSD) is a network of mainly women's non-governmental organisations working in the field of sustainable natural resource management. It is also involved in the design, implementation and monitoring of conservation and development projects in the Central African region.
On October 27, 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya and online, a team of researchers launched a new tool that outlines how an integrated landscape approach can be adapted for displacement or refugee settings. Called ‘Guidance for a Landscape Approach in Displacement Settings’ (GLADS), the tool is an EU-funded initiative led by the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) in partnership with stakeholders.
Dear CBFP Partners, In the aftermath of the World Forestry Congress held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, the first African Protected Areas Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, the COP 27 Climate Conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, and the COP15 Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Canada, it is safe to say that Central Africa’s tropical forests were once again prominently featured in global negotiations and that the voice of the sub-region was heard loud and clear during plenary sessions, high-level meetings and side events. Please download the message of greetings from the CBFP Facilitator of the Federal Republic of Germany the Honorable Dr. Christian Ruck...