Liberia receives first installment of US$2.2 million GCF grant for climate adaptation

July 10, 2017, Songdo - The Government of Liberia has recently received US$805,000 as part of a US$2.2 million Green Climate Fund grant to support its national climate adaptation planning process. The release of funds to the West African country represents GCF’s first transfer of adaptation resources to a least developed country (LDC).

Supported through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the GCF-funded project "to advance the National Adaptation Plans (NAP) process for medium-term investment planning in climate-sensitive sectors (i.e. agriculture, energy, waste management, forestry and health) and coastal areas in Liberia" will work to strengthen institutional frameworks and coordination for the implementation of the NAP process, expand the knowledge base for scaling up adaptation, build capacity for mainstreaming climate change adaptation into planning, and budgeting processes and systems, and formulate financing mechanisms for scaling-up adaptation, including public, private, national and international.

National partners will include the Environment Planning Authority and the National Climate Change Secretariat. Other key partners are the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Ministry of Agriculture, National Disaster Management Commission, National Port Authority of Liberia, Liberia Maritime Authority, Bureau of National Fisheries, Liberia National Department of Meteorology, Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services and University of Liberia.

Liberia will use the GCF funds to kick-start a cross-government approach to integrate climate change adaptation throughout key ministries, agencies and authorities, and to develop corresponding strategies. The focus area of the grant was identified by the government following a national stocktaking exercise that found limited inclusion of climate adaptation considerations in coastal planning and key sectors like agriculture, energy, forestry and health that would be adversely affected by climate change.

The government also plans to use grant resources to boost the institutional capacities of two front-line offices – the Environment Planning Authority and the National Climate Change Secretariat – that have been mandated to drive Liberia’s climate adaptation efforts, as well as to ensure all adaptation activities are gender-responsive. GCF’s support for adaptation planning reflects its role in assisting developing countries, including the poorest, to identify their medium- and long-term needs to adapt to the impacts of climate change. A country-driven process, adaptation planning aims to enable policies, strategies, programmes and investment that reduces a country’s vulnerability to climate change.

In addition to Liberia, GCF resources for adaptation planning have been approved for Nepal and Pakistan. Seventeen other countries have submitted proposals for adaptation planning support through the Fund’s Readiness Programme, all of which are currently being reviewed in coordination with the countries’ respective National Designated Authority (NDA).

Working with national governments, civil society, donors and other key stakeholders, UNDP is currently supporting 41 nations in accessing dedicated Green Climate Fund (GCF) National Adaptation Plans finance, including Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Chad, Congo (Dem. Republic of), Congo (Republic of), Côte d'Ivoire, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Moldova, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Senegal, Serbia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam.

GCF’s adaptation planning support programme provides up to US$3 million per developing country for the formulation of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) or other adaptation planning processes. GCF aims for a floor of 50 percent of Readiness Programme funding to particularly vulnerable countries, including LDCs, small island developing States and African States. Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have committed to support adaptation planning activities in developing countries, which was first articulated in the 2010 Cancun Agreement and further strengthened in the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Adapted from original GCF media release.