Welcome to Windhoek

Imagining a Namibian Green Climate Fund Country Strategy

By SouthSouthNorth

December 5^th, 2016

NamPower Convention Centre, Windhoek, Namibia

In December 2010, the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted a decision to establish a new multilateral operating entity of the Convention's Financial Mechanism. The decision to establish the Green Climate Fund (GCF) was the consolidation of a political commitment to enhance the predictability, efficiency, and adequacy of climate change finance under the Convention.

Starting the workshop with the national & African Union anthem

Official Opening by the NDA (Mr. Petrus Muteyauli, GCF FOCAL POINT for NAMIBIa, MET)

Since 2010, the Green Climate Fund has received pledges through an Initial Resource Mobilisation process and its Board has begun approving project proposals from entities that have been accredited to programme resources on the Green Climate Fund's behalf.

Following the ratification of the Paris Agreement in November 2016, the integration of climate change considerations into development planning and implementation is critical to tackle climate change, whilst simultaneously achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The Green Climate Fund represents a significant strategic opportunity for developing countries to finance elements of their Nationally Determined Contributions in order to meet the goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

Presentation on Background to GCF and GCF Investment Criteria (Ms. Louise Brown, AfdB)

In an effort to access resources from the Green Climate Fund, the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism, in collaboration with Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia and the financial support from the United Kingdom Government hosted a national workshop to develop a country strategy and review of projects to be submitted to the Green Climate Fund. The review process will be based on the pipeline that Namibia developed during 2014 - 2015 with the support of the Germany Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, through the German Development Bank (KfW).

Discussion and questions

discussing climate in style!

Tea break

Delegates enjoyed a presentation by the Nationally Designated Authority (NDA) on Current Namibian NDA Experiences, the Need for a Country Strategy and Project Specific Steering Committee (Mr. Petrus Muteyauli, Namibian GCF Focal Point), followed by a presentation on GCF Accreditation Process and Experience (Mr. Karl Mutani Aribeb, Environmental Investment Fund).

Lunch time

Overview and background on GCF project pipeline for Namibia (Mr. Paulus Ashili, NDA MET)

The robust discussions allowed stakeholders to articulate the core elements to be contained in a country strategy for accessing funding through the Green Climate Fund, in strategic alignment with Namibia’s national development documents. Additionally, they allowed for the identification and harvesting of inputs which would allow the Nationally Designated Authority to revise and update the priority areas where Namibia can deliver results under the Green Climate Fund's investment criteria.

Group discussions commence...

The Nationally Designated Authority will work with the Southern African Climate Finance Partnership to take forward the outcomes from the consultation. The workshop attendees committed to reconvening to validate a draft Country Strategy during March 2017.

Disclaimer: This photo story is an output from the Southern Africa Climate Finance Partnership (SACFP), which aims to support the development of a regional partnership programme to improve country-owned climate finance portfolios. SACFP is a programme funded by the UK Government and managed via the Southern Africa Trust. The views expressed and information contained in this document are not necessarily those of or endorsed by DFID, or the entities managing the delivery of SACFP, which can accept no responsibility or liability for such views, completeness or accuracy of the information or for any reliance placed on them. Management of the delivery of SACFP is undertaken by SouthSouthNorth. © 2016 Southern African Climate Finance Partnership.