The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) commenced on Tuesday, a four-day training in Abuja to train Nigerians on how to develop projects to make Nigeria benefit from the Green Climate Funds (GCF).
GCF was created to support the efforts of developing countries to respond to the challenges of climate change.
There are two types of GCF Accredited Entities
Direct Access Entities: Direct Access Entities are sub-national, national or regional organizations that have to be nominated by developing country’s National Designated Authorities (NDAs) or focal points.
International Access Entities: These organizations such as United Nations agencies, etc., to have a wide reach and expertise to handle a variety of climate change issues, including ones that cross borders and thematic areas.
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How To Apply For Entity Accreditation
To access funds, institutions/individuals will go through a process of “accreditation,” designed to assess whether they are capable of strong financial management and of safeguarding funded projects and programmes.
Applications for accreditation are received by GCF on a rolling basis. There is no deadline for submitting accreditation applications.
Self-assessment
Organisations can assess whether they meet the basic requirements to become Accredited Entities before commencing the application process. This can be done by answering a series of questions through GCF’s self-assessment tool.
Preparing An Application
All Direct Access Entities as stated above need to be nominated by a developing country NDA / focal point. International Access Entities can seek GCF accreditation directly without nomination by a developing country’s National Designated Authority / focal point.
Assessment
The GCF Secretariat reviews the application once application fees are received, to ensure the mandate of the accreditation applicant aligns with GCF’s mandate and objectives in targeting climate finance, and in a manner that can contribute to developing country programming priorities with GCF.
The GCF Secretariat may ask applicants questions about their accreditation application with the goal of acquiring a complete application.
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Independent Review
GCF Secretariat upon satisfaction that application has met the will then forward the applications to the Accreditation Panel.
The Accreditation Panel is an independent technical panel, composed of six (6) senior experts, that provides advice to the GCF Board on results of the in-depth assessment and review of individual applications for accreditation.
Recommendation
The GCF Secretariat and the Accreditation Panel then send their recommendations to the GCF Board after the assessment.
This recommendation will include the GCF Secretariat’s assessment and the recommendation by the Accreditation Panel regarding accreditation and the accreditation criteria.
Legal Arrangements
After the approval of from the GCF board, the Accredited Entity will then sign an Accreditation Master Agreement (AMA) with GCF. AMAs are legal agreements that set out the terms and conditions for an entity’s use of GCF resources.
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