Rwanda’s national environment and climate change fund (FONERWA), was officially capitalised in June 2013, making it the largest climate fund of its kind in Africa. The Fund was created to ensure the accessibility of financing to support environmental sustainability, resilience to climate change, and green growth. Through the Fund, various sources of domestic and international finance have been coordinated. FONERWA's operationalisation involved a quarterly call for project proposals by prospective public and private beneficiaries. As a result, there has been high cyclical demand for technical assistance in areas of project design, monitoring and implementation.

This project targeted private sector and civil society organisations (both central and decentralised levels), and government agencies at district and provincial levels, giving technical assistance, personalised coaching and mentoring in the following three areas:

• Building awareness of the relationships between climate, environment and economic growth, with reference to the ‘green growth’ targets set out in Rwanda’s second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy.
• Coaching and mentoring key Rwandan stakeholders (from government, civil society and the private sector) at national and sub-national level to develop project proposals targeting the Fund and other multilateral and bilateral climate financing sources.
• Coaching and mentoring key Rwandan stakeholders in developing project monitoring & evaluation matrices. This was followed by monitoring and evaluation support during project implementation to increase the overall execution rate.

By building capacity at national and district level to scope, develop and implement successful CCD projects, the work has helped to support implementation of Rwanda’s Green Growth & Climate Resilience Strategy and build momentum for low carbon, climate resilient economic growth in Rwanda. The support was delivered through the University of Wolverhampton’s Centre for International Development and Training.

Timeframe: 2 years, Mar 2013 – Mar 2015

CDKN Funding: £430 000

Find out more:

• FONERWA website
• FONERWA design project page