The 21st meeting of the Adaptation Fund Board (AFB), the operating body of the Adaptation Fund (AF) established under the Kyoto Protocol, was held in Bonn, Germany from July 3-4, 2013. In the two days prior to the meeting, the two committees of the Board – the Ethics and Finance Committee (EFC) and the Project and Programme Review Committee (PPRC) – convened their 12th meeting, respectively.

The Accreditation Panel of the Board concluded some of its work, reviewing submissions by organizations willing to serve as implementing entities of the Fund. In the process, the Sahara and Sahel Observatory was accredited by the Board to serve as a Regional Implementing Entity (RIE) of the AF – the second one to date. No further National Implementing Entity was accredited.

As usual, the PPRC reviewed project and programme proposals that had been received in time for the current meeting of the AFB. In total, seven proposals where submitted of which three – two project concepts for South Africa by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), acting as a National Implementing Entity (NIE); and one fully-developed project for Mali by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), acting as a Multilateral Implementing Entity (MIE) – were recommended by the PPRC for approval, subsequently achieving endorsement by the Board.

Both the Accreditation Panel and the PPRC highlighted in their reports the vital importance of capacity building, addressing the fact that many NIEs fail to obtain accreditation even after spending several months in the accreditation pipeline, and despite receiving support from multilateral and non-governmental organizations in the process. In addition, the projects and programmes implemented by NIEs remain rather low (4 of 29), although 15 NIEs have already been accredited as of now. Therefore, the Board decided to launch a programme to support readiness for direct access and to increase the number of high quality proposals submitted to the Board, requesting the secretariat to prepare a document with options for such a programme for the 22nd AFB meeting.

The EFC had several important items on the agenda. To complete the activities needed to achieve full compliance with the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Standard, the Board adopted an official disclosure and licensing policy, along with an implementation schedule envisaging the publication of IATI compliant data by September 2013. Furthermore, the Board discussed the application of Environmental and Social Safeguards to avert negative repercussions from AF-funded projects or programmes. Before adopting, the Board decided to launch a public call for comments on the proposal by interested stakeholders by September 23, 2013, requesting the secretariat to incorporate the views received into a revised proposal and to draft a suggestion for operationalization of the aforementioned policy for the next AFB meeting.
Some debate emerged among the Board concerning the status of the MIE project pipeline, i.e. how to deal with projects once the necessary resources for funding have been accumulated. As a result, the Board decided to request the MIEs in line to receive funding, to reconfirm the validity of their proposal and the adequacy of requested funding, within 60 days, once resources become available. In addition, the Board requested the PPRC to discuss options for funding the pipeline at its 13th meeting, following the notion of some members to seek out external funding for pipeline projects and the need for raising the awareness of fully-developed projects ready to be funded.

To conclude, the Board discussed dates and venues of upcoming AFB meetings in 2014, deciding to provisionally reduce the number of AFB meetings to two per year. It also stressed the high importance of having more in-depth strategic discussions in the near term, regarding the future of the Adaptation Fund in light of developments at the UNFCCC level, e.g. the Fund’s relationship with the Green Climate Fund.
The AFB also held the regular dialogue with civil society, which included discussions on the environmental and social policy, the evaluation, the presentation of a letter that more than 80 NGOs had already signed and which requests developed country governments to provide more resources to the AF, and an exchange of experience from several developing countries.

On the margins of the AFB meeting, the AF NGO Network also organised a one-day conference (2 July). The ca. 90 participants, including many AFB members and alternates, and webcast viewers, addressed aspects such as adaptation in the area of food security, urban areas, and discussed experience and prospects of direct access, in the AF as well as beyond it.

The next AFB meeting will take place from 29 October to 1 November, again in Bonn.