As the largest pot of climate funding available to developing countries, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) holds huge promise. As it enters into operation, national institutions, including government, can apply to access GCF’s resources ‘directly’. But the rigorous accreditation process appears a barrier to many, which coupled with unclear benefits is likely to undermine the zeal for direct access indeveloping countries. But experiences from another key climate fund, the Adaptation Fund, show that preparing for direct access has inherent co-benefits beyond accessing finance. The trials of accreditation may involve vital growing pains that also strengthen national institutions, and even improve country systems. Though cumbersome, the GCF direct access accreditation process presents an opportunity to improve a nation’s future bargaining capacity to access climate finance ‘at scale’, creating a positive cycle of funding success.
Policy pointers:
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undertaking a stringent ‘direct access’ accreditation process for funding gives institutions in developing countries the opportunity not only to access funds, but to strengthen national systems for the future
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with the direct access application as a catalyst, national institutions can improve and keep improving, creating a stronger foundation for future climate finance negotiations
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for institutional capacity building to be seen as an incentive to try the direct access route, if must be clearly integrated into the accreditation process and shown to encourage a positive cycle of application success
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far-sighted governments will be best placed to harness the incentives that go beyond accessing finance, instead of relying on ‘business as usual’ international access channels