The Environmental Investment Fund’s (EIF) journey with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has been a rewarding and transformational one, significantly scaling up adaptation finance to Namibia, and enabling a paradigm shift in the way in which adaptation projects are conceived and financed.
The EIF was accredited to access funding from the GCF in 2016, and has to date seen the approval of four GCF projects, for a total funding amount of nearly U$40 million.
These projects are now well into their implementation, with the first two nearing completion, and many lessons have been learned along the way, said the EIF report in which it reveals some of the successes, challenges and achievements.
Among the achievements listed is the Mashare Climate Resilient Agriculture Centre of Excellence (MCRACE) which has been established and operationalized as a research, piloting and training centre, and with fertilizer demonstration sites operational, revealed a report on the EIF and GCF’s journey.
Another project, includes that of Community Based Natural Resources Management, which is labelled as transformational in devolving adaptation finance and decision making to local communities.
EIF in collaboration with the GCF, aims to increase adaptive capacity and enhance climate change resilience for small scale farmers, including setting up a centre for research, piloting and training on climate resilient agriculture and setting up demonstration sites for piloting guano and organic fertilizers, and conducting training and mentorship on climate smart cropping practices for small scale farmers.
It further seeks, to reduce exposure to risks and improve farmers’ adaptive capacity to climate change by training and mentoring small scale horticultural farmers to adopt sustainable crop production practices such as intercropping, crop rotation, and the avoidance of chemical pesticides.
It also aimed to set up a micro crop insurance scheme to benefit vulnerable farmers, promote the use of solar energy technologies and solar water pumping, and to facilitate farmers’ access to markets to sell their produce.
The EIF was one of the first institutions to access the GCF through the “direct access” modality, whereby developing country institutions can access funds without international intermediation. It was also the first accredited entity to pilot the GCF’s “enhanced direct access” (EDA) approach, and one of the first to make use of the “simplified approval process”.
“Looking forward, the EIF aims to continue to play a key role in the mobilization of climate finance to support the implementation of Namibia’s climate change ambition, and will continue to engage with the GCF as a key partner. It plans to develop further GCF projects in the sectors of off-grid solar energy access, climate resilient informal settlement upgrading, and sustainable rangeland management and biomass value chains, among others,”
