The Environmental Investment Fund (EIF) of Namibia has commenced with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) programming consultation following its re-accreditation to the body for another five years last year.
The consultations are centered on the first project in the EIF pipeline to be submitted to the GCF, which aims to generate alternative income streams for subsistence agriculture through the inclusion of enterprise business solutions and value-adding components, ultimately enhancing their resilience to climate shocks.
“Through this project, the EIF intends to establish a sustainable financing facility that supports value chains and market penetration of agricultural production to enhance long-term adaptation capacities within peri-urban environments,” the EIF added.
To expedite the process, the EIF has begun plans to recruit a technical expert to further develop the proposal, which is intended for submission to GCF by March 2023.
“This sustainable financing facility will be key in creating jobs, upskilling workers, expanding service provision in areas underserved by the government, and increasing the tax base to fund important social and economic development objectives,” the EIF stated.
“The project interventions will target those local authorities that have been identified to have constituencies with very low to low adaptive capacities,” the EIF continued.
“The objective is to create a blended financing facility in the form of a green guarantee scheme under this project, which will be used to de-risk the EIF Green Credit Line and attract additional investment through leveraging from the private sector and capital recycling.”
Through the GCF, the EIF aims to raise N$1.5 billion in funding by 2026. The EIF was initially accredited by the GCF in 2016 as a Direct Access Entity for country-level programme delivery and to date has raised more than N$640 million for Climate Action Grants and Readiness Support.
