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Posted on December 12, 2012
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Initiative Launched to Improve Accountability of Climate Change Adaptation Finance
Initiative Launched to Improve Accountability of Climate Change Adaptation Finance
The Rockefeller Foundation has announced the launch of a new initiative led by Oxfam, the Overseas Development Institute, and the World Resources Institute to increase the transparency and accountability of climate finance adaptation programs.
Announced in conjunction with the United Nations Climate Change conference in Doha, the Adaptation Finance Accountability Initiative will pilot new tools for monitoring how aid for climate change adaptation efforts flows from the international level to local communities and ensure that such aid benefits the most vulnerable populations.
Supported in part by a $1.3 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, the initiative will work with local civil society groups to track adaptation finance in Nepal, the Philippines, Uganda, and Zambia over an initial two-year period and will share lessons learned through alliances in Africa and Asia. The initiative also will advocate for greater transparency and accountability from global climate finance institutions such as the new Green Climate Fund, other international funding bodies, and governments.
Questions have been raised over how much of the climate aid provided in the last three years — which some estimate at nearly $34 billion — is reaching the poorest, most vulnerable people in developing countries, Reuters AlertNet reports. According to a report (3 pages, PDF) from the African Climate Policy Centre, only about 10 percent of public climate finance provided as grants or concessional loans meet the commitment included in the 2009
Copenhagen Accord that such financing be "new and additional."
"While we need governments to scale up climate finance to help poor communities adapt to climate change this week in Doha," said David Waskow, Oxfam America's climate change program director, "we also need innovative initiatives like the Adaptation Finance Accountability Initiative to make sure these funds are used in the most effective way."
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