Supporting country programming processes for accessing the Green Climate Fund

Set up by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) was created to support the efforts of developing countries in responding to the challenge of climate change.

Under its ‘Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme’, the GCF supports country-driven initiatives by developing countries to strengthen their institutional capacities, governance mechanisms, and planning and programming frameworks towards a transformational long-term climate action agenda.

The GCF is supporting countries to develop robust and strategic country programmes, and provides ‘technical advisory services’ to help countries to produce high-quality, relevant and independent analysis on the climate change risks and adaptation opportunities each country faces.

The work reinforces the GCF Secretariat’s capacity to provide support to developing countries’ programming activities, with the overall aim of producing country programmes that are country-driven and owned, evidence-based, and focused on countries’ climate change priorities aligned with the GCF result areas.  

Through this pilot programme, the secretariat aims to provide comprehensive support to a set of pilot countries to undertake activities required to develop their country programme.

The programme involves comprehensive support through one or more services from the below list to help countries develop their programmes based on their specific demands and needs. This includes:

• Climate vulnerability assessment
• Data assessment
• Climate risk profile
• Economic risk profile
• Emissions scenario analysis
• Finance mapping
• Participatory country programme preparation process
• Policy assessment, and
• Prioritisation of issues/projects.

What is IIED doing?

In collaboration with Baastel and Eco, IIED is supporting the National Designated Authorities (NDAs) of The Gambia and Sao Tome and Principe by providing technical assistance to advance their GCF country programmes, which are in different stages of operation.

The range of activities being carried out by IIED include: 

In The Gambia

• An economic risk assessment within the country’s agriculture sector
• Identifying potential projects, ideas and adaptation measures
• Project idea prioritisation using a multi-criteria analysis approach
• Multi-stakeholder engagement, and
• Capacity gap assessment.

In Sao Tome and Principe

• Climate risk and vulnerability assessment
• Prioritisation of projects ideas, and
• Climate finance mapping.