Webinar on ‘Adaptation Fund projects in South and SoutheastAsia: Insights from CSO perspectives’

Adaptation Fund projects in South and South South-east Asia: Insights from CSO perspectives

Regional webinar
Date: 14th July 2020, Time: 11 AM to 12.30 PM GMT
Duration: 90 Minutes

Developing countries need significant amounts of finance to meet the challenges of climate impacts and to follow a path of low carbon development. The international community has set up multilateral funds to provide funds to mitigate and adapt to the changing climate. The Adaptation Fund (AF) oversees financial resource allocation for adaptation actions of developing countries. Through “Direct Access” the accredited institutions, national or sub-national could receive funds directly from the AF. In Southeast Asia and South Asia combined, 15 AF projects are being implemented. The projects are in diverse geo-climatic regions, socioeconomic conditions, sector and with communities with varied vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities. Best practices, success stories and lessons learned from implementation of these multi actor and multi sectoral projects are diverse too. These experiences are invaluable to shape the AF and bring in necessary changes that could benefit future projects and vulnerable communities.

To that effect, CAN South Asia, Development Alternatives (DA) and CAN Southeast Asia join forces to organise a webinar to share experiences gained from assessment/implementations of AF projects in South Asia and Southeast Asia. CANSA and DA have engaged with stakeholders – NABARD, executing entities, CSOs and beneficiary communities while assessing the AF projects in India. Insights have been obtained during assessment of AF projects in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh which will be shared in the webinar. The prominent issues or concerns emerged during the assessment are:

1. Sustainability of adaptation measures post AF project funding
2. Scaling up of adaptation interventions to communities with similar socio-economic and vulnerability profile
3. Creating opportunities for participation of women and engaging youth in all stages of AF project
4. Communicating results of adaptation interventions to the policy makers and district officials regularly for policy buy-in
5. Opportunities for civil society to participate in AF projects and processes

Both CANSA and DA are part of the AF NGO Network. The Network is a coalition of CSOs from countries with AF projects and represents the voices of most vulnerable people by engaging with AF. It engages in discussions and debates on the AF’s policies and closely follows the planning and implementation of the AF projects. It conducts independent assessments of the AF projects and provides independent feedback to AF board.

Target group: CSOs and the agenda

Moderator: Zeenat Niazi, Development Alternatives Group

1. About the Network towards advocating CSO participation in AF – Erin Lorimer, INDIGO Development & Change, South Africa – 10 min
2. Experiences and lessons learned from assessment of AF projects in India – Santosh, CANSA and Kavya, DA, India – 10 min
3. Panel Discussion – The panelists are requested to focus on one key question.
   • Md. Golam Rabbani, Head of Climate Bridge Fund Secretariat at BRAC, Bangladesh;
   • Manjeet Dhakal, Head of LDC Support Team at Climate Analytics, Nepal;
   • Kashmala Kakakhel Development Consultant, Pakistan;
   • Faizal Parish, Executive Director of Global Environment Centre (GEC), Malaysia and
   • Young Hee Lee, Governance Specialist, AF Secretariat – 10 min each

The key questions to the panelists are:

• How effective and replicable the adaptation options are as practiced in the AF projects in Bangladesh? – Md. Golam Rabbani
• How AF played its role as a finance enabler and driver of adaptation action in Pakistan – Kashmala Kakakhel
• How civil society participated (in terms of role and opportunities) in AF projects in Nepal – Manjeet Dhakal
• What are the governance issues that AF projects encountered in Southeast Asia? – Faizal Parish
• What are the roles and opportunities for civil society to engage with the AF? – Young Hee Lee
• What are the institutional arrangements in your respective countries or region for civil society to engage in AF projects – All panelists

4. Questions and Answer

End of Webinar