One of the ways in which countries have been able to acquire Direct Access Entities (DAEs) to access the Green Climate Fund (GCF) is by developing concrete and comprehensive guidelines on how GCF works in the Climate Finance Readiness Processes in their respective governments. Somalia is one of the latest countries to acquire funding for the GCF Readiness Climate Finance. This necessitated a development of an Operational Manual for the National Designated Authority, which is the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change in the country, to provide a practical and comprehensive guidance to Somalia’s NDA on the operations of GCF and its accreditation processes and guidelines.
Somalia is one of the most vulnerable countries due to its climate variability, poverty and a high dependency on natural resources, particularly pastoralism and farming. Climate related natural hazards such as floods, droughts and extreme weather events are increasing in severity and frequency, causing loss of lives and displacement. Somali communities have low adaptive capacity.
Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa (GWPEA) has supported the NDA to develop the Country’s Operational Manual to provide the accreditation processes and guidelines of the GCF in the Climate Finance Readiness processes. The Operational Manual, which was drafted in February further guides the NDA on its day-to-day running of the operations on climate finance, including decision making processes, criteria to GCF funding and coordination mechanisms to strengthen its efficiency, effectiveness and transparency in line with current trends and requirements of the GCF. This document was developed in the context of the Project “Somalia GCF Readiness Support” which engaged all relevant stakeholders in consultative processes aiming at prioritization of strategic climate investments for GCF funding. It is expected that these efforts will contribute to the successful implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions and national climate strategies and plans as well as to the overall achievement of the objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The manual provides the accreditation processes and guidelines of the GCF in the Climate Finance Readiness processes. It further guides the NDA on its day-to-day running of the operations on climate finance, including decision making processes, criteria to GCF funding and coordination mechanisms to strengthen its efficiency, effectiveness and transparency in line with current trends and requirements of the GCF. The operational Manual will be sanctioned and launched after a validation process by all stakeholders.
THE SOMALIA READINESS NEEDS ASSESSMENT
In the same spirit, GWPEA has supported the NDA Somalia to draft a Readiness Needs Assessment to assess the state of climate finance readiness in Somalia explaining the institutional and policy environment, current funding, financial flows and sources and assessing the potential for accessing additional funding and structuring climate finance internally. The objective of this report is to understand the climate finance readiness of Somalia and identify gaps and opportunities to build upon in the near future. The report seeks to inform future planning and investment undertaken in this area by the government of Somalia and its development partners.
The Readiness Needs Assessment Report was drafted and validated in Mogadishu by a cross section of stakeholders from the Federal Government of Somalia, the NDA which is the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change as well as the Somalia Water Partnership.
Further reviews were provided, and the report will be launched at a later date.