The purpose of this partnership is to provide country experts with a platform for the exchange of knowledge, lessons learned and experience in the preparation, financing and implementation of projects in the field of water and climate resilience, with a focus on projects for the Green Climate Fund. The Partnership provides a structured resource for African countries to access strategic and technical support to prioritize and prepare climate-resilient water projects through a facilitated and flexible mechanism that allows technical assistance on a demand-driven basis for designated national authorities (DNA), direct access entities (DEA) and Green Climate Fund national water agencies.
Cameroon (represented by the Director of Water Resources Management), CAR (represented by the Director General of Hydraulics) and Sao Tome and Principe (represented by an official of the Directorate General of Hydraulics and the Green Climate Focal Point) are the Central African countries to have participated in this workshop, among the 24 countries that were there. The latter actively participated in the discussions of the technical workshop on project preparation in Africa for the Green Climate Fund. They expressed their appreciation to GWP and its partners for facilitating their participation in this workshop, and noted 2 points they retained from the training:
- the importance of identifying and developing a solid climate case for Green Climate Fund projects, and differentiating between development activities and those for climate resilience in a project;
- the need to actively participate in the processes of developing country programmes for the GCF, and to ensure that water projects are included.
The workshop was organized by GWP in collaboration with the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA), the African Water Facility (AWF), the Climate Change Fund for Africa (CCF), the African Development Bank (AfDB), Climate Resilient Infrastructure Development Facility (CRIDF) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), with technical support from the Green Fund Secretariat and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Recognizing that aspects of water projects that provide development benefits that do not directly address climate impacts require co-financing from other sources such as government or the private sector, the Partnership will work with existing active and relevant financial partners to prepare projects to appropriately structure the financing mechanisms for climate change resilient projects for the Green Climate Fund.