International Day of clean air for blue skies 2021

Towards the end of 2014, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) announced that it had opened its accreditation window and recipient countries that are parties to the UNFCCC could pursue to have their national institutions accredited as implementing entities under the Fund. Prior to this, the GCF launched a Climate Finance Readiness Programme which targeted a number of institutions functioning as the National Implementing Entities (NIEs) under the Adaptation Fund. These institutions had been selected to undergo GCF’s fast track accreditation process.

On 6th November 2014, a delegation from UNEP, UNDP and WRI paid a courtesy call to NEMA to inform them of the Climate Finance Readiness Programme and invite the Authority to a stakeholder forum the following week which would assist them in identifying the support needs and capacity gaps in Kenya with regards to climate change policy interventions and institutional arrangements.

The main agenda of the Readiness Programme is to:
•    Build the institutional capacities of countries, with a focus on enabling direct access and mobilizing and managing climate finance.
•    Prepare institutions to develop bankable projects and programmes.
Following GCF’s accreditation window which was opened in 17th November 2014, NEMA received information from the Adaptation Fund Secretariat on its eligibility for a fast track accreditation as an Implementing Entity (IE) under the Green Climate Fund.  NEMA sought out an endorsement from the National Treasury which is the country’ National Designated Authority (NDA). Once Treasury endorsed NEMA and sent a letter of no objection to the GCF Board, the Authority proceeded with the application.

An endorsement from the country’s selected NDA is a key requirement for all institutions seeking accreditation from the Fund as it officially communicates to the GCF Board that they have been endorsed by the country to get GCF accreditation.

Needless to say, unlike the Adaptation Fund where NEMA was required to be first accredited before submitting its project proposals for funding, the GCF offers an opportunity for institutions to submit possible project concept notes alongside pursuing GCF accreditation.
It is with this background that the Authority organized and held a stakeholder consultative workshop as from 5th to 6th March 2015 to prioritize and generate project concepts for submission to the GCF secretariat. The government entities that participated in this climate change interventions priority setting workshop are institutions whose mandate is in diverse aspects of development and environment in Kenya. These included institutions of higher learning (Universities), Government Ministries, Government Agencies, Government Development Authorities and Government Semi-Autonomous organizations.
The methodology employed in drafting the concept notes was that of thematic group formation. The workshop participants resolved to form thematic groups as they exist in GCF concept note template.

These thematic areas were:
1.    Energy access and power generation
2.    Buildings, cities, industries, appliances and waste management
3.    Transport Forestry and land use
4.    Livelihoods of people and communities
5.    Resilience of infrastructure and built environment
6.    Ecosystems and ecosystem services

After the stakeholder consultative workshop, NIE secretariat together with a team of experts embarked on fine tuning the concept notes. In addition, it prepared a detailed report on the outcomes of the workshop and the Authority’s progress status in seeking GCF accreditation.
NEMA received online permissions from GCF to access the online accreditation database on 21st April 2015. Soon after, in the months of April and May 2015, NEMA’s NIE secretariat held a series of internal meetings with relevant departmental officers who participated in providing information for GCF accreditation application. The inclusion and participation of all departments was to ensure quality controls for the information given. Submission of NEMA’s application was completed in the month of May 2015.