The first African nation with an updated NDC takes a step towards civil society access to climate finance

One of the key success factors for unlocking climate action, and a priority of the COP26 Presidency and UN Climate Change, is mobilizing climate finance. Therefore, it was timely for Rwandan CSOs to build capacity to access climate finance in the first country in Africa with their enhanced NDC.

The training highlighted national climate change mitigation and adaptation priorities outlined in Rwanda’s updated NDC. It gave a practical path to align project concepts to these national priorities as well as funder focus areas. Then, it took a deep dive into preparation of project concepts, centering on Green Climate Fund (GCF) processes and templates.

The course sought to develop Project Idea Notes (PINs) into concept notes to submit to the GCF. By this measure the course was a success. At the end of the training, five participants had well-articulated concept notes suitable for GCF financing, while the rest received guidance on how to advance their concepts.

During the training, participants were keen to learn about other sources of financing that could benefit small and medium local CSOs. As a final session, RCC Kampala delivered an additional two-hour training session on other sources of climate finance which accommodate small project sizes with minimal and flexible co-financing requirements.

Training was conducted over six-weeks from 25 March to 29 April 2021. A total of fourteen live training hours was delivered virtually by Eco Ltd to about fifty participants from thirty CSOs, selected through an Expression of Interest. Participants also submitted PINs as part of the selection process.

The course was delivered at request of the Rwandan Environmental Management Authority (REMA) in collaboration with the  Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), Eastern Africa Alliance on Carbon Market and Climate Finance (EAA), GIZ Global Carbon Market Project and RCC Kampala.

Photo credit: ©2009CIAT/NeilPalmer