E Co. bites: For an adaptation project, how do you demonstrate being responsive to recipient needs?

14 January 2021, Category: All insights, News, Tags: adaptation, adaptation projects, climate finance, E Co. bites

Watch our bite-sized and easily digestible video series, sharing our insights and experiences of designing low-carbon, climate-resilient development projects, across the globe. We discuss the who, where, what, why and hows behind successfully obtaining funding from major donors, including the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Transcript 

Speaker: Ben Bartle

Question: For an adaptation project, how do you demonstrate being responsive to recipient needs?

Responsiveness to recipients needs in adaptation projects is best described by first identifying the scale and intensity of the vulnerability, of the country and the beneficiary groups, to climate change factors. The Green Climate Fund, for example, asks to elaborate on how the project or programme will address those idenitified needs. For adaptation projects, we consider the climate impact pathways. This means understanding the needs of the beneficiaries based on how the weather will change in our geographic region, understanding the likelihood and severity of weather events, then estimating the likely impact of these events on assets, economic production and demand, and health and well-being.

Demonstrating responsivness requires showing the linkage between the needs and how you will respond to them. Funders are asking, “What is our adaptation strategy and how specifically does it articulate improved resilience and responding to recipients needs?”. In our experience of developing and reviewing projects for the GCF, the Adaptation Fund and the two GEF adaptation funds, project developers often overlook how their project responds to the development agenda of the country and their climate and development related goals.

Developers also needs to consider target countries level of economic and social development – this could mean inc. the description of level of social and economic development, the income level of the target population. It can also look at income of minorities, elderly and disabled, children and female heads of households and indigienous people and other groups as appropriate.

It goes beyond the needs of the recipient. It’s also about financing needs.

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