The African Development Bank (AfDB) has selected representatives from 80 government institutions, civil society organisations and universities for training as experts in developing climate financing proposals.
According to a statement from the bank on Friday, October 30, 2020, the selection followed a thorough and independent process, with 40 of the nominees from English speaking countries and 40 from French and Portuguese speaking countries.
Mr Gareth Phillips, the Manager, Environment and Climate Finance Division, Department of Climate Change and Green Growth, AfDB, said the $10 billion fund was expected to be a major source of climate finance for the continent.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a $10 billion endowment set up in 2010 to help countries to implement their climate agenda through loans, equity, guarantees and grants.
“Accessing finance from the fund is challenging because of the complexities of designing climate change projects to fulfil the funding criteria.
“This training will boost capacity amongst African nationally determined authorities, governments and consultants by training trainers to run future training courses,” Phillips said.
The AfDB, in the statement, said the trainees would pass on their knowledge to potential beneficiaries of the fund.
The 120-hour training programme is managed by the Climate Change and Green Growth Department of the bank, with funding from the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Trust Fund.
The programme builds on ongoing work by the bank, the GCF and other partners to support its regional member countries to directly access GCF resources.
By Temitope Ponle
