Liberia receives first instalment of USD 2.2m GCF grant for climate adaptation

The Government of Liberia has recently received USD 805,000 as part of a USD 2.2 million Green Climate Fund grant to support its national climate adaptation planning process. The release of funds to the West African country represents GCF’s first transfer of adaptation resources to a least developed country (LDC).

Liberia will use the GCF funds to kick-start a cross-government approach to integrate climate change adaptation throughout key ministries, agencies and authorities, and to develop corresponding strategies. The focus area of the grant was identified by the government following a national stocktaking exercise that found limited inclusion of climate adaptation considerations in coastal planning and key sectors like agriculture, energy, forestry and health that would be adversely affected by climate change.

The government also plans to use grant resources to boost the institutional capacities of two front-line offices – the Environment Planning Authority and the National Climate Change Secretariat – that have been mandated to drive Liberia’s climate adaptation efforts, as well as to ensure all adaptation activities are gender-responsive.

GCF’s support for adaptation planning reflects its role in assisting developing countries, including the poorest, to identify their medium- and long-term needs to adapt to the impacts of climate change. A country-driven process, adaptation planning aims to enable policies, strategies, programmes and investment that reduces a country’s vulnerability to climate change.

In addition to Liberia, GCF resources for adaptation planning have been approved for Nepal and Pakistan. Seventeen other countries have submitted proposals for adaptation planning support through the Fund’s Readiness Programme, all of which are currently being reviewed in coordination with the countries’ respective National Designated Authority (NDA).

GCF’s adaptation planning support programme provides up to USD 3 million per developing country for the formulation of national adaptation plans (NAPs) or other adaptation planning processes. GCF aims for a floor of 50 percent of Readiness Programme funding to particularly vulnerable countries, including LDCs, small island developing States and African States.

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have committed to support adaptation planning activities in developing countries, which was first articulated in the 2010 Cancun Agreement and further strengthened in the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change.