In 2018/2019, Senegal has prepared its first Country Program, in line with the NDC and the national policy and strategy documents, mainly the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE). The country has defined its priority investments, and has also built the capacity of its national stakeholders through various activities. The first grant has hence set a good baseline: the NDA of Senegal is now functioning, the no objection procedure has been prepared, a communication plan has been prepared, and the programming of investments is quite clear.

However, a lot remains to be done, especially to translate the country programme into high quality projects, to ensure that national stakeholders can implement national priorities efficiently, and to fully operationalize the systems and procedures prepared under the first readiness grant. During the implementation of the previous readiness grant period, additional needs have been identified, that this grant request is addressing; these include: i) preparing a pipeline of projects, based on the priority identified in the country programme, which allows private investors and local authorities to engage in climate smart and resilient development; ii) building the capacity of the country to implement its national priorities for climate change, through support to accreditation of three national entities (FONSIS1, FONGIP2 and La Banque Agricole), and through capacity building of the NDA team; and iii) operationalizing the no-objection procedure, implementing the communication plan, and setting up an efficient MRV system which will allow the NDA to better track climate finance flows in the country, and monitor the results achieved by climate projects funded through “climate finance”.

This readiness proposal will hence focus on these identified gaps, with the intention to achieve the following results: i) the national capacity to prepare high quality climate projects and to track results has improved greatly; ii) three concept notes, in line with the priorities identified in the country programme, have been prepared with relevant AEs and submitted to the GCF Secretariat ; iii) three national entities have moved in the accreditation process, and at least one of them has prepared a concept note to be submitted to the GCF ; iv) a MRV system is in place to track climate finance flows and assess the results of the projects funded by climate finance; v) the no-objection procedure is fully operational; and iv) the communication plan is implemented.

The main beneficiaries of this readiness grant are: i) the three entities which will benefit from technical assistance to move forward with their accreditation process (La Banque Agricole, FONSIS and FONGIP); ii) the private operators, ministries and local authorities which will be supported in preparing high quality concept notes; iii) the NDA which will benefit from activities related to outcome 1.