By virtue of being located within one of the most hazard prone geographic regions of the world, Saint Lucia is highly vulnerable to and beset with a myriad of challenges and risks to lives, livelihoods and the sustainable development of the country arising from the impacts of climate change. The Government of Saint Lucia has established a strong national climate change framework, including a National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process, priority Sectoral Adaptation Strategies and Action Plans (SASAPs) and a Nationally Determined Contribution process. Saint Lucia is also currently completing its first national readiness grant titled “GCF Readiness and Preparatory Support in Saint Lucia” (LCA-RS-001). In establishing this enabling environment, Saint Lucia has recognized the need to further build resilience of the country’s systems and institutions. This includes streamlining and improving efficiency, in order to rapidly scale up investment in climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives.

This readiness grant aims to complement existing readiness support by addressing five major barriers to Saint Lucia’s progress to enhance its access to climate finance:

1. The varying proficiency and availability of the National Designated Authority (NDA) team, the National Climate Change Committee (NCCC) and other key stakeholders on Green Climate Fund processes are compounded by a lack of systems available to fully operationalise NDA processes and tools from the NDA toolkit, particularly those for reviewing concept notes and funding proposals.
2. The absence of a coordinated or long-term approach to identifying and delivering readiness needs to support the development of a robust investment pipeline that responds to national needs and priorities.
3. The limited capacity of the nominated Direct Access Entity (DAE) to address capacity gaps highlighted in its gap assessment in order to achieve the required accreditation status and establish itself as an attractive partner for project development.
4. The absence of a coordinated, centralised system to consolidate, monitor and verify climate finance flows.
5. The limited capacity of the NDA thus far to raise awareness, produce knowledge products, and engage multiple stakeholders on GCF related matters in a sustained and consistent manner as articulated in its Country Programme.

The objective of this readiness grant is to support the NDA in building on the existing structures developed in LCA-RS-001 by facilitating capacity development for the optimization and organization of human capacities inside the NDA, and establishing a multi-functional digitalized system.. This will enable the systematic and strategic steering of Saint Lucia’s NDA, proposed DAE and other relevant stakeholders’ engagement with the GCF. This readiness grant will enhance the complementarity and coherence between the activities of the GCF and other relevant institutions. through the digitalization of processes. This will ensure more efficient, streamlined and transparent systems for the NDA and the nominated DAE. Key outputs including training modules and guidance materials for a predominantly on-line audience. The readiness grant will support outcomes under objective 1 (Capacity Building: Outcomes 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3), Objective 2 (Strategic Frameworks: Outcomes 2.1 and 2.2) and Objective 5 (Knowledge Sharing and Learning: outcome 5.1).

The Country Programming process is the centerpiece of the bold climate development pathway that Saint Lucia wishes to embark on in its ongoing engagement with the GCF. For this reason, additional technical skills will be provided to support the NDA’s efforts to mainstream the outputs of the previous readiness grant, foster greater coordination among stakeholders and encourage greater country ownership and involvement in climate finance planning. Monitoring and documenting programme/project development and implementation efforts and issues, and identifying opportunities to achieve climate finance synergies for the GCF and other appropriate funding sources will also be supported.

The direct beneficiaries of this readiness will be Saint Lucia’s NDA, the Saint Lucia Development Bank as the nominated DAE, the NCCC and other relevant stakeholders from public and private sector and civil society organisations engaged in GCF related activities.