This proposal will address the limited capacity of FSM stakeholders to access climate finance. Indeed, there is still insufficient national level financing and adequate knowhow for accessing international climate finance; insufficient technical capacity within relevant government departments at the national and state level, to plan, design, implement, and monitor climate change projects and programmes; limited staffing within the NDA office and lack of staff at state level to work full time on Readiness activities; over reliance on external/international consultants, who tend to be expensive and only available as part of time-bound projects, which means that There is a need to ensure that valuable experience gained, as part of project implementation, is not lost once these individuals leave... and weak policies and regulatory frameworks that impede effective climate action.

The request for support will further strengthen the NDA Office, Presidential Sustainable Development (SD) Council and GCF State focal points capacity. It will also improve Direct Access Entities (DAE) capacity to develop their pipeline of projects through better coordination and knowledge-sharing mechanisms. This proposal for a third phase of readiness support builds on the significant gains made in the first and second phases, particularly in the establishment of the Council, M&E system, and the completion and update of the Country Programme (CP). Indeed, this Readiness programme will contribute to the increase in the number of quality project concept notes developed and submitted to the GCF, in alignment with key priorities identified in the CP.

Direct beneficiaries of the project will be the FSM Department of Finance and Administration, SD Council, GCF state focal points, Micronesia Conservation Trust (MCT), FSM Development Bank, Vital/PetroCorp and SPC.