The objective of this proposal is to strengthen Nauru’s climate financing mechanisms, strategies and capacity in order to strengthen country leadership and ownership in actioning its climate change priorities. This proposal aims to address key gaps and challenges towards achieving the objective as briefly outlined below:

1. Elements of NDA coordinating mechanisms were developed under Nauru’s first Readiness project, however they were not completely established. As the NDA function is critical for coordinating climate finance access processes in alignment with national priorities, the project will review and update Nauru’s No Objection Procedures, GCF Steering Committee, and develop a Communication and Stakeholder Engagement strategy for the NDA. These will be incorporated within a NDA operational manual/guideline to be developed by the project.
2. Project management capacity is very limited in Nauru where the NDA and sector focal points identified difficulties and challenges in both developing and implementing projects. This has led to high reliance on external organisations and expertise, thereby diminishing the country’s drive for ownership and prioritizing their needs. The project will provide the Nauru NDA (also Secretary of the Department of Climate Change and National Resilience), with additional project capacity through the positioning of a Project Development Specialist within the NDA Office. This Specialist is to work with the NDA and sectors on developing project ideas from the Country Programme, provide support on project related discussions with Accredited Entities and Donors, as well as working with them on proposals to other climate finance institutions and potentially future Readiness proposals. The intention is for key government personnel to build project development skills and experience ‘on-the-job’ with support, mentoring and training from the dedicated Specialist. In addition to this, the project will provide training and/or information sessions to enable the NDA and key personnel to implement key project related policies such as Environment and Social Safeguards, Gender Exclusion and Social Isolation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Procurement and so forth. Training will be determined by a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) to be undertaken by the project and will deliver bespoke training in subject areas where Nauru policies have recently been developed or as identified as priority by the TNA. Training will be supplemented with online learning resources available through regional knowledge and learning facilities such as the Pacific Climate Change Centre.
3. With new people post in the Department of Climate Change and Resilience and a fairly new and endorsed Country Programme (to be) in place (expected before end of 2021), a plan is needed to help guide the programming of activities to support Nauru to implement its country programme. A Readiness Assessment will be undertaken by the project to assist Nauru with mapping and programming of future Readiness proposals from the GCF and other donors to fill gaps and strengthen Nauru’s capacity, systems, data and information for projects and strategies for securing climate finance.
4. Nauru aspires to have an accredited national direct access entity that can lead the development and implementation of projects considered unattractive e.g. too small or non-priority, for other Accredited Entities. The project will undertake a detailed gap assessment of the Department of Policy Aid Development within the Ministry of Finance against the GCF’s DAE accreditation standards. This will assist Nauru to determine and plan next steps and progress action.

   The main beneficiaries of this project are the NDA and supporting personnel in the Department of Climate Change and National Resilience, members of Nauru’s GCF Steering Committee, Sector personnel with a project focus and the Planning and Aid Development Department within Ministry of Finance.