This readiness proposal seeks to address the following gaps, challenges and weaknesses which have been identified in the past few years: i) the lack of implementation of NDCs’ objectives at the local level, and thus the need to empower local authorities to improve such implementation and to scale-up the ambition of climate action on the ground; ii) the lack of a clear process to define local projects which contribute actively to achieving NDCs’ national objectives, and thus the need to have a clear origination strategy and to formalize a mechanism of collaboration (Memorandum of Understanding - MoU) between the local and the national levels for efficient NDCs’ implementation; iii) the lack of ownership of African countries (and more specifically cities) in accessing international climate finance, and thus the need to have a Direct Access Entity (DAE) to the Green Climate Fund (GFC) which is able to fill this gap and support African cities in accessing climate finance directly; iv) the lack of internal policies at UCLG Africa (United Cities and Local Governments of Africa) to meet accreditation standards, and thus the need to develop the missing policies and processes in order to successfully apply as a DAE; v) the lack of lessons-sharing between African countries in terms of local implementation of NDCs’ objectives, and thus the need to further improve on South-South cooperation on such matter.

In order to address the above mentioned gaps and challenges, the goal of this readiness proposal is the following: strengthening UCLG Africa’s capacity for the institution to become a regional GCF DAE, and defining a framework to operationalize the territorialization process of the NDC in Morocco and other Africa countries.

Sub-objectives for this readiness proposal address the gaps and challenges identified above; they include: i) build the capacity of UCLG Africa to become a regional DAE to the GCF, and support the entity in defining its first entity work programme (outcomes 1.2 and 2.3); ii) support UCLG Africa in defining an origination strategy and a “private sector involvement strategy” (outcomes 2.3 and 2.4); iii) support UCLG Africa in preparing its first SAP concept note and submit it to the GCF Secretariat (outcome 4.1); and iv) define tools and hold events to allow African countries to share experience and lessons learned on the operationalization of their NDC at local level (outcome 5.2).