Members of Africa LEDS Partnership boost climate finance skills

In December 2016, the Africa LEDS Partnership (AfLP) held a three day training program on climate finance in Casablanca, Morocco. LEDS GP’s Leo Roberts reports:

The LEDS GP, together with 4C-Maroc and GIZ, brought together AfLP members to explore how to unlock international climate finance and enhance climate finance readiness. The training aimed to help technical staff and decision-makers from across Africa and the Middle East to deepen their knowledge of:

  • The international climate finance architecture;
  • Accessing international climate finance;
  • Good financial governance;
  • Opportunities available from the Green Climate Fund; and
  • Engaging the private sector in low emission development.

During the workshop, participants took part in a combination of technical training, peer-to-peer learning presentations, immersive group and individual exercises, and direct presentations from leading experts on climate finance.

Many of the participants represented national designated authorities or focal points for the Green Climate Fund or Adaptation Fund, while others had played key roles in establishing national climate funds. One of the main focus areas of the workshop was developing project pipelines, with discussions around how best to build these pipelines in various contexts. Participants found value in an interactive exercise on prioritizing projects, in which they ran through the process of identifying suitable criteria for project selection. Many participants identified this process as something they looked forward to applying in their own day-to-day work.

One theme of interest was in developing national climate funds. Representatives from Rwanda gave excellent presentations on their own climate fund; other participants said they hoped to replicate this example at home.

The diverse cross section of expertise, backgrounds, and job roles among the participants encouraged an atmosphere of peer-to-peer learning, collaborative technical training, and network-building. Participants’ feedback included:

“The training met expectations 100 percent…it revealed that we need more and more of these kinds of training in order to…share experiences.” 

“This training has taught me about new tools and criteria for prioritizing funding opportunities, as well as approaches to tracking and coding climate finance…although we needed a better gender balance!”

“The training was very beneficial to me and will be used to change things in my country.”

Ensuring that their work continues beyond the workshop itself, participants sought the establishment of an AfLP climate finance community of practice. The AfLP will be taking up this idea in 2017, and working with members to explore how such a community could be created and sustained, to help members continue to share best practices.

Read the latest news from the Africa LEDS Partnership.

Photo: Leo Roberts