East Africa’s bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), on Wednesday completed training for several South Sudanese officials aimed at building their capacities to secure funding from the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
The GCF is a global platform to respond to climate change by investing in low-emission and climate-resilient development.
Philip Omondi, project manager for the Strengthening the Resilience of the IGAD region to the adverse Impacts of Climate Change through effective Adaptation and Mitigation Actions (RICCAMA), said the training will boost the capacity of South Sudan to lobby for funds from the climate kitty established under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
“We are here in South Sudan basically to build the capacity of ministerial staff, sectoral heads on how to develop bankable project proposals; we have climate funds through the climate kitty where developed countries are giving developing countries 100 billion U.S. dollars per month, according to the Paris Agreement of 2015,” Omondi said at the closing of the three-day training in the South Sudanese capital of Juba.
The RICCAMA project is implemented within the framework of an existing financing agreement between the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) Secretariat of the OACPS, and the European Union (EU) for the implementation of the Intra-ACP Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+) program.
The project’s overall objective is to increase the resilience of the IGAD region to the adverse impacts of climate change and contribute to the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, Goal 13.
To achieve the project goal, IGAD seeks to support the building of regional and national capacities for securing funding from the GCF, adaptation funds, and other sources for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The regional bloc also seeks to support document adaptation best practices, sharing knowledge resources across countries and facilitating technology and skills transfer.
He said countries such as South Sudan have been finding it extremely difficult to access funds from the GCF.
“We believe that after the training, they will be now able to write proposals to attract this funding to their country,” said Omondi, adding that the RICCAMA project aims to boost every IGAD member country’s capacity to be able to develop two bankable project proposals by the end of the project.
Some 20 participants from the agriculture, energy, environment and other ministries attended the training. Enditem
