Civil Society Engagement with the Green Climate Fund

Advocacy

A factsheet for civil society

The governing instrument of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) recognizes the importance of stakeholder input and participation. It requests the Fund’s Board to “develop mechanisms to promote the input and participation of stakeholders, including private-sector actors, civil society organizations, vulnerable groups, women and indigenous peoples in the design, development and implementation of the strategies and activities to be financed by the Fund.”

Despite some existing challenges, civil society organizations (CSOs) have a number of opportunities to engage in the GCF at various levels (national, regional and international), enabling interactions with the Fund’s Board, its Secretariat, and other stakeholders active in the GCF.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has the ambition to become the most important multilateral instrument in climate finance. Africa has become a focus region for the GCF early on.  As it is unlikely that the intended paradigm shift towards low-carbon emissions and climate-resilient economies and societies (GCF founding mandate) can be achieved without broad civil society (CS) engagement, it is essential to scale-up existing civil society capacities to advocate for ambitious proposals, bring on-the-ground expertise to the table, help embed GCF-funded activities in a broader societal support for transformation and increase accountability of national authorities.

To support such efforts, a group of civil society organisations is currently implementing the project “Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) Readiness for the Green Climate Fund” with a primary focus on Africa, with financial support from the International Climate Initiative (IKI). This complements civil society engagement by many other organisations in relation to the GCF.