15 August 2013: The Adaptation Fund Board (AFB) has released the report of its 21st meeting, which was held back-to-back with the 12th meetings of the AFB’s Project and Programme Review Committee and the Ethics and of the Finance Committee. The Board highlighted the commitments of SEK 100 million from Sweden and Euro 1.2 million from the Brussels-Capital Region, and noted Australia would not meet its pledge of AU$ 15 million.

At the meeting, which took place from 2-4 July 2013, in Bonn, Germany, the AFB decided to accredit the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) as a Regional Implementing Entity, while two National Implementing Entity (NIE) applications were not accredited. The Accreditation Panel described efforts by multilateral, bi-lateral and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to build capacity of NIEs, but observed that some of these activities do not end up leading to successful NIE accreditation. The Panel also described opportunities for considering a small grants window in the future, and the Chair of the Accreditation Panel extended an invitation to hold the 14th Accreditation Panel meeting in the Bahamas.

The AFB considered concept proposals and decided not to endorse a programme concept on reducing vulnerability in agriculture, water, resources and coastal sectors in Costa Rica, nor a concept note for improving food security in Indonesia. The AFB endorsed the project concept for building resilience in the Greater uMngeni Catchment, South Africa, as well as a South Africa small grants facility for local adaptation responses. Fully developed proposals were not approved for Benin on the Cotonou Lagoon, or Nepal on food security. A fully developed proposal was approved for Mali in support of adaptation in Mopti and Timbuktu.

The AFB discussed options for evaluation of the Fund, suggesting opening the evaluation to competitive bids. On finance, the AFB noted that the current value of the Fund is around $145 million, though the current price of carbon remains close to zero.

The Board also issued a call for comments on its proposed Environmental and Social Policy, which seeks to streamline safeguards requirements and strengthen the technical review process and application of safeguards during project implementation. Comments are welcomed through 23 September 2013.

At the meeting, the AFB decided to reduce its number of annual meetings from three to two. The 22nd meeting of the AFB will be held from 29 October – 1 November 2013, in Bonn, Germany, and the 23rd meeting will be held from 18-21 March 2014. [AFB Call for Comments] [AFB Proposed Environmental and Social Policy] [Report of 21st Meeting of the AFB]