Global EbA Fund to Adapt Adverse Effects of Climate Change

About

The Global Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Fund is now open for applications! It is a nature-based solution that harnesses biodiversity and ecosystem services to reduce vulnerability and build resilience of human communities to climate change.

Implemented by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with funding from the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), the Global EbA Fund is a quickly deployable mechanism for supporting innovative approaches to EbA.

The Fund supports catalytic initiatives to help overcome identified barriers to upscaling EbA. The Fund prioritises filling in planning, knowledge, and resourcing gaps with a broad thematic focus on innovation and urgency, and encourages creative solutions and partnerships. By supporting catalytic interventions, the Fund addresses research gaps, pilots innovative EbA approaches, engages in strategic EbA policy mainstreaming, and incentivises innovative finance mechanisms and private sector EbA investment.

Objectives

• To build awareness and understanding of the critical role of natural assets in underpinning resilience to climate change, expand the knowledge and evidence base to help make the case for working with people and nature, and enhance institutional capacities for mainstreaming EbA into national plans and policy frameworks and vertical integration and alignment of EbA across sectors.
• To address planning and other governance gaps in policy and regulatory environments to increase the attractiveness and feasibility of using and upscaling ecosystem-based approaches for climate change adaptation.
• To expand access to sustainable short- and long-term finance mechanisms for applying and scaling up EbA, including the incentivisation of private sector investment in EbA and reducing EbA’s dependence on high management capacity and continuous financial input.

Catalytic Interventions

The Global EbA Fund considers catalytic interventions as those that increase scalability or replicability of EbA interventions, shift social or behavioural norms, strengthen the case for economic viability or feasibility of EbA interventions, expand the evidence base for EbA effectiveness, integrate EbA into complementary climate adaptation strategies, create synergies between EbA initiatives, and/or mainstream EbA into policies, institutions, or other sectors.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of examples of such interventions.

• Directed research addressing how to overcome specific constraints for EbA and address gaps in knowledge (e.g. economic valuation, gender integration, capturing mitigation co-benefits, incentives for private sector investment, trade-offs and limits for EbA, etc.)
• Strategic pilot or demonstration actions, specifically where the Fund identifies high potential for up-scaling through multilateral funds (e.g. GCF) and other adaptation finance options, for which the Fund would directly build capacity of the grantee(s)
• Piloting innovative or “unproven” approaches for EbA, where monitoring of impacts can build knowledge based on costs and benefits (impact)
• Integrating EbA methods and approaches into traditional infrastructure projects
• Removing barriers from up-scaling EbA interventions at the policy or landscape levels
• Support for strategic and focused EbA policy mainstreaming (e.g. integrating EbA approaches into a municipal plan)
• Innovative finance mechanisms for EbA (e.g. community incentive schemes, payments for ecosystem services, etc.)
• Incentivising private-sector investment in EbA and de-risking lending for EbA approaches (e.g. through agricultural lending)

Funding Information

• Grants issued will be in the range of USD 50,000 to USD 250,000 (of maximum three years in duration). In exceptional circumstances of project need, a grant up to a maximum amount of USD 500,000 may be issued. The total funds disbursed will amount to around USD 14,000,000 over five years.
• If the budget for a project exceeds USD 250,000, the applicant must clearly justify the exceptional circumstances of project need where appropriate in the concept note and subsequently, if selected, the full proposal.
• The projects financed by the Global EbA Fund may be implemented in a maximum period of three (3) years, unless indicated differently in the grant agreements. The Fund encourages project durations of up to 24 months. Additional justification is required for projects seeking longer than 24 months but up to 36 months.

Geographic Eligibility

• Projects may have a global, thematic, regional and/or country-specific focus.
• If the project has a country-specific focus, it must be targeted to one or more countries which are eligible for official development assistance (ODA) based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) list at the time of application.
• Regional/multi-country projects, particularly projects designed to foster regional exchange and achieve regional-scale impacts, are eligible. For multi-country projects, which are projects involving activities in more than one country, all of the countries must be ODA-eligible.

Eligibility

• The Global EbA Fund seeks to catalyse new partnerships and collaborations and unlikely matches between new and non-traditional partners. The Fund seeks to reach out beyond traditional actors and constituencies to attract all actors and constituencies relevant to EbA and climate change adaptation.
• The Fund seeks diverse applicants with relevant experience and local partnerships and presence, and who support addressing specific gaps in technical knowledge and understanding among government actors.
• The Fund will consider private sector applicants under certain conditions, for example no funding of sector-specific obligations nor compensatory or replacement measures, for-profit activities, etc. Overall, common public interest will be a top priority. While not required, co-financing from the applicant would demonstrate an institutional investment in the project.
• Categories of eligible recipients are:
• Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
• International non-governmental organisations (INGOs)
• Intergovernmental organisations (IGOs)
• Community-based organisations (CBOs)
• Indigenous People’s Organisations
• Universities and other academic institutions
• Research institutes and think tanks
• Private sector companies
• Consortia of organisations that promote collaboration and greater impact around EbA.
• UNEP country and regional offices and IUCN offices are not currently eligible to apply for funding from the Global EbA Fund.
• In line with current IKI policies, the Fund will not grant directly to government partners but will provide grants to organisations working directly with national, sub-national and local governments to create an enabling environment for EbA and support implementation of strategic partnerships.

Post Date: 08-Mar-2022