Funding brief: The GEF seeks proposals for a $10 million Challenge Program for Adaptation Innovation to harness the potential of the private sector actors. The Challenge Program aims to contribute to the global goal on adaptation for the Paris Agreement, by supporting initiatives to increase resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change and variability in vulnerable developing countries, and by supporting efforts to build adaptive capacity. See attached document for more details.
The Challenge Program for Adaptation Innovation seeks to identify, test and highlight innovative adaptation approaches with potential to be replicated and scaled up through cooperation with institutional investors, bilateral or multilateral providers of climate finance, and other sources. By focusing on continuous innovation and learning with regard to private adaptation solutions, the Challenge Program aims to demonstrate potentially scalable, bankable or otherwise fundable investment approaches, business models, partnerships and technologies.
The Challenge Program aims to promote innovation in adaptation technologies and techniques by supporting sustainable innovation ecosystems for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), thereby creating private sector opportunities to reduce climate change vulnerabilities. Fostering innovation and entrepreneurship environments for technologies in the resilience space will allow developing countries to build more sustainable and resilient economies. The Challenge Program can support entrepreneurship development, incubators, seed funding, venture capital and other potentially impactful approaches.
Criteria
The pre-selection process aims at identifying and prioritizing suitable projects and programs for admission in the formal project cycle, so that the number and size of the proposals entering the formal cycle matches the funds that are available.
Pre-selection aims to ensure that the following criteria are taken into consideration:
(a) Project/program quality;
(b) Equitable distribution among eligible countries and regions;
(c) Degree of innovation;
(d) Potential to catalyze private sector for climate change adaptation at scale; and
(e) Support for priority sectors and themes.
All sectors and themes are eligible under the Challenge Program, while an emphasis is placed on select priority themes as follows:
(a) Entrepreneurship development in the adaptation and climate resilience space;
(b) Promoting local private sector actors, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, which are critical for resilient economies and communities in developing countries, providing services and access to hard-to-reach populations;
(c) Strategic multi-stakeholder partnerships, alliances, and incubators as catalyzers of larger scale financing and market developers;
(d) Initiatives that address climate security;
(e) Resilience technology transfer including for weather analytics and monitoring, catastrophe and climate risk modeling, climate insurance, efficient irrigation and drinking water supply systems;
(f) Resilient food storage, distribution and supply chains for agricultural and commodity supply chains, and enhancing resilience of small land-holders;
(g) Innovative business models and investment approaches, seed funding and venture capital approaches to improve access to finance for private sector solutions to climate change, including facilities or structures that support sustainable project pipeline development, aggregation or linkages to bond and other capital markets; and
(h) Enhancing gender-responsiveness in private sector climate change adaptation by supporting ownership and active participation of female stakeholders and gender-specific adaptation strategies.
Donor Name: Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Funding name: $10 million Challenge Program
Deadline:
● Deadline for concept notes to be received by the GEF Secretariat: 1st, September, 2019
● Deadline for submission through the GEF Portal of finalized project proposals to the GEF Secretariat by the GEF Agency on behalf of the proponent: October, 18th, 2019.
Funding details link: Click to view
Funding limit: The GEF seeks proposals for a US$10 million Challenge Program for Adaptation Innovation to harness the potential of the private sector actors. Concept notes should request no more than US$2 million from the LDCF or SCCF. The minimum amount of funding per submission is US$500,000.
Special Notes: Please contact with the donor directly for further clarification and understanding.
Project start date: Not Found
Project duration: Not Found
Eligible organization: As below
Eligibility: The initial envelope of US$10 million for the Challenge Program includes US$5 million from the SCCF and US$5 million from the LDCF. All developing countries are eligible to benefit from SCCF funding under the Challenge Program, while only LDCs are eligible for Challenge Program resources that are drawn from the LDCF global/regional set-aside. Resources come from the global/regional set aside under the LDCF, and the SCCF.
For the submission of proposals that do not address Climate Change Adaptation under the LDCF and SCCF, please refer to the GEF-7 Non-Grant Instrument Program for GEF Trust Fund focal areas.
Eligible Country: No Country Bar Found (Open to all regions)
Submission mail: ChallengeProgram@thegef.org
Other important link:
● Guideline: Click to view
● About: Click to view
How to apply: Interested applicant may submissions for concept notes to the GEF Secretariat by email at <ChallengeProgram@thegef.org>.
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