Vulnerability and Adaptation: Finance

Our work focuses on building the capacity of national governments to manage and channel scarce funds to those who need them most – and on building the capacity of civil society organizations to hold governments accountable for this spending. We also explore how to improve the ability of governments to mobilize domestic funding sources, and use innovative financial instruments to support adaptation initiatives.

Project: Adaptation Finance Accountability Initiative

Climate finance for developing countries to adapt to climate change and strengthen climate resilience has increased in recent years in the form of both international commitments and domestic spending. But there are significant questions about the implementation of these funds:

• How much adaptation finance is actually available within developing countries?
• How is it being directed and used and by whom?
• Is it reaching the local level? Are the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable being met and do they have a say in how the finance is used?

To address these essential issues, Oxfam, the Overseas Development Institute, and the World Resources Institute – together with civil society groups in developing countries – are launching the Adaptation Finance Accountability Initiative. The initiative’s purpose is to examine how climate adaptation and resilience finance is delivered at the local level, pilot new tracking and monitoring tools to improve finance transparency, and press for strengthened accountability for adaptation and resilience finance.

Building on ongoing work at national, regional and global levels to monitor and strengthen accountability for adaptation finance, the initiative will initially focus on Nepal, the Philippines, Uganda, and Zambia in collaboration with civil society groups there. We will also work collaboratively at the regional and global level to share civil society lessons of adaptation finance monitoring and advocate for increased transparency and accountability, including with international institutions and donors.

Together we will:

• Develop tools to enable civil society and other stakeholders to track and monitor adaptation finance flows from a multitude of sources down to the local level.
• Identify institutional constraints to the effective delivery of climate finance to poor and vulnerable groups, and opportunities to empower local civil society to overcome these constraints.
• Support national and local civil society capacity to advocate for improved transparency, coherence and alignment of climate finance, and increased accountability to citizens for the use of this finance.
• Develop opportunities for South to South learning by enabling civil society groups across a number of Asian and African countries to share insights, exchange experiences, and jointly develop advocacy strategies.
• Distill lessons from piloting monitoring tools and advocacy to improve transparency and accountability in climate finance delivery
• Influence global efforts to mobilize and manage climate finance, including the oversight under the UNFCCC, the operationalization of the Green Climate Fund, and bilateral institutions delivering climate finance.