Despite the efforts to develop policies and strategies to mitigate and adapt to the climate change, the two countries have encountered challenges in accessing the GCF including limited capacity of the NDA team to engage with the GCF, absence of a functional no-objection process, absence of a comprehensive programming strategy with the GCF, and a small network of accredited entities (AEs) operating in the countries. These have in turn resulted in a relatively limited portfolio of GCF readiness grants and funded activities.

Both countries have had a limited access to the readiness programme, with only one non-NAP grant approved for each country, one NAP grant approved for Madagascar and one NAP proposal in the pipeline for Djibouti. Out of the 7 projects/programmes approved by the GCF Board for Madagascar, only one is a single country project and all of the 5 programmes approved for Djibouti cover multiple countries.

Djibouti and Madagascar developed draft country programmes to guide GCF investments in February 2020 and July 2021, which would require further work to identify climate interventions that are supported by evidence- based assessments and feed them into each country’s pipeline of projects for the GCF-2.

The goal of this readiness grant is to organize 2-day workshops in Djibouti and Madagascar. Through stakeholder consultations, the proposed workshops will serve as the first step in preparing Djibouti and Madagascar’s climate investment planning process, building on the draft country programmes and will allow the GCF Secretariat to provide pipeline development support to the two countries for GCF-2, including through engagement with national DAE applicants/potential applications and regional DAEs with a mandate to operate in Djibouti and Madagascar.

While the workshops will be organised and facilitated by FAO, as the delivery partner, they will be supported by a GCF delegation, including the Division of Country Programming, the Division of Mitigation and Adaptation, the Division of Private Sector Facility and the Division of Portfolio Management.

The direct beneficiaries of the readiness support will be the NDA of Madagascar, the Focal point of Djibouti, relevant sectoral departments and units, technical committees involved in the planning of climate interventions, research institutes involved in climate change, private sector associations, civil society organizations and financial and technical partners.