Enhancing Direct Access
A dedicated access window to channel climate financing to homegrown organisations in developing countries.
The Enhancing Direct Access (EDA) pilot channels climate financing to homegrown organisations in developing countries. USD 200 million have been approved for this pilot programme.
The objective of this pilot is to enhance country ownership of projects and programmes through a dedicated access window for GCF’s Direct Access Entities (DAEs). The EDA pilot is characterised by an enhanced devolution of decision making whereby both funding decisions and project oversight take place at the national or regional level. This can be achieved by, for example, establishing a dedicated facility to fund small-scale community projects.
The EDA pilot has been designed to provide DAEs with opportunities to move beyond the financing of individual projects towards a more comprehensive and stakeholder-driven programmatic approach. The EDA pilot differs from other GCF access windows because individual sub-projects neither have to be presented in the funding proposal nor subsequently submitted to GCF for approval. Instead, the decision-making mechanism for such sub-projects is devolved at the country level through preapproved selection criteria. The composition of decision-making body as well as other features of the EDA pilot should be captured in the funding proposal. Furthermore, the EDA pilot provides flexibility to accommodate a broad range of country conditions and circumstances while the AE maintains the oversight mechanism to ensure effective delivery of funding.
Key advantages of EDA include:
- Enhanced level of country ownership;
- More effective use of financial resources;
- Stronger involvement of local organisations and other stakeholders; and
- Flexible and context-specific approach.
More information can be found in the guidelines below
Eligibility
Eligible activities
EDA pilot proposals can include both adaptation and mitigation activities, under one or more of GCF’s result areas.
EDA pilot proposals should directly support communities or small and medium-enterprises (SMEs) through, for example, small grants or extended lines of credit.
Activities should target local actors, addressing gender aspects and the needs of vulnerable communities.
Eligible entities
Accredited DAEs can submit funding proposals under the EDA pilot. DAEs that are not yet accredited can submit an EDA concept note. However, they should be accredited before the GCF Board considers their funding proposal. The EDA pilot structure allows the grant-awarding and on-lending of funds to a subset of sub-national organisations, small communities and grassroot organisations. Therefore, only DAEs accredited for the grant-award function or other allocation mechanisms, such as on-lending and/or blending functions, are eligible to apply for the EDA pilot.
Nine funding proposals have been approved to date amounting to approximately USD 175 million, with several others in the pipeline. We encourage DAEs to submit more concept notes and funding proposals to the pilot programme.
-
Nº of projects 9
-
Amount allocated to projects in USD 175 million
