SOLOMON ISLANDS CLIMATE FINANCE STEERING COMMITTEE AGREES ON KEY PROCESSES TO ACCESS GCF FUNDS AND OTHER MULTILATERAL ENVIRONMENT FUNDS
The Climate Finance Steering Committee (CFSC) tasked to strengthen high-level coordination and decision-making on climate finance in Solomon Islands in accordance with national priorities and act as the national advisory mechanism for Green Climate Fund (GCF) and other Multilateral Environment Funds held its first meeting on 14th February 2023 in Honiara.
The Committee was established by Cabinet and it consists of the Permanent Secretaries for the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, and the Ministry of Finance and Treasury (MoFT) as Co-Chairs. The other members are the Permanent Secretaries for the Ministry of National Planning, Development Coordination, and for Ministry Foreign Affairs and External Trade, and the Governor of the Central Bank.
At the meeting, several key issues were presented and adopted. These includes the extension of the terms of reference of CFSC to included other multilateral funds such as the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF), Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) and Adaptation Fund (AF) and Others. The committee also endorsed the GCF Country programme for Solomon Islands, which summarises the priority projects and project ideas for the GCF.
The CFSC also endorsed a No Objection Letter (NOL) Procedure for the vetting of project concepts and ideas before they are presented to the CFSC for its decision. This NOL will also be applied to other financial mechanisms such as the GEF Trust Fund, LDCF, SCCF, and AF. CFSC was also introduced to the appraisal and prioritization process using the multi-criteria analysis decision making tool before the issuance of a NOL to applicants ‘proposal.
The CFSC also took a decision to approve the GEF-8 STAR allocation of $US13.33 million for the Solomon Islands for programming according to priority areas identified by an SIG technical team based on national priorities.
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