The AADFI hosted a two-and-half-day virtual workshop on “Mainstreaming Climate Finance Actions in National DFIs”, from September 22 to 24, 2020. The program was facilitated by the Investment Climate Reform (ICR) Facility and also supported by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). It was conducted in English and attended by 25 participants from DFIs across African regions.

The objectives of the program were to:

• Scale-up awareness on Climate Finance Actions, opportunities therein, challenges, and the expected roles of national DFIs;
• Build synergies between national DFIs and their National Designated Authority (NDA) ;
• Discuss how national DFIs could achieve the conditions and modalities for accreditation to the Green Climate Fund (GCF);
• Discuss lessons on small and medium climate finance projects and funding opportunities for green projects; and
• Share experiences in promoting climate finance actions.

The opening session of the workshop witnessed remarks from the following personalities: Patricia Ojangole, AADFI First Vice-Chairperson and Managing Director of the Uganda Development Bank Ltd; Escion Oliveira, Ass. Secretary General, Organsiation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States(OACPS); and Christian Crivari, EC/DG for International Cooperation and Development, Private Sector and Trade.
The workshop covered the following Modules: Project development and the GCF; Financing instruments for bankable projects; GCF project proposal development; and DBSA climate finance experience – including practical lessons on the GCF accreditation process and developing GCF proposals.

The key outcomes from the webinar includes:

– The need for African national DFIs to play a catalytic role in mainstreaming Climate finance action and in creating awareness on Climate Finance Actions ;
– That the role of NDA is very critical and serves as a gateway to GCF Funding. As a result, national DFIs should work closely with their countries NDA;
– That AADFI not only needs to develop a clear road map on mainstreaming climate finance action for its members, as most of them lack the requisite awareness on its implementation; but also introduce a peer review mechanism to ensure that this was achieved;
– That blending sources of finance is helpful in prospecting funding from GCF for Climate Finance projects.

The Investment Climate Reform(ICR) Facility will also be supporting and facilitating the AADFI’s second virtual Regional program on “Mainstreaming Climate Finance Actions in National DFIs” to be organized in French for member DFIs within the French-speaking countries from October 13 to 15, 2020. For further information, please contact AADFI Secretariat at info@adfi-ci.org.