The document discusses the Green Climate Fund's (GCF) support for National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) in developing countries. Key points: - The Paris Agreement requested the GCF to expedite its support for NAP formulation and implementation in least developed countries and other developing nations. - The GCF Board decided to approve up to $3 million per country through its Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme for NAP formulation. This is in addition to the original $1 million annual cap per country. - The additional funding will help countries access resources to formulate NAPs while also implementing other readiness activities. However, more funding will still be needed to support all country needs.

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Talking Points on GCF’s Support for NAPs
NAP Expo, July 12 2016
In order to formulate and implement our NAPs, financial resources must be made
available for developing countries especially for those that need it most i.e. LDCs.
The Paris Agreement has recognized this and requested the Green Climate Fund to
expedite its support to LDCs and other developing countries for the formulation
and implementation of NAPs.
Even prior to the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the Governing Instrument of the
GCF states that the Fund can support developing countries in their climate change
strategies and plans including NAPs (para 36).
Furthermore, it states that the Fund will provide resources for readiness and
preparatory activities, including for national adaptation plans (para 40).
As reflected in the Governing Instrument of the GCF and further decisions taken by
the Board (decision B.08/11, October 2014), NAPs could be supported under the
Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme with a cap of $1 million per
country per year.
In responding to the request to expedite its support to the formulation and
implementation of the Paris Agreement, we at the Board during our last meeting
(B.13, June 2016) took a decision on this matter (decision B.13/04).
The Board decided for the Executive Director of the GCF to approve up to $3
million per country through the Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme
for the formulation of NAPs and/or other adaptation planning processes.
Furthermore, it was decided that support for the formulation of NAPs and/or
other national adaptation planning processes will be a separate activity area of the
Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme.
It is important to note here that support for NAPs is additional to the $1 million
cap per country per year under the Readiness and Preparatory Support
Programmes.
This decision must be welcomed for the reason that an additional up to $3 million
per country is allocated for formulation of NAPs. This allows us to access this
resource for the formulation of our NAPs while at the same time implementing
other activity areas of the Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme.
Moreover, giving the decision making power to the Executive Director would
expedite and simplify the application and approval process since the
requirement and time required is much less than the project approval process.

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However an expedited support can only be achieved if the disbursement of
readiness support is accelerated which is a work underway by the Secretariat.
Other important part of the NAP decision that is worth mentioning is that accredited
entities can submit programmatic approaches for the formulation of multi-
country NAPs and/or adaptation planning processes under the project approval
process.
With this new allocation of up to $3 million per country for the formulation of NAPs,
additional resources for the Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme
will be needed as the Programme was initially allocated with only $15 million.
Hence it is important to acknowledge that what is available is not sufficient to
support formulation of our NAPs and support for other readiness and
preparatory activities.
Additionally, it is important to highlight that this decision is the first step as it only
addresses support for formulation of NAPs with much work required to ensure
sufficient resources are made available for developing countries to move beyond
planning and start implementing their own plans. Implementation of NAPs
should then be independent from Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme.
What should we be doing?
Now that the GCF has clearly laid out its plan to expedite its support for the
formulation of NAPs, we should be proactive in undertaking the necessary steps
required to access this resource.
Today we should benefit from having with us representative/s from the GCF
Secretariat to understand the steps that a potential recipient country would
have to take to access support for NAP formulation. It will also be useful to talk to
each other to share experiences on our national processes in formulating NAPs.
Based on the experiences acquired from requesting Readiness and Preparatory
Support, we should give feedback to the GCF Secretariat that could be taken on
board in the revision of the existing application templates and processes.
Mainly we should also be doing our home works and take the appropriate
actions starting from working closely with readiness delivery partners and
accredited entities to submit applications.
Last but not least, we should regularly inform our representatives in the
Adaptation Committee and the LEG Expert Group on how they could engage with
the GCF Secretariat to improve access to financial support for the process to
formulate and implement national adaptation plans as stated in decision
B.13/04.