Global EbA Fund to support Catalytic Climate Change Adaptation Initiatives

 Deadline Date: April 21, 2024

 Donor Name: Global EbA Fund

 Grant Size: $100,000 to $500,000

Implemented by IUCN and UNEP with funding from the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), the Global EbA Fund is a catalytic funding mechanism for supporting innovative approaches to EbA to create enabling environment for its mainstreaming and scaling up.

By supporting catalytic climate change adaptation initiatives, the Fund will help overcome barriers to upscaling EbA, address knowledge gaps, pilot innovative EbA approaches, engage in strategic EbA policy mainstreaming, and incentivise innovative finance mechanisms and private sector EbA investment.

Objectives

• Strategic Objectives of the Fund have been defined as follows:
  • Strategic Objective 1: To build awareness and understanding of the critical role of natural assets in underpinning resilience, expand the knowledge and evidence base to help make the case for working with people and nature, and enhance institutional capacities for mainstreaming EbA into national plans and policy frameworks and vertical integration and alignment of EbA across sectors.
  • Strategic Objective 2: To address planning and other governance gaps in policy and regulatory environments to increase the attractiveness and feasibility of using and upscaling ecosystem-based approaches for climate change adaptation.
  • Strategic Objective 3: To expand access to sustainable short- and long-term finance mechanisms for applying and scaling up ecosystem-based approaches for climate change adaptation, including the incentivisation of private sector investment in EbA and reducing EbA’s dependence on high management capacity and continuous financial input.

Pillars

• Pillar 1: Levers for catalytic change:
  • A catalytic intervention is defined as “a targeted intervention that leads to a transformative shift at a systemic level at either global, regional, national, or sub-national scale”.
  • Lever for change is defined as “an area of work that has the potential to deliver wide-ranging positive change beyond its immediate focus”
  • Examples of levers for catalytic change that projects could focus on include but are not limited to:
    • Policy and policy instruments:
      • support the inclusion and/or mainstreaming of EbA into national, subnational and sectoral policies, as well as NDCs, NAPs4 and related policy frameworks;
      • support the establishment of green public procurement practices to include EbA.
    • Education, capacity building and skills development:
      • inclusion of EbA into the curricula of formal, informal education, technical and vocational education and training, as well as lifelong-learning/capacity building activities targeting groups of practitioners that are directly involved in shaping policy and practice, such as architects, engineers, public servants, city planners, agriculturists, etc.
    • Financing:  
      • de-risking lending for EbA approaches
      • innovative finance mechanisms for EbA (e.g. community incentive schemes, green, blue and resilience bonds for EbA).
    • Working through the value chain perspective of a sector or commodity to identify hotspots and entry points for change to ensure the adoption of EbA, diversify business models and incentivise private sector collaboration. Some examples of working through the value chain perspective and shifting business models:
      • food processing company that changes its business model to collaborate with and/or support producers who adopt ecosystem-sensitive practices;
      • a tourism destination that adopts ecosystem-sensitive practices as a result of project activities.
• Pillar 2: Functional Data and Science
  • This involves taking a data or science-driven approach to promote EbA action. It may involve extracting information and insights from data to make a case for mainstreaming EbA and to inform decision making.
  • Some examples of projects include, but are not limited to:
    • climate risk and vulnerability assessments, including considerations on One Health;
    • future scenario modelling;
    • cost-benefit and multi-criteria analysis and making an economic case for EbA;
    • job generation potential;
    • improvements to monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks.
• Pillar 3: Innovation for Adaptation
  • Innovative projects on EbA are the ones that are yet to be proven, are at the initial stages of development, or are yet to be tested in a different context and can take the shape of an approach, a process, a practical tool or an application. It is based on horizontal and collaborative working practices that consider a diverse range of views and the context in which the innovation is taking place.
  • As an example, projects under this pillar could focus on developing unconventional partnerships; support the integration of EbA in novel sectors; develop an innovative tool for EbA implementation; Strategic pilot or demonstration actions, specifically where the Fund identifies high potential for up-scaling through multilateral funds (e.g. GCF) and other adaptation finance options; etc.

Funding Information

• Catalyse impact with a Global EbA Fund contribution of USD 50,000 to USD 250,000 and are either global, thematic, or targeted to one or more countries which are eligible for official development assistance (ODA).
• The Fund encourages project durations of 24 months but this duration could be extended up to 36 months in exceptional circumstances. If the proposed project is for
• longer than 24 months, clear justification needs to be provided.

What they fund?

• The Global EbA Fund supports projects that:
  • Contribute to an enabling environment for the implementation of ecosystembased adaptation to climate change and ultimately aligns with the Friends of EBA EbA Qualification Criteria & Quality Standards.
  • Result in catalytic impact and/or are innovative, such as by piloting innovative approaches for EbA, removing barriers from upscaling EbA interventions at the policy or landscape levels, strategic and focused EbA policy mainstreaming, supporting innovative finance mechanisms for EbA, incentivising private sector investment in EbA, and supporting unlikely matches between partners; shifting business models.
  • Add value to or upscale existing work. Projects should fill a gap in existing work, address a knowledge gap, contribute to policy upscaling, enhance the impact of an investment in EbA, and/or serve to develop a larger proposal to another funding mechanism. Projects should leverage existing knowledge, standards, partnerships, experiences, and best practices or filling gaps therein to facilitate the creation of enabling environment for increased uptake and/or impact of EbA.
  • Prioritise project sustainability and financial continuity. The project should have a clear plan for how results will be maintained and developed past the end of the funding period. This should include environmental, infrastructural, institutional, social and financial sustainability considerations as applicable.

Eligibility Criteria

• The Global EbA Fund seeks to catalyse new partnerships and collaborations and unlikely matches between new and non-traditional partners.
• The Fund seeks to reach out beyond traditional conservation actors and constituencies to attract all actors and constituencies relevant to EbA and climate change adaptation.
• The Fund seeks diverse applicants with relevant experience and local partnerships and presence, and who support addressing specific gaps in technical knowledge and understanding among government actors.
• The Fund will consider private sector applicants under certain conditions. No funding can be provided for sector-specific obligations nor compensatory or replacement measures, for-profit activities, etc. Overall, common public interest will be a top priority. While not required, co-financing from the applicant would demonstrate an institutional investment in the project.
• Categories of eligible recipients are:
  • Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
  • International non-governmental organisations (INGOs)
  • Intergovernmental organisations (IGOs)
  • Community-based organisations (CBOs)
  • Indigenous People’s Organisations
  • Universities and other academic institutions
  • Research institutes and think tanks
  • Private sector companies
  • Consortia of organisations that promote collaboration and greater impact around EbA. Government entities can be a part of the consortia as long as they do not receive funding from the Global EbA Fund. However, there should be a clearly defined lead agency, the “Applicant Organisation”, as detailed in the application template. This organisation, if successful, would be the responsible contract party.
• Applications from and partnerships with local/community organisations are strongly encouraged.
• UNEP and IUCN global, regional or country offices are not currently eligible to apply for funding from the Global EbA Fund, but are encouraged to collaborate with potential applicants in support of knowledge transfer on EbA.
• In line with current IKI policies, the Fund will not grant directly to government partners. Sub-granting to governments at any level is also not permitted. However, collaboration with national, sub-national and local governments is encouraged with the aim to create an enabling environment for EbA and support the establishment of strategic partnerships.

For more information, visit Global EbA Fund.