The ECOWAS Commission has lamented the inability of the member countries of the Economic Community of West African States to access funds to tackle climate change.
Vanguard reports that the regional body noted that the ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement by the ECOWAS member states in 2015 marked an important turning point in the process of combating climate change.
Speaking at the opening of a four-day training for national experts in the development of climate projects to access Green Climate Funds in Abuja on Tuesday, the Director, Environment and Natural Resources, ECOWAS, Dr Johnson Boanuh, said despite the existence of several funds, difficulties in accessing these funds remained a real challenge for ECOWAS member countries.
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To assist the countries to overcome these challenges, he explained that the ECOWAS Commission has since 2015 initiated several capacity building programmes for Designated National Authorities on procedures for accessing funds, in particular, the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund.
Boanuh disclosed that since 2018, a new approach had been initiated and conducted that links the training of experts at the national level on the formulation of projects to meet the criteria of the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund.
“Today’s workshop marks another step in a series of training for the 15 ECOWAS countries to allow each of them to have a pool of experts who can support the Designated National Authority in the coordination of projects and programmes development with the various development actors aimed at mobilizing resources from existing climate funds.”
The acting Director, Department of Climate Change, Federal Ministry of Environment, Mrs Halima Bawa-Bwari, said the training was timely because it would build the capacities of the participants in the area of project formulation and development.
