Gone are the days when Namibia relied mostly on external and international experts to develop bankable project proposals.

With the accreditation of the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia (EIF) to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in 2016 and subsequent re-accreditation in October 2021, a new window of opportunity has opened for more entities seeking accreditation and access to climate change projects. As the National Designated Authority (NDA) for climate finance, the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) strives to strengthen the national capacity of coordinating the implementation of GCF funding in the country. Thus far the NDA has nominated four (4) entities for accreditation to the GCF: Bank Windhoek, Development Bank of Namibia (DBN), Agricultural Bank and Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF). The rationale for nominating the 4 entities is based on the fact that the Development Bank of Namibia once accredited would potentially access financing for larger climate change infrastructure investments such as renewable energy, resilient infrastructures, amongst other areas of developmental focus. Bank Windhoek would potentially access finance from the Private Sector Facility under the GCF for on-lending to private sector possibly similar to that of the SUNREF project that was administered through the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia that provided a line credit to the tune of €45 million to green finance, climate resilience and an improved self-sufficiency in terms of energy, through the banking system and for the private sector. The Agricultural Bank of Namibia would potentially access finance for on-lending in the agriculture sector; and the Namibia Nature Foundation, one of the oldest environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) in Namibia would take up access to finance in the ecosystem management and most importantly occupy the micro category should EIF upgrade to small category.

Despite the leadership of the country in being able to obtain international climate finance, and due to limited institutional and technical capacities prevailing in local institutions, nominated entities are unable to complete accreditation requirements as per GCF standards, and provide the needed services of accessing climate finance. In the long-term this will affect the scale at which Namibia can access climate finance and implement its NDC and contribute to the global goal on the 1.5°C temperature. As such the country needs to strengthen the competences, skills and procedures of the identified 4 entities, so that further projects can be developed and contribute towards the NDCs goals. It is against this background that the NDA has established a climate finance working group, whose key collective responsibility is to develop bankable project proposals in fulfilment of the NDC targets.

One of the key partners in this capacity building  program is the ‘Towards an Inclusive Design of the Renewable Energy Transition’ (TIDRET) project - an initiative lead by the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia (EIF) under the Climate Change and Inclusive Use of Natural Resources Project (CCIU-EU) of MEFT administered through the GIZ. As part of its key objectives, the project aims to facilitate the formulation of evidence based, gender sensitive NDC projects and business models for climate action (adaptation and mitigation) and subsequently facilitate stakeholder dialogues with private / public sector to support investment into climate action (adaptation and mitigation) at various platforms.

The IDRET project continues to provide technical support to the climate finance working group and convened a working session on the 28^th of March 2023 at the Avani Hotel. The project continues to provide capacity development support to not only those entities pursuing accreditation but also to those institutions that are actively pursuing climate finance resources, in fulfilment of the NDC targets. As such TIDRET has availed support funds to the tune of €10,000 to seven (7) institutions to finalize the their Concept Notes formulated during the Climate Finance Training Sessions to bankability and further catalyze the submission of such to a funding organization. With this commitment, from the TIDRET project there will be an increase in Namibia’s access to climate finance for achievement of its NDC ambition through, strengthening capacities of local institutions. The Ultimate goal of this support will be that the country will be developing context specific climate solutions for its citizens (By Namibia, For Namibia!).