Why the Green Climate Fund’s simplified approvals aren't that simple

The Green Climate Fund has long been criticized for how difficult it is for low-income countries to access funding. The world’s biggest climate fund, set up in 2010 to finance adaptation and mitigation projects, has repeatedly come under fire for its application process, with critics complaining that it delays the disbursement of much-needed money for communities dealing with the impacts of climate change. In 2017, GCF introduced the Simplified Approval Process, or SAP, to make it easier for organizations to access funding for projects with significant climate impact potential. According to GCF’s website, “SAP vastly simplifies the process and documentation” required to apply for funding. However, several NGOs that have received funding through SAP told Devex the process was neither fast nor simple. GCF’s own Independent Evaluation Unit found that SAP has done little to reduce either the procedural burden or the time frame for projects. The criticism comes a week after the United Nations Environment Programme’s yearly “Adaptation Gap Report” revealed that the adaptation finance needs in low-income countries is at least 50% bigger than previously thought. Needs on the ground are increasing, while public adaptation finance flows declined by 15% in 2021, making it ever more urgent for SAP to live up to its promise. The Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation, a Bangladeshi NGO working to eradicate poverty in rural communities, has gone through both the standard proposal approval process and SAP. “I did not find any significant difference,” Fazle Rabbi Sadeque Ahmed, the project coordinator for an SAP project on drought resilience, told Devex, adding that the foundation began its application in September 2019, and the project was only approved almost four years later, in July 2023. “They follow the same rules, same time [frame],” he said. The long road to approval In a statement to Devex, a GCF spokesperson said that what’s different about SAP isn’t the application process, which is similar to the standard one. Instead, NGOs are asked for “a reduced number of documents, in simpler formats and with fewer information requirements,” the spokesperson said. While the funding proposal for the standard process requires 14 mandatory annexes, plus eight others as applicable, an SAP project requires organizations to submit a concept note, a funding proposal, and 12 mandatory annexes — some of which are also simplified. In the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation’s case, Ahmed said it took one year to clear the concept note and another year to receive feedback and “fine-tune” it based on GCF’s comments. The fund offers technical assistance, but the organizations Devex spoke to said that the assistance, too, takes time. “They say a few weeks, [but it] takes one year to get support from the technical staff,” said Ahmed. He added that the process is prolonged further if a technical officer goes on leave or quits. Once the concept and the required technical information are cleared, it can take between six and 12 months for GCF to approve a project — depending on the interest and dedication of the assigned task officer, according to Ahmed. “That person and their intention is very important,” he said, adding that he thought SAP “should take maximum two years from submission to approval.” A GCF spokesperson said the fund’s target is to review 70% of all funding proposals received through the SAP process within 30 days, and that they’re currently at 67%. The spokesperson also stated that GCF is committed to enhancing access and fast-tracking more project approvals, and has taken new steps to simplify the application process. In 2022, GCF had further reduced the preparation requirements for SAP, although the spokesperson said “the full impact of these measures already taken is expected by the end of 2024.” However, the GCF Board Member for Small Island Developing States at the time said the reforms did not go deep enough. Requested: Data that doesn’t exist Other small NGOs such as the Micronesia Conservation Trust, which supports biodiversity conservation, struggle to find the time to develop the concept note and address feedback from GCF’s technical staff. “The concept note itself is basically a full proposal,” Deputy Executive Director Lisa Andon told Devex. The trust lacked the capacity to write the application for their SAP project on food security and had to work with two external consultants to find and incorporate some of the technical information requested, including data on island-specific sea level rise — which doesn’t exist, explained Andon. Khaoula Jaoui, who coordinates the climate department at the Sahara and Sahel Observatory, a regional intergovernmental organization fighting desertification, echoed Andon’s view, telling Devex that the main challenge is “the requirement for very detailed, accurate, and actual data.” In their application for an SAP project on adaptation of agricultural systems in Guinea-Bissau, GCF asked the observatory to provide detailed data that didn’t exist, she said. “You can maybe find proofs on the ground, but those proofs are not reported in any document or official report,” she said. “These are small regions, it’s not even the capital. People don't even have access to water for drinking. So what about climate data?” The only data they could find was bad quality and scattered. Instead, the observatory addressed the data gaps by gathering narrative text and testimonies to help inform the project’s climate rationale. The observatory also experienced frustrations with the review process, which reached 100 comments and eight versions of the concept note. Sometimes, Jaoui said the task manager changed and the new person added comments that had already been addressed. They started working on the Guinea-Bissau proposal in 2019. “It took four years,” Jaoui said. “Until now, the money is not in the account yet,” She added that the small amount — $9.8 million — was “not really worth it for four years of efforts.” Another time-consuming issue flagged by the organizations Devex spoke to was GCF’s lack of context-specific knowledge. For the Micronesia Conservation Trust’s SAP food security project, GCF provided a technical expert on agriculture whose experience was in Africa. “We were talking about climate stuff in Micronesia, and he was so insistent that he has all the answers, but they’re totally inappropriate,” said Andon. The Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation experienced similar difficulties in discussing adaptation measures in Bangladesh. “It is so difficult to make them understand the country context, because adaptation is different from country to country, and even region to region,” Ahmed said. ‘They will not trust you’ Four years of waiting can also mean climate impacts have significantly changed by the time a project starts, potentially leaving some adaptation measures outdated. “The flood levels now are completely different to five years ago, 10 years [ago],” Ahmed said. “Adaptation science or predictions and future scenarios are changing very quickly.” The long approval process is also damaging the trust between the organizations applying for GCF funding and the communities the projects are meant to benefit. “Based on the requirements of the GCF, we are meant to have consultation with communities,” Jaoui said. “But when you go to the field and you talk to people, you can’t then take four years to come back. … They will not trust you.” Inflation is also impacting how much organizations can do with the funding they applied for years before. “What we can achieve five years ago with 10 million, you can’t achieve it anymore,” Jaoui said. She said it’s hard to address the problems facing communities during climate hazards when it takes years for a project to kick off. “I mean, people will die and plants will grow in the cemetery, and still, the project has not yet been approved,” she said. “So either they [GCF] think differently about their approaches, or this will never work.” Update, Nov. 27, 2023: This article has been updated to clarify that the Sahara and Sahel Observatory is an intergovernmental organization.