E Co bites: What are the biggest challenges in obtaining funding?
17 September 2020, Category: All insights, E Co. bites, News
Watch our bite-sized and easily digestible video series, sharing our insights and experiences of designing low-carbon, climate-resilient development projects, across the globe. We discuss the who, where, what, why and hows behind successfully obtaining funding from major donors, including the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Transcript
Speaker: Dr Jasmine Hyman
Question: What are the biggest challenges in obtaining funding?
This is a tough question! There are a lot of challenges and they vary depending on the country, the project sponsor (or accredited entity) involved and the project strategy in question. Generally speaking though, challenges may include trouble aligning project sponsor’s goals and local needs with the requirements of the funding source. Another common issue is securing co-financing, which for the Green Climate fund has to be new and additional. Adaptation projects face this problem quite frequently as they often aren’t a funding priority and sometimes aren’t revenue generating.
In one of the adaptation projects we are currently working on, we are facing the challenge of identifying and securing co-finance. The government is not prioritizing the project sufficiently to allocate scarce resources and besides such decisions on allocation of public funds are slow and complex. This could be a deal-breaker but there are almost always avenues to follow: can the project design be adjusted to make it easier to fund? Will further engagement and dialogue with the government help? Are there other cofinancing sources: from private investors, bilateral or multilateral funds? To deal with issues like this, you have to have a Plan B. And a Plan C!
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