Deadline: 5-Feb-25

Following the launch of the Third Call for Proposals of the Climate Action Window at COP 29, eligible beneficiaries are invited to apply for grant funding under the Technical Assistance Sub-window.

Recognizing that climate change poses the single greatest threat to development in Africa and affects Africa’s low-income countries disproportionately, a dedicated Climate Action Window (CAW), which has a strong focus on accelerating adaptation action reducing warming, was created during the Sixteenth Replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF-16) for 371 least developed countries in Africa.

Resources channeled through the Technical assistance sub-window will aim at increasing the bankability of Paris-aligned climate projects to mobilize additional climate finance in ADF countries, preparing, and strengthening Long- Term Strategies (LTSs), Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), Climate Diagnostics for Country Strategy Papers by providing financings for project preparation, capacity development and the further development of Bank-recognized green financing initiatives, among other activities.

Focus Areas

• The Climate Action Window (CAW) will provide two levels of Technical Assistance support:
  • Projects Technical Assistance: aims to fulfill the objectives and criteria of the CAW adaptation and mitigation investments, focusing on project preparation to enhance access to climate finance in CAW Sectors.
  • Enabling Environment Technical Assistance: aims to build the capacity for designing projects aligned with the objectives of the CAW and to facilitate access to climate finance.

Priorities

• Paris alignment: Project investments must be both carbon neutral and climate resilient, and investments either invested via Paris aligned projects or into pipelines that are themselves carbon neutral and climate resilient.
• Gender, youth, and social inclusion: The gender gap in access to productive resources shapes climate change impacts on men and women and how they can respond.
• Biodiversity and nature-based solutions: The CAW will support projects that address nature based solutions and aim to restore mangroves and wetlands, allow water to be stored and purified in a natural way (green infrastructures), aquaculture, forestry, and biodiversity conservation.
• Enhancing climate governance and green public finance: CAW will finance projects that support activities aimed at strengthening governance systems for climate change.
• Skills and Capacity Building: CAW projects will support capacity building activities in the context of evolving climate challenges.
• Disaster Risk Management (DRM): Climate information services for DRM and climate risk financing is often underfunded in ADF countries, where limited resources are typically directed toward disaster recovery after extreme events rather than disaster prevention.

Funding Information

• For this Technical Assistance call, the Climate Action Window will allocate approximately USD 56 million during the ADF-16 cycle. TA grants will be a minimum amount of USD 260,000 and will not exceed USD 1,300,000 for approved activities. Funding allocation decisions will be made based on recommendations from the Independent Evaluation Panel.

Eligible Activities

• Grant resources from the CAW may be used to finance activities such as consultant or expert fees, project proposal development, trainings, workshops, consultations, participation in regional and international meetings, communications, outreach, advocacy. Operating costs and the provision of goods, such as IT equipment and software, photocopiers, IT infrastructure, and furniture, should not exceed 15% of the total grant amount. The costs of training activities and the remuneration of project staff using CAW Technical Assistance (TA) should not exceed 25% of the total grant amount.

Ineligible Activities

• CAW TA resources cannot be used for the purchase of vehicles or for the construction or renovation of buildings.

Eligible Countries

• Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé & Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Eligible Sectors

• The CFP on Technical Assistance is specifically seeking projects from these priority sectors:
  • Agriculture, food and nutrition, forestry, land use and fisheries;
  • Water Access and waste and wastewater management;
  • Energy access and renewable energy; Transport and infrastructure; Green and sustainable finance and
  • Building resilient and green infrastructure as well as climate information and early warning

Eligibility Criteria

• Governments and government entities of ADF countries.
• African Development Bank departments: Bank departments may submit proposals directly or may work with eligible external beneficiaries to support them in preparing high quality proposals.
• Regional or sub-regional intergovernmental bodies and other intergovernmental vehicles including climate centers, river basin organizations, economic communities.
• Non-sovereign entities (such as NGOs, Community Based Organizations and UN Agencies).
• Proposals from consortia are allowed if all members of the consortium are eligible beneficiaries.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Private sector entities are not eligible to apply.

For more information, visit African Development Bank Group.