Deadline: 8-Mar-23

The United Nations Global Marketplace (UNGM) has announced the proposals for technical support to increase the overall transparency capacities in developing countries under the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT).

Objectives

• The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency was established in 2015 at the COP that adopted the Paris Agreement to support implementation of the Agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework. The Initiative works with over 40 developing countries ranging from large countries, like China, to small islands, such as Antigua & Barbuda.
• ICAT provides countries with tailored support and practical tools and methodologies to build robust transparency frameworks needed for effective climate action in sync with national development priorities. The projects ICAT supports relate to: building or enhancing transparency frameworks for mitigation; building a monitoring and evaluation approach for adaptation; building or enhancing frameworks to track progress made in implementing and achieving nationally determined contributions; assessing the impacts of climate policies; estimating or enhancing projections of greenhouse gas; integrating and/or aggregating impact assessment of climate actions at the subnational level and for non-State actors; building a tracking system for a just transition processes; establishing or enhancing a climate data system; and putting in place a framework to track climate finance.
• To provide international expert advice and support, i.e. technical support, training and capacity building, to developing countries for their transparency efforts related to climate actions and policies based on country priorities and needs with the aim of equipping countries with capacity to effectively assess the impacts of their climate policies and actions and fulfil their transparency commitments under international frameworks, in particular the ETF.
• Specific objectives
  • To strengthen skills and awareness among the respective government agencies staff (e.g. Ministry of Environment) related to transparency work in order to build and further develop the frameworks and apply a set of tools and methodologies needed to undertake effective assessment of the GHG impacts of climate change policies and actions, along with their sustainable development outcomes and transformational change potential;
  • To provide technical support to countries to develop/enhance domestic MRV/transparency systems, track NDC implementation and further develop NDCs; to assess the impact of other national climate change policies and actions; track sustainable development impacts and just transition processes; assess the transformational change potential, track climate finance and monitor and evaluate adaptation actions. This shall build upon and complement previous and on-going efforts in country, capacity-building activities related to the enhancement of institutional arrangements, and the collection of information for GHG accounting/inventories or the assessment of policies and actions;
  • To provide technical support to the countries in the application of ICAT methodologies, guides, modelling frameworks, data systems, metrics and other tools in the ICAT toolbox.
  • To provide technical support to use transparency to develop/enhance domestic climate finance MRV/transparency systems to mobilize finance from public and private sources, identifying linkages with existing and emerging funding mechanisms and facilitating the establishment of public-private partnerships with the aim of ensuring more effective and transformational policy design and result in greater sustainable development benefits;
  • Contribute to a growing community of practice around climate action transparency and foster learnings from the engagement with countries and regions to advance ICAT’s capability to support countries in their transparency efforts and support transformational change in line with global climate objectives;
  • Encourage and foster peer-to-peer engagement among country experts bilaterally or at larger events organized by ICAT or others.

Areas

• ICAT concentrates its efforts in four areas:
  • Direct country support;
  • Regional Climate Action Transparency Hubs;
  • The ICAT Toolbox; and
  • Knowledge sharing.
• In line with ICAT’s mandate, all activities, including country support, aim to be line with the following characteristics:
  • Policy focus, aimed at enabling transformational change;
  • Agility in responding to country needs, anchored in sustainable development assessments;
  • Flexibility to innovate and create replicable approaches;
  • Sound methodologies and tools; and
  • Peer-to-peer collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Funding Information

• Proponents shall also provide an indicative maximum budget for their technical support (within the available budget of USD 108,00 per country project module) for implementation of one country project module. Furthermore they should indicate any economies of scale in case the multiple country projects are awarded.
• Project duration: The implementing partner is expected to start activities in May 2023 for a period of 31 months, ending in December 2025. Individual country work plans are expected to be 12-18 months, but projects may be launched on a staggered basis under one grant agreement.

Target beneficiaries 

Various stakeholders at national and sub-national level in the ICAT partner countries. These are mainly ministries/agencies responsible for reporting to UNFCCC.

Eligibility Criteria

The following categories of applicants are eligible to apply under this Call for Proposals:

• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
• Foundations
• Civil society organizations (CSO)
• Grass-roots organizations
• Institutions or federations
• Academic and research institutions
• For-profit entities
• Non-UN intergovernmental organization
• UN system organization

For more information, visit UNGM.