19 November 2020, Skopje – Today the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia represented by the Cabinet of the Deputy President of the Government in charge of Economic Affairs as the National Designated Authority (NDA) for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) launched an Open call for all public institutions , private companies and civil society organizations in the country interested to be accredited for directly accessing and implementing GCF-funded projects to meet the national climate action priorities.

The Call is launched in the frames of the country’s second project under the GCF Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme, implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) under the leadership of the NDA, and particularly the project component focused on facilitating direct access to climate finance.

The aim is to support the country to access GCF financial resources through national entities, so called Direct Access Entities, meaning that climate finance can be channelled directly to the country without the intermediation of international partners. This will support the country to exercise ownership of climate change funding and better integrate it with its national climate action plans. Direct Access Entities can be national, regional and local level entities (ministries, government agencies, climate funds, commercial banks, private companies, civil society organizations and other legal entities) assessed against their capacities as eligible to develop, implement and/or monitor GCF projects/programmes in line with the country’s priorities for engagement with the GCF.

As a GCF accredited entity with diverse knowledge and experience worldwide, FAO will support the Government and national stakeholders to strengthen their capacities regarding the GCF accreditation process, by facilitating the identification of potential Direct Access Entities and providing tailored support to one entity to be prioritized to initiate the GCF accreditation process. 

The overall prioritization and selection of the most eligible Direct Access Entity is being conducted in  several stages, including awareness raising among national stakeholders about the GCF accreditation process, as a first step, and secondly, a rapid assessment of the potential GCF Direct Access Entities that should result in one entity moving forward in the process as the potential DAE for the Republic of North Macedonia. As a third step, the prioritized entity will undergo a detailed institutional gap analysis and a Roadmap for GCF accreditation will be developed. Finally, the Direct Access Entity will receive the necessary support in completing and submitting the documents needed for successful GCF accreditation. The final decision on which entities are prioritized and receive the nomination letter to initiate the GCF accreditation process is taken exclusively by North Macedonia’s National Designated Authority for the GCF.

As part of the second stage of this process, the Cabinet of the  Deputy President of the Government in charge of Economic Affairs and FAO are convening today in a virtual workshop more than 50 representatives of key government institutions, ministries, the private sector, civil society, academia, and development partners  to provide detailed information on the concrete steps that interested entities need to follow to participate in the country’s prioritization process for potential GCF Direct Access Entities. Participants were informed about the so called Rapid Assessment of potential national Direct Access Entities, and the application forms they need to submit in order to participate in the Call.

All public, private legal entities and CSOs from North Macedonia interested to participate in the accreditation prioritization process, need to submit their application forms latest by 21 December 2020. All information about the Open Call, the conditions to apply and the overall process to prioritize and select the potential Direct Access Entities in the Republic of North Macedonia, is available on the webpage of North Macedonia and the Green Climate Fund: www.greendevelopment.mk/en/OpenCall.aspx

LINKS

Open Call for Applications of Potential Green Climate Fund Direct Access Entities

Second Accreditation webinar on Direct Access to Climate Finance

North Macedonia receives continued support for “greening”