Deadline: 15-Dec-24
The Kiwa Initiative encourages regional cooperation on designing, implementing and monitoring Nature-based Solutions for climate change resilience in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories.
The Kiwa Initiative – Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for Climate Resilience – aims at strengthening the climate change resilience of Pacific Islands ecosystems, communities and economies through NbS, by protecting, sustainably managing and restoring biodiversity. It is based on a simplified access to funding for climate change adaptation and NbS for local, national authorities, civil society and regional organizations in 18 eligible Pacific Island Countries and Territories, including the three French Overseas territories (New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna).
The Call for regional projects reflect the Kiwa Initiative’s commitment to:
- Act as a partnership platform with and for Pacific islanders.
- Foster a coordinated, relevant and complementary approach to official development assistance in the Pacific region.
- Support regional integration in the Pacific, in particular French territories with their neighbouring countries.
- Strengthen the capacities of local, national and regional actors in developing and carrying out their development projects and integrating NbS for climate adaptation in their strategies and policies.
Key Themes
- Each submitted regional project must implement activities that clearly contribute to climate change adaptation through right-based gender-responsive and socially-inclusive Nature-based Solutions.
- The climate change adaptation sub-criterion implies that project leaders must:
- Determine the context of the risks, vulnerabilities and impacts associated with climate change at the project intervention scale.
- Indicate the project contribution to address the risks, vulnerabilities and impacts identified at the project intervention scale.
- Demonstrate a direct link between the identified risks, vulnerabilities and impacts and the funded activities at the project intervention scale.
- The biodiversity sub-criterion concerns the type of Nature-based Solutions that will be developed in the project. These include the following possible objectives:
- Preservation of functional and healthy ecosystems.
- Improvement of ecosystem management through sustainable human activities.
- Rehabilitation and/or restoration of degraded ecosystems or the creation of ecosystems/ecological engineering.
- The Gender Equity Disability and Social Inclusion-GEDSI sub-criterion:
- The project must specifically address the inclusion of vulnerable populations, particularly women and youth and specify how it aims at reducing existing inequalities. The integration of GEDSI in the whole project must be clear and sufficiently budgeted.
- Gender equity, disability and social inclusion are all covered
- GEDSI topics needs to be clearly integrated in the project objectives, activities, budget and indicators will be required.
- An analysis of the main social and environmental risks related to the project will be required.
- The climate change adaptation sub-criterion implies that project leaders must:
Sectoral Scope for Kiwa Regional Projects
- Kiwa projects must support the reduction of communities’ vulnerabilities to climate change through Nature-based Solutions and include the following characteristics:
- Demonstrated links between project activities/outputs and climate change adaptation;
- Cost-effective and efficient Nature-based Solutions with measurable and multiple benefits for climate change adaptation, biodiversity and human well-being;
- Contribution of the project to gender equity and social inclusion, with specific activities, indicators and a dedicated budget;
- Active involvement of national/local public authorities and institutions from design to implementation (and even evaluation if possible);
- Active involvement and consultation of local communities from design to implementation (and even evaluation if possible);
- Alignment of proposed projects with key relevant regional, national and local policy frameworks;
- Projects led by regional or international organizations must demonstrate their clear alignment and their contribution to the implementation of relevant national and local policies (on climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation but not only), and must involve local stakeholders;
- Regional projects must include a relevant regional cooperation dimension between countries and/or territories (pooling, capitalization, sharing) whether they are implemented in French territories and/or in other eligible PICTs. A regional project must involve at least two countries and/or territories;
- Scalability of the proposed NbS interventions during the project implementation period;
- Demonstration of an outcome-based approach for the project supported by a robust monitoring, evaluation and learning framework;
- Sustainability of the proposed interventions (including exit strategies, sustainable financing mechanisms, etc.).
- Projects must fall within the scope of the legal competencies exercised by the project leaders and must not derogate from the local national or regional regulations in force in terms of the exercise of those competencies.
Funding Information
- The funding amount provided by the Kiwa Initiative for each regional project ranges from a minimum of EUR 1.5 million to a maximum of EUR 5 million.
- The project implementation period may not exceed three and half (3.5 years), with an indicative starting date estimated by early 2026. The project implementation period cannot end later than mid2029.
Eligibility Criteria
- Project proponents must be public or private not-for-profit legal entities (individuals are not eligible).
- The beneficiaries relevant to regional projects are:
- National (and local) authorities,
- Public bodies and institutions present in one of the 18 eligible countries and territories,
- Regional organizations (Council of Regional Organizations of the Pacific, CROP) recognized by Pacific Island countries and territories. For project concepts submitted by SPC and SPREP, please contact the SPC and SPREP Kiwa focal points,
- International and national NGOs.
- The Kiwa Initiative covers PICTs for which AFD is authorized to intervene, as well as countries and territories eligible to official development assistance (ODA).
- For this 2024 call for regional projects, the Kiwa Initiative covers 18 countries and territories: Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, French Polynesia, Samoa, Kiribati, Timor Leste, Marshall Islands, Tonga, Nauru, Tokelau, New Caledonia, Tuvalu, Niue, Vanuatu, Palau and Wallis and Futuna.
For more information, visit Kiwa Initiative.