Women of Njolo, Malawi, celebrate a new irrigation project to help them adapt to climate change. Photo credit: CIDSE – Catholic Development Agencies.

At the 2011 climate summit in Durban, South Africa, members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) requested that the board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) develop a transparent no-objection procedure to ensure that financing through the GCF would be consistent with national strategies, country-driven, and effective.

The purpose of the no-objection procedure is two-fold: (i) to facilitate genuine country ownership and (ii) to ensure that the people living within a country, particularly individuals and communities affected by a GCF project or program, have the right to reject such an activity. The no-objection procedure should function as a mechanism to prevent flawed projects from advancing to the GCF board for consideration. It should serve to filter out projects that are incompatible with national strategies, conflict with better programs and projects, or impose undue harm or costs upon host communities and their environment. It should serve to assure the international community that projects are welcome by their host communities and are of the highest caliber.

This briefing discusses lessons learned from procedures and structures at the International Finance
Corporation (IFC), Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and Global Environment Facility (GEF) that are similar in function or analogous to a no-objection procedure.