The Governors’ Climate and Forests (GCF) Task Force, together with its partners Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is pleased to announce the launch of a new Innovation Funding Window under the Norway pledge to the GCF Task Force.
The Innovation Funding Window, also known as Window B, will support strategic jurisdictional initiatives to achieve transformations that reduce deforestation in forested landscapes of GCF Task Force member states and provinces. Support under this new funding window will be directed at interventions that are identified in the jurisdictional strategies and investment plans that GCF Task Force states and provinces are currently completing under the Jurisdictional Strategies and Investment Plans Funding Window (Window A) of the Norway pledge. Additional information on the status of activities to develop jurisdictional strategies and investment plans can be found here. The overall framework for the Norway-GCF Task Force pledge can be found in English, Spanish, French, Indonesian, and Portuguese here.
The Concept Note and additional resources for the Innovation Funding window are available here.
Funding under the new Innovation Funding Window will be restricted to a limited number of larger projects with budgets of USD $500,000 and higher. Projects will be selected for funding based on a competitive process. Support will not be reserved exclusively for more “advanced” jurisdictions. Rather, the goal is to support innovative, bottom-up approaches to solving critical problems in jurisdictions regardless of their level of development. Approximately USD $5 Million from the Government of Norway has been allocated to the Window B Innovation Fund.
As elaborated in the concept note, some possible examples of activities that could be supported include: Public-private partnerships to promote jurisdictional sourcing of commodities, partnerships with indigenous and traditional communities, land tenure reform, improved enforcement, new approaches to protected areas, new programs for smallholder participation in sustainable enterprises, new jurisdiction-wide certification schemes for particular commodities, market access initiatives, domestic finance reform, programs to support new forest-based start-ups, and activities that ensure synergy between economic recovery, sustainable development and forest protection post-COVID-19.
The development of all proposals must be led by GCF Task Force states and provinces with the support of implementing partners.