Perception of local experts about accessibility to international climate funds: Case of Bangladesh

Abstract

Adequate financial resources are crucial for mitigation and adaptation interventions. Compared to earlier situation, climate funds now are more organized with diverse sources and mechanisms. However in many cases, the proportion of disbursed amount is very low compared to pledged volume. Deficiency in pecuniary resources is common to climate vulnerable developing countries. Though, on an average, around USD one billion a day flows globally targeting climate change, climate vulnerable country like Bangladesh needs some preparations to access these resources. This study aims at analyzing perceptions of local experts about accessibility of Bangladesh to international climate funds. The other purpose of the study is to assess, based on experts’ evaluation, the level of national preparedness. A set of academics and researchers, development practitioners and government officials has been interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Experts’ evaluations and opinions have been analyzed to determine the criteria imperative to ensure better access to dedicated international climate funds. Unless Bangladesh and also other climate vulnerable developing countries are able to access international funds, optimal level of adaptation and mitigation action is improbable. It would become difficult to access international funds by showing only the vulnerability of the country towards climate change. Higher level of vulnerability may make the donors sympathetic, but not enough to compete for international funds. Beside, preparations of various vulnerability indices do not follow a global political process; hence, vulnerability-based allocation is unlikely. Donors’ preference and the skills of the key personnel or negotiator also play important role in accessibility to climate funds. Different categories of experts have distinct observations. Nevertheless, findings suggest that Bangladesh needs to improve, among others, fund utilization capacity, transparency in allocation as well as monitoring and evaluation system for current and forthcoming climate funds. International flow of climate fund does not show any regular pattern of allocation where highly vulnerable countries are getting higher volume; rather the better-prepared countries are enjoying higher shares from international sources. Bangladesh needs to show its requirement; the capacity it has; transparent mechanisms it follows and feasibility of the proposed program and project to ensure better access to international climate fund. It is also proposed that approaching in a group would enhance the possibility to access higher volume of funds. National level policies need to address the issues to strengthen the national capacity and thereby develop a trend to become competitive. Countries having varied volume of international climate fund can be compared further to investigate the level of readiness and its impact on accessibility to international funds.