The Belize government says it has received support from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for a project aimed at building capacity for climate resilient infrastructure and sustainable urban land management and strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) for pre-accreditation to the GCF.
In a statement, the MED, which is Belize’s National Designated Authority (NDA) to the GCF, said the BZ$1.9 million (One Belize dollar=US$0.50 cents) grant “is to further address three major gaps identified in a previous initiative that will enable MED to become a Direct Access Entity to the GCF”.
According to the MED, the three priority areas are project management policies and standards to be developed and institutionalized at the MED, strategic plan for the MED to be developed and validated; and environmental, social and gender management framework to be developed and implemented.
“Having these gaps addressed, the MED will be one step closer to strengthening its internal structures in meeting GCF’s requirements to access climate finance of up to US$50 million.
“In addition, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing (MIDH) and the Belize Association of Planners (BAP) will also receive support to strengthen the inter-institutional coordination mechanism and to identify and prioritize appropriate climate technology solutions for climate adaptation and mitigation. They are also expected to draft the regulatory framework for sustainable urban land management and resilient infrastructure,” the MED said.
It said the Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT), as the delivery partner, will be responsible for the implementation of the project, with support from MED, MIDH and BAP as the lead entities.
Chief executive officer in the Ministry of Economic Development, Dr. Osmond Martinez, said the Belize government remains firm in its strategy to access climate finance to address the climate change impacts on Belize.
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