CSO Update on the 35th Green Climate Fund Board Meeting – Day 1 (12 March 2023)
From the The Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD)
The 35th Board Meeting of the Green Climate Fund is scheduled to happen from 13th to 16th March 2023, in Songdo, South Korea. The first day started with the new co-chairs from the US (Victoria Gunderson) and Pakistan (Nauman Bhatti) opening the meeting and welcoming new members of the Board, including those from the Group of Latin America and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC). It can be recalled that for several Board Meetings in the past year, there have been no representatives from GRULAC present in the GCF Board.
For a complete list of the GCF Board and their alternates, see https://www.greenclimate.fund/
It was then followed by the Adoption of the B35 Agenda, which gave the opportunity for the BM from Antigua and Barbuda, on behalf of the AOSIS, to raise the issues around the GCF regional presence in the Latin America and Caribbean region. She questioned why the matter was excluded for this Board Meeting given that discussions around the development of a TOR and a conduct of feasibility study to proceed with establishing a regional presence has been repeatedly raised in the past. Many Board Members agreed with the said concern, and as a way forward, the BM from Spain suggested that the matter be decided in between meetings. The co-chair from Pakistan noted the suggestion and said he will consult his co-chair about it. He then asked the Board if they are ready to adopt the agenda as it is, and after receiving no objections, the Provisional B35 Agenda was adopted.
Other documents such as the Report of the 34th Board Meeting and the Decisions proposed between B34 and B35 were also easily adopted by the Board. Then they proceeded to the Selection of the Executive Director of the GCF, which was discussed over an Executive Session for the rest of the day.
Since the agenda item was a closed-door session and the webcast was off, the CSOs took the opportunity to start strategic conversations around the GCF Replenishment Process and work on the CSO interventions for some of the Funding Proposals and other B35 agenda items. The Board advisers and alternates also decided to hold parallel technical sessions to advance the discussions on some contentious agenda items such as the policy on contributions and the IEU evaluations regarding the African states and Direct Access. The CSO Active Observers were invited to join the technical sessions and were able to make comments.
