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Norway funds could start trickling in

Feb 05, 2012 News

 

The initial release of the forest-saving funds from Norway to Guyana could be released shortly, ending a long struggle, characterized by prolonged fretting on the international stage by former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
The Office of Climate Change announced yesterday that the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has given final approval for the execution of the Institutional Strengthening Project for Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
The approval paves the way for all remaining funds for the institutional strengthening project, totaling US$5.94 million, to flow directly to Guyana from the Guyana REDD Investment Fund (GRIF), which is being managed by the World Bank.
The Bank has so far received US$70 million from Norway, but did not release any of the monies until all the processes were completed. But this did not stop then President Jagdeo from lambasting the World Bank for the non-release of the funds.
The total cost of the institutional strengthening project is US$7 million, but with the non release of funds from the World Bank, an initial sum of US$1.06 million was released directly to Guyana from Norway last year for preparatory work to be undertaken.
The project, which gained the approval of the GRIF Steering Committee on November 2, 2011, will mark the first in a series of LCDS projects submitted to the GRIF, to receive approval from the IDB which is serving as one of the partner entities.
The Guyana REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) Investment Fund –GRIF, was established in October 2010 as the mechanism through which LCDS projects will be funded.
The LCDS Institutional Strengthening Project is aimed at enhancing national institutional capacity in Guyana to address the impacts of Climate Change, ensure the effective implementation of the LCDS, and meet its commitments under interim REDD+ partnerships. These commitments include avoided deforestation measures that translate into the avoidance of CO2 emissions.
Specifically, the project will strengthen the technical and administrative capacity of the principal institutions responsible for implementing the LCDS and develop and implement a MRV (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification) system on a national level.
The Government of Guyana has identified the need to strengthen the capacity of three key institutions, namely: the Office of Climate Change (OCC), the Project Management Office (PMO) and the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC).
According to the Office of Climate Change, the first component will see the design and implementation of a MRV system and the requisite strengthening of national institutional capacities of the GFC for implementing REDD+ activities, and in particular for implementing the MRV system.
This component has a total implementation cost of US3.66 million dollars.
The second component will cater to the capacity strengthening of LCDS Institutions, namely, the OCC, the PMO and the REDD+ Secretariat. In addition, the institutional diagnostic of the Guyana Environmental Protection Agency-EPA and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission-GGMC will be financed. The total implementation cost is set at US 3.28 million dollars.
The project being executed by the Office of the President through the OCC, and the GFC, has already seen the laying of groundwork with the development of institutional structures and a post- 2012 roadmap for the PMO and the commencement of the recruitment process for new required technical positions within the OCC. Meanwhile, implementation of component 1- the design and implementation of a MRV system, has begun through the GFC.
This advance work was made possible through the initial project funds which were released by Norway.

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