ISS Seminar, Cape Town: Adapting to Climate Change: Are South African Institutions Climate Finance-ready?

Date: 2012-08-13

Venue: , ISS Cape Town Office , 2nd Floor Amoury Building , Buchanan Square , 160 Sir Lowry Road Woodstock , 7925

RSVP:
Shahnaaz Parker ([email protected]) by 10 August 2012

Please note this seminar has been postponed to a later date

Hosted by the Governance & Corruption Division

From the expected flooding of the Cape Flats to droughts in maize-producing areas, climate change is likely to impact in various and vast ways across South Africa. Billions of dollars are expected to flow to developing countries like South Africa to help people adapt to these impacts. But are South African institutions equipped to deal with the large inflows of money and to channel it to the areas most affected?

The architecture of climate finance is still developing at a global level, with a plethora of funds and disbursal mechanisms giving rise to a largely chaotic system. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has been the most promising new development as it reflects calls from the international community over many years for a global climate fund that is representative and democratically governed, effective and accountable, and designed to meet the needs of those most marginalised and vulnerable to climate change. But what happens when that money from the GCF and other sources arrives at domestic doors? Are our national institutions equipped to track the origin of these funds, making sure the finance goes to meeting the needs of those most vulnerable to these devastating impacts and assuring that there is no duplication of efforts? Importantly, are there mechanisms in place to ensure that money is not lost to corruption and poor governance?

The ISS Governance & Corruption Division convenes this seminar given an understanding that the amount of funding, the number of institutions involved, and coherence in the global architecture will be meaningless without democratic governance of the funds at the local level. On the eve of the first GCF Board Meeting in Geneva from 23–25 August we meet to discuss these critical national issues. We hope that by sharing some of the insights and perspectives of key institutions and actors involved in developing national climate finance institutions we will better be able to engage at an international level, as well as assist with building solid democratic institutions that can live up to the immense task at hand.

Panel:

• Chantal Naidoo – Development Bank of Southern Africa 
  
• Rashmi Mistry – Oxfam GB

Chair:

• Trusha Reddy – Institute for Security Studies

Please note that discussions will be under ISS rules, Participants are free to use the information presented, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participants, may be revealed without his/her express permission