Small successes and hoping for more

No karaoke experience

Other things I could tell you about are:

1. Korean Culture (interesting)

2. Korean Hot Pot (delicious)

3. Politics in climate negotiations and the Civil Society group at the Board Meeting preparing interventions.

4. Contradictions: South-Korea’s environmental policy versus the fact that South-Korea is the home of the Green Climate Fund (South-Korea relies on many nuclear power plants, and the GCF is located at a gigantic land reclamation site – bye bye breeding ground for thousands of migratory bird species – and so forth)

5. Megacities and an itchy nose due to air pollution.

Unfortunately, one of things I cannot tell you about is karaoke. Due to the fast aging-process, I could not stay awake at night to join Board Members, GCF secretariat folks, my new friends of the bank-sector and GCF observers, for a karaoke experience.

The real stuff

I could tell you about the discussions and the exact outcome of the decisions taken at this board meeting. Again, the Business Model Framework was on the Agenda, but not only its procedures were discussed like last time in Berlin. Instead, they talked about the real stuff. The decisions on the topics the Both ENDS team focuses on – enhanced direct access, country ownership, multi-stakeholder participation – have been quite positive. Although we had hoped to see more concrete commitment to these principles in the decisions, nothing is really off the table yet: most things have just been postponed to the next board meetings*.

Advice on a Private Sector Facility

What I would really like to tell you about are the discussions about the Private Sector Facility (PSF). We all feared that this PSF would become a separate governance body of the Fund, but there was no support for this in the Board. The decision was made however that an Advisory Board (AB) for this PSF was to be created, consisting of 4 Board Members and 8 private sector representatives from both developed and developing countries. Our civil society-hearts started to sink: no scientists, no independent experts, or no civil society representatives needed?

‘You need people that think slightly different’

Then, all of a sudden, Mr. Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, the Congolese Board Member, said that according to him, CSO-representatives would be needed in this AB. I’d like to think that he brought this up because of all our lobby efforts before and during the meeting, but of course I can’t be sure. The usual suspects (Board Members of the developed countries) started opposing to his suggestion, but then Mr. Dipak Dasgupta, the Indian Board member spoke legendary words citing Adam Smith, one of the founders of modern economy: “When you put people together that think alike, they will conduct extreme views. So you need people that think slightly different”.

Out of balance, but still flying high

Finally the decision was made that the Advisory Board of the PSF apart from the members already agreed on, will consist of up to TWO CIVIL SOCIETY representatives. Of course, this is still slightly out of balance and results will depend very much on what kind of CSO representatives will be selected. Nevertheless, I’m flying home while writing this and believe me, I’m flying high!

* For example, at the first meeting in 2014, the GCF Board will consider “additional modalities that further enhance direct access, including through funding entities with a view to enhancing country ownership of projects and programs." and “best-practice options for country coordination and multi-stakeholder engagement, including in the context of the development of funding proposals.” That sounds promising

Leonie Wezendonk works for Both ENDS, the Netherlands