The Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM) in October held an internal workshop to assess its readiness to access climate finance. The workshop was sponsored by the Climate Resilient Infrastructure Development Facility (CRIDF), a ZAMCOM strategic partner organisation.
In his opening remarks ZAMCOM Executive Secretary (ES) Felix Ngamlagosi described the workshop as an important first step towards identifying and addressing the institution’s limitations in successfully attracting global climate finance to fund programs aimed at mitigating climate change risks in the Zambezi watercourse.
“The global climate finance structure is complex and varied, involving different financial instruments, multitude of actors, and highly competitive. ZAMCOM, like many other organisations and even countries, faces a multitude of challenges in accessing Climate Funds.”
He cited the shortcomings as limited human, institutional and or technical capacity to identify funding lines, as well as designing, developing and pushing project proposals through the various stages.
Another limitation was meeting funders’ expected procedures, standards and demanding criteria.
Limited data availability to back project proposals as well as the lack of a conducive environment to attract private funding to supplement public funding lines were also key deficiencies, he noted.
Among the workshop outcomes was a roadmap linking and matching ZAMCOM activities, strategies and outcomes with funding opportunities. The seminar also delivered a list of key actions needed to mobilize additional volumes of climate funding. In addition, participants identified strategic opportunities with defined roles, responsibilities, timelines and processes in order to monitor progress.
ZAMCOM is an international organisation set up by the eight riparian states that share the Zambezi watercourse. These are Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.