Supporting civil society and grassroots organizations to make climate finance and action more transparent, inclusive and accountable.
About the Green Accountability Platform
The Green Accountability Platform is a consortium consisting of World Resource Institute, Huairou Commission and SouthSouthNorth (SSN), made possible with financial support from the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability.
The Platform aims to:
- Provide strategic finance to civil society organizations (CSOs) to make climate finance governance for climate mitigation and adaptation more transparent, participatory and accountable;
- Improve the impact and equity of climate finance in the target countries by supporting integration of community, citizen and CSO feedback into climate finance decision making;
- Encourage collaboration with relevant governmental institutions to influence, implement and monitor climate finance processes and decisions; and
- Share learning, strategies and tools among grantees, grassroots organizations and green accountability practitioners through a Community of Practice.
Green Accountability Platform Grant Recipients
In June 2024, WRI received 132 proposals from CSOs in Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Mexico and Senegal focused on making climate finance and policymaking more transparent, inclusive and accountable. Five finalists were selected in each country (25 total) and $375,000 was awarded in each country. Learn more about these implementing partners in Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Mexico, and Senegal.
While success will look different for each grantee, by the end of 2025 we expect the grantee organizations to have strengthened country networks advocating for green accountability, developed evidence-based advocacy plans and initiated dialogues with decision-makers that are likely to lead to more equitable, transparent and accountable climate action that benefits people and the planet.
Join the Community of Practice
Grant recipients will also be part of a Community of Practice that will provide peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing opportunities to identify scalable green accountability innovations and implement coalition-building strategies. It is a space for green accountability leaders and practitioners to build their networks. If you’re an organization that is not based in one of these five countries, but are working on green accountability at the country, regional or international level and are interested in learning more about the Community of Practice, please register here.
Why Now
We have a climate accountability crisis. Delays and setbacks mean that countries must dramatically accelerate cuts to carbon emissions over the next few years to reach the temperature goal set out in the Paris Agreement. As of late 2023, only 1 of 42 indicators assessing the state of transformations needed is on track. And despite the growing need for climate resilience, finance flows for adaptation fell 15% in 2021, and the scale of adaptation action has stagnated, according to the UN.
Political leaders must be bolder and one way to encourage that is through transparent and participatory policymaking processes that lead to fair outcomes. Even policies that are carefully designed to be equitable can face public backlash if the processes to create them are not trusted.
Wealthy countries must meet their climate finance commitments to developing countries. We currently lack consistent data on where climate funds are flowing and who makes decisions on them. Fewer than 20 countries have climate budget tagging systems and only a few have a clear definition for climate finance. Yet the availability of finance doesn’t guarantee that it reaches the communities who face the greatest risks to their safety, livelihoods and culture.
Green accountability is about ensuring those who face the most risk can have timely access to information, can influence decisions that impact them and make public authorities answer to them when commitments are not met. While many countries have established public participation to an extent, too often these opportunities are late in the process, are not designed to be inclusive, or fail to close to the feedback loop with participants by showing how their input was considered in the final decision.
Thematic Priorities
*Click country to view priorities
Bangladesh
Bangladesh
- Embed civil society participation in monitoring the implementation of climate actions through the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan, the National Adaptation Plan, and other relevant planning and policy processes.
- Make climate data and information more accessible, less fragmented, and available in formats that are relevant for civil society and other users through a community and stakeholder-driven process.
- Build capacity and strengthen partnerships between local governments and civil society organizations to implement locally-led climate actions.
Brazil
Brazil
- Training and tools to strengthen access to information and social participation in the processes of construction and implementation of national and subnational climate policies, as well as in public investments for climate action.
- Enhance monitoring and public participation in the design, implementation of climate adaptation public policies including budget definition and allocation.
- Strengthen monitoring and public participation in Climate Councils or Forums as well as on National and State Climate Funds.
- Promotion of transparency and accountability mechanisms for the bioeconomy agenda within the scope of the Multiannual Plan (PPA).
Cameroon
Cameroon
- Establish a national system for transparently monitoring progress of green accountability, including national standards, a consensus driven methodology for analysis, and tracking of progress as well as enablers and constraints.
- Promoting green accountability in the Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Monitoring (PPBS) chain in decentralized local authorities: This theme mainly aims to support the efforts of decentralized local authorities in the identification and characterization of climate finance in their municipal budget.
- Supporting civil society coalitions on green accountability: This theme mainly aims to enable civil society organizations and platforms to strengthen their coordination capacities and conduct joint interventions in Cameroon.
- In addition to these themes, applicant organizations are encouraged to consider two cross-cutting themes:
- Innovative approaches to build ownership of green accountability outcomes across stakeholders
- Taking into account new technologies in monitoring green accountability.
Mexico
Mexico
- Provide civil society organizations with capacity support and tools to strengthen access to information, its monitoring, and social participation in the processes of planning, spending, and public investment in climate change projects.
- Citizen monitoring of the performance of public programs and instruments for climate action.
- Strengthening citizen participation in environmental policies and climate governance mechanisms.
- Strengthening budgetary transparency in disaster risk management.
Senegal
Senegal
- Improve the legal and institutional framework applicable to green accountability.
- Establish a simplified, data-centered, sustainable and multi-scale (national and regional) mechanism for integrated monitoring of green accountability.
- Synergies between civil society actors for the mobilization of citizens in the monitoring of climate and biodiversity instruments (CDN, SPNAB, PNA, etc.)
Project Timeline
|
May 20th – June 19th, 2024 |
Call for Applications |
|
Week of May 27th, 2024 |
Prospective applicants with questions can register for an optional informational webinar in French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese |
|
August 2024 |
Finalists are notified |
|
October 2024 |
Award winners are announced |
|
November 2024 |
Launch of Community of Practice |
|
October 31, 2025 |
Close of grants |
Questions, comments or concerns
The Green Accountability Platform is committed to ensuring that any stakeholder can effectively contact project staff if they need additional information, have a complaint, or need to register a grievance. In order to respond most effectively and efficiently, please direct your communication in the following way:
- If you live in Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Mexico or Senegal and have a question or concern about the work being implemented by grant recipients there, please contact them directly, or you may contact the project coordinating staff for the respective country at the bottom of this page.
- If you prefer to remain anonymous, or simply prefer to contact WRI directly, please use this form (available in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese)