Delegates Tell Adaptation Fund Capacity Gaps Are Blocking Climate Finance

The Adaptation Fund's project pipeline has passed $2 billion, four times last year's level. At a Nov. 12, 2026, session at the COP31 Capacity Building Hub, government delegates said the bottleneck is no longer interest but capacity. Countries described thin staffing, stalled accreditation, missing data and officials who leave and take their knowledge with them, and the Fund is folding that input into its 2027-2029 readiness strategy.

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• Six countries named the same barriers: capacity, accreditation, data and institutional memory
• Jamaica and The Gambia urged permanent project preparation capacity and early community participation
• Fund board approved nearly $100M in new projects and set a $1.2 billion four-year target
• Designated authorities cast as the "link" between the Fund and countries, with coordination and capacity gaps flagged

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Delegates Map the Bottlenecks to Adaptation Money

Why it matters: The Fund is rewriting its readiness strategy, the support that helps countries prepare to access finance. Delegate input from this session will shape it.

"This input is important because at the moment the Adaptation Fund is revising its readiness strategy," said Neha Sharma, Lead for Results, Impact, and Knowledge, Adaptation Fund. Sharma said the findings will also go to the Paris Committee on Capacity Building.

Where things stand: Reports from the breakout tables in Gambia, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, Jamaica, Angola and Armenia converged quickly.

"It's capacity, it's institutional memory, it's accreditation," said Timur, National Designated Authority, Uzbekistan.

Direct access was a recurring sore point. Under the Fund's direct access model, a country uses its own accredited national implementing entity (NIE) instead of an international intermediary. The Gambia has no NIE yet. "Unfortunately you cannot access the adaptation fund directly," said a delegate from The Gambia.

Other delegates pointed to:

• Proposals: Developing bankable proposals is itself a capacity challenge.
• Data: A delegate reporting for Zimbabwe's table cited "inadequate data, especially to build or justify the climate rationale."
• Approvals: A delegate from Jamaica said Jamaica's system is robust, but "those layers can sometimes create some sort of bottleneck."

Arlette Massala, Minister of Environment, Angola, asked for capacity building to develop projects and to establish a direct access entity. "We cannot rely for the rest of the life working with a partner," she said.

The other side: A delegate from Armenia, Milena, questioned whether designated authorities can be expected to lead. "If the designated authority doesn't have enough knowledge on what happens with the adaptation fund, how are we asking that from the designated authority?" she asked. No direct answer was recorded. Her point, that the gatekeepers themselves need training, ran through the closing summary.

A tool worth sharing, with limits: Jamaica described its Jamaica Systematic Risk Assessment Tool. Sharma asked, "Is that shareable, or is that something that other countries can benefit from?" The Jamaica delegate replied, "We can share the methodology, but not the dataset," because the data is sensitive.

Decisions and stakeholder impacts: No votes were taken. Silvia Mancini, Lead, Country Partnerships Unit, Adaptation Fund, summarized the takeaways and warned about turnover when one person holds a country's portfolio. When that person leaves, she said, "that could be a year that the country does not have a focal point to respond back to Adaptation Fund." She noted that multilateral and regional access routes can build capacity while countries pursue accreditation. Countries without NIEs, including The Gambia and Angola, have the most at stake in how the strategy funds that path.

What's next: The input goes to the Fund's board and the Paris Committee on Capacity Building.

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Jamaica, Gambia: Fund Institutions, Not Just Projects

Why it matters: Two governments with Adaptation Fund experience argued that readiness money should build lasting national capacity and bring communities in from the start.

Where things stand: Ambassador Dale Webber, Jamaica's Special Envoy for Climate Change, Environment, Ocean, and the Blue Economy, said Jamaica's last Adaptation Fund program was a $10M project delivered through the Planning Institute of Jamaica. He proposed three readiness priorities:

• Joint pipeline building by designated authorities and NIEs
• Hands-on technical support at the concept stage
• Resources for local participation from the start

Webber cited Hurricane Melissa and made the case for communities as the starting point. "If a community knows that flooding will occur, when it will occur, where it will occur, and who will be impacted, isn't the community the place you would start?" he asked.

He also rejected the idea that institution-building is paperwork. "Empowering national institutions is not an administrative prerequisite to adaptation finance; it is an investment in the effective sustainability and ownership of the adaptation itself," Webber said.

Ebrima Jawara, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources, The Gambia, said his country coordinates priorities through its environment ministry, a project coordination unit and a climate finance adviser provided by the Commonwealth.

Jawara cited a Green Climate Fund ecosystem-based adaptation project that restored more than 30,000 hectares. Procurement and safeguards bottlenecks stretched its implementation from six years to eight. He drew three lessons: invest in permanent preparation capacity, ensure local ownership and build in sustainability. Country ownership, he said, "must extend beyond endorsing funding proposals. It must encompass project preparation, implementation, learning, and long-term sustainability."

Decisions and stakeholder impacts: Both governments asked the 2027-2029 readiness strategy to pay for standing national teams and community engagement. That would shift some support from one-off project grants toward institutions. The Gambia is pursuing NIE accreditation.

What's next: The recommendations feed the Readiness Strategy 2027 to 2029.

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Fund Sets $1.2 Billion Target as Demand Quadruples

Why it matters: Demand is outrunning resources. Even if the new four-year target is fully met, it would equal about 60% of today's pipeline.

Where things stand: Mikko Ollikainen, Head of the Adaptation Fund, said the board approved nearly $100M in new projects two weeks before the session. "The Board importantly set a resource mobilization target of $1.2 billion for the next 4 years," he said. He added that "the current active project pipeline has surpassed $2 billion," four times last year's figure.

Ollikainen called on parties at COP31 to make sure the Fund transitions to serving the Paris Agreement exclusively. That shift would let the Fund draw on resources under Article 6 of the agreement.

Decisions and stakeholder impacts: The board's target and the Article 6 transition will set how much finance can flow to the countries lining up projects. Ollikainen framed the session as input for a new readiness strategy.

What's next: The readiness strategy is expected to go before the board in a few months. The Article 6 transition depends on action by COP31 parties.

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Designated Authorities Cast as Ownership Gatekeepers

Why it matters: Designated authorities endorse every proposal a country sends to the Fund. Weak coordination or staff turnover in these offices can stall a country's access to finance.

Where things stand: Mancini called designated authorities the guardians of country ownership. They align proposals with national strategies, identify NIE candidates, connect ministries and communities, endorse proposals and stay engaged after approval. "That is why it has an extremely important role as a link between the Adaptation Fund and the country," she said.

She identified three access challenges: coordination across institutions, institutional capacity, and meaningful participation, including by sub-sovereign entities such as local governments.

Decisions and stakeholder impacts: Mancini said readiness support is moving toward:

• Strengthening designated authority capacity
• Accreditation support
• Project formulation grants
• Safeguards support
• Scale-up readiness, including after the scale-up framework launched at this COP

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Looking Ahead

The Fund's revised readiness strategy is expected before its board in a few months. Delegate input from this session will also go to the Paris Committee on Capacity Building. Watch for whether the final strategy funds permanent national preparation teams and direct access entities, the two asks that came up most often.