Signatories to the Climate Investment Funds’ (CIF’s) mandate last week agreed to invite a group of new pilot nations to come forward and develop Strategic Programs for Climate Resilience under its Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR).

The African Development Bank, which was one of the CIF’s five implementing agencies, said a number of these pilot nations would likely be from Africa.

The CIF signatory countries also agreed to expand the PPCR facility to engage private sector investments aimed at innovative solutions in climate resilience and adaptation.

Meanwhile, the countries also signalled their support for countries in Africa and elsewhere to develop investment plans under the CIF’s Program for Scaling-Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries (SREP).

This would build on the June 2014 SREP agreement to fund nine new African nations to become SREP pilot countries.

“This strong signal of support is a positive step forward for Africa’s sustainable development. Even as the global climate finance architecture evolves, it is fundamental for key mechanisms like the CIF to continue to shore up their support to the countries running climate-smart projects, and to welcome new countries standing in line for climate finance support.

“Today, nearly half of Africa’s countries are dedicating themselves to these innovative approaches and we welcome the ongoing support for their efforts,” AfDB environment and climate change manager Kurt Lonsway said.

Meanwhile, at the CIF’s semi-annual governing body meeting last week, CIF donors welcomed the leadership work taking place in the three African Forest Investment Program (FIP) pilot nations  – the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Burkina Faso – and signalled their desire to support these and other countries in moving forward with integrating their reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) strategies with their FIP projects on the ground.

The meeting attendees were also apprised of some of Africa’s forward-looking work to engage the private sector in climate-smart development.

The AfDB-supported Olkaria IV geothermal power plant project, in Kenya, was showcased for its strong capacity to leverage new finance, a critical component of CIF-based programming, as it was currently garnering co-financing at a rate of 20:1, the AfDB said.

“The project was also praised by the SREP private sector set-aside expert group for creating new partnerships between commercial project developers, local banks, local suppliers and the government of Kenya,” the bank stated.