The Dialogue with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)

The "Dialogue with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)" is a standing agenda item at Adaptation Fund Board meetings. The Adaptation Fund NGO Network initiated this dialogue held between CSOs and the Fund's Board in 2014. The Network has since held more than 15 such exchanges, during which lessons learnt and experiences with the Fund have been shared. The Adaptation Fund NGO Network is responsible for organising the CSO Dialogue in consultation with the Fund's Secretariat. Board members of the Fund have repeatedly highlighted the importance and added value of this dialogue with civil society.

Recommendations and suggestion from CSOs for the Fund's Board.

During the CSO Dialogue, a Network representative provides concrete recommendations and suggestions on behalf of civil society for ongoing policy discussions in the Fund's Board. Those concrete recommendations and suggestions on decisions to be taken during the Fund's Board meetings reflect the joint position of the Network. All associate CSOs of the Network can directly or indirectly (through a Network core partner in their region) contribute to the recommendations and suggestions voiced during the CSO Dialogue.

Concrete and independent country feedback for the Fund's Board.

The main aim of the CSO Dialogue is to provide concrete and independent feedback from national level on the Fund's processes and projects. This includes the Network's associate CSOs sharing their assessments on topics such as (re-)accreditation of Implementing Entities, the role of the Fund's Designated Authorities, project planning and implementation. In the past, CSOs from Bangladesh, Benin, Ecuador, Georgia, Honduras, India, Ruanda and several other countries have shared their independent assessments and recommendations with the Fund's Board. International CSOs such as the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Transparency International (TI) have also shared their assessments on the Fund during past CSO Dialogues.

Contribute to the CSO Dialogue!

Are you an associate CSO of the Network and would you like to contribute to the CSO Dialogue? Have you conducted an independent assessment on the Adaptation Fund's processes in your country that you would like to share with the Fund's Board? Then write an email with the subject "Proposal for CSO Dialogue contribution" to ngo@af-network.org. Please attach a one-pager including an outline and a brief summary of the assessment you would like to share during the CSO dialogue. Proposals need to be submitted at least 6 weeks in advance of the Fund's Board meetings. Core partner organisations, the Network's governing body, will then assess the proposals received and select the inputs for the upcoming CSO Dialogue's agenda. This decision will be taken by consensus, taking into consideration the inputs' relevance for the topics to be discussed at upcoming Board meetings.

Please note that the Network unfortunately does not have the resources to provide funding for attending Adaptation Fund Board meetings. In exceptional cases and depending on the Network's budget, a subsidy for covering part of the travel costs for organisations contributing to the CSO Dialogue might be granted.

We also encourage all our associate CSOs to watch the live webcasts of the CSO Dialogues and provide feedback to the Network!


Further information: