The Fiscal Policy Agency as the National Designated Authority (NDA) for the Green Climate Fund (GCF), regularly holds annual reviews which are held in a participatory manner with GCF stakeholders in Indonesia. The review, which is carried out through an activity called the Annual Participatory Review (APR) Forum, always raises different themes that are relevant to the issue of Indonesian climate funding in that year.

Climate change adaptation funding is now a particular concern because of its unequal allocation compared to mitigation projects. The same thing also happened with GCF funding in Indonesia. Seeing this, the 5th APR Forum on July 11 2023 raised the theme of climate change adaptation to support the progress of the GCF adaptation project in Indonesia. This event was attended by more than 40 participants from various types of institutions both offline and online.

This event began with the delivery of information by the NDA regarding the progress of adaptation projects and cross-cutting projects, namely projects that have both mitigation and adaptation activities. This includes other initiatives that have been carried out by the NDA, such as studies on the potential role of the private sector in adaptation activities in Indonesia. The session continued with a presentation by Eco, Ltd, represented by Grant Ballard-Tremeer and Debasmita Boral Rolland who explained the lessons learned from several countries in developing good adaptation project proposals, which then received GCF funding. Apart from a good climate rationale, there are several factors that determine the success of an adaptation project design in order to obtain funding/financing support from the GCF. Furthermore, based on discussions with participants, it is known that strong capacity building is generally an important component in climate adaptation projects. Apart from that, involvement with all parties from the start of project design is also a key factor so that the project is on target and accepted by the community. “There are (people) who may benefit and lose from a project. So it is important to respect and be able to see different perspectives and find ways to accommodate them, whenever possible,” said Grant.

In the second session, participants were invited to discuss in groups the challenges and opportunities in integrating adaptation action into climate projects, the stakeholders who need to be involved, and the support needed to be able to integrate climate adaptation action. One participant from a vulnerable community group expressed their difficulties in translating technical terms for vulnerable groups. Mike Verawati from the Indonesian Women's Coalition said, "How do we ground the very technocratic terms of mitigation and adaptation in society? "This is really homework for us because we don't deal with climate change issues every day, and what we are dealing with are also vulnerable groups."

This event was also attended by representatives of accredited entities, one of which was PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (PT SMI). One of the problems faced by PT SMI in submitting a GCF project includes limited mandate and resources. Under the infrastructure mandate, PT SMI can actually propose adaptation projects in the water, agricultural or coastal sectors. However, integrating climate adaptation into infrastructure projects has its own challenges. Puti Faraniza from PT SMI explained some of these challenges. "The first challenge is the time horizon, where the risks of climate change can only be seen in the long term, while investments must be made now. Second, the uncertainty of the future, or how climate change will impact future infrastructure projects. "The third is (limited) information and capacity," he said.

Until now, the portion of adaptation activities in various climate projects still needs to be increased. By raising this topic in various forums such as APR, it is hoped that stakeholder awareness regarding adaptation activities will increase, giving rise to various innovations related to adaptation funding/financing activities, both policy and implementation.