Annual Participatory Review (APR) Forum is a part of the Green Climate Fund’s (GCF) business process to ensure an inclusive climate finance. The Fiscal Policy Agency as National Designated Authority (NDA) for the GCF in Indonesia just held the 3rd Annual Participatory Review Forum on Thursday, 25th February 2021. The event was conducted online and attended by more than a hundred participants who were grouped into 12 focused discussion groups.

In holding the APR forums, NDA always includes representatives of the civil society who might be affected by a GCF-funded project. During the two years of implementation, the NDA has raised some important issues related to the fund utilization mechanism and provide improvements based on the forum’s inputs. Some of the improvements include the revision of Country Programme by aligning it with national priorities and local needs, holding a Call for Project Concept Note (PCN) to provide a wider technical assistance with a merit-based approach, No-Objection Letter (NOL) consultation process that includes Civil Society Organization (CSO) working on women, vulnerable groups, and indigenous people issue, and an APR mechanism that encourages more participation from local stakeholders.

APR Development and the NDA’s Activities (in Bahasa Indonesia)

In this APR forum, NDA aimed to gather input for various operational processes that have been implemented for around two years namely the NOL issuance process, project’s monitoring and evaluation mecahnisme, and coordination mechanism between stakeholders. The 3rd APR was attended by 108 stakeholders from the government, accredited entity, private sector, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), disabled and indigenous community representative, and university and research institution. Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), perwakilan masyarakat adat dan disabilitas, serta universitas dan lembaga riset.

From the group discussions, there are some key points that became the highlight. The first one is the need to balance between an efficient NOL process with a process that is consultative, inclusive and accommodates input from all relevant stakeholders. From the discussion, the participants agreed that in conducting this coordination process, NDA cannot work alone. The Accredited Entities are also responsible in disseminating information on the proposed project to all relevant stakeholders. From the input received, both NDA and Accredited Entities need to improve the quality of consultation of the proposed project.

Second, there is a need of a better information dissemination and capacity building activities for future project proponents, particularly sub-national government, indigenous people, and vulnerable groups. In the discussion, follow-up actions proposed related to potential activities include producing online training module that is accessible for all and developing a guide on developing a climate change project.

The many valuable inputs will likely be the basis of NDA’s improvement in the future. For a detailed discussion result, the NDA will upload a report and recording on the website, which can be accessed at any time.