The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has selected the World Council of Credit Unions (Woccu) as one of 13 organisations to receive a 2024 Challenge Program for Adaptation Innovation award.
Announced at the COP 29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan, the grant gives Woccu US$1.8m to launch a pilot initiative in 2025 that will introduce a holistic, scalable methodology and digital tools to select credit union networks located in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, allowing them to manage climate risk and offer climate adaptation finance solutions to vulnerable populations.
Woccu will use the award to build the capacity of credit union networks in Benin, Senegal and Togo to strengthen the resilience of their members through climate adaptation finance. It will offer user-friendly digital tools from Yapu Solutions, backed by technical support, performance-based grants and data-driven strategies to assess climate risks and monitor investments.
These tools will enable participating networks to identify and finance locally viable adaptation solutions. The pilot project aims to establish a scalable framework for climate adaptation finance within credit unions.
“As communities in every corner of the world become vulnerable to climate shocks, we are starting to see banks, insurance companies and other financial service providers reduce exposure to riskier markets. But credit unions are stepping up to help their members build resilience and adapt,” said Woccu president and CEO Elissa McCarter LaBorde. “At Woccu, we recognise the essential role credit unions play. This partnership with Yapu Solutions in West Africa presents an exciting opportunity to design and test a model that could be replicated in more places across our global membership of over 400 million people in more than 100 countries.”
The GEF Challenge Program for Adaptation Innovation is a competition that provides seed funding for innovative initiatives designed to help vulnerable countries cope with the worsening climate crisis. The Global Environment Facility on Friday awarded a total of $20m to projects that will reimagine climate adaptation finance.
“Adapting to climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time, but it also offers an undeniable opportunity,” said Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, GEF CEO and chair. “By seeding these new approaches to climate adaptation funding, we are enabling the development of innovative technologies, while reducing risk and providing the conditions needed to open financial flows and enable new investors and sectors to take action.”
Financing for the Challenge Program comes from GEF’s two dedicated climate adaptation funds – the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) and the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF). The LDCF is the only multilateral climate fund designed to address the unique climate adaptation needs of Least Developed Countries, while the SCCF is focused on targeting the adaptation priorities of Small Island Developing States as well as catalysng innovation, technology transfer and private sector engagement.
