Business as unusual: direct access - giving power back to the poor?
This paper aims to discuss the provision of ‘Direct Access’ (DA) to climate finance. While there appears to be increasing momentum behind DA, there has been little opportunity to explore the modality within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations and so understanding of the concept is limited.
It recommends that Parties should agree a Direct Access model that promotes integrated climate adaptation and mitigation planning. It asserts that the prioritisation of climate action that DA facilitates is critical in the short term, and for as long as is necessary. However, while existing DA arrangements function outside of government budgets, further elaboration of the modality should promote mainstreaming of adaptation and mitigation in overall government planning and budgeting over the longer term. (Chapter 4.1 and .4.2)
CIDSE and Caritas Internationalis have commissioned this paper to examine the DA modality in more detail, and to explore both its merits and its challenges. Using the examples of existing funds that have adopted the modality, the paper seeks to explain the concept of DA for stakeholders, and offers recommendations for its further elaboration and use.