The objective of this pilot is to enhance country ownership of projects and programmes through a dedicated access window for GCF’s Direct Access Entities (DAEs). The EDA pilot is characterised by an enhanced devolution of decision making whereby both funding decisions and project oversight take place at the national or regional level. This can be achieved by, for example, establishing a dedicated facility to fund small-scale community projects.

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The EDA pilot has been designed to provide DAEs with opportunities to move beyond the financing of individual projects towards a more comprehensive and stakeholder-driven programmatic approach. The EDA pilot differs from other GCF access windows because individual sub-projects neither have to be presented in the funding proposal nor subsequently submitted to GCF for approval. Instead, the decision-making mechanism for such sub-projects is devolved at the country level through preapproved selection criteria. The composition of decision-making body as well as other features of the EDA pilot should be captured in the funding proposal. Furthermore, the EDA pilot provides flexibility to accommodate a broad range of country conditions and circumstances while the AE maintains the oversight mechanism to ensure effective delivery of funding.

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Key advantages of EDA include:

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• Enhanced level of country ownership;

• More effective use of financial resources;

• Stronger involvement of local organisations and other stakeholders; and

• Flexible and context-specific approach.