Pilot Program for Climate Resilience

Pilot Program for Climate Resilience

Summary

The Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) is a targeted programme of the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF), which is one of two funds under the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) framework. Launched in 2008, the PPCR supports developing countries in integrating climate resilience into their national development planning and budgeting processes. The PPCR provides funding for technical assistance and investments aimed at building resilience to climate change, emphasising a learning-by-doing approach to inform broader climate adaptation efforts. Through its activities, the PPCR seeks to mainstream climate adaptation strategies into core development planning, consistent with poverty reduction and sustainable development goals.

Basic Description

Name of the Fund Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR)
Official Fund Website https://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org/topics/climate-resilience
Date Created
Date fund proposed: February 2008.
Date fund made operational: July 2008 (approved by the World Bank Board of Directors).

November 2008 (approved by the SCF Trust Fund Committee).
Proposed Life of Fund The PPCR was subject to the CIF’ ‘sunset clause,’ which was designed to phase out the CIF once a new financial architecture under the UNFCCC became effective. However, in June 2019, the CIF governing board decided to indefinitely postpone the implementation of this ‘sunset clause.’ As of now, the donors and recipients continue to operate under the existing framework.
Objectives The PPCR is designed to provide programmatic finance for climate resilient national development plans with four main objectives:

  1. Pilot and demonstrate approaches for integration of climate risk and resilience into development policies and planning
  2. Strengthen capacities at the national levels to integrate climate resilience into development planning
  3. Scale-up and leverage climate resilient investment, building on other on-going initiatives
  4. Enable learning-by-doing and sharing of lessons at country, regional and global levels.

In addition, for regional programmes, the PPCR aims to strengthen cooperation and capacity at the regional level to integrate climate resilience into national and appropriate regional development planning and processes.
PPCR’s tangible targets for the 31 recipient countries and 11 regional programmes it currently supports include:

  1. Bringing livelihood benefits to over 55 million people
  2. Developing over 835 plans or strategies at the local, sectoral and national levels
  3. Producing over 600 knowledge products, systems and studies
  4. Providing climate resilience training to over 200,000 government officials and public beneficiaries.
Financial inputs and fund size As of November 2024, PPCR’s financial inputs amount to USD 1.16 billion.
The contributor countries are: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Japan, United Kingdom and United States.
Contributions to the CIF, including the PPCR, can be classified as Official Development Assistance (ODA) by contributing countries, provided they meet standard OECD-DAC criteria. These include:

Activities Supported The activities supported by the PPCR include:

  • Funding for technical assistance to enable developing countries to build upon existing national work to integrate climate resilience into national and sectoral development plans
  • Funding public and private sector investments identified in national or sectoral development plans or strategies and addressing climate resilience.

Activities supported by the PPCR include programmes within the following sectors:

  • Sustainable agriculture: supporting the transformation of lands with sustainable land and water management practices
  • Hydrometer and climate information services: equipping countries with agromet stations, hydrological stations and meteorological stations
  • Coastal zone management: supporting communities through context-specific approaches for protecting people and business in coastal zones
  • Resilient infrastructure: providing climate-resilient roads for safe, year-round accessibility, and supporting the development of small-scale, community-level infrastructure
  • Adaptation finance: piloting climate adaptation financing facilities.

Administrating Organization

Secretariat or Administrative Unit The CIF Administrative Unit supports the work of the Strategic Climate Fund Trust Fund Committee and other committees, including the PPCR Technical Committee. It provides recommendations and reporting on operational and financial matters to the CIF governing bodies.
The Unit is housed in the World Bank Group’s Washington DC offices and is comprised of a small professional and administrative staff.
Trustee The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) acts as Trustee for all CIF, including the PPCR.

Fund Finance and Access Modalities

Conditions and Eligibility Requirements Country access requirements:

  • ODA-eligibility (according to OECD/DAC guidelines)
  • Existence of active multilateral development bank (MDB) country programmes.

Priority is given to highly vulnerable Least Developed Countries eligible for MDB concessional funds, including the Small Island Developing States.
Accessing the Fund
Access Modalities – Access to the PPCR funding is facilitated exclusively through MDBs acting as implementing partners. Programming eligibility for PPCR initiatives is assessed based on:

  • The country’s capacity to integrate climate resilience into development strategies
  • An inclusive approach to climate-resilient growth and development
  • Opportunities to raise awareness of climate change impacts
  • The potential to scale up investments for broader climate resilience interventions
  • The ability to enhance coordination among stakeholders for country-specific climate-resilient programmes.

The proposal and approval process involves several key steps:

  1. The CIF Administrative Unit, via MDBs, invites expressions of interest from prospective countries
  2. The PPCR Technical Committee selects regional or country pilots, informed by expert reviews
  3. Joint missions, led by the country and MDBs, engage with various stakeholders to explore how the pilot programme can enhance climate resilience in national development plans
  4. Recipient countries and relevant MDBs collaboratively prepare funding proposals
  5. The PPCR Technical Committee reviews and approves resource allocations based on the submitted proposals.
Financial Instruments – PPCR financing strategy includes:

  • Grant finance to prepare the Strategic Programme for Climate Resilience (Phase 1)
    • Grant amount of up to USD 1.5 million proposed for Phase 1 preparation of single country programme.
  • Preparation grants for detailed preparation of activities in the Strategic Programme (Phase 2)
    • An estimated USD 1.5 million in preparation funds is available for each participating country.
  • Financing (to the extent it is available), to cover the additional costs associated with mainstreaming climate resilience into investments.
    • Both grants and concessional loans are available to finance the additional costs necessary to make a project climate resilient.

Currently, funding is split equally between loans and grants. The World Bank has emphasised that loans are optional; a recipient country can accept the grant component without the loan component. Highly Indebted Poor Countries will not be eligible for loans, in order to avoid further debt burdens.
Financing may be made available through budget support/development policy lending, coordinated investment programmes across key sectors, alongside national financing and/or existing international support mechanism targeted at the public and/or private sector, which may, for example, include credit lines and partnerships with financial intermediaries, guarantees, and equity-based operations.
As the PPCR is designed to integrate climate resilience into development plans, PPCR funded actions should, as an overarching principle, not be free-standing and should be fused with MDB resources and/or other parallel co-financing measures, including government and/or private sector resources.

Accreditation process – There is no accreditation process for the CIF as only the MDBs can access and implement CIF funding, including for the PPCR.
Overview of implementing entities – The World Bank Group, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Inter-American Development Bank are the implementing agencies for PPCR investments.
Nature of recipient country involvement – PPCR programmes are intended to be country led, build on National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) other relevant country studies and strategies.
Concepts proposals have to be submitted by an MDB on behalf of the potential project proponent. Project concepts are developed with the engagement of government focal points and relevant public and private sector stakeholders and beneficiaries from the recipient countries.
Each PPCR programme has a country focal point, which is usually from the recipient governments (e.g. focal point in Bolivia: the Ministry of Environment and Water and the Ministry of Development Planning; focal point in Haiti: the Interministerial Committee for Regional Development). The PPCR country focal point is responsible for “obtaining project/programme-level data from the PPCR project implementation units/teams, for aggregating data at the country programme level and for submitting the information to the CIF Administrative Unit on an annual basis”.
Allocation criteria – Countries assessed as being at high risk of debt distress are ineligible to receive PPCR loan financing for public sector projects. Countries at moderate risk may access concessional loans only after a macroeconomic assessment is conducted in collaboration with the relevant MDB and the IMF, to evaluate the implications for debt sustainability. All countries, regardless of debt status, are eligible to use PPCR loans for private sector investments.
In terms of grant support, the PPCR provides:

  1. Up to USD 1.5 million for the preparation of Strategic Programmes for Climate Resilience (SPCRs)
  2. Project preparation grants, which do not have a strict cap but are reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis.

Indicative allocation levels under the PPCR include:

  • USD 40–50 million per country for national pilot programmes
  • USD 60–75 million per programme for regional pilot initiatives, involving multiple countries.

These allocations are designed to support transformative, country-led strategies integrating climate resilience into core development priorities.
Safeguards, Gender and Indigenous Peoples
Safeguards – The safeguards included at the project level under the PPCR depend on the partner multilateral development bank implementing the project. The projects are therefore subject to the environmental and social safeguards of the implementing MDBs.
Gender – PPCR falls under the CIF Gender Policy and the CIF Gender Action Plan. While the Gender Policy provides a governance framework for gender integration in the CIF, the Gender Action Plan is “committed to mainstreaming gender in CIF policy and programming, in support of gender equality in climate resilient, low-carbon development investment across the CIF portfolio”. The CIF Gender Action Plan is currently in Phase 3 and has two main aims:

  1. To deepen upstream support to MDBs and countries on gender technical assistance for Investment Plan and project design
  2. To enhance gender monitoring and reporting, and knowledge and capacity.
Indigenous Peoples – PPCR is subject to CIF governance which treats Indigenous Peoples as a core stakeholder group. While there is a separate CIF Gender Policy, there is no equivalent CIF Indigenous Peoples Policy. Instead the existing policies and approaches of the MDBs implementing PPCR projects and programmes apply.
Indigenous Peoples are granted representation in CIF governance. With their status of active observers, Indigenous Peoples have the opportunity to advocate on behalf of their constituents in the CIF Trust Fund Committees and the PPCR Technical Committee.

Fund Governance

Decision Making Structure The PPCR is one of three targeted programmes under the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF), which operates under the broader CIF framework. The SCF governance arrangements include a Trust Fund Committee, and each of its programmes, including PPCR, has its own dedicated Technical Committee (e.g., PPCR Technical Committee), and an MDB Committee.
SCF Trust Fund Committee
The SCF Trust Fund Committee is in charge of overseeing the operations and activities of the SCF, which includes the PPCR. It gives equal weight to representatives from donor and recipient countries. The composition of the SCF Trust Fund Committee consists of representatives from:

  • Eight recipient countries
  • Eight contributor countries
  • Select observers, namely one each from Green Climate Fund (GCF), Global Environment Facility (GEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII)
  • In addition, there are active observers with the right to intervene in SCF Trust Fund Committee meetings, namely four from civil society organisations, two from the private sector, and two from Indigenous Peoples.

The list of actual SCF Trust Fund Committee members is available at: https://www.cif.org/strategic-climate-fund-governance-structure PPCR Technical Committee The SCF Trust Fund Committee established a PPCR Technical Committee to oversee its operations. It is composed of:

  • Six representatives from donor countries to the PPCR, identified through consultation with contributor countries
  • Six representatives from eligible recipient countries to the PPCR, identified through consultation with the recipient countries
  • Select Observers, including one from Adaptation Fund, , one from a community-based organisation, four from civil society organisations, two from the private sector, and two from Indigenous Peoples.

Decisions are made by consensus. Members serve for one-year terms and may be reappointed. No more than one member will represent the same country at any given time.
Responsibilities of the PPCR Technical Committee:

  • Approving programming priorities, operational criteria and financing modalities for the PPCR
  • Selecting countries to be funded under the PPCR and approving PPCR financing for programmes
  • Ensuring that activities of the PPCR complement the activities of other development partners (including the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the UN organisations), in order to maximise synergies and avoid overlap
  • Approving members of the Expert Group and providing guidance and information necessary for the Expert Group to perform its duties.

The list of actual PPCR Sub-Committee members is available at: https://www.cif.org/pilot-program-climate-resilience-technical-committee MDB Committee The MDB Committee facilitates collaboration, coordination and the exchange of information, knowledge, and experience among MDB partners. The list of MDB focal points is available at: https://cif.org/strategic-climate-fund-governance-structure
Accountability Mechanisms PPCR
The PPCR employs a comprehensive Monitoring and Reporting Toolkit, established in 2016, to guide the assessment of climate resilience initiatives. This toolkit delineates five core indicators:

  1. “Degree of integration of climate change in national, including sector, planning;
  2. Evidence of strengthened government capacity and coordination mechanism to mainstream climate resilience;
  3. Quality and extent to which climate responsive instruments (investment models are developed and tested;
  4. Extent to which vulnerable households, communities, business, and public sector services use improved PPCR supported tools, instruments, strategies, and activities to respond to climate variability or climate change;
  5. Number of people supported by the PPCR to cope with the effects of climate change.”

Indicators 1 and 2 are evaluated at the national level using qualitative scorecards, while indicators 3, 4, and 5 are assessed at the project/programme level using quantitative tables.
The monitoring process is participatory, involving annual multi-stakeholder workshops to review progress. Data collected is compiled into annual country results reports, submitted to the CIF Administrative Unit by March 15 each year. This structured approach ensures consistent, accurate, and inclusive tracking of climate resilience efforts across PPCR-supported countries.
CIF
The CIF have initiated and published dozens of independent evaluations, many focused on transformational change, gender, stakeholder engagement, and private sector mobilisation:
Participation of Observers and Stakeholders In designing the CIF, consultations took place with potential donors and recipients, the United Nations family, other MDBs, civil society organisations, and the private sector. The CIF were created on agreement from some 40 developing and industrialised countries. Non-governmental actors have a direct role in the governance of the fund as detailed above. Representatives of NGOs and the private sector were also part of the expert group.
Observers
Under the CIF framework, selected observers from diverse stakeholder groups serve as active participants in the governance of the PPCR. The PPCR Technical Committee includes active observers comprising:

  • Four civil society representatives from various regions, including Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and other developing countries
  • Two private sector representatives, one each from a developed and a developing country
  • One representative from a community-based organisation
  • Two representatives of Indigenous Peoples.

These observers are selected through a self-identification process within their constituencies and are facilitated by the CIF Administrative Unit. While they do not possess voting rights, active observers engage in Technical Committee meetings, providing valuable insights and perspectives to inform decision-making. Their participation ensures that the PPCR’s governance is inclusive, transparent, and reflective of a broad range of stakeholder interests.
The current list of PPCR Technical Committee active observers can be accessed at: https://www.cif.org/pilot-program-climate-resilience-technical-committee Expert Group An Expert Group was established by the PPCR Technical Committee to make recommendations on the selection of countries that will receive financing under the PPCR. The Expert Group consists of eight members with a wide range of scientific, economic, social, environmental, development, policy and/or governance/institutional expertise, as well as climate-related knowledge in areas such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and health. Partnership Forum The CIF Partnership Forum is a key convening platform that enables dialogue on the CIF’s strategic directions, results, and impacts. While historically held on an annual basis, recent editions (e.g. 2018 and 2023) reflect a non-fixed frequency.
Forum participants include a diverse range of stakeholders: donor and recipient country representatives, MDBs, UN agencies, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the UNFCCC, the Adaptation Fund, the Green Climate Fund (GCF), bilateral development partners, Indigenous Peoples, civil society, private sector entities, youth, and technical experts.
The Forum promotes inclusive, multi-stakeholder engagement through plenary dialogues, thematic panels, and networking opportunities, and serves as a platform for shared learning and reflection on CIF’s impact in climate finance.

Transparency and Information Disclosure Pledges, deposits and funding decisions for SCF and its subsidiary funds (PPCR, SREP and FIP) are reported to the SCF Trust Fund Committee in bi-annual trustee reports. Details on individual projects are made public and available at: https://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org/projects Disclosure Policy With respect to information disclosure, the CIF largely rely on the public information polices of the partner MDBs which implement CIF projects and programmes. In addition, in May 2009, the Trust Fund Committees approved a disclosure policy supporting in-country disclosure of country-owned investment plans and strategies (developed under the Trust Funds) prior to their submission to a CIF Committee for approval.
Proposed plans are also posted on the CIF website no later than three weeks prior to review of the proposal by a Committee. In the case of proposed programmes and projects, an information document describing the proposal is to be made public at least two weeks prior to a decision on the funding of the proposal.
The policy recognises that a country or a project proposer may have justifiable reasons for not publicly disclosing all information in an investment plan or project, and in exceptional cases, subject to Committee approval, certain information may be kept confidential.
Other Issues Raised The PPCR has been controversial as it established a parallel framework for delivering adaptation finance to and potentially drew some public funding support away from the adaptation funds under the UNFCCC such as the Special Climate Change Fund, Least Developed Countries Fund, and the Adaptation Fund, all of which are accessible to more developing countries than the PPCR’s pilot country approach which only serves a limited set of developing countries. It has also been controversial because it offers developing countries (concessional) loans for adaptation which many stakeholders feel is inappropriate as it adds to developing country debt, and is inconsistent with some understandings of adaptation finance as compensation for harm caused by developed countries under the polluter pays principle.