Promoting Rights and Access to Finance

Communities often face a lack of legal entitlement and access that prevents them from tapping the full range of environmental benefits and energy resources available in local ecosystems. Addressing this requires devolution of specific resource rights that grant individuals and communities the ability to manage local ecosystems and capture the benefits of this management. Access to sufficient finance is also necessary to enable local actors to make the investments they need to sustainably and profitably manage local ecosystems. An array of established and new sources of finance—such as carbon finance and payments for other ecosystem services—offer potential sources for local financing, but weak linkages between national governments and local actors often stand in the way.

UNDP is undertaking the following activities in this area:

• Strengthening the rationale for devolving substantive resource rights by improving communication between local and state actors, demonstrating the benefits of community-driven approaches, and increasing the ability of state officials to identify local best practices.
• Increasing the flow of funds to the local level by working to ensure that existing and new financing mechanisms include a local component that can provide responsive, demand-driven financing and grant-making to community-based initiatives.
• Contributing substantial programmatic and technical input, supported by pilot country experience, to the UNFCCC process in order to inform decisions on a pro-poor and inclusive REDD+ mechanism and an adaptation plan that includes a strong CBA component.
• Contributing to the CBD process to inform decisions in support of Article 8 (j)* , Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs), inclusive markets and micro-enterprise involvement in sustainable supply chains.
• Consolidating best practices and promoting successful action-oriented community approaches and modalities on water and sanitation provisions at international fora.
• Contributing to the global effort to achieve universal access to energy services by 2030 as per the recent recommendation by the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (AGECC).

*Article 8 (j) calls for the participation of indigenous and local people in decisions about sharing their knowledge, innovations and practices concerning conservation and sustainable uses of biological diversity.