The CLIMTRAIN project

Climate change is of particular relevance to IFAD’s work because, apart from being an environmental problem, it is ultimately a development issue. With the primary objective of benefiting the rural poor, the main challenge for IFAD is to promote pro-poor approaches for both mitigation of and adaptation to climate change in a rapidly evolving context. This requires a full comprehension of emerging trends in the climate change regime, including climate risk sharing and transfer; reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries; and the role of land-use, land-use change and forestry activities to mention a few.

In April 2008 the CLIMTRAIN project: a climate change tailor-made training programme for IFAD’s Programme Management Department was approved in the context of the Innovation Mainstreaming Initiative (IMI). The main goal of the CLIMTRAIN project is to support directly IFAD’s Programme Management Department (PMD) in building its capacity both in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The CLIMTRAIN project will contribute to:

• Strengthen in-house knowledge on climate change issues in the context of rural development.
• Share knowledge, by developing training material not only to be used internally, but also to be disseminated externally to IFAD stakeholders.
• Build new partnerships on climate change with other UN institutions and development actors, as well as reinforcing existing networks.

Read more about the CLIMTRAIN activities and outcomes.

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The GECC works as the IFAD’s technical arm on climate change issues and is responsible for providing technical backstopping to promote low-carbon and climate-resilient investments in IFAD’s country portfolios. The Unit is also responsible for facilitating dialogue with the UNFCCC Secretariat on operational/technical matters, including the Clean Development Mechanism and the Nairobi Work Programme. Through the unit, IFAD also continues to maintain its GEF operational function – designing impact-oriented projects that complement IFAD’s investments – and participate at relevant environment-related international meetings and committees.