With funding from the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA), WRI will lead a consortium that includes Huairou Commission and SouthSouthNorth (SSN) to implement the $4.5 million Green Accountability Platform to provide finance, technical assistance and strategic support to civil society organizations in Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Mexico and Senegal to strengthen civil engagement for effective climate action. These organizations will be selected by the consortium through an open, competitive call for grants that is expected to launch by the second half of April 2024.
Green accountability means that governments have put in place systems and processes that ensure civil society can participate in decisions that shape how climate finance is spent, managed and monitored in their country. It reflects the importance of a rights-based approach to climate action, as well as the instrumental importance of civil society and community voices in ensuring that resulting policies are locally led and respond to local needs and priorities. The five selected countries have all opted into the GPSA and reflect a diversity of geographies, climate finance governance contexts, and civil society coalitions and capacities.
Calls for more transparent and accountable decision making on climate action are not new. While advocates and government champions have made clear progress on several fronts — more proactively open climate data, climate assemblies that better represent the public in decision-making — these types of innovations need to be scaled up through broader political commitment. For instance, WRI found that fewer than 20 countries have established climate budget tagging systems and, in many countries, even a clear definition of climate finance is lacking. Shrinking civic space in several parts of the world means that activists, Indigenous leaders and others face harassment, threats and violence when they speak out against activities that threaten their environment and climate. Weak government transparency and accountability erodes trust in public institutions and limits public participation in decision-making processes.
