| Paris alignment | Reasoning |
|---|---|
| Some progress | AFD does a good job in balancing its climate interventions across the different countries it operates in. According to AFD’s staff, all country strategies (CIPs) must comply with AFD’s Strategic Plan (2017-2022). However, given that it is still unclear how CIPs are designed and how these interact with the internal country climate factsheets (which inform the analysis of projects and policy dialogue with national authorities, and the development of geographic strategies) it is recommended that the corresponding methodology is made public. This is particularly important as AFD differentiates across regions in terms of its climate considerations. |
Explanation
AFD has ‘Cadres d’intervention Pays‘ (CIP) or country intervention strategies which dictate the strategic priorities for each country for a 5-year period.
The methodology used for drafting CIPs is only available internally, however, all AFD Group’s country strategies are published on its website. All CIPs follow AFD’s current over-arching climate strategy (2017-2022). The latter also built on AFD’s internal climate country analyses.
The 2017 Climate Strategy also refers to: “A general and systematic analysis of low-carbon transition and resilience issues for all countries of operation (implementation starting from 2018).” AFD reports that this systematic analysis corresponds to the “low carbon” and “resilient” dimensions of the Sustainable Development Analysis and Opinion Mechanism.
The mid-term review stated that an analysis of all relevant countries’ public climate policies, NDCs and trajectories is done through the development of country fact sheets. These are included in the Group’s strategies.
AFD’s Paris alignment methodology checks if a project is in line with long term climate resilient strategies of the relevant country, although it does not explicitly refer to the country’s NDC and Long-Term Strategies (LTS). However, the Sustainable Development Analysis and Opinion Mechanism does refer to the assessment of alignment of projects with NDCs.
In addition to the CIPs, AFD supports in-country climate mainstreaming through several ways (amongst others):
- Helping approximately 15 countries design their long-term climate strategies through its 2050 facility;
- Supporting the design of public policies aimed at low-carbon and resilient development trajectories;
- Supporting civil society’s climate work.
Recommendation:
- AFD does a good job in balancing its climate interventions across the different countries it operates in as all country strategies (CIPs) must comply with AFD Strategic Plan (2017-2022). However, AFD should make available the methodology of how country strategies (CIPs) are designed and how these interact with the “country climate factsheets”. This is particularly important as AFD differentiates across regions in terms of its climate considerations.