A member of Climate Governance Integrity Programme participated in a consultative conference on final preparations for the Maldives Green Fund (MGF), on Tuesday.

The MGF’s purposes include facilitation, co-finance and enabling of investments for renewable energy sector, energy efficiency, biodiversity, waste management, water management, and other sectors covered by Maldivian environmental and energy policy. Once established, climate finance such as the Scaling Up of Renewable Energy Programme projected to be worth USD139 million will come under MGF.

At the meeting, information was provided on the proposed legislation, operations manual and other aspects of the MGF. Participants were asked to provide their input into governance, sources of finance, spending strategies, and reporting and public outreach dimensions of the MGF.

Senior Project Coordinator Azim Zahir, who represented TM, proposed for inclusion of a separate Integrity Unit within the Fund to detect, prevent and if possible sanction cases of corruption, misconduct, and violations of standards of integrity. He said, “An Integrity Unit will increase donor cofidence and go a long way in the fight against corruption by ensuring staff adhere to standards of good governance.”

At the meeting, Mr Mohamed Inaz, Deputy Resident Coordinator of the UNDP, seconded the importance of such a unit within the Fund.

TM representative welcomed the proposal of having a civil society representative in the Board of the Fund, but expressed concern that sufficient engagement was not made with the civil society in establishing the Fund.

MGF is first of its kind in the Maldives and if established by adhering to high standards of governance, it could go a long way in minimising waste and institutional mismanagement of climate finance in the Maldives.