Global funds supporting climate adaptation are essential for low-income countries, particularly those experiencing fragility and conflict. Countries on the World Bank’s Fragile and Conflict-affected Situations (FCS) list are notably underserved in terms of adaptation finance from international funders. The scale and nature of this financing gap remain unclear, as does the allocation of adaptation finance across different fragile and conflict-affected settings.
The report "Closing the Gap: Trends in Adaptation Finance in Fragile Environments" consolidates a decade's worth of climate finance data from international funders to examine financial support to FCS settings. Using publicly available financial data, it highlights the adaptation finance gap in FCS settings and compares financial flows to determine whether adaptation finance targets the most vulnerable countries.
Key findings include:
- Countries affected by fragility and conflict receive less financial support for adaptation compared to other low-income countries. In 2020, FCS countries received less than two-thirds of the funding per capita that other low-income countries received.
- Adaptation commitments vary considerably across different types of FCS settings. In 2020, countries affected by high-intensity conflict received $2.74 per person, compared to $5.06 for medium-intensity conflict settings and $5.25 for those affected by social and institutional fragility.
- There is little correlation between an FCS country’s per capita adaptation commitments and its level of vulnerability. Higher commitments are more strongly associated with countries that have a higher readiness to absorb and manage adaptation finance.
- The gap in FCS financing is not reflected in per capita commitments towards wider development financing. Financing for various development objectives appears relatively equal between FCS and non-FCS groups, suggesting that the adaptation finance gap is unlikely due to broader trends in development financing.
The report also notes progress, such as an eightfold increase over five years in contributions from the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), based on publicly available data.
Recommendations include increasing financial access, enhancing government and local stakeholder capacity to use financing effectively in FCS contexts, tailoring provision of financing to different FCS contexts, leveraging entry points of different funders, and improving coordination and knowledge sharing among funders and recipients.