TY - JOUR
T1 - Institutional innovations and their challenges in the green climate fund
T2 - Country ownership, civil society participation and private sector engagement
AU - Kalinowski, Thomas
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research received funding from Ewha Womans University grants no. 1-2019-1542-001-2 and 1-2020-0815-001-1.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/11/1
Y1 - 2020/11/1
N2 - This article investigates the institutional innovations within the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a new international organization that finances climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. In particular, donor–recipient parity in decision making, civil society participation and private sector involvement are explored. The aim of this study is to lay the institutional groundwork for a larger study that will be analyzing the effect of these institutional innovations on the design and result of the fund’s projects. An exploratory qualitative case study approach is used that includes the review of the secondary literature, official sources from the GCF, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. This article concludes that the GCF indeed implemented important institutional innovations that are unique for a major international organization. At the same time, this article reveals that these innovations have created some important challenges for the functioning of the fund. For example, donor–recipient parity, in combination with consensus orientation, initially led to gridlock. It is also difficult for the GCF to balance the goal of transparency and civil society participation with the need for secrecy of private contracts and a speedy process demanded by the private sector.
AB - This article investigates the institutional innovations within the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a new international organization that finances climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. In particular, donor–recipient parity in decision making, civil society participation and private sector involvement are explored. The aim of this study is to lay the institutional groundwork for a larger study that will be analyzing the effect of these institutional innovations on the design and result of the fund’s projects. An exploratory qualitative case study approach is used that includes the review of the secondary literature, official sources from the GCF, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. This article concludes that the GCF indeed implemented important institutional innovations that are unique for a major international organization. At the same time, this article reveals that these innovations have created some important challenges for the functioning of the fund. For example, donor–recipient parity, in combination with consensus orientation, initially led to gridlock. It is also difficult for the GCF to balance the goal of transparency and civil society participation with the need for secrecy of private contracts and a speedy process demanded by the private sector.
KW - Civil society participation
KW - Climate finance
KW - Development cooperation
KW - Green Climate Fund
KW - International organizations
KW - Multi-stakeholder governance
KW - Public–private partnership
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85094146947&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/su12218827
DO - 10.3390/su12218827
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85094146947
SN - 2071-1050
VL - 12
SP - 1
EP - 13
JO - Sustainability (Switzerland)
JF - Sustainability (Switzerland)
IS - 21
M1 - 8827
ER -