The Adaptation Innovation Marketplace

The Adaptation Innovation Marketplace (AIM) supports local communities around the world to expand and accelerate promising adaptation solutions by providing investment, know-how and visibility.

The initiative was born in 2021, out of a need to help countries overcome barriers to developing and implementing innovative climate adaptation solutions in line with their context and priorities, especially those related to accessing finance and technical support.

With funding from the Adaptation Fund, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the European Commission, the initiative supports civil society organizations, social enterprises, women and young people to scale up innovative technologies, practices and business models that advance climate adaptation in local communities.

In addition to grant investment, AIM offers local actors know-how on enterprise development and mentoring opportunities, as well as access to investors and partners.

Photo: Open Ghana

The initiative’s success is guaranteed by a fruitful collaboration between UNDP, the Global Resilience Partnership, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), the Climate-Knowledge Innovation Community (Climate-KIC), the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the Least Developed Countries Universities Consortium (LUCCC).

Currently, two programmes are operating under AIM’s framework: the UNDP-Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator and the Resilience for Peace and Stability, Food and Water Security Innovation Grant Programme.

The UNDP-Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator (UNDP-AFCIA)

A US$16 million programme funded by the Adaptation Fund and the European Union, UNDP-AFCIA offers support to communities responding to climate stresses in innovative ways, providing grants worth $60,000 to $250,000 for scaling adaptation solutions.

To date, the programme has granted 44 awards to locally-led organizations in 33 countries. Through these grants, regenerative agricultural practices have been implemented on more than 1,660 hectares of land and more than 120,000 trees have been planted. At the same time, more than 50 traditional knowledge-based climate adaptation measures have been documented under the programme. In total, approximately 910,000 people have benefitted directly and indirectly from the programme’s activities.

In addition to grants, UNDP-AFCIA also offers mentoring support on investment opportunities and international advocacy as well as peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing. As a result, many from the first cohort of grantees (2022-2023) are unlocking additional resources to become financially sustainable, with some raising more than $7.6 million through crowdfunding.

The Resilience for Peace and Stability, Food and Water Security Innovation Grant Programme

Funded under the GEF Innovation Challenge, this programme seeks to bolster innovative finance mechanisms to promote peace and stability in fragile and conflict-prone regions with high vulnerability to climate change, with a focus on Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Currently, the programme operates in Sudan and Uganda.