1/5/25
A farmer in Malawi checks her maize crop that is struggling as a result of the worst drought in three decades. Photo credit: 2016CIAT/NeilPalmer (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 License via Flickr)
In 2025, the international support available for countries and communities to respond to and address loss and damage caused by the adverse effects of climate change continues to evolve. Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement, there are now three core bodies that exist to service the needs of developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
Although these institutions have been established and are now fully operational, they are not yet disbursing funds or catalysing the implementation of support. There is substantial work ahead to enable them to deliver at the scale of the needs of loss and damage, which are escalating with every increment of global warming. In this context, this brief provides an overview of support currently available and planned and signals ways forward for these institutions to reach their full potential.
To access support, one first has to know what they are asking support for. Loss and Damage policy making recognises that physical climate change is happening and mitigation and adaptation will not enable countries to avoid damage to ecosystems, infrastructure and livelihoods or in some cases permanent loss, such as loss of whole islands. The science, as reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), provides different scenarios of how severe these losses and damages will be based on mitigation and adaptation efforts. Meanwhile, the IPCC also talks about “hard” and “soft” adaptation limits - hard limits being where adaptation is not possible, and soft limits are where options to adapt may exist but are not available including due to financial, technology and capacity constraints. Thus, while it is clear that a response is needed, the scale of that response is not settled.
With no settled definition as yet under the UNFCCC, this broad definition can be the source of some confusion for those seeking support under its institutions. However there is extensive and useful analysis available, and an alternative way to look at it is in terms of the concrete impacts. Climate change events include slow onset climatic processes and extreme weather events, which result in both economic and non-economic loss and damage - where “loss” is permanent and “damage” may be able to be restored.
Graphics and illustrations are from the Loss and Damage Online Guide by the UNFCCC.
As a policy and knowledge hub, the WIM ExCom and its thematic expert groups are the central location for information for relevant stakeholders to enhance their efforts to respond to and address loss and damage.
The WIM ExCom webpage provides a range of information, particularly knowledge products that can enhance understanding of the challenges of different types of loss and damage, approaches to address and respond to them, resources available, and monitoring systems for assessing the effectiveness of these approaches. Recent examples, include:
In 2025, further technical guides will be published. Those guides already have ‘teasers’ that can be referred to for initial information about their scope and contents. These include:
The WIM ExCom members and the members of its thematic expert groups are themselves critical resources. Government and non-government stakeholders, including organisations, networks, and individuals working on loss and damage policy making and implementation of approaches to address loss and damage should engage in their various workshops and meetings. This is key to enhancing knowledge and understanding of loss and damage, strengthen dialogue, coordination, coherence and synergies and enhance action and support.
This engagement should extend not only to observing and absorbing information, but also asking questions and highlighting areas where further insights and information is needed. For example, as the FRLD and the Santiago Network become fully operational, the Action and Support Expert Group (ASEG) should be encouraged to tailor its work to enhance understanding of this evolving landscape. Already there is a web page compiling information and resources related to the action and support workstream, including resources mentioned above but also other useful papers and reports.
Already informed by work undertaken under the ExCom, as well as the often forgotten critical work of the Transitional Committee Technical Support Unit, the ExCom’s ASEG could take leadership in developing input on the work of the Fund to develop standard procedures to identify sources, funds, processes and initiatives under and outside the Convention and the Paris Agreement that are assisting developing countries in responding to loss and damage - i.e. funding arrangements - for the purpose of supporting strengthened coordination and complementarity. The work of the WIM is specifically mentioned as being a source to inform the FRLD Board on this matter, and something that the FRLD plans to already begin developing in the period between now and its next meeting in July 2025. See Annex II, paragraph 10 of decisions 1/CP.28, 5/CMA.5.
There are a range of guidelines now available on the Santiago Network webpage. The below process and templates provided as separate word files at the bottom of this blog are taken from the guidelines and procedures for responding to requests for technical assistance, available in English, French and Spanish1, as well as from the document outlining the process flow for managing funding for technical assistance under the Santiago Network. Of course, the below text is intended to provide a more accessible starting point for those wishing to better understand the process, and we recommend subsequently reading the full guideline.
Requests for technical assistance may be prepared using the standard template by government/public institutions (including national, regional, sub-national and local governments), academic, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations (including local communities, women’s, children and youth, and Indigenous Peoples), among others.
Those that are submitting a request are called “proponents”. The Santiago Network secretariat can already be contacted for support in this initial stage, as they have a role to actively engage with proponents to identify priority areas and needs for technical assistance, including offering support for preparation of requests, recognising in particular the significant capacity constraints of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
The guideline includes a useful resource with indicative and non-exhaustive information on the scope of technical assistance offered through the Santiago Network. This resource can be found in Annex I on page 25, and is informed by COP and CMA decisions, work under the WIM ExCom and country scoping on needs through regional consultations. Proponents should use this annex as they seek to better understand what technical assistance under the Santiago Network could look like, and the potential options for support.
There has been no specific financial limit defined for requests, with the Advisory Board explicitly leaving this as a matter for future consideration based on experience and learning. However, proponents seeking both financial and matchmaking support may note the 2025 budget has estimated 5,150,000 USD for requests based on an average grant amount of 200,000 USD per request, with 3 percent of that figure proposed to be allocated as preparation support for activities. It is unclear whether this estimated budget will be increased if there is high-demand, noting that the Santiago Network currently has 40.6 million USD in resources contributed for both its operations and technical assistance.
Requests are to be submitted to the Santiago Network secretariat either:
The Santiago Network portal appears to still be under development, with seven business days already passed since I personally registered to test this modality and no notification yet that this registration has been processed. Therefore, we recommend utilising the templates and emailing the secretariat directly for assistance as a first option. The idea of the portal is to create an online dashboard as a marketplace to log requests for technical assistance and provide details of members who may be able to service those requests.
Note also that to manage the issue of conflict of interest, the guideline says that when a request is submitted by a member of the Network, that member will not be eligible to respond to that request. For the complete guidelines on conflict of interest for the network, see here in English, French and Spanish.
Requests are required to be reviewed and processed in a timely and efficient manner of up to 2 weeks. The guideline allows for deviation from this timeframe where clarification on the request is required. At any point in the process, the Santiago Network secretariat may seek guidance, clarification and information to further refine the request.
As for those requests that may require urgent response, there is the option to indicate and explain such a need in the request template, however, the Advisory Board decided to defer developing guidance on procedures for urgent response. The Advisory Board did not set any explicit timeframe for doing this, deciding that this guidance “will be developed based on experience gained from initial stages of implementation”.
Once a request is received, the review process is:
If the request is approved, it moves to the matchmaking stage where members of the network are selected to service the request. This process is different depending on whether a request does or does not seek financial support from the Santiago Network, noting all finance is provided in the form of grants.
Where the Santiago Network is providing financial support (this may be a co-finance arrangement or all finance) for the request, the secretariat prepares a call for proposals/terms of reference, assesses proposals/applications based on selection criteria defined by the secretariat and selects the most suitable member or consortium of members to service the request. The proponent is kept informed at various stages. There is then a contract/grant agreement signed directly between the host of the Santiago Network and the selected member(s).
In some cases, a selected member may offer financial support in which case there is a discussion between the Santiago Network secretariat, the proponent and the member regarding the best arrangement.
In cases where the proponent does not require financial support from the Santiago Network, they define the member selection process and may choose to select the successful member themselves. There may then be a direct contract between the proponent and the member, although the Santiago Network secretariat remains available to facilitate the implementation agreement and discuss the best way forward with the member and the proponent.
In all cases, the Santiago Network secretariat will monitor and receive reports on the implementation of technical assistance for consolidation and reporting, including for lessons learned.
The Fund only just launched the Barbados Implementation Modalities (BIM), which will deliver financial support to developing countries for the start-up phase or early interventions of the Fund. The BIM is to be elaborated over the course of 2025. Thus, it is too early to provide concrete advice as to how countries can access support. However, until those modalities are elaborated, some elements that countries can already consider are set out below.
The Board’s 6th meeting (B6) will be held from 9-11 July 2025. There, the Board will consider and approve a number of documents prepared by the FRLD secretariat under the guidance of the Co-Chairs. As such this advice will need to be updated and revised after B6.
Note also, that among the work the FRLD secretariat will present at B6 will be modalities for complementarity and coherence with the Santiago Network, including how this collaboration may serve to provide technical assistance.
Requests are to be prepared in accordance with the template to be approved by the Board at B6.
An initial project and programme funding criteria and cycle will also be considered and approved at B6 that will guide the preparation of requests.
When considering what the scope of a request might look like, countries can already be guided by the following language in the BIM. The BIM will:
A total of 250 million USD has been allocated for 2025-2026, which will be reviewed at the Board’s eighth meeting (B8) scheduled for 22-24 April 2026 in Livingstone, Zambia. It is expected that the allocation could increase to 500 million USD if all pledges have been converted to contributions by B8.
There is a financial limit for requests, with the Board agreeing that 5-20 million USD may be allocated to each activity, project and programme. There is also an agreement that a minimum of 50 percent of the total BIM resources will be reserved for SIDS and LDCs.
Developing country Parties have been invited to designate a national authority/national focal point for the purposes of submitting their funding requests. Guidelines regarding this designed authority or focal point will be presented to the Board for consideration and approval at B6. This is to operationalise paragraph 48 of the Governing Instrument:
48. Developing countries may designate a national authority or national focal point to be responsible for overall management and implementation of activities, projects and programmes supported by the Fund. The authority or focal point will be consulted on any requests for funding through any access modalities, including those referred to in paragraph 49 below.
There is not yet any guidance on this element, save for paragraph 48 of the Governing Instrument which says that the authority or focal point will be consulted on any requests for funding.
Funding will be delivered through grants.
The access modalities for the BIM will be a topic of significant discussion intersessionally and at B6, with the secretariat requested to prepare various modalities and approaches. The options that will be developed, include:
The BIM also provides indicators of additional elements that may be included in the implementation phase, including:
Beyond the above elements, there are learning aspects of the BIM that are to inform its long-term work that can be unpacked in a later brief. These relate to preparation of a monitoring and evaluation strategy and recommendations overall for informing the work on the long-term vision of the Fund’s operational model. It will be critical that this is kept front of mind as the Board tests different activities, projects and programs to ensure the niche and comparative advantage of the Fund in the loss and damage landscape is realised.
At the time of writing, the 5th meeting of the Board of the FRLD and the 4th meeting of the Advisory Board of the Santiago Network have recently concluded. In mid-May, the 22nd meeting of the WIM ExCom will occur. The FRLD will meet on a further two occasions in 2025, with the Santiago Network and ExCom respectively to meet once more in the second half of the year. Meanwhile, at the 62nd meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB 62) in June, the 3rd review of the WIM will recommence, after initial negotiations at COP 29 in Baku. In November, world leaders will return to Brazil for COP 30 for the first time since the 1992 Earth Summit when the UNFCCC was established.
The success of the Fund will be determined by its ability to begin disbursing resources in 2025, covering developing countries across all geographical regions and with a range of circumstances and experiences of loss and damage. Accessibility remains the most pressing concern, with the Fund needing to design differently and ensure that barriers to access experienced in other multilateral funds are not repeated in the case of the FRLD. There is also a concern regarding speed of delivery and ensuring that finance reaches the ground level, with loss and damage already an urgent and pressing concern of developing countries whose people and communities are on the frontlines of climate change.
In parallel, as already agreed by the Board, the Fund must develop and finalise its resource mobilisation strategy in 2025. At B5, it was evident that significant challenges remain in securing commitment from developed country Parties to scale up their contributions to the Fund to enable it to deliver finance at the scale of the needs on loss and damage, which far exceed 250-500 million USD – potentially reaching 400 billion to 1 trillion USD per year.
For the Santiago Network, its added value in 2025 will be tested by the number of requests received and delivered and its ability to grow a membership that is locally and regionally based enabling capacity to be built within countries and in doing so shifting away from business as usual approaches. There is cause for concern regarding the SNLD's long-term relevance and potential, with only two technical assistance requests to date despite interim arrangements being in place for several years and a call for proposals in September 2024.
There is also not yet transparency as to how the 40.6 million USD in contributions received so far will be spent, with a formula to balance high administrative costs vs spending on technical assistance needing attention.2 The transition from interim to permanent secretariat arrangements under the secretariat's new Director and co-hosts the United Nations office for Disaster Risk Reduction and United Nations Office for Project Services, also need to be addressed - with delays leading to interim arrangements being extended until the end of 2025.
It is expected and hoped that despite a slow start, the Santiago Network is well positioned to accelerate its work in 2025 and demonstrate its added value in the evolving loss and damage landscape. This is particularly important as the Fund considers the necessity for technical assistance and readiness to be included as areas of support within the scope of the BIM and its long-term operations.
As for the WIM ExCom, the challenge is to ensure its role is understood and communicated to relevant stakeholders. The WIM ExCom can deliver timely expertise, with the FRLD and the Santiago Network well-placed to benefit from the rich knowledge and lessons already learned on loss and damage response and implementation. As already noted, the Action and Support Expert Group in particular must revise its work and consider how it can deliver relevant outputs. The same can be said for all work under the WIM ExCom - which we hope will continue to evolve this year.
Regarding the 3rd review of the WIM at SB 62 and COP 30, again this will be a key juncture for Loss and Damage policy advancement. Here, Parties to the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement can agree to a process for a State of Loss and Damage report to ensure all stakeholders are on the same page about the state of the crisis we are in, including the best available data and information from entities such as the IPCC, and science, knowledges from Indigenous Peoples and local communities, as well as estimates of the economic and non-economic costs of loss and damage. The WIM review can also provide clear guidance to enable the WIM ExCom and Santiago Network to enhance their work, including to ensure coherence and complementarity between the WIM ExCom, SNLD and FRLD to truly maximise the comparative advantages of these crucial bodies.
All of this is to say that this landscape of support will continue to evolve at pace in 2025 with numerous focal points for further decision making and guidance, with the elements above a snapshot in time of where we are at present. Numerous challenges remain ahead to ensure simple, equitable and accessible support for all developing countries to respond to and address loss and damage. Each core body under the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement will need to continue efforts to ensure they are delivering both independently and in a complementary manner to ensure timely and maximum impact in 2025 and beyond.
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1 The SNLD Advisory Board required this guideline including the template in annex to be translated into all UN languages when they adopted the guidelines on 6 September 2024. However, to date the guidelines are available only in English, French and Spanish. The Advisory Board requested at its recent meeting in April for the remaining translations to be completed urgently.
2 The indicative budget for 2025 presented at the third meeting of the Advisory Board estimated costs of USD 5,150,000 million for technical assistance, and USD 4,079,244 million for other operational costs. See https://assets.santiago-network.org/Common/Documents/Core/SNAB_2024_3_14.Rev.1-Santiago_network-2025-budget-05Sept2024.pdf
Heidi White is an Australian Lawyer and independent consultant. She co-hosts monthly , and additional calls and communications as required to consult with the team on key issues unfolding with the Santiago Network. In collaboration with the team, she develops briefs and background papers to support progress in the negotiations. She also is available on an ongoing basis to advise members of the latest developments and provide inputs into external work being developed.
