At the second meeting of the Board of the Loss and Damage Fund, Board members will start discussing a range of possible access modalities to funding. It is imperative that they agree to set up a community access window established within the Loss and Damage Fund that realizes direct access for people most affected by compounding and cascading climate impacts, in particular frontline communities, Indigenous Peoples, and people experiencing marginalisation.

A community access window within the Loss and Damage Fund was a strong demand of a number of parties and observers during the design process by the Transitional Committee of the Fund. It is  crucial to ensure resources to address loss and damage reach those who the Fund is supposed to serve. It would also strengthen the capacities and agency and respond to the needs of communities, Indigenous Peoples, local civil society organisations and groups representing people experiencing marginalisation in a way that top-down funding approaches cannot and also ensure effectiveness and sustainability of loss and damage responses.

This open letter, which has received endorsement from over 350 national, regional, and international, organisations, urges the members of the Board of the Loss and Damage Fund to set up a community access window, ensure it has simplified procedures and systems, and that a substantial and progressively growing part of Fund’s resources is allocated to it.