On August 26, Oxfam’s Fair Finance Asia (FFA) and Transboundary Rivers of South Asia (TROSA) Programs will convene a multi-stakeholder dialogue calling on climate finance initiatives to strengthen transparency and accountability at the heart of their governance, design, financing, and delivery that’s more inclusive, transparent, and accountable to local water-dependent communities and beneficiaries. 

Background and Objectives 

It is well known that risks to water-dependent and riverine communities are rising, and responses to mitigate these are complex and non-linear. With evidence from research on climate finance by multilateral development channels like the Green Climate Fund, the panel proposes to respond to the accessibility of climate finance for these communities. Using examples of the flow of project finance from the source and beneficiaries and the intermediate decision-making processes, the hybrid panel will highlight: 

• The need for climate finance and the existing barriers for frontline communities to access it across gender, caste, demographic, and marginalized communities; 

• How can decentralized and funding mechanisms be tailored to support context-specific, locally-led, nature-based solutions and comply with international sustainable finance standards, human rights due diligence and disclosure requirements? 

• The roles and responsibilities of financiers, civil society organizations, national and local governments in promoting greater access to public and private climate finance for communities. 

The session will be solution-oriented and generate recommendations for those working directly on climate resilience of riverine communities, supporting climate finance projects and its decision-making processes with examples, alternatives and information on tools and ways of working that ensure transparency and accountability to make processes of designing, financing and delivering programmes more inclusive, transparent and accountable to local stakeholders. 

Speakers 

• Danica Supnet, Director for Climate Policy, The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), the Philippines 

• Jannatun Naim Monira, Advocacy, Capacity Building & Documentation Officer, Center for Disability in Development, Bangladesh 

• Dr Jyoti Jyotiraj Patra, Regional Representative Asia, Simavi 

• Shreya Kaushik, Research and Strategic Advisor, Fair Finance Asia (moderator) 

Registration 

Free registration for virtual participation at worldwaterweek.org/tickets! Add our session to your schedule in the Programme. 

More information 

• Access FFA’s Digital Library to learn more about the network and opportunities to collaborate. 

• Access Oxfam’s Media Advisory to learn more about Oxfam’s engagements at WWW 2025.