Assessing the effectiveness of multilateral climate adaptation finance in the Gambia : institutional capacity, policy alignment and governance challenges

Abstract

Despite increasing international commitments to climate adaptation finance, many Least Developed Countries continue to experience challenges in accessing and effectively implementing multilateral climate finance. This study analyzed multilateral climate adaptation finance effectiveness in The Gambia from 2015 to 2025, leveraging on how institutional capacity, procedural systems, governance coordination, and policy alignment influence access, delivery, and implementation of climate finance. The design was a qualitative single-case study that included semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and descriptive statistical analysis of the multilateral climate adaptation projects in the Gambia within the study's timeframe. The study used the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to analyze institutional interactions, governance arrangements, and climate finance processes in the Gambia's climate finance landscape. The findings suggested that although multilateral climate adaptation finance has been instrumental in supporting ecosystem restoration, climate-resilient agriculture, and community resilience, however, it impacts is limited by a weak level of capacity in proposal development, fragmented institutional coordination, complex donor procedures, slow fund disbursement, and the continued reliance on internationally accredited entities. The study also found that the Gambia lacks a nationally accredited Direct Access Entity responsible for the mobilization of climate finance, which ultimately limits national ownership, institutional learning and direct access to multilateral climate finance. Overall, the study demonstrates that the effectiveness of multilateral climate adaptation finance is fundamentally a governance and institutional challenge rather than solely a financing issue, providing context-specific evidence to strengthen climate finance governance and implementation in The Gambia.