The IKI year 2023 in figures

The International Climate Initiative (IKI) also achieved its goals in the past reporting year. An overview of the most important figures for 2023.

The IKI balance sheet figures for 2023 were corrected in the second half of 2024. The Annual Report 2023 was therefore updated again in November 2024.

Via the IKI, the German Government seeks to maximise its impact for climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. In 2023, the IKI was able to almost fully disburse its allocated budget line of EUR 710 million. This refers to the funds that were assigned to the IKI for the year in the Federal Budget. Expenditure for ongoing and new projects amounted to EUR 699 million. The IKI committed EUR 1.048 billion for 2023 and planned expenditure in the following years. This sum also includes payments made into the International Climate and Biodiversity Fund, as well as commitments for the IKI Medium Grants, the IKI Small Grants and the Mitigation Action Facility.

IKI budget 2008-2023

Data source: Federal Government

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	IKI budget
2008	120
2009	120
2010	120
2011	134
2012	137
2013	287
2014	309
2015	263
2016	338
2017	387
2018	437
2019	457
2020	567
2021	596
2022	677
2023	710

Funding commitments 2023 by funding area

Commitments were spread across the following areas (rounding differences possible):

EUR 560 million for ‘Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions’

EUR 198 million for ‘Adapting to the impacts of climate change’

EUR 89 million for ‘Preserving and restoring natural carbon sinks’

EUR 148 million for ‘Conserving biological diversity’

EUR 53 million for support activities and project sponsor costs

Here, it should be borne in mind that all IKI funding is assigned solely to finance commitments for greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation to the impacts of climate change made by Germany in the context of international agreements. Funding activities from the two corresponding IKI funding areas are each 100 per cent offset against the corresponding funding commitments. The other funding areas are split between the two commitment categories.

Data source: IKI

2023 funding commitments by region

Data source: IKI

Commitments were distributed across the various regions as follows (rounding differences possible):

Global: EUR 449 million

Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Turkey: EUR 119 million

South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific (Asia): EUR 139 million

Sub-Saharan Africa (Africa): EUR 113 million

Central and Latin America and the Caribbean: EUR 174 million

Middle East and North Africa (MENA): EUR 4 million

Calls for 2023 – an overview

The IKI uses a two-pronged strategy to support its partner countries. On the one hand, this involves ideas competitions with a thematic focus: these include large-volume thematic calls as well as the two smaller-scale project programmes IKI Small Grants and IKI Medium Grants. On the other hand, the IKI also works bilaterally in specific areas with 14 priority countries. Part of this cooperation involves the country calls, which are also large-volume items: here, the IKI works very closely with the partner government and typically publishes an ideas competition for two urgent thematic fields.

This competitive model for the funding programme as well as the inclusion of NGOs as implementing organisations are key features of the IKI that set it apart from conventional approaches to development cooperation. A further difference is that IKI funds are not channelled to government institutions in the partner countries (more information about the IKI funding philosophy).

In 2023, the IKI launched three new ideas competitions with a total volume of around EUR 332 million. Please click the corresponding call for detailed information.

Each year, the IKI thematic calls address current challenges in the areas of climate change mitigation, adaptation to the impacts of climate change and biodiversity conservation. For each of these challenges, participating ministries identify thematic priorities that can then be used as the basis for submitting project outlines. The volume of finance the IKI provides to each project varies between EUR 5 million and EUR 20 million, depending on the individual thematic priority. For each of the thematic calls, the federally owned Zukunft – Umwelt – Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH hosts online seminars aimed at increasing the quality of project outlines submitted.
New call for 13 thematic priorities
In early December, the 2023 thematic call started, with a total funding volume of EUR 320 million. The three IKI ministries worked together to identify ambitious and innovative project ideas for the following 13 thematic priorities.
1. Climate-friendly transport: Supporting partner countries in the creation of foundations, strategies, and concrete approaches for climate action and Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV)/energy transition in transport (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, BMWK)
2. Embodied carbon: Decarbonisation of the construction and basic materials industry (BMWK)
3. Flexibilisation of the distribution grids for the integration of high proportions of renewable energies (BMWK)
4. Support to partner countries on the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and carbon pricing for industrial decarbonisation (BMWK)
5. Upscaling of successful mitigation-relevant IKI approaches in the sectors energy, energy efficiency, industry, finance and mobility (BMWK)
6. Closing the loop – circular and resource-efficient management as a driver for climate and environmental protection, especially in G20 emerging economies (Federal Environment Ministry, BMUV)
7. Climate Information Services – Promotion of regional systems for evidence-based NAP processes to strengthen the resilience of people and ecosystems (BMUV)
8. Protecting, restoring, and strengthening the resilience of mountain peatlands in Latin America as well as peatlands in the Argentinian part of Patagonia (BMUV)
9. Capacities and structures for ambitious biodiversity conservation at the sub-national level (BMUV)
10. Resilience through biodiversity – networking and restoration of protected areas, OECMs, and highly degraded areas in Sub-Saharan Africa (BMUV)
11. From the negotiating table to the high seas: Support for the implementation of the BBNJ Treaty for marine protection (BMUV)
12. Diverse, cultural worldviews in equitable conservation approaches (BMUV)
13. Accelerating the energy transition in Sub-Saharan Africa (Federal Foreign Office, AA)
Applicants were requested to submit project outlines by the end of February 2024 (full details of the 2023 thematic call).
The IKI uses the IKI Medium Grants to support civil society organisations that are based in Germany at the time of the first disbursement for an approved grant. These organisations work with partner organisations to implement measures for strengthening North-South cooperation on climate change mitigation, adaptation to climate change and biodiversity conservation in emerging and developing countries.

As a delegated project management agency, ZUG implements the IKI Medium Grants on behalf of the BMWK and in close consultation with the BMUV.

Beyond the project funding itself, ZUG offers strongly focused domain-specific and commercial support to IKI Medium Grant projects. Online seminars organised by ZUG offer interested implementing organisations the opportunity to ask questions before participating in the ideas competition and to find out more about the key features of a high-quality project. The impact of this knowledge transfer extends beyond the IKI Medium Grants, even helping organisations to implement successful projects outside of IKI calls.
Fourth call for the IKI Medium Grants
In April 2023, the fourth call for the IKI Medium Grants was held, with a total funding volume of EUR 8 million. Together, the BMWK and BMUV searched worldwide to identify ideas for projects piloting subnational initiatives for decarbonisation (thematic priority 1), and working with smallholders and cooperatives to promote deforestation-free supply chains (thematic priority 2). Of the 129 project outlines submitted, 11 were selected and the applicants asked to submit a detailed project proposal. Of these, 5 projects addressed thematic priority 1 and 6 projects addressed thematic priority 2. The first projects started in the fourth quarter of 2024 (full details of the 2023 IKI Medium Grants call).
As an IKI funding instrument, the IKI Small Grants are set up specifically to strengthen smaller-scale non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local actors in countries qualifying for ODA (Official Development Assistance) in the four funding areas. Two funding categories are offered: International Calls (K1) and Funding Institutions (K2). The IKI Small Grants are implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the BMWK and AA, and in close consultation with the BMUV.

Alongside the financing of specific local projects, the programme supports the selected implementing organisations in their efforts to align their competencies and resources to achieve measurable impacts, and to be able to play an active role even in larger-scale, international climate and biodiversity projects. In addition, the IKI Small Grants support national and regional funding institutions in implementing their own ideas competitions and drawing up guidelines for local projects and measures. The selected institutions receive specialised support from GIZ as well as funding of up to EUR 850,000.

All organisations and institutions receive specific and legal/commercial advice from the GIZ Overseas Team and the project team in Berlin, and are also awarded an additional budget for selecting individual points of focus for their HR and organisational development. Expertise in key topics such as gender, safeguards, knowledge management, public relations work and fundraising is also strengthened with online seminars and networking events.
Fourth call for IKI Small Grants
The fourth call for the K1 funding component ended in mid-March 2023. A total of 611 project proposals were submitted, of which 25 projects in 18 countries with a total volume of around EUR 3.9 million were then selected. Of these nine small-scale projects, six are attributed to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, seven to adapting to the impacts of climate change, six to preserving and restoring natural carbon sinks with a focus on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), and six to conserving biological diversity. The fifth call was announced at the beginning of December 2023 during COP28 in Dubai and ended in March 2024.

In 2023, four funding institutions started a call to submit project outlines (call for proposals) in their country or their region, as part of the K2 funding category. By the end of 2023, 28 selected small-scale projects and measures had transitioned to the implementation phase (13 projects for funding priority 1, 8 projects for priority 2, one project for priority 3 and 6 projects for priority 4). Other small-scale projects and measures will follow in 2024.

The IKI Small Grants website introduces the orientation and content of the programme, presents short descriptions of the projects, organisations and their impacts, and functions as a platform for submitting applications for the ideas competition. In addition, the website provides targeted content to support the funded organisations during project implementation.

Project progress and outcomes in 2023

Alongside the new ideas competitions, further progress was also achieved in projects selected for previous calls.

In 2023, a total of 77 new IKI projects started work: of these, 39 had been selected in earlier thematic and country calls, and 26 came from earlier calls for the IKI Small Grants. Others are non-competitive instruments that the IKI uses to contribute to existing international funds or funding programmes, for example. In the context of the IKI Medium Grants, a total of 9 new projects were prepared from the 2022 call.

A total of 98 projects completed their work: as a result, more than 360 projects were being implemented at the end of the reporting period.

IKI projects

launched the IKI in 2023.

IKI projects

successfully completed their work in 2023.

In IKI Small Grants, 40 projects were approved within the ‘International calls’ component from the second and third call, while 4 projects were approved in the ‘Funding institutions’ component. Among these projects, 11 are dedicated to the ‘Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions’ funding area, 13 projects focus on ‘Adapting to the impacts of climate change’, 5 projects to ‘Preserving and restoring natural carbon sinks’ and 11 projects to ‘Conserving biological diversity’. Additionally, 6 projects were completed in 2022, and final reports for 5 other projects are scheduled for auditing in 2023.

By the end of 2022, five of the six funding institutions selected in the ‘Funding institutions’ component had commenced project implementation. Notably, Benin’s National Fund for Environment and Climate (FNEC) completed an ideas competition, selecting 5 projects out of 39 submissions from smaller national NGOs, which are now in progress. The Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) also selected its first implementing organisations, currently carrying out projects to promote adapted smallholder agriculture and fishing in Angola, Botswana and Namibia. Other funding programmes are aiding small and mid-sized enterprises in Central and South Asia to develop climate-friendly business models and supporting environmental education projects at schools in Ecuador.

Beyond the financial support provided by the respective funding programmes, a core component of this funding is strengthening the abilities of the funding institutions to adhere to international standards while implement these programmes. For instance, in Botswana, the IKI Small Grants are assisting the National Development Bank to develop and implement an internal gender policy, which is a fundamental requirement for accreditation with the Green Climate Fund (GCF). By the end of 2022, a total of 62 projects had been approved in the ‘International calls’ component and 5 projects in the ‘Funding institutions’ component within IKI Small Grants. The total funding volume is estimated at approximately EUR 10 million.

The IKI launched 125 new projects in 2022. In addition to projects stemming from the various calls, this figure includes cash-based projects through which the IKI contributes to existing international funds or funding programmes. Work was completed at a total of 44 projects, so that 395 projects were ongoing at the end of the reporting period.

Figures from project work: from project selection to evaluation

Effective, long-term climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation cannot be provided simply by funding alone. The emphasis that the IKI places on competition ensures that only high-quality project proposals are implemented. To this end, ZUG, GIZ and the IKI ministries reviewed 936 outlines within the scope of all IKI calls in 2023. In addition, the IKI uses a multistage process to verify the due and proper use of funding provided as well as subject-specific project progress. In 2023, this resulted in the auditing of around 300 mid-term reports and funding records, as well as around 60 final reports and funding records.

300

Interim Reports

were audited by the IKI Office at ZUG and GIZ in 2023.

936

submitted project outlines

were audited by the IKI Office ant ZUG and GIZ in 2023.

The IKI makes use of various evaluation instruments to learn from previous projects and to assess the goals achieved or expected as well as their impacts. These instruments include retrospective final reviews to assess project success, mid-term evaluations focusing on learning and accounting procedures, supportive impact evaluations to document long-term impacts, and strategic evaluations of issues that could be of interest to multiple projects. In 2023, eight mid-term evaluations were completed and three accompanying impact evaluations were continued.

You can find an overview of the evaluation reports here

IKI Annual Report 2023

This article is part of the IKI Annual Report 2023. Learn more about the IKI Year 2023 ...

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