The Strategic Action Plan (SAP, 2019-2023) of the Government of Maldives provides the Government’s development policy direction and is complemented by the National Resilience and Recovery Plan (NRRP) to address the economic, environmental, and social challenges considering COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the priorities remain valid in light of the global turbulence of the postCOVID recovery phase such as the war in Ukraine, and significant monetary tightening in the United States (US), both with knock-on impacts for the Maldives and other countries, further aggravated by the longer-term threats facing the Small Islands Developing States (SIDs). The Government of Maldives recognizes climate action and the delivery of quality social services as particularly important strategies in building back better after the severe socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Climate change has already been declared an existential threat for the Maldives and if not addressed as an urgent priority, will disproportionately affect more marginalized groups of society including women, children, the elderly, and the poor in Maldives, and will worsen spatial inequalities, particularly for Maldivians living in the outer atolls. The Government of Maldives is fully committed to preserving the country’s rich biodiversity and natural ecosystems, its people, and its way of life from the adverse impacts of climate change and has unveiled a robust plan for embedding gender equality as a strong cross-cutting strategy in its Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP) in achieving national development. The SAP pledges to designate vast swathes of Maldivian waters as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) while the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) pledge to commit to increasing the share of national renewable energy to 15%, to reduce environmental emissions by 26% and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030 with the availability of adequate financial resources. Both strategies have embedded climate change at the policy, strategy, and action levels and take a people-centric view at the core of climate change planning. The Climate Emergency Act (9/2021) stipulates actions to address the climate emergency resulting from the swift acceleration of the severity of the repercussions from climate change, introducing the legal structure and guidelines for addressing issues and concerns related to climate change, including reporting, ensuring the sustainability of natural resources, overcoming negative impacts and allocation of funds for renewable energy sources. The upcoming integrated disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation strategy, while complementing the existing policy framework, will provide strategies for building resilience, establishing a comprehensive disaster and climate risk management, and incorporating risk consideration in budgetary processes.

With a view to identifying both public and private financing options as well as policy constraints, synergies, and trade-offs that need to be addressed to unleash these, an Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) was initiated with support from the United Nations (UN) with a focus on two key SAP priorities: financing for climate action and the delivery quality social services. The INFF is informed by the diagnostic study on the climate financing landscape, the Development Finance Assessment (DFA) and recommends an action-oriented Financing Strategy with a monitoring and evaluation framework and a governance/coordination framework embedded in it. These were developed as two complementary strategies – a climate-focused financing strategy and a social sector financing strategy (see Chapter III for more details).

Climate Finance Strategy: This gender-responsive INFF provides a holistic approach for mobilizing climate finance for the Maldives under three strategic goals, using 16 specific financing objectives and more than 100 activities. For the Maldives, it is important to approach mobilizing climate finance both on the domestic front and from external sources. As such this Financing Strategy highlights reforms targeting the integration of Maldives’ climate crisis reality across public finance and financial and capital markets to align and direct commercial private capital towards climate adaptation and mitigation efforts while at the same time, strengthening the resiliency of the financing system against possible negative impacts of climate shocks.