Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation in Jamaica, Senator the Honourable Matthew Samuda is among two newly appointed Ministerial Ambassadors of the high-level Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
The UNCDF is headquartered in New York and is the United Nations’ capital investment agency for 48 developing countries across the globe.
Minister Samuda’s Ambassadorial appointment was announced in a statement this week by the UNCDF.
The appointment was confirmed recently when Minister Samuda joined a host of colleagues from across the globe at a Ministerial Meeting in Brussels which was intended to forge alliances across LoCAL-implementing countries to raise action and forge alliances on issues related to adaptation to climate change.
Jamaica is the first Caribbean or Latin American country to join the LoCAL community.
Ghana’s Minister for the Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Hon. Dr. Kwaku Afriyie has also been appointed along with Minister Samuda as a Ministerial Ambassador.
In welcoming the appointment, Minister Samuda noted that LoCAL offers an opportunity to implement systems for adaptation financing that ensure funds reach the people that need it in various local communities across the globe.
The two new Ministerial Ambassadors committed to advocacy for increasing the finance available for local adaptation to climate change.

This year’s LoCAL ministerial meeting in Belgium was attended by sixteen ministers, three deputy ministers and the Ambassadors of Bhutan and Cambodia to Belgium, who stepped in for their ministerial colleagues.

The LoCAL Ministerial Meeting followed the 9th Annual Local Board meeting, which took place on the 11th May bringing together some 100 representatives from LoCAL countries to agree priorities and budget for the coming year.
The LoCAL Facility is a community of some 32 countries using or designing their use of the LoCAL mechanism to channel finance to communities battling with the impacts of climate change. LoCAL countries span Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Caribbean.
All members are highly impacted by the effects of climate change though their low emissions base mean they have contributed little to global warming and its catastrophic impacts on the planet.
The Brussels meeting provided an opportunity for LoCAL countries to share experience and plan cooperation as they prepare for crucial meetings in the climate change calendar, including the Climate Change sessions slated for Bonn in Germany next month and COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in November 2022.
The LoCAL Facility was designed and is hosted by the UN Capital Development Fund and has grown from initial pilots in Bhutan and Cambodia in 2011, to a global climate financing mechanism that has to date mobilised over US $125 million for locally led adaptation.