DM2009 Juror: 'I Would Give Them All a Thumbs Up'

Looking at the 11 finalist projects he was assisgned to evaluate, juror Fred Onduri says: "I am so impressed.  I would give them all a thumbs up. I wish they could all be winners."

Onduri, who is chair of the Least Developed Countries Expert Group with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change as well as head of the Policy and Planning Department of the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is one of the 40 jurors who took a searching look at the 100 projects that were winnowed from the 1,750 applications proposing early-stage adaptation to climate change.  Their goal was to choose up to 25 winners.

Onduri said the winners would have a better chance of long-term success if they were incorporated in the national priorities of the governments of the countries where the projects would be undertaken.  "Their funding will carry them for about two years," Onduri said.  "That's not enough.  Sustainability is very critical."

He also said that the winning projects' chance of ultimate success would be improved if jurors could offers ways to improve the proposals, especially in closing what he called "the sustainability gap."

Onduri and his colleagues used five criteria in their evaluations:

1.  Innovation.
2.  Measurable results.
3.  Project design/capacity.
4. Sustainability of impact.
5. Growth potential.

Innovation could be new technology, new product or service using existing technology, or new process including new mechanisms to deliver a new product or service.

Each finalist was evaluated by two teams.  The teams ranked their top four choices by consensus.

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As chair of the LDC Expert Group, Onduri is leading efforts by least developed countries to get developed nations to fund US$1.7 billion in climate-change adaptation projects in those nations.  The LDC Expert Group is a party to the international negotations that will take place under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change at its December meeting in Copenhagen.