Dear Benito,

As developing country Co-chair of the ecbi Advisory Committee and as Head of the Gambian delegation at COP 21 it gives me great pleasure to send you this letter of appreciation for the valuable support we and the whole LDC Group received from OCP, IIED and LRI, the three ecbi Lead Members, during and in the run up to COP 21 which just ended with the adoption of the historic Paris Agreement.

The IIED and LRI support team, in general, and Achala Abeysinghe through her indefatigable work as legal advisor of the Chair, in particular, have been an invaluable asset to LDC Group during the negotiations.

Achala, as Head of the ecbi Training and Support Programme, and her team are also to be commended for conducting a very successful pre-COP training workshop for junior LDC negotiators.

I would also like to express my appreciation for the support of the ecbi to something that is very dear to the LDC Group and to me personally, namely the future of the Least Developed countries Fund (LDCF) in the new financial architecture. I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment that the current voluntary contribution model is not sustainable and that we need to look for alternative more predictable funding sources. In this context, I would like to commend the senior developing country negotiators participating at the 2015 ecbi Fellowship for their idea of a Paris Replenishment Cycle for the financial mechanism of the new Agreement, which as you know was adopted as one of the Group’s priorities in Paris.

Your personal effort over the last six months in encouraging sub-national contributions to the LDCF culminating in the ground-breaking announcement by the Premier of Quebec of a six million dollar contribution to the LDCF in Paris must also be acknowledged in this context, as well as your support in drafting the new guidance to the Global Environment Facility regarding a study on the role of the LDCF as a capacitator fund.

The ecbi has provided sterling support to the poorest and most vulnerable countries in the run up to and at COP 21, and I look forward to continuing our productive collaboration over the coming months and years.

With my very best wishes

Pa Ousman Jarju

Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Forestry, Water & Wildlife,
The Gambia